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Show PAGE 30 THE ZEPHYR APRIL 1990 Dear Jim: feedback the readers respond Dear Mr. Stiles: Here In south Texas we are pleased you chose San Antonio as a travel hub and Amtrak for local accommodations. A lot of people come here, pay $100 a night In a local hotel, and never find the Alamo. You had the best room we have and got paid $100 to leave town. That's as good as we can do unless you know a south Texas politician. Please let us know when you plan to come again, there are also sleeping accommodations at the airport and the Greyhound bus station. Sincerely, Doug Travers, San Antonio, Texas Dear Mr. Stiles: short-sighted- ly. anti-wlldem- ess Indeed, "there's no place like home, especially If home Is Moab. A DESERT SOLITAIRE and longed to New Yorker, suffering from concrete fever, I make my own parched homage to the desert Thanks to the hospitality of Ken and Jane Sleight I had the opportunity to become acquainted with the Canyonlands and your fine publication. In tribute, I was moved to write "Parched Homage To Moab. Would you have a look at It and kindly consider It for publication? I'd be much obliged. By the way, receiving the Zephyr In my sooty city mailbox has been like opening a window and letting the fresh air In. self-exil- ed re-re- ad With best regards, Karin Yapaleter PARCHED HOMAGE TO MOAB Sagebrush spirals for Its place In the Big Sky wind gusts sauna perfume mingled fragrance - Juniper, pinion pine, Indian ricegrass hawks with patient buzzards, delirium. dance of arid the Red-ta- ll Raquel Shumways word work printed In the March 1990 Zephyr, and representing the Western Association of Land Users, discredited the Intelligence of the citizens of canyon country. I found her comments to be myopic and manlpulatively misleading. John F. Kennedy offers a less emotional overview of the history of our Involvement of the land. In the opening statement of his foreword to Stewart Udall's The Quiet Crisis, he Is speaking for all American lands, Including the Canyon Country of which Raquel Shumway speaks so Kennedy states: "The history of America Is, more than that of most nations, the history of man confronted by nature .... It has been the story of a rich and varied national heritage shaping American Institutions and American values; and It has been equally the story of Americans seizing, using, squandering and, belatedly, protecting and developing that heritage. Stewart Udall ends his Introduction to The Quiet Crisis by summing up our tenuous position on planet earth: "Each generation has Its own rendezvous with the land, for despite our fee titles and claims of ownership, we sre all brief tenants on this planet By choice, or by default we will carve out a land legacy for our heirs. We can misuse the land and diminish the usefulness of resources, or we can create a world In which physical affluence and affluence of the spirit go hand In hand. Ms. Shumway begins her 1000 word litany with an allusion to a romantic fairytale. She then asks, "What does Romance have to do with wilderness? Her diatribe Is Indeed a romance, as Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines It: "something that lacks basis In fact She suggests "wilderness advocates are telling us romantic stories about saving our canyon country. They are asking "Isnt It beautiful? Dont you think we ought to protect It so that we can share It with our future generations? Wouldnt It be sad If It were destroyed? She continues with the greatest understatement of the century: "Yes, It would I wonder what she be sad If It were destroyed. recognizes as destruction? Then Ms. Shumway shifts focus. "Lets talk about realttyl she says. But she Is as far removed from reality as the Cenozolc Is from the Paleozoic (and that's several hundred million years of canyon country history). To emphasize the Importance of freedom, she offers a ploy which epitomizes an appeal to the emotions: "Have you ever watched a baby fight against the unwanted restriction of a mother's hold? Picture It! They try to climb down; they try to remove Mom's arms; they strain with their entire body to get away. They scream. Perhaps Ms. Shumway would like to see our National Parks and Monuments dissolved and freedom restored to the land users. One cant help but wonder If she ever had children of her own and If, when they were babies, she gave them total freedom when they fought against unwanted restriction, or did she take responsibility for setting future as a loving rational mother boundaries and rules to Insure a healthy long-ran- ge vision which could would? Yes, we want freedom, but within the context of long-ranensure a rich national heritage for our children and our childrens children. Continuing, Ms. Shumway states: "the United States was founded on the principal of private land ownership. She seems to confuse private land ownership with our forefathers' quest for religious freedoms. She cHes statistics about Guatemala. Its pretty obscure, but somehow Ms. Shumway Is proposing that If we encourage wilderness we could end up In a similar state of being. I dont think her example applies here. She further suggests "we are now reaching the ultimate manifestation of centralized ownership . . . CONGRESSIONAL WILDERNESS DESIGNATION." (Ms. "Local mean local underscore and and management nothing capitals.) priorities Shumways In congressional wilderness. I'm very thankful for some overall planning. John Muirs writings on the loggers who were felling the giant sequoias of California over a century ago ring very true today for the unprotected lands of canyon country: "Through all the wonderful, eventful centuries since Christ's time .... and long before that .... God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought disease, avalanche, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools ... only Uncle Sam can do that do-sl-- do The earth spins a tale of home to ant, cricket, rattlesnake Dry July. Trees plead green twisted limbs turn, petrified cinder, ache furious for water. Water. Ancient escape artist evaporates, or floats on the bareback of clouds puffed up belligerent white oasis haunting this endless auburn land of rock mountain canyon. A bounty enough for any survivor willing to crawl naked ge In parched homage to the blazing, relentless torch ball that rises, then sets fire. Eric BJomstad, Moab, Utah - Karin Yapaleter Dear Jim: Dear Editor: Raquel Shumways article pitting wilderness against freedom would be laughable her arguments weren't taken as gospel by so many. She compares S.E. Utah to Guatemala. She states that In Guatemala 70 of the land Is owned by 3 of the people, resulting In poverty for the masses and privilege for the few. If her assertions are correct we certainly dont want very much privately owned land In Utah! (I'll admit that sometimes our local governing bodies seem to take Inspiration from Latin America, but the comparison ends there.) Maybe It would be better to compare the Eastern U.S. with the Western part of our In the Eastern United States practically all the land Is privately owned. Anyone that country. has traveled back there can attest to the fact that everything Is fenced. There are no public lands available (with exception of National and State Parks) for people to use. The only lands In the West that are locked out are private lands. Wilderness Is a method of saving the few remaining unspoiled parcels of land that are left. It locks no one out The lands that are considered for wilderness are the castoffs that no one wanted. (Thats why they were spared.) Lands that conflict with wilderness designation (l.e. mining Interests or roads) are not considered for Inclusion In the wilderness system. Shumways conclusion that our lands are being taken by "congressional Imperialism" Is really Ironic, considering that the group she represents has controlled this land for the last 100 years. The mining and ranching Interests have mined, drilled, grazed, fenced and chained every last foot of S.E. Utah. Its good to know that their form of If After about the third Issue of your paper, I realized It was not for me. I only wish I had acted on my original Impulse, which was to tell you to cancel my subscription then and there. It would have saved me a lot of anger and disgust every time I opened the pages of the Zephyr. I suppose you honestly believe you are providing a "balanced viewpoint How You absurd. politicians, the Western regularly run extremist diatribes by know-nothiAssociation of Land Users, and the like. Do you really think letting such extremely moderate people as Ken Sleight the Sierra Club, etc., air their views In contrast provides balance? How come I never see anything from SUWA In your rag? Im sure they'd be happy to contribute. Having lived In places which were culturally and politically like Moab, I long ago is came to this realization the power structure In these places): "If these people ever accept my point of view as legitimate, then I surely must have sold out I think you want to be accepted so badly you dont even realize youve sold out ng (vis-a-v- Sincerely, (name withheld by request) understand correctly, the day he finds any common ground with his adversaries, he has compromised his values and failed miserably. Therefore, the only way he can live with himself Is to always be at war with the enemy, and avoid solutions at the risk of "selling out I may be wrong, but a war that Is never resolved generally leads to annihilation.... Note: If I -- Imperialism Is ending. Sincerely, Stan Ferris, Moab, Utah J.S. |
