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ALMOST KUDOS FOR LOCH WADE Dear Editor, Right when I was going to give kudos to Loch Wade for "What I learned from Fighting the Nature Conservancy" (June/July), for his stand against the prostitutes of the environmental goodness from corporate profiteers, he too falls on his righteous sword of mediocrity by claiming "a little bit less" is more satisfying than "a little bit more." When it came to protecting and preserving our environment, warm fuzzy feelings and tax write-offs that EnergySolutions gets by giving to The Nature Conservancy does not even cut "a little bit less" or "a little more." In reality, receiving gratitude from the devil does not make an angel. I should know; I was one of the ones on the receiving end of Envirocare’s wrath (the company that morphed into EnergySolutions). I was one of the very few that stood up to them and protected my First Amendment rights to challenge governmental officials, regulators, and corporate profiteers of environmental rapists like EnergySolutions. If EnergySolutions really wanted to make an environmental difference they would work to shut down the nuclear industrial machine and work on getting sustainable energy, and not just warm fuzzes and tax write-offs.
Salt Lake City, Utah
SOME THOUGHTS ON ‘BRAVE NEW WEST’ Hi Jim, I don’t know whether you remember me -- I guess it really doesn’t matter -- but I was one of the over-40 crowd that gathered to hear you discuss "Brave New West" a couple of months ago at Mesa State College in Grand Junction. I just finished reading the book and wanted to send you a note of congratulations on a job well done. Your eloquent eulogy to the Moab of the past was touching; your words capture precisely my feelings about what has happened to so many of my old stomping grounds in western Colorado. Grand Junction, Montrose, Ouray -- they’ve all fallen victim to "development," as opposed to "progress." Likewise, your words of warning about the consequences of the New West are dead-on correct. Drive up I-70 through Vail and the rest of Eagle County, then tell me the heavy-metal pollution from the old Eagle Mine is worse than that goddamn conglomeration of modern-day condos, hotels, trophy homes, ski lifts, and parking lots. Given a choice between today’s Vail and the Eagle Valley of yore, I’d take the pre-resortic times any day. Unfortunately, I don’t have a realistic solution to the problems of the New West. Try to argue in favor of preservation for preservation’s sake with almost anyone in any of these towns, and they’ll look at you like you’re nuts. It seems like everything these days is subjected to a cost-benefit analysis in cold, hard dollars, and may the more profitable use win. That usually means development. The West’s rapidly increasing population and the increasing personal wealth of Americans (although it is largely debt-driven) mean the pressure for additional development and more amenities will continue. I doubt it will let up until the last Baby Boomers are dead and buried, and maybe not even then. Someday, though, the pendulum might swing back around. Perhaps my kids -- or maybe my grandkids -- will have the pleasure of kicking through the ghostly, abandoned ruins of John Hendricks’ Gateway Canyons development, the way we rummaged through old San Juan ghost towns of the mining era when I was a youth. Hmmm. Envisioning ghost towns of the future. That might make an interesting article for the Zephyr. At any rate, congratulations again on your book. It deserves to be read far and wide across The West.
Bob Kretschman Grand Junction, CO
RUMINATIONS ON THE CHANGING WEST Mr Jim Stiles, I too am a fan of Mr Abbey’s writing, and admit I’m envious of the life he wrote about and the places he had seen. My wife is a freelance writer and discovered Desert Solitare long before we met and while at a bookstore suggested I buy and read it. Afterword I read through everything he had written and when I ran out of material I eigerly sought to find something or someone else that wrote the way he did,or at least would have the same effect. Along the way I realized that his unique style could never be duplicated, only imitated. The mistake, or tell, of the imitator seems to be the lack of sincerity and genuine experience, usually found in the first paragraph. In most cases I simply don’t believe them. I would also claim they lack conviction for the words they write as well but what do they care what I think. I recently acquired your latest work through the local college library and used the cash intended for your pocket, for gas instead. I did however order a few copies through the website of the local county library so it will even out in the end. They lack imagination at the local library, though they do welcome it, so no doubt it will be available here soon. I however lack patience and found another route being Wright State University in Dayton. I’m a fan of others details and therefore a slow reader and I’m easily distracted so I found the navigating of your book quite convenient. I started in the front, moved to the back, then jumped to the middle. I did find myself feeling claustrophobic in "Return to Moab, 2040 A.D." though that’s a good thing. I had been through Moab a couple years ago. Had breakfast at the "Moab Diner", stayed at a BLM camping site on the River outside of town. The next day we had to go through Arches of course and it was just like I heard it would be, busy. We were driving the paved road toward the direction of the campground and some guys we had seen at the filling station in town, doing push-ups in the parking lot earlier that morning, were now hanging out the open sliding door of one of those rental passenger vans from Illinois screaming at who knows what, the majesty of the landscape perhaps. Sometimes I find I’m the rarity in desiring human silence in my solitude. I can’t imagine the "transformation" you and others have witnessed. My wife and I had moved to Boulder ,CO. some years ago when it was taking it’s last gasp of innocent breath. We left soon after the Daily Camera ran a story of the rich folks living in the Flatirons and foothills asking if "something could be done about all the deer" disturbing their million dollar digs. Same story different towns. Every time I see some carpenter or the like working on a Saturday or Sunday I tell my wife, now they are gonna have to work every Saturday and Sunday to maintain the pace. Thats where places like Moab are. No doubt businesses that used to be closed on Sunday are now open on Sunday. And likewise the 24/7 has arrived as well. Can the working class of Moab even afford to live in Moab, let alone find the money or time to go on vacation? In their own town? I suppose the point of all this is that your writing, whether in this book or in the Zephyr (I read online) is relatable or approachable(?). I’m not sure if it’s the subject or the style or both perhaps but it’s nice to hear that voice in the desert. A voice of reason and conviction that seems not to be based on a more efficient or effective way to continue destroying all that is sacred. Your nihilistic approach in "Something Entirely Different" reads like a good plan. In that old tug of war over the west both sides have become far too predictable and familiar with each other. All sides have made it their duty to know their opposition as well as themselves. The winner may just be the side that lets go of the rope so the others fall down of their own momentum. Anyway Congratulations and thanks, Timothy Fritz Toledo,OH
FORMER SUWA VOLUNTEER OFFERS SPEAKS UP Hell-O Your HCN profile brought back a lot of memories. I was an office volunteer for SUWA in the late 80s and early 90s, when they were in Cedar City. It was the era of Brant Calkin, the originator of SUWA’s "national strategy". Supposedly they kept this office to maintain a presence in the area. We went round and round about who to reach out to. I’m a native Utahn, and hobnobbed enough with the locals that I could see most were still on the fence about the wilderness debate. There were some rotten apples like Met Johnson poisoning their minds, but a few of us were at least trying to counter their spewings with letters to the editor, etc. Johnson refused to spar any more with me when he found out I’m female. SUWA didn’t want any part of the debate, choosing to lay so low that no one could see them. Once they sent some young dudes door to door, soliciting members, but they weren’t from Utah or familiar with the culture. During the 20 year Earth Day anniversary, I organized a series of seven articles in the Southern Utah Spectrum. The only person who pooped out on his article was Brant Calkin. (Kris Dangerfield, the office manager, came through with an article on Dixie National Forest, but the Spectrum chose to censor that one). Part of my volunteer duty was to enter new members in the database. SUWA started huge direct mailings using enviro group lists, and thousands of members poured in from around the country. Could it be that the newsletters these people got created a whole new generation of tourists? I wasn’t surprised when SUWA moved to Salt Lake. It hardly matters where they are. By the mid-90s, the battle for the hearts and minds of southwestern Utah was lost. I got run out of town for my sins, which included running a humane society for 10 years and preaching kindness to animals to school kids. I admire you, Jim, for not burning out like I did.
Cedar City, Utah
THOUGHTS ON WAR & GLOBAL WARMING Hi Jim, I don’t read your paper anywhere nearly as often as the degree I appreciate it would warrant. The part I love most is your cartooning skill. Then, when I do pick up a copy at Sportsman’s Warehouse (Grand Junction), I usually read "Take It Or Leave It" and I especially liked "War . . . What’s It Good For?" With me, it was a dislocated knee which resulted in a 1-Y, which was eventually lost or forgotten about. At any rate, I was spared carnage, which was good. I came by my anti-government education in a slower and longer lasting way. At the end of the day, after all the sound bytes and talking points have been exhausted, such as Jesus, JRR Tolkien, Proudon, Goldman, and a host of others are correct: "government" has no solutions to any human problem, except possibly directing street/highway traffic at intersections. There is no such real thing as "government" anyway. "Government" are merely the dominant members (aka "leaders", "office holders") of the suicidally stupid deception-based human pecking order struggle. "Normal" (aka intellectually and emotionally healthy) individuals want no part of it. They just want to live their lifes with as much contentment as possible. The One Ring of coercion-based political Power is, in and of itself, inherently evil and inevitably corrupting, and can only inevitably result in a bigger and more pervasive problem, albeit possibly more subtle, than the problem originally sought to be solved. Spiritual/moral/ethical and intellectual enlightenment will occur one individual at a time. The universe is a cause-and-effect place, and that’s just "how things are" (aka "how life is"). Too many people act as though they believe the universe is not a cause-and-effect place where Nature has set up a system of rules which do not depend on human opinion for their existence, gravitational force, or effect. E.g. Gravity, Charles Law, Boyle’s Law, the Law of Conservation of energy, E = mc2, a2 + b2 = c2 in a right triangle, etc, etc. Nature’s first rule of economics is: a) whatever you tax (e.g. honesty, ingenuity, industriousness, generosity, etc) you WILL get less of, and b) whatever you subsidize (e.g. dishonesty, apathy, laziness, greed, unwed motherhood, joblessness, etc) you WILL get more of. Regarding global warming, I thought CO2 was supposed to be nourishing to plant life. So is there a problem if plants thrive and humans decline? I can’t see it. We have not figured out how to function successfully and individuals or voluntarily control our population anyway (as fate would have it, I am not a biological parent, so I cannot be accused of hypocrisy on the point). While it is not possible for "government" to be part of any meaningful solutions to such problems, somehow I can’t seem to shake the lingering suspicion that the Earth’s ecosystem can’t thrive (or maybe even survive) with humans as the only life form. I’m not alone (not that that’s relevant to Truth) in believing that we need the other species of flora and fauna as well. Unfortunately, humans keep diminishing the habitats of most other species. That’s NOT a viable long-term behavior pattern. So maybe war and disease have their place in Nature’s self-righting, self-cleaning and self-healing system: diminish human population. If we seem to insist on not doing better, perhaps Nature will give us a hand. At least one can hope so. Of course "government" and all wannabe-clever politicians, by definition deceivers —— ("politics" = person or group A trying to persuade person or group B to obey the will of A, therefore the so-called "art" of politics = deception) —— will mock and demonize any individual who holds, or attempts to seriously discuss, such heretical ideas. At the end of the day, the problem is cultural, and you can’t change people minds with laws, especially "hate speech" laws which attempt to control speech. As Lenny Bruce said, "If you can’t say ‘@#!!*’, you can’t say ‘@#!!* the government’, ‘@#!!* slavery’ ‘@#!!* tyranny’, "@#!!* evil, or ‘@#!!* war’" Somewhere I heard it said that men’s hearts much change before societies and cultures can change. So many individuals are so utterly clueless that the hugeness of the task is all but incomprehensible. Despite that fact, we have no reasonable option but to soldier on anyway. Life is far too short to simply throw up our hands and quit. So keep up the good work. John Wilkenson Grand Junction, CO
MORE ON ‘BRAVE NEW WEST’ Jim, Thanks to the Mountain Gazette’s review of your book "Brave New West" I heard about you, read your book and found your Zephyr website. My wife and I are transplants from the east to Denver. What a world away from the eastern US of A. Unlike your travels through a cold and snowy Moab, that sold you on the town, my westward yearning came from National Geographic, my father’s musing thoughts of moving west (we never moved) when he lost his factory job, and Sky King and Fury. Denver is not the big town or small city it was thirty years ago. And still the city changes, the perpetual motion machine of progress and wealth grabbing schemes has an endless appetite. I am not an innocent in this plight of constant upheaval. I have worked in the building industry for thirty years. A conflicting occupation of love for the work and the dubious contributions of that work to the machine that devours Denver and the North to South I-25 corridor with more speed and a constantly growing hunger for more. Ahh... what to do? I read your book from interest in the conflicts of growth in the west and it was a fine read. I doubt there will be a resolution for the growth conflict in the west. But you do offer a space in the argument for those of us residing in part, on both sides of the debate. That, Mr. Stiles, was worth every minute spent reading your book.
THE REVIEW OF THE HCN REVIEW OF ‘BNW’ Dear Stiles, High Country News never printed my letter so I thought I’d send it to you. If YOU won’t print it, who will? In his review of Moabite Jim Stiles’s book, Brave New West, Brian Kevin said that Stiles, "too often spirals into simple us-versus-them pigeonholing" (HCN 4/16/07). Shades of the criticism Edward Abbey got for taking bold stands? Yes. Kevin adds that Stiles, "doesn’t acknowledge that some among those Lycra-clad masses [mountain bikers] might be better comrades than he’’s given them credit for." But Stiles recognizes that some are solid environmentalists and besides, their "comradeship" isn’t the point. Reverence for the land is the point. As Stiles said, "All land is sacred...People come here [to Moab] to play but this is not a playground." Put another way, our wild lands are magnificent cathedrals, like Chartres. Would you ride a mountain bike down the nave of such a cathedral? The amenities industry is about entertainment, not reverence, and that’’s the problem. Kevin also said, "The cumulative impression is of a man angry not that Moab is no longer, but that Moab is no longer his." Any Jungian (yes, I am one) can see that Jim Stiles didn’’t go through the ordeal of writing this book merely because of his personal grief. What’’s driving Stiles is spiritual energy - whether conscious or unconscious - just as it drove Edward Abbey before him. Over the years both have taken repeated political risks to defend the sacredness of wild land; unselfish behavior like this is often misunderstood, unfortunately. Scott Thompson Beckley, WV
WELCOME TO ‘ADVENTURE WRENCHING’ Hey Stiles, I just read your piece on adventure tourism and had to touch base. Ya I used to be an adventure prostitute charging ‘Bennies’ to bring people climbing and skiing, but I became adventure-monogamous years ago. An old friend used to call it "hiking for dollars" which always stuck with me. Anyhow I want to advise you of another great adventure sport that I practice regularly in the four corners area, and suspect will be yet another boom in adventure recreation. I call it adventure wrenching and if golf is a sport this certainly is too! Now I’m not talking about monkey wrenching, this is quite different. You see I drive a twenty year old VW camper (my third VW van), and I’m one of those guys who can’t understand why anyone in their right mind would ever drive anything else. I guess I too am apparently out of touch with the American mainstream. Today’s cars are built like televisions instead of mobile homes; why spend so much money on something that is worthless in 10 years instead of 65? I just don’t get it; and yes I DO drive 55mph, and budget my time to enjoy every long minute of it! We spend absurd amounts of greenbacks on these machines that bring us places in one day that would take 10 by bike, 20 by foot. We work 40 hour weeks with two days off; why spend precious time off to wrench at home when we can enjoy Ma Nature all at the same time? Adventure wrenching is all about man, machine, and nature where you take your vehicle and tools into wild unexplored places and attempt to overcome mechanical feats in a purely natural state. I’ll tell you it’s a much bigger high than a day on the green. I’m hoping to finish my (first edition) guide to Desert Adventure Wrenching very soon! I just learned of Tom Arnold’s passing. I was looking for VW parts a few years back and met Tom at his infamous VW museum in Moab. He was kind enough to give me a tour of the place, meet the cats, and share some great stories. Turns out he was a Navy Pilot and when I told him my Dad was a Marine Pilot he shared an absolutely classic pilot story which I enjoyably shared with my distant father. I only met Tom that one day, but his kindness and generosity will always stay with me; a great man and who will be missed forever by all of us adventure wrenchers.
Tom Vasconcellos
THE LAST ‘ELECTED’ PRESIDENT Dear Jim, In the June/July 07 Zephyr, Cyndy Hodo remarked, "In 1992 a well-known psychic predicted that Bill Clinton would be ‘the last elected president of the United States.’" If we define "elected" as "elected in an election in which all qualified electors were able to access the polls, and all votes cast were fairly and equally counted," then I submit that the psychic was entirely correct to date. Stay tuned for 2008.
Moab, UT
ADMONITIONS FROM A FLORIDA REALTOR NOTE: This letter was addressed to Red Rock Forests and to The Zephyr. Shame on the would be shepards (sic) of Moab’s ecology. You can’t even protect your own backyard. You allow the city to approve building permits for commercial development right in the Riparian area and clear cut every tree to the ground. Yes, Terry at Red Rock Forests, I’m talking about one block from your headquarters on Williams Way, namely the Moab Medical complex. There were about five heavily wooded acres of beautiful willows and other trees, many probably thirty years old. In the course of three days every living tree and plant is gone, ground up in a few nauseating bulldozer crunches. Most communities have ordinances and building permiting regulations that require a percentage of exisiting tree to be left, if for no other reason, esthetics. With the need to retain moisture and reduce heat, that should be even more critical here. Maybe Jim Stiles, you at the Zephyr, instead of worrying about what’s going wrong with global warming, you should open your eyes to what’s wrong with your own community.
(A Floridian who’s seen real growth regulation)
And I am utterly mystified by Mr. Lock’s: "Florida...who’s seen real growth regulation?" He’s joking, right? Only a real estate agent could utter something so silly. Finally, Red Rock Forests deals with land abuse issues in U.S. National Forests. I hope the next time ol’ Dale shoots from his tragically misinformed lip, he tries getting his facts right...JS
BANNED AT BYU! Editor, I would like to formally request the removal of our address from Zephyr circulation. I am emailing on behalf of the Deans Office of the College of Fine Arts and Communications here at BYU. I would appreciate a reply by email once our address has been removed. Thank you!
David Mortensen Deans Office/BYU Provo, Utah
SOME THOUGHTS ON CHRISTIANITY AND NON-VIOLENCE Dear Jim, Until April 21 I lived in Grand Junction. We have since moved to Florissant, near Woodland Park. The last week we lived in GJ I picked up a copy of the Zephyr. I had seen it before but had read a few pieces in it only one other time. I picked this one up because of the front page with the focus being on war and when will we ever learn. It is a truly great issue, and I’ve greatly appreciated everything I’ve read in it so far--moving has occupied most of my time lately, so I still haven’t read it all as yet. I especially liked Wendell Berry’s speech, and your piece on Jesus meeting Bush. On that, let me just share with you a different understanding of the turn-the-other-cheek aspect. A great biblical scholar and peace advocate, Walter Wink, discovered something very special about the context of that passage. At the time of Jesus people in positions of authority had the right to hit someone of lesser position on the cheek if they thought the person was not respecting their higher authority. They could do this only with the back of the right hand, so it had to be to the right side of the other person’s face, and it had to be with an open hand--so it meant it was basically to be a light hit, not a forceful attempt to do violence or harm. It was meant only to reestablish the proper authority role of the superior positioned person. When Jesus says if someone hits you on the right cheek, turn to them the left as well, it was a very specific advocating of a non-violent, yet assertive response to anyone who was misusing or abusing their authority, to show them that even their hitting you to reassert their authority was not being accepted or acknowledged. It was a way for people without authority to stand up to and resist authority that had no good reason to be accepted, if and when they were not using their authority in a respectful or caring or helpful manner to you or someone else. It was never meant as a non-violent, passive, just let yourself be beat up response, but as a specific way to resist evil in a non-violent, yet assertive way, to the specific situation of that day and culture. While I think your approach of having Jesus telling Bush that the world could have been changed if the soldiers had just laid down their weapons in WWII is fascinating, I’m not sure Jesus would have really wanted to say it is OK for anyone to be killed on his behalf just so they can have a place with him. I think he would have wanted no one killed on either side, and would have wanted better actions done by the allies after WWI so that Germany would not have been punished and limited so harshly that the conditions were set that made the rise of Hitler possible. In fact, one of the clear realities of Jesus in the Gospels is that he never once advocated anyone killing or being killed on his or God’s behalf, nor did he ever advocate the raising of any army for any purpose--so yes, he was a pacifist, but one who still believed in assertive non-violence. I still liked your challenge to Bush and Cheney, though. I am a retired United Methodist pastor who comes at faith, religion, spirituality, and theology a good bit different than most you might have known. I did note that you had a reference to a United Methodist agency--General Board of Global Ministries--in your piece on Jesus and Bush. Bush claims to be UM but he is about as true to that tradition as Hitler would have been, and you were very right and appropriate to state that he was misrepresenting Jesus with this stupid, idiotic, worthless, pathetic war he has forced on us and the world. Thanks for your writing, and the paper.
Florissant, CO
THAT FLEXIBLE CARBON FOOTPRINT Hi Jim I enjoyed reading your article ‘Take It or Leave It’. I had to smile with the opening comment about wondering what you’d stepped in with the carbon footprint. Having just submitted to a few carbon calculators myself, I wonder why my year of nasty carbon emissions would cost me $14 at one site and $74 on another. I’m sure my lifestyle didn’t change in the 10 minutes it took to complete them each. I guess this is what you mean when you complain that the current solutions to the global warming seem to be more entrepreneurial driven than a genuine need to fix the solution. Yet, I still believe there are more of us that are saying ‘YES’...the world is waking up to the reality of global warming...so I’ll still try and do my bit.
Tracy Andrews Perth, Western Australia
BEING ‘FIRST’ NOTE: This message arrived as a press release. Greeting. I will be the first to ride a bike from Antelope Island to the Great Salt Lake Marina Wednesday. I will leave Antelope Island and I should be arriving to the Great Salt Lake Marina around 5 P.M. Wednesday the 17th of July. I will also be the first person to take the Hydrobike from Moab, Utah and ride it down the Colorado River to the Confluence of the Green River. This wil be an overnight expidition (sic). I will provide free lodging to any reporter interested in documentating this expidition (sic) or to make a report at the end of the trip. If you wish to contact me, you may do so on my cell phone. I will also have this with me on the lake in case you wish to check in while I am riding across the lake. Hope to see you there!
Nelson Moyle
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