Get legislative lowdown Feb. 15

To the editor:
The League of Women Voters of La Plata County will sponsor Legislative Lowdown on Sat., Feb. 15, from 9:30 - 11 a.m. at the Durango Public Library. We invite everyone in La Plata County to join us to hear what our state legislators, Sen. Ellen Roberts and Rep. Mike McLachlan, are focusing on in this year’s legislative session and what the prospects are for passage of the bills of interest to our region.

Following short introductory remarks, the legislators will answer your written questions. Coffee, tea and security will be provided. Make the most of this opportunity to get to know your representatives and for them to get to know you and your concerns.
– Marilyn Brown, Secretary, LWV of La Plata County

Calling the kettle black

Dear Telegraph:
In Allen Best’s collection of local news items for the Jan. 23 edition, one Andy Miller of Fraser bemoans that pot ruined his life, and refers to friends who continue to smoke (he quit years ago) as now suffering lives “reduced to a meek day-to-day existence, dreams long since lost.”

While I agree with Miller’s desire to keep pot out of the hands of children and “those who are like he once was,” aka obvious abusers, I take umbrage at his misplaced attempt to shift responsibility for his and his friends’ purportedly failed lives to pot or anything else beyond themselves. Such people in fact are rare anomalies, not the norm as he implies.

At 67, I am five years older than Miller, as are 4

many of my friends who, like me, have enjoyed marijuana as a positive part of our lives throughout our adulthood. Unlike alcohol, pot lacks the capability to ruin lives. But like alcohol, pot is often used by those with pre-existing issues that do ruin their lives. In the end, while I share Andy Miller’s apparently altruistic concern for users, I view his attempt to scapegoat weed for all his problems as a clear symptom of deeper issues, not the – or even a – primary cause. My life, of which the herb has long been a part, has been quite rewarding, thank you. And I don’t even own a couch.
– David Petersen, Durango

Be the change by being a ‘Big’

To the editor,
While we wander between Darwinism and the Intelligent Designer’s planned obsolescence, with occasional visits from the ghost of misspent youth, we must consider the trials and challenges of our present day young. We defeated Amendment 66 and our politicians slash funding for nutrition programs and education. What can we do to benefit the future of our youth? For one, volunteer with Big Brothers and Big Sisters so that we dedicate ourselves to friendship, education and hope. Youth will not be the only winner.
– Stephanie Johnson, Durango

Get smart about smart meters

To the editor,
This letter responds to Judith Reynold’s political cartoon in The Durango Herald on Jan. 26 portraying a Snowdown float carrying an alien, mad scientist, poster and a banner advocating a ban on cell phones, smart meters, etc. This one-sided view is common in The Herald’s Op-Eds, and informed readers dismiss them accordingly.

As one of those targeted, The Herald failed to grasp our true objective: I, and my colleagues, do not encourage a ban on cell phones or any other wireless devices, as the cartoonist depicts. We are encouraging our elected officials to enact regulations that require wireless devices and infrastructure such as cell towers and smart meters to be located and installed only after intelligent and informed review and approval. While we recognize that existing FCC rules preclude local officials from prohibiting cell towers on the basis of public health, such barriers do not apply to how many and where cell towers should be located. Nor are our officials prohibited from exercising control over the installation of smart meters.

Unlike La Plata County, large municipalities and states, based on independent evidence, have enacted stringent control over the number and location of cell towers and put in place moratoriums on the continuation of smart meter installations until health issues can be independently studied and ruled absolutely safe for the public and our environment.

Credible studies on humans reveal that accumulative widespread radio frequency, or RF, can have devastating impacts on our health. Laboratory testing exposed the negative impact on animal health in a controlled RF/electro-magnetic field environment. The results are well documented in expert testimony that went before the FCC in November 2013. The editor of The Herald was given 86 pages of that FCC testimony, yet the newspaper chose to discredit us with its insulting cartoon.

Our group, again, is not on a mission to “ban cell phones.” We encourage the idea of having cell towers placed on mountain tops, out of harms’ way, and towers removed from the Animas Valley floor. This remedy allows the RF emissions to go over us instead of through us.
– Sally Florence, Durango

GadZuke’s, too? Hopefully not

To the editor,
First, I didn’t know a whole lot about Zuke’s beyond seeing the name/products in several stores and that Zuke’s offices are in Durango. 

Hopefully Zuke’s can teach the big dogs of corporate dog food nutrition how not to do, in some ways, pet nutrition so badly.

Yes, about the 2007 “melamine in pet food results” (Nestle bought Purina brands in 2001), one could say that people had spent too little on canned and packaged pet food (if spending that little of money, it is often better to make or grow your own pet’s food).

The problems with melamine in pet foods a few years back is just one of many lessons we could learn about food production and labeling and other such issues. Origins-of-food and also “distributed by” does not mean that much to some, yet, if one has an interest in health, one often has to be a servant-detective to the whims of corporatism. Not always, but as long as weather allows, locally grown is often healthy for us in terms of nutrition, economy and ecology. 

Always and definitely not a good thing, is having people go to foreign countries to tell them they need to produce more “dirt cheap” (or “plastic-cheap” in terms of melamine, please forgive the wordplay. They are just words and not trying to look the other way as someone turns out degraded forms of food, let alone poison mine or anyone’s foods, as was the case). Yes, you could say that Nestle/Purina did not expect this “melamine occurrence”... they just wanted to make (a lot of) money. A company from one (pretty far-away) country buying stuff/food-ingredients “cheaply” from another (pretty far-away) country to sell in another (pretty far-away) country. If Nestle did not have major differences in standards on how it deals/does business in one country vs. another, of how it treats some people/suppliers, etc., very differently than others, this may not have happened since 2001. But then again, maybe Zuke’s will wag the dog instead of the other way around and help stop efforts like those that diminish quality.

As far as those who try to “get away with it,” as was the case around 2007 (melamine probably didn’t get detected as part of the culprit for a while) as so many pet food “brands” and other lives taken, lives threatened, quality of life and food degradation issues go in many despotic/oppressive international or cross-cultural business dealings – or at least when too much emphasis is on one thing or unjustly very corrupt or sinister (yes, a big issue not only in commercial pet food.)

Teach ‘em Zuke’s. Otherwise, it will continue to be a dog-eat-melamine type world in more ways than ... .

“It is hard to get a man to understand something if ‘his ‘living’ depends on him not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair
– Craig Loeffelholz, Durango

P.S:  My (Wall Street) brother’s dog Frosty literally, truthfully was a victim of this type of “corporatism” – days, if not months to years of some discomforts – and then major pains in death. I only witnessed a little bit of that, yet, for pets or people, it is a sad thing to be a part of. Until then, she led a good life, as have many that did (or would have, when varying degrees of fascist and related toxic social ills/violations of what is good in/for life is no matter if talking about a friend, ecology, person or pet).

Glad to be back

Dear Editor,
I left Durango for Telluride in July 2011, and then I left T-ride in November 2012 for a corporate job in New York state. Let’s just say a year away from the San Juans was enough. While it was great to reconnect with old friends and make new ones, and to see Ma more this past year than in the last six, it was time to come home.

I have been in Colorado about 20 years, with about 12 of those years in the Four Corners area. Once again, I am in the area, and I am mobile between Yellow Jacket (the one on Hwy 491, not 160), Dolores, Telluride, Cortez and Durango. The view looking north as I come east over Hesperus Hill toward Durango is very cool. I did not “see” that view before. And I had a great Christmas with my Durango family, and spent a great New Years in Moab. Pretty mobile, but that is us.

It feels good to drive roads again where I know when to slow down because there might be ice in the shaded canyon. I have returned to the Four Corners to continue producing short web video for local and regional nonprofits. I specialize in environmental issues in the area, and I can cover social justice issues, as well as promote tourism through web video. In the meantime, I am very glad to be back in Southwest Colorado.
– Tom Schillaci, producer, Video Resource Network

Paving the way for a livable wage

To the editor,
The debate over raising the minimum wage has hit the national stage. In President Obama’s State of the Union address he endorsed a movement to raise the national minimum wage to $10.10 per hour from $7.25. On Jan. 1 of this year, the State of Colorado raised its minimum wage to $8 per hour.

In 2013, Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado released livable wage data (www.scan.org/uploads/livable_wages_2013.pdf) for our area. Livable wage data takes into consideration the essential financial needs for basic living such as nutrition, shelter, health care and child care specific to your community. This data indicates that a single person with no children renting a 1-bedroom apartment would need full-time work at $11.96 in Bayfield; $12.68 in Ignacio; and $12.10 per hour in Durango to obtain a livable wage. If people fall under this living wage, they are forced to make challenging decisions concerning working longer hours, having multiple jobs and/or giving up insurance or having telephone access. In addition, if certain needs are not met, many must rely on government aid programs to meet basic needs.

Personally, I look at this issue in a moral and not political context. I feel it is the right thing to increase wages for people who are working full time and still not being able to meet their basic needs.  Many strategies must come together to create a sustainable economy for everyone in our communities.

I would like to invite you into this discussion at the La Plata County Thrive! Living Wage Coalition kick-off event. On Tues., Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. on the Fort Lewis College Campus 130 Noble Hall, our coalition will be screening the highly acclaimed documentary “Inequality for All.” This film by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich looks at the widening economic gap facing our nation. The film will be followed by a discussion by FLC Associate Professor John Baranski and provide information on how to get engaged in our coalition. Hope to see you there.

For more information contact thrivelaplata@gmail.com

– Greg Felsen, La Plata County Thrive!
Living Wage Coalition