PAGE 30 THE ZEPHYR MARCH 1991 feedback the readers respond Dear Jim: The world has changed for the worst since the last Issue of The Zephyr went to press. Most of us despair that America Is again engaged In war. It Is lamentable that, like Vietnam, this war Is again being fought In our homes In living color, and that the facts of war are so muddled by political censorship. But, despite the cryptic messages filtered to us from Washington through the news media and the fog that pervades the reports coming to us from the Persian Gulf, I feel It Imperative that we support, In whatever ways we can, the hapless men and women who have been drawn to the battle front Mark Twain touched upon the subject of patriotism In his Letters From The Earth: Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And It Is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or of politicians. Each must the empty catch-phras- es for himself alone decide what Is right and what Is wrong, and which course Is patriotic and which Isnt You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide It against your convictions Is to be an unqualified and Inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right you have done your duty by yourself and by hold up your head! You have your country of. to ashamed be nothing As we give support to our country, to friends, and loved ones, and we shed tears for those who die, our Toes are also seeking peace and struggling to deal with the scathing tragedy of the war. They too are beseeching their God In suppliant prayer. They sincerely believe we are the villains, the Infidels. Mark Twain penned this evocative parable depicting the dichotomy of beliefs fermented by the Civil War In his "War Prayer. Following an Impassioned patriotic prayer by the pastor, an elderly man, proclaiming he Is a messenger from God, explains to the congregation that, In essence, prayers for victory are two prayers In one. A prayer for victory Is accordingly a prayer accepting responsibility for the consequences of victory: Help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale form of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing In pain; help us to lay waste their humble home with a hurricane of Are; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land In rags and hunger and thlrst...blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! The Gulf War repeats the Irony of all armed conflicts; Invoking Gods name for help and wisdom. We compose euphemisms to mask the stark realities of war: military dialogue, escalation, air campaign, deployment of forces, the Gulf theater, call to duty, war exercises, but however cloaked our rhetoric, the horrors of war are undeniable. The Gulf War touches not only the citizens of many countries but also the birds, fish, and other wildlife dying and maimed by the gargantuan and devastating oil spill a scourge mother earth can III afford. As the unsettling events of the war evolve we must commiserate with all humanity caught up In the aggression, friend and foe alike, and be solemnly concerned with the environment we so tenuously depend upon for survival. Abbey's widow, Clarke, was sent sample covers "for approval only after the new editions were In production. To her horror, she found not only the previously described travesty applied to The Journey Home, but also an aerial view of some other Impounded Western watercourse (probably the Green behind the Flaming Gorge dam) staring back at her with the glazed eyes of a corpse from the new cover of Down the River. Its appalling to find Abbey's Intent monkeywrenched by his own publisher, especially when he's not around to defend himself. Abbeys longtime friend Dave Foreman (formerly of Earth First!) has suggested selling these retread editions In plain brown wrappers. Fortunately the contents of Abbey's books, his "vitriolic ruminations, remain unmolested. And rather than Imagining him spinning In his grave somewhere In the expanse of the Cabeza Prieta, I prefer to envision the silhouette of a vulture (his reincarnation of choice) patiently wheeling In the sky, waiting to shred the choicest morsels for the carcass of Melissa Jacoby, who Is credited with designing these covers. Sincerely, Jose Knighton Dear Jim: I offer appreciated your article on The Arch Hunters In the JanFeb Issue, but I must some dariflcatlon. am not from Hoboken and never did live there. My last residence was Cedar am surprised at such a disastrous mistake after all the time we have known each Grove. other. You must have me mixed up with Ed Abbey or Frank Sinatra. Ed lived In Hoboken for a while as evidenced by the chapter of that name In his book "Journey Home. And, of course, Old Blue Eyes Is from Hoboken. As for my accent. It Is definitely not Hoboken. Even though New Jersey Is a small state (It would almost fit Into Grand County), there are more accents than In the whole state of Utah, at least for natives of Utah. Peqde from cities along the Hudson River, which separates New Jersey and New York, have more of a New York City accent (It gets even more complex when we consider that boroughs of New York City do not all have the same accent e.g. Bronx or Brooklyn sound different than Staten Island.) The similarity to a New York City dialect would cover places like Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, Union City, and other cities In eastern Hudson County and southeastern Bergen County. People In western Hudson County have a different dialect than those In the eastern part. We like to think of a New Jersey accent (thats mine) as that spoken from northwestern Bergen County and western Hudson County, then west and south to the northern part of central New Jersey. (That Is, except for some local pockets of exceptions.) Many parts of south New Jersey sound like Philadelphia. (Professor Higgins could have had a field day.) I am sure that this clears up the matter. Another comment Is that disagreements between Reuben and me were usually when he would say that he did not think that a given structure should be considered as an arch because he didnt like IL I would then remind him that there was nothing In the criteria that said that Reuben or Ed had to like It for an opening to qualify as an arch. Again Jim, I enjoyed the article. Keep up the good work. I I Sincerely, Ed McCarrlck Dear Jim: Im writing to point out a small Inaccuracy In one of your recent articles. In the entitled The Arch Hunters, you profiled my father Doug Travers. You also Introduced his sons but Inaccurately listed their chronological order (granted he has a lot of sons). The correct order Is: 1. Joe; 2. David; 3. Rod; 4. Roy. I estimate you will receive at least four letters making you aware of this fact Some other Important facts were also curiously absent from your article. For Instance, my father's keen eyesight You probably dont know this, but he can spot even the smallest arch at distances of up to ten miles with the naked eye. I never knew he had this extraordinary eyesight until I became an adult When I was young and naive, my brothers and I would go hiking (marching actually) with my Dad, and suddenly he would spot an "arch at five or ten miles In the distance. Not wanting to brag about his eyesight, he would always estimate the distance to be about 100 yards or so, just a "short walk from the main trail. It would usually take us three or four hours to hike those one hundred yard short walks, and most of them ended at patches of desert varnish, not arches. I realize now just how acute my fathers eyesight was. My father also has an unmatched ability to gloss over potentially undesirable situations In a manner which promotes the successful execution of an expedition. For example, he once convinced my mother to go along with us as we drove over Elephant Hill by telling her that "sections of the road are paved. True, there are some concrete fills on that road. Then theres the time the gnats were so thick at Devils Garden Campground that we thought It was a solar eclipse. Dad suggested we escape by hiking to Double O Arch where there were no gnats since They can't fly that far. So we hiked to Double 0 (for the 1000th time), and the gnats flew down the trail with us, some of them resting In our ears. A park ranger was with us on the hike (his name was Stiles I think), and he pledged to give us some kind of Avon perfume once we reached Double O. Unfortunately, the perfume had evaporated by the time we reached the arch, and the gnats knew It They could fly that far and they were there. We've since wondered about that ranger who carried Avon perfume. Even though we endured such hardship at the hands of our Intrepid to visit the canyon country at least once a year. We bring our own we continue dad, vehicles, however, so we can escape to the La Sals If need be. article odd-shap- ed Thanks Jim, arch-hunti- ng Eric BJornstad, Moab, Utah Dear Editor: drove through Moab the other day, and swore out my New Years resolution: I privately-own- ed restaurants. will patronize only a let's Furthermore, propose city slogan of, The only good arch Is a sandstone arch. Yellow plastic Is for puppy training, Devo hats, and lawn canaries. I non-franchl- sed Somewhere between the buns, John Jaystone Lancaster, CA arch-hunti- ng Dear Jim: Readers of Edward Abbey will find four new glamorous covers on Cactus Eds familiar backllst titles beginning In January. The familiar drawing that showed a ruptured Glen Canyon dam spilling "Domlny Falls has graced the cover of Abbeys The Journey Home for the past thirteen years. Now Its gone. In Its place Is an Image that will lead discerning Western bibliophiles to conclude that James Watt has Infiltrated the graphics department of one of Abbey's publishers. What has replaced the dream-f- u (filling Image of the dam upon which Abbey heaped volumes of humorous contempt (most notably In The Monkey Wrench Gang) Is a photograph of "Lake Foul's dead water and bathtub ring. It would be difficult to Intentionally devise anything more Insulting to the memory of this great Western author, or to encounter a single act more revealing of an Eastern publisher's Indifference to, and outright Ignorance of, one of Its authors. If the ugly Irony of this new cover Is not yet apparent, for a Western environmental activist (the dedicated core of Abbey readership) the new cover Is roughly akin to erroneously applying a picture of Hitler to a book about Gandhi. L .lii. gnat-repelli- ng - n.fiL Let there remain one proud arch Unknown and unbothered by man Regal In Its deserved solitude Forever a window on the wilderness Sincerely, Rod Travers Dallas, Texas