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Show aC KR DB REE The It's America folks. That’s not how we do business here. In America, we welcome open public debate on controversial CYNICAL & ANGRY & UNDER 30..MORE GOOD NEWS! Hi Jim, I just wanted to let you know that my husband and I are both under 30 and we read every issue of the Zephyr. When we're finished, we recycle it or use it to line the litter box. I think the cat likes your "dog of the month" photo. Our attitudes are best summed up by a bumper sticker I once saw " If you’re not outraged, you're not paying attention”. Of course, we're angry. I don’t understand how anyone who’s paying attention couldn’t be. I’ve lived in western Colorado all of my life. It pains me to know that I can never return to my home town, Durango, because I have been out priced and out classed by people from Denver, Texas and California. It frightens me to think that the solitude and recreation we have enjoyed in the Colorado mountains and the Utah desert may be gone before we are. I worry every day that my nieces and nephews will never be able to enjoy the same experiences that shaped me into the personI am today. Life changing spas se that can only be found out of doors, in the wild. My view of the future is bleak. But, perhaps I am | the eternal optimist. After all, I’m still here, I’m still fighting and I’m still hoping that tomorrow will be a better day. Optimistic in Grand Malfunction, CO Aspen Downs THE CONTRAILS ARE EVERYWERE... Dear Jim: Contrails have been a plague to me for quite some time, directly as they ruin the natural appearance of the skies when I’m out with my camcorder, indirectly as they may be altering the climate with concomitant effects on the old body. They are indeed, as you As a director and member of an organization with purpose of blocking further runway construction at the notorious O’Hare Airport, the climate altering nature of aviation’s contrails has been of serious concern, first to me, then’to the larger group and to allied organizations around the country and overseas. We are all concerned about aviation’s pollution (fortunately for you in Moab it is of no concern) on human health and believe it to be of a serious nature as it affects persons living within rather large radial distances from airports, to the tune Alas, the matter cannot be studied by the USEPA, for to the FAA which both promotes and regulates the enormous colossus. Now to contrails, here are some internet sources eer la of millions nationally and elsewhere. all control of aviation was given over aviation industry which is now an you may wish to look up: STS / 99/1991 -C1- 11-02.himi p1sb him mp fffinx. sisim.unsw.edu.a img hitp:/heww.crystalinks.com/contrails. fitent hitp:/fwuw.carnicom.comjconirailshtm (This isa new one to me and seems a bit spooky, but who knows?) The reason for the Utah Chapter leadership’s passionate opposition to the Glen Canyon restoration campaign is plainly stated in its September 18, 1997 resolution on the subject. The Chapter leadership is afraid that any association with the issue could serve as a major and perhaps fatal political liability to the Utah BLM wilderness bill. The Chapter’s concern about linkage between these two issues is legitimate and deserves thoughtful consideration. By endorsing the Glen Canyon proposal, the National Sierra Club has given wilderness opponents a weapon they can use to lobby against the Utah wilderness bill. No doubt the anti-wilderness lobby will attempt to capture crucial so-called "moderate" swing votes by telling members of Congress, "these people that want the Utah BLM wilderness bill are the same ones that want to drain Lake Powell." Whether this tactic will be effective is another question. Lake Powell is one of the most popular and visited National Park Service properties in the West. Many Utah residents vacation on the lake, and whileI haven’t seen the statistics, I’d guess that most Utahans want Lake Powell to remain where it is. The Utah Chapter’s credibility with Utah politicians, its ability to influence the outcome of local elections and to send a pro-wilderness Utahan to Congress may all be diminished because of the National Sierra Club’s endorsement of the Glen Canyon proposal. But the legitimate question of whether principle should be sacrificed to political expediency in this particular case never seems to have been openly and publicly debated before the Utah Sierra Club membership. What ought to have been decided by a plebiscite was decided instead by bureaucratic fiat. has repeatedly demonstrated that sacrificing principle on the altar of short-term political gain can be a terrible mistake. Again and again political "expediency" has led to tragic and unnecessary compromises, not the least of which was the Club’s 1956 decision to endorse _ the damming of Glen Canyon. "For too long our leaders have used politics as the art of the possible," Hillary Clinton told her Wellesly College classmates in a much-acclaimed 1969 commencement address. "The challenge now is to practice the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible." While President Clinton has not always been the best example of courageous leadership on environmental issues, we know et you meant, Hillary. ladvocacv Political expediency is properly tt not of J ups. The role of environmental wdiocacy. groups is advocacy. Yesterday’s insanely radical ideas (emancipation, suffrage, civil rights, pollution control, a national wilderness preservation system) are today among our nation’s most cherished assets. Today’s radical ideas may turn out to be tomorrow’s most cherished assets. Environmental issues are always controversial. Virtually any new idea can be and usually is automatically rejected on the grounds of political "expediency." During the past decade the Utah environmental movement has become a culture predicated upon political expediency at any cost. The price of our desperate craving for "access" and "credibility" has been a fatal lack of vision and a nearly complete loss of moral compass. The best example of this lack of vision is not the Utah Chapter’s refusal to support the reclamation of Glen Canyon, but rather the Utah Wilderness Coalition’s categorical exclusion of adjacent Forest Service roadless areas from its statewide wilderness proposal. Throughout the past decade Forest Service roadless areas at the summit of the high plateaus have been under savage attack by the timber industry. Without question they are the most endangered large roadless areas on the Colorado Plateau. For sixteen years, while the bulldozers and buzz saws raged across the Aquarius, Paunsagunt, Markagunt and Kaibab plateaus, endangered Forest Service roadless areas have been categorically omitted from any and all Utah Wilderness Coalition wilderness proposals out of political expediency. Anyone familiar with these lands knows that that the price of "expediency" has been devastatingly high Happy tramways! Former Utah Chapter Chair Rudy Lukez once accurately summarized both the strength and weakness of the Sierra Club in just three words. "What you gotta remember about the - Chuck Miller Sierra Club," Rudy warned, "is that it’s a club." In many ways the Utah Chapter has been a very good club. Now what we need is a club for the rest of us. YET ANOTHER VIEW OF THE UTAH CHAPTER... Dear Jim, I am grateful for the many years of dedicated service that long-time Utah Sierra Club leaders such as Gordon Swenson, Mike and Jean Binyon, Nina Dougherty, Ann and Jim Wechsler, Jim Catlin, Cindy King, and others have devoted to the protection of Utah’s natural resources and the quality of our living environment. Over the past fifteen years I’ve worked with many of these people and I know how hard they work and with what ability and commitment. Some of them are close friends and I count former Utah Sierra Club chapter chairs Ann Wechsler and Rudy Lukez in my pantheon of personal heroes. Unfortunately, group dynamics do not always reflect the high caliber of individuals. No amount of admiration for particular individuals can excuse the Sierra Club’s Utah Chapter leadership for its brutal, absurd and pathetic attempt to prohibit the formation of a Glen Ray Wheeler Salt Lake City, UT EMAIL YOUR FEEDBACK TO THE ZEPHYR Send your comments to The Zephyr zephyr@moci.net or write to us P.O. Box 327, Moab, UT 84532 Canyon group and Sierra Club advocacy for the reclamation of Glen Canyon. Sore No MORE! A Natural cherish Just how expedient IS this political expediency, anyway? The Sierra Club’s own history See what I mean? Even among enthusiastic and dedicated Zephyr readers, I still end up with cat shit all over me. Good grief...JS hip: Hens lycos and committee meeting to which you had been pointedly disinvited. Thanks for refusing to be patronized and ignored, Ken. Readers Respond mention, altering the climate. issues, ideological diversity. Based on my own experience, Jim, your description of the Kafkaesque bureaucracy of the Utah Chapter is deadly accurate. Thanks for describing it so well. And Ken Sleight, thanks to you for driving 500 miles to appear at a Utah chapter executive Pain Reliever If you have ever had a hard day on the trail, a hard workout, or are visited by sore joints and muscles, you need this product. Made from 100% natural plant extracts, this gel is formulated from American Indian medicines which they have used for centuries. For questions or to order, call or write: Glo Germ Company, 150 E. Center St, MOAB,UT 84532. 1-800-842-MOAB or 259-5693 Check or money order only. Order by Visa and we pay shipping. For a free sample, just send us a dollar for shipping /handling UNCLE BEBOR’S "SERIOUS STARTING FLUID" Espresso Smoothies HOT & COLD DRINKS Ice Coffee In front of City Market, Open 7 days a week WELCOME BACK BIKERS! u nging yo ri ed ly Enhanc uprtificalwareness |
