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(Editorial, Asheville Citizen, January 24, 1954)

AN UNANSWERED QUESTION

 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

    This first stanza of the Song of Degrees, the 121st Psalm, was of course familiar long before the first nine words were engraved as the I motto on the Seal of the City of Asheville. Many, including visitors from the lowlands, have come to associate these words with Mt. Pisgah because of the mountain's unique prominence among the high peaks surrounding the Asheville plateau. rising in plain view 5,749 feet on the
western horizon. Dr. E. W. Gudger  of Waynesville and New York calls it 'our most striking mountain peak.'  Pisgah is a famous 'trademark,' as The Asheville Times aptly described it in a recent editorial.
     The tone of some of the many letters about the proposed TV tower on the main summit of Pisgah suggests a possible apprehension that it may soon be appropriate to change the concluding words of Psalm 121-1 to read 'from whence cometh my TV.'  Representing many viewpoints both for and against the proposed tower, the letters make clear the principal dividing line between the groups of commentators.
    To some the question presents a choice inescapable, however unwelcome, a choice between constructive progress on the one hand and, on the other hand, the preservation of a remarkable natural phenomenon, Pisgah and the Rat. in almost their primeval state, nearly untouched by man and his many works and devices.
     With the issue thus presented, many are prepared to make a sacrifice, if that be necessary, for the greater good of this mountain region and of areas in other states.
    Opposed to this understandable attitude many others are asking, "Why Pisgah?" Is there no other mountain peak available and adequate? (But some writers apparently would have the tower even if the mountain were razed).
    This surely is a question both pertinent and important. For, necessary as the great scenic highways are in the high mountains of this region, they have been planned and surveyed with as little infringement as possible on Nature's own marvelous architecture. And in the national parks the ordinary and proper pursuits of industry and commerce are rightly barred.
     Reading some of these letters it becomes clear that many people look upon Mt. Pisgah as not just  ordinary ground, not just another mountain height. Unmistakably, this mountain high place stands for something eternal amidst change and potential destruction. Right or wrong, these persons fear a interruption of a solacing message they seem to have found in Mt. Pisgah and its far-ranging ridges  and satellite peaks.
     Such sentiments ought not to be ignored without reasons absolutely sufficient. Therefore, in the forum meeting called for February 2 the unanswered question of the possible use of another mountain peak for the TV tower should have thorough exploration.
 

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