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Show AN ESCALANTEAN‘S Editor, A j K : TASTE FOR ‘GREENS’ Ordinarily I would not give the time of day to a paper like yours. But since my name was mentioned in the article you printed in your May issue, "They Eat Greens in Escalante", I decided to check it out to see what our Escalante neighbors think of us this month! If the good Lord had intended for all of us to be alike, the world would not have been The Re ader S Respond very interesting or creative. He probably knew there would come a day when we would get this far apart in our thinking!!! Too bad he created so many radicals! WHAT'S IN A NAME? Dear Jim: I was born and reared in Escalante. Our motto has always been "Live and let live". We have always welcomed anyone who wanted to move to Escalante and be a part of the It’s taken me long enough but Anne Wilson’s piece in your Junesata issue has finally | community. But as time goes by it gets harder and harder as those who move in "because prompted my first Feedback response. they like it" want to change everything the minute they hit town! é Anne’s frustration with the ridiculous assumption that a married woman must take her One of our current (move-in) Escalante residents, who recently wrote in one of your husband’s name least she become a "non-person" echoed not only my sentiments but also newspaper articles, called us all cowboy booted thugs and jackasses when we tried to those of many women I know. And—at least for me-—it has nothing to do with feminism. uphold our country values. We didn’t know we had any Jackasses in town until she It has everything to do with wanting socially and legally to keep my own sense of arrived, but we'll start a list with her name at the head to it. autonomy and personal identity which I have worked damn hard to establish. In an age Another of your correspondents, who lives here and calls herself an Escalantean, will when women are increasing self-sufficient and self-reliant, I have no doubt this last bastion _ never be and Escalantean, because she is against everything that Escalate has ever stood for. of old world traditionalism will go the way of the pet rock. She was the author of "They Eat Greens In Escalante". Her companion would rather save Speaking as a person who has put off marriage until "someday",I have lived my entire a bird, that MAY decide to visit our area, downstream on our creek than have a new adult life as a responsible, independent individual with a well-defined sense of self. These _ reservoir to supply water for a whole community, who is right at the present in a drought are the characteristics that will define my commitment whenever I do get married--not situation. When she moved into Escalante she wanted everything changed to suit her whetherI bear my husband’s name. Ironically, today’s Wall Street Journal (June 29) has a front page article on the intolerable needs. They have alienated activist ideas. themselves from the day they moved : in with their far-out attitudes and laws that govern married women in Japan titled: "In Japan, to keep your Another move-in who says she has time to become a part of the community, who married name, you get a divorce.” I’ve sent you several copies. Please feel free to passone | compares us and our "monumental" dilemma to a monopoly board, is not only a SUWA on to Anne. . If she hasn’t already seen it, it’s sure to bring the same incredulous reaction | member but a member of the "Old Broads" organization. She says they are for wilderness, from her as it did from me. no cows on the range, roadless areas, etc. And she expects to be considered an One final comment, legally changing one’s name is not without a downside. Case in _ Escalantean? ‘ point: a few years ago a friend of mine went through the laborious and maddening exercise I would like to be around when some of these people grow old or have a handicap. of resurrecting her maiden name after a divorce. Following months of phone calls and _It would be interesting to see how they are going to get around on this land to enjoy its letters navigating the bureaucratic redtape of New York’s City Hall, she finally succeeded beauty. Contrary to what some people think, the Grand Staircase is not wheelchair and made a solemn vow never to change her name again. Now happily remarried, she’s accessible! And with no roads it becomes a land of no use. kept her word. We hear daily from activists about getting cows off our ranges. Some of them are so naive that when asked where they would get hamburger, milk, etc. their reply is "At the Laura Castellano grocery store of course!" And they have no idea, nor do they care to learn, what purposes New York, NY cows, and sheep, serve to keep the land healthy. Even a lawn has to be mowed and fertilized periodically to survive. There are places on our mountain right now, since LET THE POPULATION GO NUCLEAR? . permits were cut, that even the wildlife can’t get through because the undergrowth is so Dear Jim, thick. It is not over grazed but being smothered out. Used to be the sheep and cattle kept I thought your reply to Pete Doles in the April-May issue of the abhi was weak and this trimmed up and passable. Now the only thing that would help it is a big fire! It is ducked his question. No one has ever proposed any plan to cut down overpopulation and _time they get back to the basics and _ using good old common sense. I read somewhere that the U.S. will have over 406 million people by 2050. That is surely an environmental impact if there ever was one. And I seriously doubt if you or anyone else will convince them to use less energy---just look at the conditions in the third world where energy use is very low. Of course, nature or evil men will eventually cure the overpopulation problem by war, disease or starvation, but isn’t'a better soulution to have an inexaustable supply of energy with nuclear generators? ‘ Ed Cort Montrose, CO : Ed, if you're thinking of nuclear power as a means of population control (Chernobyl...Three Mile Island), you may be on to something. But as a safe, rational and logical way of supplying power to the gluttonous demands of the 21st Century...no...I'm not ready to accept that alternative...JS A VIEW FROM the dinosaur. They would probably want to build preserves for them too. Doesn’t it make you wonder sometimes where the future generations, that they are saving all this for, is THE EAST COAST To the Publisher of the Canyon Country Zephyr: After living in daily immersion of east coast sophistication, I found your little corner of the world so refreshing. One of the locals there thrust the July issue into my hands and instructed me to read it, and read it I did... with pleasure. And also with amusement. At your caricatures and original ads, especially John McCain’s abrupt appearances. But your publication also echoed in my head as I drove along the Colorado River northeast of Moab how issues of the land are very real issues, as are these surrounding the people who are attempting to be stewards or milkers of the land. As a former outdoor ed teacher now hardly out doors, it was a good reminder people still care and are voicing their concerns re: conservation. Thank you for encouraging me through your writing to return to trying to make a difference, even if it causes fits. J.S. Parker going to live? All the land will either be monuments, national parks or wilderness. Someone needs to begin to work on an endangered species list for people. But maybe it’s just as well they don’t. The only species who would bee allowed on that list would be the activists and heaven help the rest of us! Marlene Haws Escalante, Utah If Ms. Haws is grateful that the good Lord made everybody different and that diversity makes for more diversity and creattivity, she should be rejoicing at the newcomers’ fresh and different attitudes. For the record, Ms. Haws might want to note that The Nature Conservancy recently saved the Dugout Ranch from future development and will maintain it as a working cattle ranch. . Pgs , 8 continued on next page... (I have to admit) NY, NY Escalante, Utah : read a newspaper article last week that was entitled, "Only Ewes Can Prevent Forest _Fires". California’s Angeles National Forest Service has it’s own grazing program. Because a saeco’ burn would have cost too much, they spent $4,000 last year ona herd of sheep to graze their forest to prevent a fire hazard. Big deal! My father worked for the forest service years ago and tried to tell them that way back the, but they were like some of the . "know-it-alls" we have now. They-didn’t want to listen. Now it’s their idea! Others are wanting to drain Lake Powell. They were born 50 years too late. They should have been here before to see the big picture and the needs of the PEOPLE. And they haven't stopped to think of all the necessities of like they would be depriving PEOPLE of. How many years do they think it would be before the canyons returned to their natural state? I’m sure they wouldn’t be here to see it! Then there’s the Nature Conservancy. 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