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Show My husband and I have been touched by the kindness of people in Moab who did not share our religious or political views. Like the time my Mormon neighbor took my oldest child in the middle of the night while the younger was being born. We were new in town and she had only known. me a few months. Or the time our basement flooded from the big rainstorm in 1997 and 15 strangers showed up. to help bail us out. We are not interested in joining one camp or another, if it means stereotyping people. We are interested in learning what the various people in Moab think makes this community vital, what degrades it, and what common ground we can find in terms of solutions. To that end, I’d like to propose one way to follow up on your idea (as stated in the Editorial) of getting together to “talk.” How about beginning a weekly “study group” to focus on issues facing Moab? It would be a literature-based conversation, using books or magazines, that could give us ideas about how to think about, for example, tourist economies, or supporting local farmers/businesses, or open lands management. We could decide the issues and come up with relevant literature as we go along. I can think of 2 TOO LATE FOR HAND-WRINGING... good sources right now: Dear Jim : : I remember watching the evening news with my father on the day Ansel Adams died. The anchor man spent the obligatory 30 seconds talking about how Mr. Adams was a as well as the potential contribution of farms and ranches to the long-term viability of a Wendell Berry’s writings about the value of locally based and small-scale economies, community. Seay The magazine "ORION Afield" (see oriononline.org) highlights people and projects nationwide which have found real world solutions to problems facing Nature and Communities. As you suggested, this group would not be a pro- or anti- environmental group, or any kind of group that makes people from the community feel unwelcome to participate. It would be a way to: a) listen to and get to know each other better renowned photographer and a strident environmentalist. Being an inquisitive boy, I asked my father what an “environmentalist” was. "Son, an environmentalist is someone who owns a cabin in the woods and doesn’t want anyone else to." I have puzzled over that definition for many years, sometimes I agree and other times I don’t. After reading your article I find myself agreeing with my father. While I do not doubt your sincerity and devotion to your image of what the desert southwest should look like, I find it necessary to tell you that you don’t get to choose. ‘The people who lived in Moab before you got there probably didn’t want you to come and stay, and now you don’t b) expose ourselves to innovative ideas from thinkers around the world c) be better prepared to participate in maintaining a vital Moab (and maybe even the Colorado Plateau in general). I don’t think Moab is unique in terms of it being a small Western town faced with issues of growth and a changing economic base. Maybe what we learn in this group could eventually be useful to other places. More importantly, my hope would be that this group could be a place where people could find a meaningful way to be a part of, and contribute want others to come and stay. Or maybe you would allow some to come and stay if they elected a lifestyle, means of income, residential density and type of dwelling that fits with your world view. I am not sure if you are being hypocritical, arrogant or selfish. I read Desert Solitaire back in college and I didn’t understand what Ed Abbey was saying when he told us that the place he was talking about in his book (Arches and Canyonlands) was gone. Then, one day about thirteen years agoI drove to Moab and I understood immediately what he was trying to say. The Moab you love is already gone. It was gone at least thirteen years ago. I suggest you move on down the road to some other small town that hasn’t been overcome yet (maybe Mexican Hat?). The folks there won’t like to this community. : If you are interested in forming a group like this, please contact me by e-mail: dawschelz@moci.net you, but you will be a small group that doesn’t like each other rather than a large rapidly growing group. Sincerely, Sonya Daw Moab, Utah : Frank Metzler Tallahassee, Florida (but my heart is floating somewhere down on the San Juan River) » MORE ‘GOOD CHEER’ FROM ESCALANTE’S PATRICK DIEHL... Dear Jim: 8 In the June/July issue of the Zephyr, you speak of the "voracious monster" of PS I love your paper. Keep up the good work. development. Now that people have decided that Moab is a desirable place to live, how can the development monster be stopped from eating the place alive? ; SEARCHING FOR COMMON GROUND Dear Jim Stiles, Here I was, wondering if people could ever really come together to find agreeable solutions to the issues facing canyon country, when your last "Feedback" issue came out. It was encouraging to see so many people interested in the idea of getting together to talk about it. We can take our cue from Tom Disch’s ‘60s science fiction novel, White Fang Goes Dingo. In it, a hyperesthetic alien race rules the solar system. They think human beings make great pets—they’re SOOO cute! (No accounting for tastes.) One of the pets, a human male fondly known as White Fang, has the idea of the human race driving away thealiens » by being as ugly as possible. It works. Their exquisite sensibilities outraged, the aliens pack up and leave. : My husband and I would love to be more involved with people in this community who are exploring how to keep both the wild and human parts of this PLACE vital. We've been a little bit perplexed about how to do that (having 2 small children is a BIT of a distraction, I admit.) : Having spent most of the past 15 years as biologists in small Western towns, we've seen how destructive the polarization of environmentalists vs ranchers, miners, developers, loggers can be. It creates a bad feeling--instant mistrustfulness. It makes you want to go away. It doesn’t make you want to stay and be a part of the solution. It’s easy to fall into one camp or the "other;" in fact it seems almost primal, but it means that we close our eyes and ears and hearts and minds to each other. That means no more learning from each other, and a lot less creativity. Though I doubt that my neighbors in Escalante have read Disch, they have been proceeding along similar lines. By hanging in effigy, slashing tires, breaking house and car windows, cutting phone lines, running people off the road, uttering death threats, on occasion brandishing the odd knife or revolver, and regularly snarling to the media, they make Escalante, despite its visual attractions, an unattractive place to live. The result? Lots of empty houses, a flat real estate market, virtually no new businesses. The “voracious monster” has taken a good look at Escalante, and the sight has killed its appetite. With a little effort, Moab could achieve the same condition of blissful undesirability. I will offer a few ideas, while refraining from suggesting that local restaurants raise their prices just a little bit more and make their food just a little bit worse--they are already a It means pretty good deterrent, after all. No, let’s get serious about this! 1) Eliminate all but one checkstand at the City Market, and close the checkstand from believing that our individual characters--our basic honesty and concern for others--are less important than our religious or political affiliations. I don’t believe that. Kyle 6 Carr, le Bailey's COTTON WOOD NELSON'S HEATING & REFRIGERATION JERVING MOAB SINCE 1962" ‘It's Izzy's Fry Pan Ad! Overnigh: Ac Full Kitchen ations a 140 ee Away from os ee 0 East 43 959-8921 ain Stree, ( e 5) 259.8897 Yes, it's that time of year again. So hot you feel like your brain is on fire. You feel like you've just arrived at the Gates of Hades. And now the cooler is on the fritz. 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