Colorado’s millions
Dear Editors,
Wherever you have people you have rules: the more people, the more rules. This is an undeniable reality. I was born in Colorado in 1959 when the state population was less than 1.5 million and there were few rules relative to today. Our state is fast approaching 6 million residents, with no end in sight. California recently surpassed 37 million souls. At the end of WWII, California’s population was what Colorado’s is today. Montanans bemoan passing the million-person mark this year.
 
With all these good folks filling up the inhabitable parts of the American West, it makes sense that there would be a few more rules and regulations around. I dislike it, it grates against my Western heritage, but I’ve come to accept it as a good and necessary thing, if my grandchildren are to see and experience any of what was still abundant when I came into this world. Our Ute neighbors would likely tell you there were already a few too many restrictions in 1959.
 
Which brings me to the La Plata County Comp Plan. Call it a UN conspiracy to take over the world and La Plata County, but it is a well-crafted document written by and for the citizens and future citizens of La Plata County. Of course, I would prefer that we wouldn’t need a comp plan at all, but with unrelenting population pressures, good planning is necessary if we are to maintain any semblance of our current way of life.
 
We all know what laissez faire development looks like (Farmington), which is where we are headed without an intelligent county comp plan.
 
Smart growth and sustainability are not dirty words, but necessary principles.
 
My friends on the political right point out, and often correctly, that less is more when it comes to government. But we all had best take a hard look at our county government as we are going to need a good one. The U.S. population could hit 1 billion by 2100. It seems like a little planning may be in order.
– Erich Bussian, Durango

Sportsmen supporting wilderness
Dear Editors,
The San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act was recently re-introduced by Sen. Mark Udall, and would protect about 61,000 acres, including an 8,614-acre wilderness area around McKenna Peak (7,933 ft). This area provides important winter range for deer and elk, which draws many hunters every year. More than 30,000 recreation user days are recorded annually during hunting season in this game management unit.
 
U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton has been meeting with Coloradans concerning the bill. As one Ouray meeting attendee noted: “Not a single mile of motorized road or trail will be closed. This proposal doesn’t close any mines or any mining claims.” The commissioners of San Miguel, San Juan and Ouray counties added: “Legal mountain bike and motorized trails will be left unchanged and by law, patented mining claims will retain their property and mining rights.”
 
That said, a Western Slope 4-Wheelers official opposed the bill because it prevents the development of new OHV trails. Today, only 8 percent of the National Forest acreage in Colorado lies beyond one mile of a road (only 4 percent for BLM lands), and there are enough Forest Service roads in the state to go from the Kansas border to Utah and back, 17 times!
 
As Udall said: “Hikers, outfitters, hunters, anglers and others … will continue to be drawn to the area, sparking more hospitality and recreation-related business. Despite the down economy, outdoor recreation is a strong and growing sector of the economy.”
 
Currently, a mere 5 percent of Colorado is designated as wilderness, the gold standard for wildlife habitat and hunting grounds, and Colorado big game hunter Bill Sustrich hit the nail on the head when he said, “The fact is, nothing yet created by mankind can offer the degree of wildlife refuge as that provided by wilderness designation.”
– David Lien, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Know before you vote
Dear Editors,
Tuesday, Nov. 1, is Election Day for members of the Board of Education for the Bayfield, Durango and Ignacio school districts. The ballot will also include one statewide issue and four different local issues. Your ballot will vary depending on where you live.
 
The League of Women Voters of La Plata County (LWVLPC) is conducting forums in October. Ignacio School District has three candidates running for three positions so no candidate forum will be held.
 
Wed., Oct. 19, a candidate forum for the Bayfield School Board (10 JT-R) will be held from 6-8 p.m. at the Bayfield Town Hall, 1199 U.S. Hwy 106B, Bayfield.
 
Thur., Oct. 20, a candidate forum for the Durango School Board (9-R) will be held from 6-8 p.m. at Durango City Hall Chambers, 949 East 2nd Ave., Durango.
 
This election is mail ballot only. Ballots will be mailed to active, registered La Plata County residents beginning Tues., Oct. 11 and must be returned by 7 p.m. Tues., Nov. 1. You may check your registration status at the Colorado Secretary of State’s website, www.govotecolorado.com or by contacting the County Clerk and Recorder’s Office at 970-382-6296.
 
Or visit our website, www.lwvlaplata.org , for registration links, ballot issue pros and cons and a multitude of other important information.The League of Women Voters is nonpartisan and neither endorses nor opposes candidates or political parties. Please get informed and VOTE!
– Stephanie Huss, League of Women Voters of La Plata County

In the crosshairs

To the Editors,
Hey! It’s hunting season, and just in case you got “skunked” last season, how about trying some of these nifty products ...
Folding shooting bench, high power scopes, night vision binoculars, camo blinds, doe urine with estrus secretions, LED blood trackers, stealth/game trail scouting video cameras, liquid deer attractant for plants, automatic deer food feeders, pistol/rifle action crossbows with scopes, tree stands/seats with ladder, hearing enhancers, digital rangefinders, and a 40 round magazine!
 
Now if you can’t get Bambi with all this stuff, well, how about just watching! Best of luck hunters and be safe out there!
– Tim Thomas, Durango

Blowing smoke
Greetings,
Don’t listen to propaganda. Marijuana is propaganda. Names have power, the correct name that is. Knowing beings’ true name gives one the power to truly know it. So if people are intent on bickering about one of the easiest things to agree upon, can you at least call it what it is? This divine plant is given by JAH to all beings, for healing, for food, for meditation, for clothing, for shelter… for more benefits that most “civil-lies’d” humans could comprehend.
 
Since long ago, this gift has been known to humans as cannabis. But instead of respecting this powerful being and calling it by its true name, this culture perpetuates an ignorance of its true nature, demonizes it with lies, and persecutes those who rightly hold it to be sacred. The term “marijuana” was popularized in the 1930s by the openly racist Harry J. Anslinger, first U.S. drug czar, with the purpose of negatively associating the plant with “Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers.” His campaign of lies and fear-mongering succeeded in the passage of the4 4Marijuana Tax Act of 1937; which, coincidentally, eliminated industrial hemp as a competitor for petrochemical interests like Dupont and Dow, and pulp/paper interests like William Randolph Hearst. Thank god for that, right?
 
Aren’t you glad we make plastics out of oil and paper out of trees? That’s really turning out great for the ecosystems that support all life on earth, even humans (except forburgerking™, and synthetic petrol-based pharmaceutical drugs). Anslinger used to say, “Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum,” but I’d say that trying to understand and work within the “medical marijuana system” [sic] in this culture is an even shorter cut. The hypocrisy and double standards applied to cannabis and its allies are despicable.
 
While Cargill sells tons of tainted meat, killing and sickening innocent people, medical cannabis is the most regulated industry in the state. While people die from e. coli from factory farms, medical cannabis is the most regulated industry in the state. While an 18-year-old kid can go into any grocery store or gas station and buy cartons of cigarettes, almost 500,000 people die every year from smoking cigarettes. Any moron who managed to stay alive somehow for 21 years can stop in almost anywhere for an alcoholic drink, can stop in at any restaurant or bar for as much booze as the bartender will sell them (tips per drinks served). Meanwhile, alcohol kills around 100,000 people every year.
 
Forty-five percent of all deaths in automobile accidents are attributed to alcohol. Sixty percent of all homicides are attributed to alcohol, and they sell it on every corner. Alcohol is a toxic, depressant, killer, so Coors Light sponsors the Super Bowl and the White House; while I and I must prove we are dying or living with “chronic debilitating pain” just to be “allowed” by THE STATE™ to ingest a plant in the shadows of our basement, “never in view of a public place.” And don’t forget, we must pay hundreds of dollars to doctors and the state for this “privilege.”
 
While fracking is shattering the very crust of the earth and poisoning water supplies, we turn our heads and cough. While BP’s wells cover the mesas, poisoning the air of our schools and homes, the righteous are made to bend over, just so they may grow a peaceful plant in peace (quasi-peace, for the state has not even the courage to defend you from the corporation federal). A plant that purifies the air while growing and also pulls toxins out of the soil from which it grows. A plant that kills cancer cells. A PLANT THAT KILLS CANCER IS A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE?!? Their self appointed control is only illusory. Do not buy into this reality tunnel friends, for it only leads to darkness. Reap the good fruits of choice and see the light of our rights as human beings, all equal under the sun. Those foolish enough to still fight against the herb are fighting the rising sun. For sure as water flows, herb shall be the healer of man, the teacher. So, see what them do in the eyes of JAH, and live upful, not hiding our divinity. Lift up your heads and proudly blow smoke in the eyes of those who cannot see, for their sight will be healed, and we shall walk together again, toward a better tomorrow.
– Blessings, Jesse Lee Hickman, Durango

Boiling point
Dear Editors,
The last time I wrote to The Telegraph, I finished with the sentence “Just how bad do things have to get here before millions of Americans retake our government like the brave people in the Mid East?” Well, I’ve been too disgusted and frustrated to write again until now. It seems we may have finally reached the boiling point with the Occupy Wall Street protests springing up all over the country and the world.
 
If the only exposure you’ve had to this new movement is from some of the mainstream media, you’d think these people were just “latte sipping,” unemployed, lazy anarchist-commies who hate America. The 24-hour news outlets (exception MSNBC) routinely show the drum circle, costume-wearing side of the movement, which is intended to mock and discredit their legitimacy. There’s been no violence, other than that committed by the police upon the unarmed protesters. They’ve been well behaved, organized and very clear about why they, as individuals, are there protesting.
 
The people expressing their rage at the status quo and the corpocracy disguised as capitalism, are people just like us – parents, teachers, students, all ages, all colors, regular people without lobbyists, fighting for the elusive American Dream. This is NOT the Tea Party for the Left. There are no billionaire Koch Brothers bankrolling this movement. The unions, and environmental and other humanitarian groups joining the movement are a welcome ally.
 
If you’re one of the vast majority of Americans who see Congress as a complete failure and corrupt, you really should pay attention to these 99 percent-ers. At the websites occupywallst.org and wearethe99percent.tumblr.com, I’ve found an unofficial list of demands. Here’s a few of the most common: restoration of the living wage; end both the wars; institute a universal single payer health-care system – all private insurers must be banned from the health-care market; free college education; begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same time bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand; end tax breaks for the rich and corporate loopholes; $1 trillion in infrastructure (water, sewer, rail, roads, bridges and electrical grid) spending now; racial and gender equal rights; publicly financed elections and the elimination of paid lobbying; bring back the Glass-Steagall act (i.e., breaking up the banks); and detach corporate money and its influence from the political system (repeal Citizens United).
 
They are the 1 percent. They are the banks, the mortgage industry, the insurance industry, the credit industry. They are the important ones. They screw up and get bailed out and are praised as job creators. We need help and get nothing and are called entitled. We live in a society made for them, not for us. It’s their world, not ours. If we’re lucky, they’ll let us work in it so long as we don’t question the extent of their charity.
 
We are the 99 percent. We are everyone else. And we will no longer be silent. This is our fight and the time is now.
– Thanks, Bill Vana, Durango