Road rage on Narrow Gauge

To the editor,
I’d like everyone to be on high alert: there is a very angry man driving through these parts that yells obscenities at others when he is clearly at fault! This pissy, outrageous offender is obviously not from around here! Watch out, though, because I was just driving the right way down a one-way street/parking alley when another car turned to come in the wrong way. I haulted, waiting to see how it would play out; it’s not the first time this kind of thing has happened, so no big deal. Suddenly, the furiously enraged maniac jumped the curb to drive next to the train tracks on the gravel, coming up beside me to point back at imaginary signs stating that this was a one-way alley. “Yes, it goes this way,” I said and pointed forward to which he replied, “F***ING A**HOLE!!!!!” He then zoomed off, I’m sure only to find that all of the cars parked further down were pointed toward him.
Anyway, the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. Since when do the lovely people of Durango act out like this, right or wrong? I remember a quote by a famous person that goes: Act your age not your shoe size. For real people, courtesy and manners go a long way in a small town. Don’t be a F King Ash Hoe.
– Silver 4Runner Girl

Minimum wage, minimum living

To the editor,
The U.S. federal minimum wage was enacted through the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Its purpose was to eliminate “labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary 4
for health, efficiency and general well-being of workers.” Despite these intentions, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 has failed to keep up with the rising cost of living and has instead become a wage that keeps working people in poverty. The minimum wage today would be $10.74 if it had kept up with inflation over the past 40 years.
How can we expect hardworking people to support themselves and their families on $7.25 an hour? That’s just $15,080 a year for a full-time worker, which is $3,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. While minimum wage has stagnated and left workers further and further behind, income inequality is now at an all-time high. The CEOs of the 500 largest U.S. companies make an average salary of $10.5 million each.   
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Rep. George Miller of California have proposed increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour in the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013. This bill would:
- Raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2015, in three steps of 95 cents each.
- Adjust the minimum wage to keep pace with the rising cost of living starting in 2016 – a key policy reform known as “indexing.”
- Raise the minimum wage for tipped workers – which has been frozen at an abominable $2.13 per hour for more than 20 years – to 70 percent of the full minimum wage.
Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 will give working families and the U.S. economy a boost by helping to:
- Reverse the growing income disparity and poverty in the U.S.
- Stimulate the economy because increased wages will result in increased spending.

- Create about 140,000 new jobs.
Who are the 30 million minimum wage earners who will be directly impacted? They are our neighbors – child care workers, health aids, food/hospitality workers, security guards and others who help us every day. Eighty eight percent are at least 20 years old; 54 percent are non-Hispanic white workers; 44 percent have some college education; 55 percent work full time; 70 percent are in families earning less than $60,000; and, on average, they earn about half of the family’s total income.
Raising the minimum wage will not only improve our national economy and the quality of life for minimum wage earners and their families (17 million children). It will also affirm and ensure the worth and dignity of all workers and the justice that our nation espouses. To help, you can call or write your congressman and senators and encourage them to support the fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013. And sign a petition at http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/raise-the-minimum-wage-18 or www.timeforaraise.org.
– Maureen Maliszewski,  Durango

County should’ve had say in fee
To the editor,
Is it really a shock that the bag fee was voted down? Now when you consider who was allowed to vote on it – city residents, not country residents. As a county resident, I am not allowed to vote on such things, but I am allowed to pick up all the trash along my road and pluck plastic bags from the county fence lines.
Where do the “city folk” think us “county bumpkins” shop anyway? Last I checked, there wasn’t a grocery store outside of the city limits.
Alas, I do get it. The same people that voted against the “silly bag tax” are the same people that shop major chains stores, up and down the middle aisles, don’t know GMO from HMO, think organic is just a marketing ploy and drive 2 blocks to find closer parking.
I hate being the mistress of the obvious, but the smaller (although some “chain”) stores I choose to shop at do not even offer plastic bags. (“Want a box today?”) So I suppose the choice is still the individual’s, bring your own bag or choose to spend your money where they don’t even have them.
– Seana Brandon, La Plata County
P.S. The excuse for using plastic bags for picking up after your dog doesn’t fly – just check out all the abandoned land mines along the sidewalks and river path.

Adding new meaning to cold war

To the editor,
The article “Icy Frontier” in the October 2013 Military Officer magazine outlines the need for the U.S. to become more involved in the Arctic region.
The melting ice could open up the Arctic Ocean to new shipping routes between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans which will cut 4,500 miles off the shipping lanes. The Arctic area contains a vast amount of oil and natural gas to be discovered and processed into energy.
Russia is restoring an old military base on the New Siberian Islands (off eastern Siberia). A garrison is stationed there, and airfield and naval facilities are under construction. President Putin wants to use the base to enhance Russia’s economic and security interests in the Arctic. Russia is also constructing a number of new ports in the Arctic and building nine new icebreakers to supplement 10 existing icebreakers.
The U.S. Navy lacks facilities in Alaska and does not have icebreakers. It has to rely on old USCG icebreakers for support.
The U.S. should evaluate the feasibility of constructing infrastructure in the Arctic and look at the possibility of establishing joint facilities with Canada. We need to bolster our complement of icebreakers.
– Donald A. Moskowitz, Londonderry, N.H.