(From the August/September Zephyr) A REPLY TO DARCEY BROWN…and the Insularity of the Erudite (part 1)…by Jim Stiles

Excerpt:

Last year, I became aware of a new (at least to me) environmental/progressive activist in Moab named Darcey Brown. She’s become a voice for “New Moab” and has been a frequent contributor to the Letters section of the Moab weekly, the Times-Independent; I read, with curiosity, her inflammatory public comments.  And when a few Moabites told me she’d come from a prominent family in my favorite New West town Aspen, Colorado, I decided to respond to some of her remarks via a short essay in The Zephyr.

LINK:  http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2015/06/01/take-it-or-leave-it-on-the-facts-darcey-brown-moab-then-now-by-jim-stiles/

I didn’t get angry or call her names. In fact, I even suggested that she probably “meant well.” But I took issue with Brown’s claim that grassroots environmental groups lived in semi-poverty and offered some hard financial numbers (via the IRS)  for the likes of  SUWA and the Grand Canyon Trust. I also noted that, coming from a very powerful and wealthy Colorado family–her father played an influential role in the Aspen ski industry— it might be difficult to relate to the issues and concerns of working class people in Grand County. And I noted that she manages a non-profit foundation herself, with assets of almost $5 million.

In response, Ms. Brown went through the roof…

To read more of Jim’s article, click the image below:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2015/08/02/a-reply-to-darcey-brown-and-the-insularity-of-the-erudite-part-1-by-jim-stiles/