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Show Dear Editor: In response to Hildebrandt's vicious personal attack in the last issue of the Zephyr, I'd like your readers to know that I'm real. A real guide, naturalist, educator, lover and protector of this great canyon country, and not the racist monster described. Hildebrandt, that bastard child of the environmental movement, has once again proven himself a shameless liar. This is to be expected when messianic fanaticism and profound ignorance are mixed with a generous helping of mean-spirited elitism. Editor's Note: I’m not sure what star system this guy comes from but he certainly deserves Letter of the Decade. Dear Mr. Stiles: Did you really think that the lame alien swimsuit edition was funny? You are sick people with sick ideas and a sick magazine. Right off, all those pictures of men with rippling pecs and bulging groins disgusted me. I was not-and I say this emphatically-I was not turned-on by them at all. I didn’t even look. All of your rock and tree hugging articles were expressions of earth religion. For liberal creeps, earth religion has replaced God religion. Your earth faith is turning the desert into a pristine, isolated wasteland and costing Godly folks millions. If you ever went to church you would stop wanting to save the desert and would start wanting to put nuclear waste in it. You think you are Ed Abbey or something. Well, smarty-pants, bet you didn't know that Abbey had plans to develop an amusement park Greenpeace in an adolescent rage after Disney rejected You're probably from Pennsylvania or something. I my initials in Delicate Arch before you or so-called Ed When I was in sixth grade I made a 6 foot tall replica of in Glen Canyon. He Dear Jim, I would like to take this opportunity to correct statements in my last letter to the Zephyr. I called John Holland a racist, which was a poor choice of words and I apologize for it. ‘Bigot’ was the correct word and is more appropriate. Robert Hildebrand Moab, Ut Editor’s note: OK now...boys...boys. That's enough. I refuse to print any more broadsides from either of you for at least six months. We need a break. started his proposal. was born in Delores. I was carving Abbey had even seen the La Sal's. the Eiffel Tower out of arrowheads I found around Monticello. When we moved to Cedar City (I went to high school with the Governor) we threw away more pottery than you'll ever find at Mesa Verde. So Abbey saw Glen Canyon before the dam? Respectfully, John Holland Moab, Ut Well, so did I and I'm glad the dam is there. If the dam wasn't there, I would be short one kid. One of my kids was conceived in Dangling Rope Canyon on the floor of a 20-foot Wellcraft. Did you ever factor my kid into your thinking? Hell no; you don't care about people. You would gladly sacrifice my only son to your earth religion. MY ONLY SON. Last week my wife and I took a “walk in the park” to see the confluence of the Green and Colorado. We did a high five when, after walking three miles, we came across a road. We ran across another road at 4 miles. We were so glad to see that the area is being tamed. We also walked to Delicate Arch a few weeks ago and complained all the while that the park service had wasted money on the new bridge. They should have built an escalator. “Hug this rock!” “Hug that rock!” Creeps! And all those beautiful men with glorious pecs! I didn't look but I'll bet that they were splattered across every spotty page. God and America want you to repent. You've done your annual warped, neurotic issue. Why don't you doa family values issue sometime? Have Falwell write a substantial To whomever may be interested: Last month, I returned to the Moab region for the first time in 8 years. I was excited to share with my family the wonders of your beautiful region, as they had before never visited. With great anticipation, I took them on mountain biking trails I had taken 8 years prior---first to the Gemini Bridges, and later on the Poison Spider trail. What I witnessed on my visit saddened me beyond measure, and I cannot help but describe this experience to you. Upon first embarking on our short journey to the Gemini Bridges, 1 was dismayed to see that the “trail” had become a 2-lane road. LLY. I counted as we were passed by, 16 jeeps/4-wheel drive vehicles, 8 ATV's and 4 motorcycles. As I breathed in their exhaust fumes, I profoundly enjoyed the sounds and scenery of what the Moab region has sadly become: the world’s greatest tractor pull practice range. Broken vehicle parts are strewn everywhere, oil spills and tire tracks exist on every rock, impromptu 2 lane roads have been created, diverging in all directions, and the sounds of nature have been replaced by the constant roar of revving engines and honking horns. Several of the vehicles were traveling in excess of 45 mph, and one almost hit a member of my family. The coup de grace occurred when we arrived at the Gemini Bridges, and someone had parked their jeep right on top of the natural bridge, just like in a commercial. piece on teletubbies. Or why don't you write a deeply personal piece in which you confess The next day I took my family to the Poison Spider trail, hoping that the difficulty of that you would not be able to make a living in Moab if it weren't for cyclists. I havea better idea. Why don't you just go back to Pennsylvania with Ed Abbey under one arm and one of those sexy men under the other (I don't thing they're sexy but I'll bet you do). the trail would have limited the access (and damage) inflicted by the sea of motorized vehicles parading around the Gemini Bridges area. No such luck. The ATV's have access to just about anywhere we can go on foot, there were just more tire tracks, oil stains, broken parts, spur trails, honking horns, and the engines revved even louder to get up the difficult slopes. The natural beauty of the BLM lands surrounding Moab have been ruined. The BLM Sincerely, Jack Bollan Clifton, CO should be ashamed. They have criminally mismanaged our public lands, and the people of Moab have allowed irreplaceably beautiful areas to be utterly destroyed. I will not return to Moab. I was ashamed and embarrassed to have described such a beautiful place to my family, only to have them witness first-hand destruction occurring on such an epic scale. Disgusting. LETTERS TO FEEDBACK are printed at the whim of the publisher. When there isa Letter of the Moath, the writer receives a complimentary one year subscription. AVS econ oe titar tis Regretfully, Jim Westerman Gunnison, CO WRITERS of the WEST: ELLEN MELOY My home lay at the heart of the Colorado Plateau, the Utah southeastern portion of the Four Corners, where the borders of Utah. Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona mect. It is a geography of infinite cycles, of stolid pulses of emergence and subsidence, which, in terms geologic and human, is the story of the desert itself. At one time the Colorado Plateau was as far below a prehistoric ocean as it is now above sea level: one mile, on the average. Aboriginal desert farmers who once held a fragile tenure on a land they considered to be the center of the universe changed their minds and abandoned it. The region serves up a full paradox of emptiness. It has been considered a void, a "loathsome" province of little utility to humankind, and a kind of cosmic navel, an inexhaustible well-spring of mystery and spiritual transcendence. From The Last Cheater’s Wife Available at Back of Beyond Books, 83 North Main Street, 435.259.5154 |