To the editor:
I happen to be among those looking for work out here in the Lost Corners (the land that both time and trust funds have forgotten). I live in Cortez and seldom have the gas money to make the round trip between our illustrious cities twice in the same month, never mind twice in the same week. However, on April 24, I had to drive to Durango for a doctor’s appointment. In her office, I noticed something called The Durango Telegraph, published in and around Durango on a weekly basis.

I’d never noticed this rag before – no big surprise since publications that are unable to penetrate the event horizon near Mancos tend to fall off into the black hole created by the Great Mesa Verde Wormhole and a couple of mischievous Skin Walkers with too much time on their hands.
I perused the Telegraph’s classifieds and noticed an ad for a job that was a perfect fit for my education and experience. No deadline was given, but I went down to the store straight after my appointment. There, I was informed that they already had 90 applications stacked up. Maybe I’d be just as happy to be a consumer, buying something and leaving quietly instead?

I have enough problems without getting arrested for shop lifting, and while there’s any number of jobs I can’t do, this was a job I could do – I’d even won awards for doing it. I knew that I was an extremely competitive candidate – 90 resumes or not.

So, I started in on some heavy duty whining to the clerk until she finally got me an application, warning me the deadline was already past. What deadline? I’d seen only the one notice and it hadn’t given a deadline. The whole thing was moot, anyhow, since the Telegraph doesn’t get distributed over here in Indian Country.

I returned to my little apartment out here in the Third World and began to spiff up my resume. I filled out the application and typed up my responses to all those questions like “How would your presence make our business take off and fly to heights never before attained?” I 4 threw my heart into it. I finished at 3 a.m. and went to print my magnum opus.

Ever had the cat gack all over your homework? My printer gacked all over my application and then quit on me at 3:10 a.m. I spent the remainder of my morning having fun with electronics. I needed that job. My printer didn’t care. My neighbor revealed to me that his printer was broken too when I knocked on his door at 5 a.m. Finally, the sun rose and the dawn’s light revealed that my night of hell was quickly turning into one more tough trip through paradise.

Someone told me to go to Point to Point Graphics on Second Ave. to get my paperwork printed up. When I found the store, I noticed there seemed to be a number of parking spots in the lot out front. Unfortunately, my sleep-deprived eyes didn’t catch the sign warning that parking was for residents only. Whoops!

The folks at Point to Point were the nicest people I met that day. They printed out my 10 pages  for a mere 92 cents. I paid and ran out the door and zipped down to the shop on Main that had my job.

A woman my age shouldn’t pull all-nighters – that’s for sure. The shop owner only saw an older woman with bleary eyes and a cheap dress walk into her store. I assume my rather bedraggled appearance was easier to write off as early-onset senility, rather than the actual reason I’d given – a night spent working on what I hoped would be a decent application for a job I’d only just found out about.
Right. The cat gacked on my homework.

Didn’t I know my application was due yesterday? Decisions had been made and set in stone! People had been offered interviews. They would feel cheated and disrespected if it became known that someone got offered an interview after the deadline. What part of “no” didn’t I understand?
*Sigh*

Worst of all, my interrogator decided with a single glance that I hadn’t answered the special questions on the final pages. But not to worry. My application would be carefully stored and taken out and reviewed when the next vacancy opens up in 2020.

I probably should be grateful that the owner didn’t call the police and have them hold me while they called around to local old folks homes to make sure there were no escapees.

And after all that, I returned to my truck to find it decorated with a parking ticket for $15. I couldn’t pay the thing until I got my unemployment check, because I’m still looking for work and all my cash has gone for gas, so I can continue my quest for the holy grail of employment.

At the moment I have maybe $2 and a parking fine of $15, which will morph into $30 because I have to wait seven days to pay it. If I’m having a tight month, I’ll have to flip a coin to see who the lucky winner is – the electric company or the Durango Parking Division. If the DPD looses, they’ll send someone out to bust my kneecaps if I don’t come up with (by then) $60.

So, I sent the Parking Division a letter with my reasons for not paying. With my luck, they’re probably BFF with the store owner.
I don’t like Durango much since it’s decided to become more Aspen than Aspen.

 

Once in checkout, forever in landfill
To the editor,
I am in support of a ban or other action that would reduce the use of single-use disposable plastic bags. As a college student, I feel that it is my responsibility to speak out on the behalf of the Fort Lewis College student population. It is not fair for the well being of its current and future graduating classes to be subjected to a future that is defined by climate chaos, litter, and chemical-related health problems.  

I think that a ban could be very beneficial because when a fee has been implemented in other parts of the world, plastic bag use has reduced by 90 percent. Many other cities, such as Seattle and San Francisco, have been active in making sure that they play a role in the solution to climate change. I believe that Durango can also become a leader for other cities that are considering banning single-use disposable plastic bags.

There is much evidence to support how destructive single-use disposables are to human health and the environment. Most plastic bags end up in the oceans and in some parts of the ocean, there is 40 times more plastic than food. Eighty percent of this garbage comes from the land, and plastic is not biodegradable so it never goes “away.” 

 
There will always be people who oppose a law or support a law, and I think that doing what can be done to decrease the use of harmful substances to protect the people, the environment and both futures is a responsibility of conscientious government.  

Thank you for your time and consideration.

– Michaela Steiner, Durango