The unique Durango karmic cycle
To the readers,
One morning last week, within the span of about 15 minutes, my heart was shattered in two different ways: disappointment in humanity and then a great love for it.

It was an early Friday morning when I walked out of my downtown home to find someone had stolen the front wheel off my bicycle. Sure, I’ve had bikes stolen before, I am no stranger to theft, but this time for some reason I was utterly annoyed. “Who would steal just one wheel!?” I whined to my coffee shop coworkers. “What can you do with just one wheel??”

I was mad at the fact that whomever stole my front wheel didn’t realize that my bike was my main mode of transportation and that in order for it to operate it needed two wheels. Just as I was slamming my fist upon the counter with rage, one of the “regulars” at our coffee shop walked up to where I was fuming.

“What happened?” he asked.

I told him about my bike wheel, and he gave me sincere sympathy saying things like “that’s too bad” and “what are you going to do now?”

I told him I’d have to buy a new one (bike riders know, wheels are not cheap). And without hesitation this man pulled out the exact amount that I said I’d have to pay to buy a new wheel. He showed it to me – I laughed. He told me to have it – I thought he might be joking. He handed it to me and told me to go buy a new wheel. At that point I was so taken aback that I started mumbling and telling him things like “I couldn’t sleep at night!” and “That’s more than a days worth of salary!”–which is funny not only because it’s not right, but also because I don’t even make a salary.

Finally, he put it in my hand and calmly told me that my bike is obviously important to me (which it very much is) and to go buy a new wheel so I can start riding again. With shaky hands and teary eyes I accepted and gave him a hug.

I went to (a different) work that day in a complete daze. So many things had happened within that very early morning. It made me think a lot about the concept of generosity and the responsibility that comes from it. The responsibility to do the right thing with the gift given to me, the responsibility to pay it forward, and the responsibility to show and feel gratitude toward this humbling 4 experience. Through this medium, I feel like I must show my gratitude as well as make it clear to people that we are lucky enough to live in a town where this sort of thing happens, and it only happens because each of us makes it happen. He might not know it, but this man whom I only know from early morning lattes has made me think in a whole new light, and for that, I thank him.

– Jennaye Derge, Durango

Don’t simplify tax code, abolish it
To the editor,
Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., appeared on Fox News recently to talk about the effort in the House Ways and Means Committee to simplify the income tax code, eliminate loop holes, lower the rates, etc.  He said that the Senate Finance Committee is in similar agreement to which the Fox reporter replied, “I can’t imagine any American would be against that.”

Wake up people! In 1986, Congress simplified the code, removed loop holes, and lowered the rates.  Nearly 30 years later, our tax code is more complicated than ever approaching 80,000 pages of code.  Since 1986, Congress and lobbyists have raked in billions of dollars from corporations and the wealthy in exchange for special exemptions.

A case in point: In December 2011, Public Campaign released a report utilizing data from the Center for Responsive Politics, Citizens for Tax Justice and SEC filings showing that from 2008-10, 30 companies spent a combined $495 million dollars on lobbyists. Twenty-nine of those companies paid no income tax.  

Call me suspicious, but I think Congress is chomping at the bit to “simplify” the code again.

We don’t want to simplify the income tax code, we want to eliminate it, along with the ability for Congress to sell tax code changes in exchange for campaign contributions. HR25/SB122, “The Fair Tax Bill,” would do exactly that.

The Fair Tax Bill is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll-based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level and dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality.  

– Jim Donnell, Cameron Park, Calif.

Persevere in fight against plastic
To the editor,
I do question the claim that regulating free plastic bags will limit people’s freedom. A recent Durango Herald article debunking arguments against the bag ban stated, “the right of a person to have single-use plastic grocery sacks does not supersede the right of another person to have a healthy environment.” There are freedoms that we give up to live in society but the word “freedom” doesn’t strike me as appropriate here. And indeed we do end up paying for plastic bags in our grocery bills.

You don’t have to look far to find a littered plastic bag in your neighborhood to show that the environmental cost is real, too. The North Pacific garbage gyre is not a myth. Research into plastic in the gyre appears in peer-reviewed scientific publications such as the Marine Pollution Bulletin and Marine Ecology. Plastic travels the same path as many of earth’s terrestrial nutrients and pollutants reaching its oceanic destination. Along the way, large land and marine animals suffer entanglement that can lead to suffocation or strangulation. Ingestion can cause starvation whereby the stomach fills with non-nutritive plastic and is not able to properly empty non-food items. Furthermore, toxins adhere to plastic, creating an additional ingestion hazard.

Less visible effects occur because plastic photo-degrades (instead of biodegrading) into smaller and smaller pieces. These small pieces then reside in the same space as marine microorganisms (think plankton) and again are unavoidably ingested by higher organisms that consume the plankton and on it goes up the food chain.

Durango is my former home and a place I love to visit. I hope it perseveres in this and other efforts to keep our earth home clean.

– Kathleen Parish, Bourbonnais, Ill.

China going big with U.S. buyouts
To the editor:
Chinese companies spent $6.5 billion to purchase U.S. companies in 2012, which broke the previous record of $5.2 billion in 2010. It appears the Chinese acquisitions of U.S. companies could exceed $10 billion in 2013.

In May 2013, Shuanghui International agreed to purchase Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest hog producer with 460 farms across the United States. Will the hog supply be diverted to feed China? Will China’s poor food safety record impact operations? Hopefully states will block the sale with laws that prohibit foreign ownership of farmland.

A Chinese consortium purchased International Lease Finance Corp., which owns and leases over 1,000 aircraft. In 2012 Chinese companies bought AMC Entertainment, one of the largest U.S. movie theater chains.

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment should deny Chinese acquisitions if they impact our national security or our country’s economic well-being.

– Donald Moskowitz, Londonderry, N.H.