Size doesn't matter

(Editors' note: The following letter is the latest in a series of anonymous writings on sex in Durango. The letter is a response to "Sex in a Really Small Town," a letter about the physical scene in Silverton.)

Dear Anonymous,

I read your comments about dating in a small town while on vacation in Durango. I live in a metro area of 150,000 but size doesn't matter in finding a mate. It is the quality of the person that matters. If you want to attract a quality guy, you have to be a quality woman. Sitting in a bar and competing with your girlfriends for some guy so you can have casual sex is not the way to find a guy. Well, unless you want to attract guys who will leave you to have casual sex with all the other loose girls in town.

Your whole letter is all about looks. There is nothing about substance or compatibility. You have to have some substance and similar interests for real love to last. Contemporary movies, magazines and TV promote casual sex. "It's All Good," but show me a relationship in which it worked outside of Hollywood. Don't let Hollywood ruin your life.

Guys think of sex every 10 seconds. We are programmed naturally to be ready to procreate at the drop of the hat. It's the way we are. A "real" man thinks about sex every 10 seconds like any other guy. A "real" man also likes looking at loose girls whether they are on TV or on the street, but we don't want to marry one.

Demilitarize and environmentalize

At the dawn of the 21st century, human civilization now stands on the brink of its own self-destruction and probable extinction, systematically failing to come to grips with the absolute scale and horror of the ongoing ecological degradation and destruction of the planet's biosphere and how this will affect the future well-being of the human enterprise.The battle to save the planet requires first and foremost the immediate termination of a bloated annual $1 trillion global military budget. Funds instead must be immediately re-directed toward building an environmentally sustainable global economy which will revolutionize every facet of human existence.

The United States of America, a flagrant violator of human rights and international law, assumes direct responsibility for consistently working against the very people, institutions and nations of the world who are at the forefront of implementing desperately needed global change.

Second, the current human population explosion on Earth 6 billion and counting must be brought under control immediately. World population pressure is the prime force behind every level of social and environmental destruction we are witnessing on our planet today: increased hydrocarbon emissions, water scarcity, deforestation, desertification, topsoil loss, ozone depletion, species loss, urban sprawl, ocean pollution, global warming, poverty, disease, pestilence, famine, war etc. To compound the problem, masses of desperate people are given no choice but to consume the very resource bases on which they depend, further eroding the means by which sustainable planetary livelihoods can function properly.

Third, the effort to create an international sustainable society is more like mobilizing and preparing for war against the worldviews, policies, interests and ideologies of corporations, industries and governments alike. Time itself is the scarcest resource there is in the struggle to save the planet. In addition to axing the global military budget and confronting the global population explosion, waking up to the dimensions of the world's environmental crises and creating and implementing the necessary solutions are absolutely paramount.

Starting with the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, to the Rio Summit held in Brazil in 1992, to the upcoming Johannesburg Earth Summit in South Africa, all efforts must be made immediately to establish and institutionalize decentralized energy independence through free energy sources (solar, wind, fuel-cell, anti-gravity, etc). We must enact sustainable, organic, vegetarian values and agricultural practices; develop alternative, independent, nonpolluting transportation modes; enforce sustainable water and soil use practices; mandate finite resource recycling; proliferate global information exchange largely through the expansion of the Internet; and institutionalize, as well as legitimize, "green businesses" throughout the world who are creating sustainable alternatives and solutions to the highly exploitative, largely failing, unsustainable and environmentally damaging world economic system that we now have.

On these three pillars, global demilitarization, global population control and the building of an environmentally sustainable global economy, can the planet be saved. Mankind must begin to move away from just responding to global disasters, and instead move toward shaping and building an ecologically healthy and sustainable, as well as survivable, advanced world civilization for the 21st century. The environment, on which we all depend, will move to the center of all social, economic and political decision making, where it belongs.

From this Earth Base, the human enterprise, with proper vision, management, courage, care, compassion, justice and intelligence can move victoriously through the most tumultuous crisis in its entire history and evolve into the thriving family of advanced civilizations throughout the cosmos...

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Vote for change

Have you ever gone to the polls in November and wondered why you have such poor choices for candidates? It's probably because you missed that year's Primary Election, the election in August that decides which candidates are going to represent each of the two major parties on the ballot in November. Some years, there's little to decide the U.S. Senate seats change only once every six years, the U.S. House seats far more often (but there are usually powerful incumbents in place). There are often local positions on which to vote, but many people aren't dialed in to local politics.

This year, all these races are wide open. A lot of decisions will be made on Aug. 10. The Primary is your most basic democratic right. If you like what's going on in politics these days, then exercise your right: vote on Aug. 10. Further, if you're one of the millions of people who do not like what's going on, then voting on Aug. 10 becomes a democratic responsibility, not just a right. You want change? Vote.

And if you want real change, vote for Mike Miles for U.S. Senate: he's progressive, outspoken and not beholden to corporate interests. He believes in affordable health care, better education for all kids, a clean environment and renewable energy. He believes in you and me and in our democracy. Please support Mike on Aug. 10 give yourself a real option in November.

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