Doing the right bag thing
To the editor,
I was at a Marshall’s in San Diego recently and went to check out. I had a stack of stuff and the receipt was placed on top at the end of the transaction. No one asked me if I needed a plastic bag. No discount was offered for not using a plastic bag. So I just held onto my pile and made it to the car. No problem. Just the things I needed brought back to the house. Of course I could have carried a cloth bag if I’d been aware of the ban. However, even with no alternatives there were no apologies.
To the editor,
I was at a Marshall’s in San Diego recently and went to check out. I had a stack of stuff and the receipt was placed on top at the end of the transaction. No one asked me if I needed a plastic bag. No discount was offered for not using a plastic bag. So I just held onto my pile and made it to the car. No problem. Just the things I needed brought back to the house. Of course I could have carried a cloth bag if I’d been aware of the ban. However, even with no alternatives there were no apologies.
Why avoid plastic bags? Because they are unhealthy and unnecessary. The life cycle of a plastic bag uses nonrenewable resources and leads to millions of years of trash. It felt good to avoid contributing to that. Here’s to no plastic bags.
– Pat Senecal, Durango
Clearing the air on pot use
To the editor,
I think Durangoans value looking at all sides of an issue, and we love the Telegraph for expanding our consciousness in all directions. However, if an opinion has no factual basis, or if a letter writer attempts to create worry without any real justification, I would hope you would refrain from printing such rubbish. It only creates confusion.
To the editor,
I think Durangoans value looking at all sides of an issue, and we love the Telegraph for expanding our consciousness in all directions. However, if an opinion has no factual basis, or if a letter writer attempts to create worry without any real justification, I would hope you would refrain from printing such rubbish. It only creates confusion.
Two weeks ago, in the Mountain Exchange, you reprinted a story from Wyoming about some (non-herb-smoking) MD’s speculating to a conservative4 newspaper about the negative effects of marijuana smoke. They had not seen the negative effects they reported.
I imagine their patients don’t use herb or don’t tell them that they use herb, and that’s likely because these doctors are too biased to learn anything new about this herb. They advise against blazing a spliff before work or play. Let’s get this straight. Outdoor adventure without an herbal sacrament to ground oneself in full awareness of one’s circumstances? Hitting the trail or road without giving thanks for life or at least a reminder of its preciousness? Sounds dangerous.
Oh, and “obstructive lung disease?” According to Wikipedia: “Types of obstructive lung disease include asthma, bronchiectasis, bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).” I don’t have these problems, but if you do, I would recommend smoking marijuana regularly. “Rats exposed to increasing doses of marijuana smoke for one year showed no signs of COPD, but rats exposed to tobacco smoke did,” according to the Institute of Medicine in Washington D.C.
And this week you printed a letter from “Smart Colorado” hailing “drugged driving” prohibition and worrying about marijuana’s effects on the young brain. Once again, people who do not use or study this herb are having their say about what it does and what it is and is not good for. They want to criminalize the majority of young Americans, and they want to get herb smokers mixed up in a new DUI litigation infrastructure (a huge government money maker). For being the safer drivers?! They would prevent their kids from using a plant that calms, creates constructive self-consciousness, increases creative abilities, treats and prevents a very long list of internal, external and mental illnesses, cleanses the air (and lungs and bronchial), establishes spiritual grounds, and promotes laughter? A plant that grows easily in every country, and can also be used for textiles and nutritious food? Not very smart indeed. Also not very smart: printing illusions in this forum.
– Chris Ricci, Durango
The politics of upholding the law
Dear Editor,
It is absolutely amazing to me that Sheriff Schirard of La Plata County can choose which laws he and his office enforce. It has always been my understanding that elected officials take an oath on the day they are sworn into office to uphold the laws of the State of Colorado. I don’t think that oath says anything about only upholding the ones you agree with.
Dear Editor,
It is absolutely amazing to me that Sheriff Schirard of La Plata County can choose which laws he and his office enforce. It has always been my understanding that elected officials take an oath on the day they are sworn into office to uphold the laws of the State of Colorado. I don’t think that oath says anything about only upholding the ones you agree with.
There seems to be a recurring theme here. First, someone tries to board a flight at Durango with a loaded gun in their pocket. Sheriff Schirard dismissed this incident with a simple “he just made an honest mistake.” Really? After everything that’s happened in this country since 9/11, someone just “forgot” they were carrying a loaded handgun? Ask the flight crew if they thought it not appropriate to arrest this person.
Now we have the Honorable Sheriff stating that the new gun laws enacted by the State are “asinine” and that he refuses to enforce them. He also has joined with other sheriffs in the state to sue Governor Hickenlooper over these laws. Going to court is one of the options we have as citizens, but who is funding this lawsuit? The Durango Herald article states that “no taxpayer money will be used.” That’s good. But if outside money from special interest groups is being tapped, does this taint the entire process? Allowing a minority to influence law enforcement is totally unacceptable, no matter what form it takes.
Many of us in La Plata County feel the unreasonably low speed limits on good, straight, paved county roads are “asinine” and do not serve any purpose. Using the Sheriff’s logic, do we therefore refuse to obey these laws simply because we do not agree with them? See what happens when we pick and choose?
Sheriff, you were elected to enforce the law. Period. The advice that many of us who work here in Durango often receive from our employers should apply to you as well – “If you don’t like the rules and they way things are, QUIT!”
– D.G. Forrset, Durango
‘Corporal Rags’
Rags was a stray born in the slums of the Montmartre
and was discovered by Private James Donovan
0n Bastille Day, 1918.
A terrier of mixed breed, he became the
1st Infantry Division’s mascot.
Earning his stripes by carrying messages
across the front,
Rags was wounded with Private Donovan,
and they were both eventually evacuated to Fort Sheridan, Chicago.
Donovan died of his wounds in 1919
and Rags was reunited with his beloved
18th Infantry Regiment at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn,
a year later.
Corporal Rags died in the spring of 1936 and was buried
in Silver Springs, Maryland at the age of twenty.
– Burt Baldwin, Ignacio
Rags was a stray born in the slums of the Montmartre
and was discovered by Private James Donovan
0n Bastille Day, 1918.
A terrier of mixed breed, he became the
1st Infantry Division’s mascot.
Earning his stripes by carrying messages
across the front,
Rags was wounded with Private Donovan,
and they were both eventually evacuated to Fort Sheridan, Chicago.
Donovan died of his wounds in 1919
and Rags was reunited with his beloved
18th Infantry Regiment at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn,
a year later.
Corporal Rags died in the spring of 1936 and was buried
in Silver Springs, Maryland at the age of twenty.
– Burt Baldwin, Ignacio