Dear HCN,
I could not believe the
naivete of Jeff Burgess when he questioned in his letter why
Western towns need to be based on ranching, logging and mining
(HCN, 4/13/98). His suggestion that we imagine a “quiet little town
where most people spend their work week writing innovative software
programs … while their weekends are spent appreciating, in a
responsible manner, the natural splendor of the surrounding public
lands …”
My goodness, that’s a lot of computer
programs! What are these innovative programmers going to eat and
where will they find material to build homes or any other basic
needs of existing?
I thought at first the letter
was a prank, a joke, tongue-in-cheek, but after reading it again
and again, decided that it was the author’s ignorance that was the
joke.
Lee
Rostad
Martinsdale,
Montana
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Someone’s dreaming.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
