Dear HCN,


For someone like myself, writing to HCN has about the same benefits as a Kurd appealing to Saddam, but here goes nothing, anyway. Jon Margolis' monument (HCN, 5/13/02: New monuments: Planning by numbers) analysis was linked to me and I had to surf it up - and as usual, Jon blows it.


The Yellowstone "professionals" that called to ban snowcats were led by Mike Finley - who while sharing the dais at his retirement bash with his new employer Ted Turner - said the Bush administration would let the "moneychangers into the temple." Anti-Semitic, unpolitical incorrectness aside, that's pseudoreligious zealotry, not professionalism.


And regarding the Bruce Babbitt Memorial Political Sacrifice Zones, the case of the Breaks probably typifies the situation all over the West.


First, the Missouri Breaks Wild and Scenic River could have been protected from the expected Lewis and Clark wannabes with temporary developed campsites and sanitary facilities, fee permits, and the like, all to be rolled up in 2007 after the hubbub died down.


But no, we have this monument specifically created to scam votes for Al Gore and stick it to those who wouldn't vote his way anyhow. Even better, the outline of the monument was vastly expanded to cover not just the historic viewsheds, but precisely the townships that oil producers sought to lease.


Hell, no wonder the natives are hostile.


Dave Skinner
Whitefish, Montana