Dropping the ball on the Snowbowl
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>
