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Make river experience open to all

To the editor,

I am writing to offer input on the city’s Oxbow Park development north of Durango. This property offers new ways to enjoy our beautiful river as well as partial solutions to some existing issues surrounding our enjoyment of the Animas.

Late this summer my wife and I took our three grandchildren on a float from Oxbow to the 33rd street put-in. The experience was awesome, and we reveled in the excitement and joy expressed by our grand-kids. What a beautiful and unique section of river. Families picnicked on the beach or launched various rivercraft. This experience should be available to everyone and encouraged by making access easy and safe.

A mix of preserved areas, beach/picnic areas, and a vehicle accessed boat ramp will offer a variety of experiences. Commercial raft companies should have access to the ramp so that visitors or locals who do not have a boat can also enjoy this section of river. Having another put-in will ease pressure at the 33rd put-in by allowing floaters to put in at Oxbow.

We live just above the 33rd Street put-in on 4th Avenue. Over the years, the sound drifting up to us from busy days on the river has been noticeable, even more so for those living directly across 2nd Ave.  But hearing people enjoy themselves is more tolerable than most noise – woe to us as a culture when the sound of laughter  is unpleasant and disturbing. The infrequent “bad apple” late at night – intoxicated and oblivious – can be found at any venue. River put-ins have not introduced them. I tolerate these individuals “blowing off steam” knowing that I did not escape youth without demonstrating similar behaviors myself at times.

Educating people on acceptable behaviors and the rules governing these public areas decreases unreasonable behavior while making their use more enjoyable for everyone. There will be people throwing trash on the banks etc., but how do these individuals gain insight into more conscientious attitudes? Experiencing nature helps us value our resources, solitude and natural quiet more with each experience.

Oxbow will encourage everyone to value a great local resource: the Animas River.

– Bill Karls, Durango

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Seek Sunni-Shiite equilibrium

To the Editor:

To foster world stability, it is in the best interest of the U.S. to promote equilibrium in the Middle East.

Israel should be kept strong because it is a Western-oriented ally and buffer country in the region.

Iraq was a buffer against Iran. With the death of Hussein and the takeover by the Shiites, the balance of power has shifted to Shiite Iraq, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Sunni majority in Syria, supported by Sunni Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, are fighting President Assad

of Syria, a Shiite. We should support the Sunnis in Syria with some arms and hope they can hold their own and keep Assad off balance. Since the Syrian rebels have al Qaeda elements among them, we do not want to strengthen them, nor weaken Assad, too much.

Egypt is a dubious friend of the United States. The Sunni Muslim Brotherhood continues to cast a shadow on the country. We should back the Egyptian military as a counter-weight to the Islamists in Egypt.

Sectarianism in the Middle East prevails over national identity, and conflicts will be fought due to sectarian and religious differences. We have to remember who our potential enemies are in the world.

– Donald A. Moskowitz, Londonderry, N.H.

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More public suckering

To the editor,

“Exceptionalism” will be the USA showing these track records to its citizens.

The Public Be Suckered, here: http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1223928

– Ed Hamilton, Durango

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Horses

I slowly approached two horses

facing each other in the grey rain.

They snorted at my intrusion

and turned to stare at the sputtering truck.

Were they planning some grand escape

or were they merely drawn out

of a stupor within their confined acreage?

Had they found some weakness

in the post and wire or were they

just waiting as horses sometimes

wait in the wet with one leg raised?

They somehow sensed my

embarrassment for invading

their privacy and reluctantly

moved away.

 

As I drove off my thoughts

drifted back, decades ago

when I happened to surprise

two mustangs while approaching

a rise in the badlands

east of Crownpoint.

There is a sobering

loneliness that is conceded

when one enters the high desert.

It ultimately draws living things

to one another and

we cautiously became acquainted

as I slowed to a stop.

As the truck began its descent,

they were compelled to gambol

alongside for a mile or two

before eventually disappearing

in the dusty wake

of a free and fenceless land.

– Burt Baldwin, Ignacio

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Gun grabbing liberals went too far

To the editor,

God bless America. God bless Colorado. America, Colorado citizens did not cheat to get the two Bloomberg liberal gun ban members recalled.

Americans finally got tired of their elected officials not representing them but instead doing what their party and money men told them to do. The gun ban liberals went too far, the citizens did not ask for this, did not want it and refused to accept it. I hope all of the liberal left gun grabbers take note because we are coming for the ones who have done this also, WA.

Good-bye girls, you’re out for a start and many more are going to be gone because we have your votes, your ideas and you can not lie out of them. Next step is to stop Obama and his illegal spying, use of IRS and justice to name a few. It is time for Americans to take our country back under orders from our founding fathers.

– Brian Dammeier, Tacoma, Wash.