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Show THE ZEPHYR/JUNE-JULY 2004 a Se aes Tae READERS RESPOND WHAT PRICE ‘VICTORY?’ Dear Zephyr, So much stink has been made about draining Lake Powell and restoring Glen Canyon, and perhaps it should be so. But it's my feeling that the flood of people already coming to the canyon country is causing and will cause a greater destruction than any reservoir of water could ever do. Fragile places like the Grand Canyon have already been over whelmed by a deluge of people numbering in the millions. Money hungry guides and eco hiking expeditions stop at nothing in the name of beauty and solitude. Everything that is sacred and precious has been and will be exploited for the price of a ticket called wilderness and solitude. Fragile places like the Escalante River Canyon and the San Rafael Swell are already bending under the weight of thousands of hikers and campers who are trying to get away from it all. . .soon it will be untold millions. Guide companies, outdoor magazines, wilderness books and yes-even newspapers have exploited and prostituted a fragile landscape in the name of thing called the Red Rock Country. I think of Katie Lee's old book called 10,000 God Damn Cattle and think she should now write book called 10 Million God Damn People. It's hard to watch such a beautiful place die .. kudos to the Colorado Plateau. "Cail a place paradise . . . kiss it goodbye." D.Hartley N.Arizona - LETTERS ABOUT ‘MAHBU’ Dear Jim Stiles, Right on the money, honey! As usual. As a long time tree hugger, I've cultivated some serious depression about the unnecessary polarization; and I cringe when I see what some "nature lovers” do in the backcountry. I wonder if it isn't the degree of common ground that causes the polarization. After all, marxists of various stripes spend more time attacking each other than they do capitalism. Dare I say that more christians have been killed by fellow christians? Often over trivial points of doctrine or practice. It is the overwhelming similarities that require the distinctions to be emphasized so bitterly. In time the similarities are forgotten and you risk a straight jacket and medication if you dare to bring it up. To all the earthie-hating rednecks out there: I'm ready to talk and it seems as though the Zephyr might serve as a place to start that dialogue. eS : 1 : never heard of. There were a couple of other guys there getting gas, with plates from further east than mine. They said they'd just come from Moab, and there was nothing there. I don't know whatI could have been thinking, but I took the other and drove almost all the way to Evanston that night. It was three years later when I finally wandered into the canyon country, by way of the Weminuche Wilderness, stopping over at the Needles District for awhile, moseying around, then making my way in to Moab and its surrounds. My paltry prose cannot capture my reaction to it all, and all I can say is I haven't been the same person since. Within a couple years, I started graduate school at USU, living 30 miles west of Logan in a 1966 Marlette single-wide (another love-hate story), enjoying the view of our alfalfa field and the cattle grazing the Bear River bottoms below. Visits to southeast Utah were frequent, mostly just wandering, but also on the federal dime a few times, interviewing public health workers and their clients, Old Westerners as you call them, as part of a university research project. In Logan and smaller communities nearby, training to become a psychologist, getting to know colleagues and clients, Mormons, heathens, and everything in between. Being blessed and fortunate with a wonderful wife, becoming an in-law among the Dine’ and both of us finally returning to the Reservation to work. Old Westerners, New Westerners, students, visitors, and descendants of the original inhabitants. I've tried to be a good listener among them all. Most regular people know there is something wrong, maybe they don't know what it is but they look for answers anyway. Some people, both Old and New Westerners, find answers on a personal level and carve out a good life for themselves and their families, without being seduced by corporate brainwashing or ideological extremism. Many more are subjugated or manipulated by these tools of the tiny group of the wealthiest ruling elite Americans. How do we find our answers to this juggernaut, and take them beyond the personal level to the community level, the regional level, and beyond? I don't know myself, and one thing I've always appreciated about your stance, dear editor, is that you don't purport to know either. But you just may have something with this MAHBU idea. The Dalai Lama said, "Dialogue among people is necessary to promote trust. It leads to better understanding and to peace and harmony." If we were just to all start talking and listening to one another, they might call ita movement. Count me in. Christopher Morris Shiptpck, New Merte9, oyu ou juow is lt I could never feel good about all the deforestation, open pit mines, etc. But the mark of a true reformer is that they want to put themselves out of business. I fear that some environmentalists want to remain environmentalists. Personally, I could find something else to do. EMAIL YOUR COMMENTS: cezephyr@frontiernet.net Sincerely, Matthew Haun Salt Lake City Jim, JimThe first time I almost almost went to Moab was in the summer of 1986, whenI was wandering around the west in my brand-new Mazda 323, the first car I ever owned thatI trusted to get me further west than the flint hills of Kansas. Before that I relied on hitchiking and bus rides for my annual pilgrimage beyond the hundredth meridian, both modes of transit which led to frequent adventures with parole-jumpers and perverts, not entirely unwelcome but unnerving enough to generally motivate me to reach the end of the road (any road) as quickly as possible and strike out with my back to the rest of humanity. Anyway, on this trip me and my little car were enjoying the road for its own sake (ah, the love-hate relationship with blacktop - a topic for another letter) and I found myself gassing up in Crescent Junction, at dusk. I don't remember much except the gas pumps were still old-fashioned, with the flourescent lights on curved posts over the pumps, and the Chinese Elms were sighing in the breeze. It was ajunction, so] was trying to decide which way to go, considering heading up to Salt Lake, where I'd never been, or Moab, which I'd In regards to MAHBU, engaged in half-truths and the paranoia that lead to volatile and acerbic barbs used taken the public out of their HELP! HOSTEL Two Moab, Utah residents, Greg Sayers and Alison Kennedy, hope to attend a volunteer work camp in Eastern Uganda this summer to help build a school for 112 AIDS orphans. Greg and Alison must cover all their own expenses, as well as buy the building materials for the school. One Mile South of Moab on US 191 435.259.6057 reservations@lazylizardhostel.com www.lazylizardhostel.com Check out our nightly rates: "THE BEST DEAL on a to call them public interest groups, but they have discourse, since in face to face meetings, they would likely never use the terms and epithets they so freely launch at each other in print and e-mail alerts, especially if they first sat down and discussed their shared values as other members of the public do when discussing their concerns. The refusal to tell the truth to one another has hampered our ability as Westerners to move from settlement to civilization with any consensus, plan or regard for our neighbors. Communication among those with differing values stops as soon as one participant attacks another’s value or point of view. We will be forced to re-learn this lesson THE LAZY LIZARD INTERNATIONAL thanks a lot. The West and its Anglo inhabitants have always inconsistencies, to the detriment of the landscapes itself. From the testing of hundreds of nuclear weapons next door to the thrown indiscriminately by our favorite land-issues groups. I PLANET" Funds are (desperately) needed to help them reach ne oa of $15,000. If you can help, please email em at: alisonlara @frontiernet.net. PAGE 28 |