Hamburger in paradise
To the Editors,
Just finished your fine article on Black Sheep and dogs. Right on!
To the Editors,
Just finished your fine article on Black Sheep and dogs. Right on!
I have a similar event. A few weeks ago we took a hike outside Aspen up Capital Creek in the Snowmass Wilderness area. The clouds gradually dispersed leaving a cool and sunny day. The wildflowers were amazing, the creek was bubbling and we were blissed. Blissed until the first dozen cow patties in the trail, blissed until the first pie infested stream crossing.
Next flies strayed from the bovines and buzzed us incessantly. Sometimes while shooing the beasts off the trail we wondered how WE could allow such devastation in our wilderness areas. Side streams were turned into wallowing holes by thousands of hoof prints and poo.
Do we really need Big Macs so desperately that we continue to allow this disgrace? Join those who respect the mountains and become vegetarian! It’s not just for health anymore.
– Om Shanti (Peace), Jim Skvorc, Dolores
Throw the dog a bone
Hey Will,
I just read your op/ed on the sheepdogs and I gotta say I couldn’t disagree more! I say throw some dog bone in your bag and greet the sheep dogs with treats, works every time! We need to support our local ranchers and farmers as much as possible because it’s hard enough these days as it is. Seems like you could have written asking if anyone else had a problem with the dogs and possible solutions. I agree with a lot of what you said in your closing thoughts but to imply that that rancher is getting a free ride is a ridiculous statement. They do it not for the money but for the love of it, to benefit us as much as themselves. I can tell you for a fact that no one in our community farms or ranches for the money these days. It’s for the love of it and the feeling that we are all obligated to do something that not only benefits ourselves but the whole, without food what are we? 4 Without farmers and ranchers there is no food! So think about the value of a healthy agricultural community next time you complain about a little sheep and cow shit on the trail. And think about carrying a few dog bones if you think there are sheep around!
You have a unique opportunity to have your voice heard by many, tearing into a local rancher seems a waste of that voice!
– Ian Chamberlain, via email
A hiker’s helper
To the Editors,
I only hike the high country, don’t have a bicycle to place between me and a dog or something else that wants to maybe bite me…But I do always have a gun…The first shot would go into the ground if something was gonna bite me to try and scare it off, the second shot into the biter….I’ll shoot something before I let it bite me…
– Charles L. McLeod, Durango
Brave hearts
To the Editors,
Anyone who has lived in Durango for any amount of time knows that we are famous for a continual plethora of an “all you can eat/absorb” buffet of wonderful events, fund raisers, concerts, downtown ho-downs, Snowdowns, Follies, Earth Days and sometimes general panoplies of simple belly button gazing insightfulness as to how to make our world, our local community and each other healthier, happier and more abundant.
To the Editors,
Anyone who has lived in Durango for any amount of time knows that we are famous for a continual plethora of an “all you can eat/absorb” buffet of wonderful events, fund raisers, concerts, downtown ho-downs, Snowdowns, Follies, Earth Days and sometimes general panoplies of simple belly button gazing insightfulness as to how to make our world, our local community and each other healthier, happier and more abundant.
This past weekend, a core group of local women, Nanci Moore, Penny Wanger and Sondra Joyce and more than a dozen volunteers, brought internationally acclaimed speaker, visionary and founder of Brave Heart Women Global Community, Dr. Ellie Drake, to our sacred Four Corners to share global, professional and personal inspiration with the women of our area on her transcontinental tour. More than 180 women attended the all-day event with Dr. Drake at Sleeping Beauty Ranch, in the Animas Valley.
Using her medical background, Dr. Drake brings a unique perspective to how women can recognize our actual physical bio-chemical differences from men to be more fulfilled in our lives. She teaches women how to recognize and access the feminine prosperity hormone. Women traditionally respond to stress by depleting their adrenals. Dr. Drake proposes an alternative that is natural to a woman’s body and can create success with ease. Tapping into this hormone creates a different kind of environment, which is collaborative, rather than competitive. So, instead of women trying to fit themselves into the male model for business success, Dr. Drake offers the opportunity for women to trust and develop their own natural bio-chemical qualities of creative collaboration.
This day was more than just another motivational seminar for women. Dr. Drake’s deep understanding of the keys to success, combined with her heartfelt compassion, elicited a genuine reaction in everyone who heard her. It was a spark that ignited us all to remember that we have something special to contribute personally, professionally and globally. Mother Nature provided a perfect climax, culminating in huge, crashing thunder and bolts of lightning. Rather than dampening our spirits, women of all ages danced in the pouring rain. What a magnificent ending to a day of empowerment and inspiration, leaving us with the promise that “Yes, It is all Possible!”
You are invited to be one of 111 women attending Dr. Ellie Drake’s annual four day “RISE’” event in Los Angeles happening over 11-11-11. Join us to experience what it is to be a “Brave Heart Woman” and learn to be “Inspiration in Action!” We are offering Four Corners women special transportation from Durango and discounted RISE prices available only until Sept. 7.
For more information, please contact Nanci Moore 970-259-0375. Sondra Joyce 970-884-0448 or Penny Wanger 970-259-4848.
– Susan Urban, Durango
Bending the SOP over a barrel
To the Editors,
SOP for American politicians and news media is to be bent over a barrel on Wall Street.
This is the truth; it is hidden; it is how we got to the present crisis. The system severely fools the people. Our track record is serial herd behavior: “Real Homes, Real Dow” at http://homepage.mac.com/ttsmyf/RHandRD.html.
And it is kept out of sight! Clearly, the main enabler of sizable asset price bubbles (very harmful!) is keeping the real price histories out of sight!
– Ed Hamilton, Durango
Revolutionary thinking
Dear Editors,
I. The bourgeoisie need the proletariat. People who own the means of production need people willing to trade time and labor for money. People with more time than money need people willing to employ them.
III. If the bourgeoisie can get a member of the underclass to do the same job as a tradesman for $20 less an hour, they will. The underclass must not be allowed to become large in any society. Efforts to keep their numbers under 5 percent of a population are essential. This can be achieved by ensuring that the minimum wage is on a sliding scale based on family size and other factors. The more buying power they have, the better for everyone.
IV. Outsourcing is High Treason. Tax evasion is High Treason. Seize the bourgeoisie’s offshore investments. Close their loopholes. They will employ their fellows, or face severe consequences. Money and employment must be kept localized within a society.
IV. If you can, find any other way to make it rather than wage labor. If you can’t, learn a trade that is utterly sustainable, quite lucrative, rare but perennial, and one you can do without an employer or a bank loan, i.e., farming, IT, massage therapy, masonry, etc.
V. Malthus and the other eugenicists aside, Social Darwinism is real. Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, WW2, Native Americans, Rome and Byzantium: history is replete with examples of social groups with wherewithal, numbers, and brute strength triumphing over social groups with less of the aforementioned.
– Signed, M. Kevin Swinderman, Durango
Mandate 325
Dear Editors,
I’m going to tell you a story about the not too distant now. It’s an all American story.
– Ed Hamilton, Durango
Revolutionary thinking
Dear Editors,
I. The bourgeoisie need the proletariat. People who own the means of production need people willing to trade time and labor for money. People with more time than money need people willing to employ them.
II. The bourgeoisie must be taught respect for the working man and must not be allowed to seize political power. The workers must create a pro-business environment, and while keeping the businesses from exploiting the environment and the workers, allow them to flourish and create as much revenue as possible. This benefits everyone.
III. If the bourgeoisie can get a member of the underclass to do the same job as a tradesman for $20 less an hour, they will. The underclass must not be allowed to become large in any society. Efforts to keep their numbers under 5 percent of a population are essential. This can be achieved by ensuring that the minimum wage is on a sliding scale based on family size and other factors. The more buying power they have, the better for everyone.
IV. Outsourcing is High Treason. Tax evasion is High Treason. Seize the bourgeoisie’s offshore investments. Close their loopholes. They will employ their fellows, or face severe consequences. Money and employment must be kept localized within a society.
IV. If you can, find any other way to make it rather than wage labor. If you can’t, learn a trade that is utterly sustainable, quite lucrative, rare but perennial, and one you can do without an employer or a bank loan, i.e., farming, IT, massage therapy, masonry, etc.
V. Malthus and the other eugenicists aside, Social Darwinism is real. Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, WW2, Native Americans, Rome and Byzantium: history is replete with examples of social groups with wherewithal, numbers, and brute strength triumphing over social groups with less of the aforementioned.
– Signed, M. Kevin Swinderman, Durango
Mandate 325
Dear Editors,
I’m going to tell you a story about the not too distant now. It’s an all American story.
A story about a first world and a third world coming to terms in equality, in humanity and shared grace. A story about the propensity every living soul has for gluttony if given the proper vehicle to deliver it. Let’s begin...
It’s 2:43 a.m. and you’ve been awakened once again at a random time of the night, by screams that come from down the hall. Screams that no longer shock you awake, but while they persist you can never get back to sleep. The Trimming Squads are harvesting another one of your neighbors’ products – fat.
This has been going on now ever since Mandate 325 was passed by our beloved elected leaders. Three hundred and twenty five represents the weight no man, woman or child can go past without immediate product taking. Strict rules are now in place here in the U. S. of A that after a citizen, regardless of class or race has exceeded their height-weight index for their age group, they will be qualified to have product harvested at anytime. Priority for trimming takes place as an individual gets closer to the number 325. Micro scales that transmit data to The Trimming Board have been implanted into the sole of every man woman and child here in America to ensure enforcement of Mandate 325.
Looking back, I guess something had to be done. Americans were getting fatter and fatter. They demanded greasy food that was made FAST! They sat instead of stood. Drove instead of walked. Used elevators instead of stairs. Moving sidewalks instead of sidewalks. Keyboards became obsolete; dictation for writing became standard. Gyms are a thing of the past, and the “Great Outdoors” have mostly been forsaken.
The U.S economy mirrored its populous. Slow and slothful, lethargic, greedy and with no memory of the country’s past to move and make, the people themselves became scorned by the rest of the world, by themselves even. Measures by government to get the whole of the country back to its old glory failed. Dietary laws were established but met with revolt. A thriving black market of fast food quickly came into place, crime, gangsterism, lawlessness by most of the U.S citizenry threatened to send the country into an anarchy of heavy indolence and selfishness. Since the people of this once wonderful nation no longer had a will for greatness, “greatness” would be forced. Mandate 325 was born.
Now while all of this was taking place, the rest of the world was going hungry. There seemed to be less and less to go around. There no longer were “second world” countries just one “first world” and the rest “third world.” The bloated glut of the 50 United States was being felt in the bellies of the rest of humanity. Reasons for war with the “rest” to feed the “best” started somewhat benign. Propaganda against socialism, communism, terrorism, then went on to things a little more honest like fighting for control of oil, fighting for your right to take. Take whatever. The status-quo that Americans as a whole had the rights to everything produced by the rest of mankind. The hard back-breaking work that was once done for thyself for pride and gain of thyself became back breaking to support a great weight of one nation. Most of mankind was being flogged into the ground...something had to give. So it was America had to give back.
Not long after bloodshed and rebellion set in the world wide minus one nation did the leaders of the number one country come to a conclusion that something had to be given back as a concession to the hungry emaciated people of the world and at least for the time being end the revolts.
It so came to be that the U.S would give to the rest of the world and its product would be fat! It also came to be that the rest of the world would know Mandate 325. Mandate 325 arrived in the form of flash frozen packages of human flesh airlifted and dropped from the skies all around this blue planet. No package weighed over 325 pounds. Starving children all over the globe rejoiced! No longer would the kids have to go to work with the pangs of hunger deep inside! A renewed sense of oneness with ALL of humanity fell upon humanity! The revolts ended. The mandate was a complete success. Mines and clothing sweatshops started to produce again and pump with a renewed vim and vigor! Peace and security feel upon the land due to one simple law.
Here our story ends with a final and compelling thought. That we as the people on this round orb hurling through space and time are connected in one way or another for good or bad, like it or not. In one big cycle of karmic justice. Let’s think about the people in this last story of gluttony along with the proper means to deliver it fairly to everyone and to share and share alike. Be good to one another before goodness is forced upon you. Remember Mandate 325.
– Bob Page, via email