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Show FEEDBACK The Readers Respond FROM THE ESCALANTE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE... Dear. Zephyr: This is the Letter of the Month. Dear Mr. Stiles, After 62 years, having cracked the Chomsky reader, I guess my reading of your "Take it or Leave It" editorial for April has provoked a certain harmony. You, like Chomsky, seem to be against so many things; and like Chomsky, you appear to be so correct in gauging the minuscule distance we humans have travelled since we first began to realize the extent of our powerlessness and the depth of our fears. How many of us, like your prized Moabites, are walled in behind the insecurity of our knowledge that we lack é the power or the courage to stand up against the evil that sends our neighbors to Funafuti, This letter is written by approval of the Board of Directors of the Escalante City Chamber of Commerce in response to an article that was recently published in the April/May 2000 issue of The Zephyr (Volume 12 Number 1). The article was entitled “They Eat Greens in Escalante”. Our Mission Statement is: The Escalante Chamber of Commerce is organized to maintain and expand existing businesses, to encourage the establishment of new businesses, to preserve the traditions of How many of us, like you perhaps, have carved out the community and to sponsor events for both tourism and local interests in Escalante and Boulder, Utah and to receive, administer and expend funds for such purposes. a secure niche from which we may fulminate against the homophobia, the disregard for nature, the self-centeredness which may already have become the hallmarks of a once great The chamber welcomes and invites all legal and lawful businesses to join and participate in the Chamber of Commerce in order to make the business community more and threatens us at the same time? American Southwest? This for me has become all the more poignant in facing my own powerlessness against the atrial fibrillation that leaves me breathless in my chair, incapable even of joining the illusion of your crusade against passivity which your editorial trumpets--incapable of thinking beyond my return to the Pacific Northwest next Thursday, to determine whether a particularly civilized electrocution will repair me "to fight another day." From the peculiar vantage of my armchair, though, I have become aware of the existence of many of my sisters and brothers who struggle against the murder, the rape, viable and to provide jobs and economic benefit to those businesses and to the community at large. The chamber does not support any political group, personal vendettas or people with axes to grind or bridges to burn. The chamber community. Thank you, Board of Directors All the best, ANOTHER im, This is one of the most thoughtful, passionate and eloquent letters The Zephyr has ever received. We hope all is well with you now, Kent...JS ; the businesses and attractions in the Iam writing in response to the article about the lights on the home in Spanish Valley shining the flood lights to ‘Johnson’s Up On Top’. I live next door to the home that this person is referring to, and have-never been offended by these lights that do shine on the rocks directly behind their home. For one thing, these people have only turned these lights on very few times since they have lived there ( November). And also, if so many people are offended by these lights, why hasn’t any one of these persons chose to go directly to these people and let them know about it? I know the owners of this home and can assure you that they would be glad to discuss this with them in a civil manner, not by slandering them and trespassing on their property to secretly pin this article to their door to let them know their dismay? Grow up! Renee Troutt Moab <—] \\ VY iy Escalante City Chamber of Commerce VIEW FROM ESCALANTE... "Take It or Leave It" in the April/may issue hit home, moved me even more than you usually do, Jim, and it set me up to emote my way through the rest of the issue. There cannot be too much tolerance, acceptance and kindness in this world. Given that frame of mine, “The Eat Greens in Escalante” seemed particularly lacking in any of the aforementioned gentle virtues. While I do not know for sure any of the facts given, don't question them, and do not want to pass judgments on any of the colorful cast of characters playing that melodrama, I do want to give you another angle. I am an environmentalist who has been coming to Escalante for some 15 years, first he is now, left a car at the air strip in Escalante for at least 13 years. When we took the car out to access some canyon country, the plane was left at the airport, vulnerable to any kind of sabotage. Everyone in this small town, as in others, knows everything about everybody. The Bishop of Escalante at that time knew exactly by how many percentage points and votes Brant lost the New Mexico Land Commissioner's race. Everybody knew that Brant and I were environmentalists, and told us so at every opportunity. Brant, whose heart and soul and much of life has been given to saving wild public lands, never suffered personal or property damage, to my knowledge. We worked for SUWA, based in Cedar City, for three years, making frequent pleasure and business.trips to Escalante. People here did not like what SUWA was doing or saying, nor did they like us, and many made that pretty clear. But the car was never locked. The airplane was always vulnerable. We never feared for our lives or our property. For the last 4 years, the Great Old Broads for Wilderness have had annual gatherings SIDE-BY-SIDE ON ChrisMuhr's ALL METALS WELDING & FABRICATION CO. COLORADO AVENUE COLORADO Java — D- 502 Colorado Avenue 1707 I-70 Bus. Loop Grand Jct., CO 81501 970.243.6310 FX: 970.241.5917 970.256, 7446 Cat Coughran, owner toe in fine coffee, espres so drinks gourmet teas. Also serving Pastries, breakfast & lunch fresh-baked sandwiches fresh-squeezed juices & fruit smoothies earoveseaie \ TY g meee voe \ 4 DIREPLONCTIOET NSCARGAL LERY “The Gifts for the Goddess" thru 6/10 ‘More than Land & Sky" 6/13-7/8 =e oo 6/24) oumeys of the Spirit: Gallery 10 from Washington, DC" 7/11- 7/22 : (reception 7/14) Fire Sale: Vinje Solo" 7/25-8/1 2 Non-Heavy Metal is my life. 524 Colorado Ave. 970.256.9630 Caole Lowry, artis t/curator <. | Gallery of fine art/shows iy locales ~~ Mintage Clothing costume jewelry» re ee oes 256-7446 Other with Brant Calkin in our airplane, flying from New Mexico to explore the canyons. Now I live here because I love it, Brant, a “known” environmentalist as much in those days as "A LITTLE LIGHT WHINING" Editor, > calls concerning calls not related to the businesses and attractions should be directed to those people who might better answer tthose calls. We have no political, environmental or other such information. Please call those organizations directly. and pillage that you decry, but who remain dumb out of their frustration and inability to act. And, I am left with the words of a mentor who once wrote (in French), "perhaps nothingness and absurdity are in the end what are in store for us. Let us behave, then, as if such a thing were a shame." Kent Alcorn bkalcorn@yahoo.com welcomes Our “community” includes the towns of Boulder and Escalante, Utah. #8. antiques & collectibles += ««. ‘ ‘ CUSTOM FABRICATION DRY BOXES BOAT PROP REPAIR RAFT FRAMES |
