Dropping the ball on the Snowbowl
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Many loyal readers in Flagstaff were deeply disappointed by HCN’s minimal (125 words) blurb about the recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision regarding the Arizona Snowbowl (HCN, 4/2/07).
This was an amazing and significant decision with major consequences for land management throughout the West — and elsewhere. Snowbowl principal owner Eric Borowsky is already talking about groups from around the country offering their assistance to fight a unanimous court judgment they claim “gives Native Americans veto power over all federal land.” For HCN to simply say “they won” in describing the years of effort by a coalition of Native American and non-Natives; to ignore the precedent-setting application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act; to ignore the policy impacts for the U.S. Forest Service in both pending cases and future decision-making; and to fail to mention — let alone analyze — the value of the decision regarding religious freedom for minority belief systems vs. the dominant capitalist paradigm demonstrates nothing less than inadequate journalism by a key periodical reaching both grassroots activists and public officials around the country.
Lance Diskan
> Flagstaff, Arizona<B>
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