Letter to the editor

I have one very small quibble with Ed Quillen’s article “Cold Dead Fingers” (HCN, 4/28/08). Mr. Quillen seems to conflate “rights” and “responsibilities” in saying: “Owning a gun is more than a right; it is also a responsibility. …” (I have trouble thinking how a right can be something more than a right in this […]

The (May 12) issue of High Country News is just pure fodder for cultural criticism of the New West. “Boom! Boom!” posits a clash of distinct economies without even acknowledging the direct link between the two, and suggests the amenities economy is somehow better for the environment. Go back and read your Dec. 25, 2006, […]

Ron Gillett did have two interesting comments when referring to wolves: “They engage in ‘sport binge killing’ and “(wolves) are the most cruel, vicious animals in North America …” (HCN, 5/12/08). I find them interesting for two reasons. The first is that human beings (for the most part) engage in “sport binge killing” almost every […]

I just want to assure Ron Gillett that even though I’m an enviro, I wasn’t born under a rock, nor am I a “wolf-thug terrorist” or “full of ‘crap’ and ‘baloney’ ” when it comes to wolves having little impact on elk and deer populations (HCN, 5/12/08). Certainly, if wolf populations explode and there aren’t […]

I think that HCN could have exercised better judgment with the cover photo for the story “Pillaging the Past” (HCN, 4/28/08). I see a conflict between the use of that particular image and the contents of Childs’ article. Pillaging isn’t just about removing objects — it’s also about respect for them. Placing human remains on […]

I was shocked and saddened to read Childs’ grim report (HCN, 4/28/08). I looked on eBay under “Anasazi” – sure enough, there was all kinds of stuff for sale. Shocking. There’s a way to enjoy this art without robbing graves. I bought a pot at the Acoma Pueblo. It sits in my living room. The […]

The personal right to self-defense is not so broad as to include the intrusion into the safety and well-being of others in order to exercise that right (HCN, 4/28/08). Guns are not only in the homes of the households they are supposed to protect, they are violating our communities. They are in fast-food restaurants, on […]

I applaud Craig Childs for furthering public awareness about the destruction of archaeological sites, and agree that archaeologists need to be more concerned about whether or not an artifact should be collected, and what happens to it after it is collected(HCN, 4/28/08). . But in his effort to conflate archaeological investigation with pothunting, he makes […]

I have been visiting the backcountry of the Southwest for many years. Craig Childs’ statement in “Pillaging the Past” that 90 percent of archaeological sites have been vandalized seems accurate from what I have witnessed (HCN, 4/28/08). When I first set foot on Cedar Mesa in southeast Utah almost 30 years ago, artifacts such as […]

I think it is worth remembering that for every “crazy” person who kills himself, there are many more suicide victims who show no evidence of “craziness”at all. I’ve lost three dear friends to gunshot suicide. None of us saw the signs, and indeed, they were hard to detect. But maybe, as the world itself becomes […]

I’ve lived in rural eastern Oregon for 37 years, and in that time have known several suicides (HCN, 3/31/08). Some are variations on the scripts that Ring discusses. But there is another type of suicide that is not unusual in the rural independent West – the elderly or terminal individual who clings to control over […]

April Reese’s analysis of the leasing protest game told a story familiar in California as well as the Intermountain West (HCN, 3/31/08) Recently, Los Padres ForestWatch, in partnership with rural landowners, protested a lease sale of more than 20,000 acres adjacent to the Los Padres National Forest. Later, all but one of the parcels were […]

Jonathan Thompson’s use of the phrase “self-murder”is ill-advised, and “crazy”(as used by both Thompson and Ray Ring) arguably is, too, in this context, in particular as a major heading on the front page (HCN, 3/31/08). Yet more telling, however, is Thompson’s – and to a degree (and surprisingly) Ring’s – apparent ignorance of how mental […]

I just finished reading “My Crazy Brother” (HCN, 3/31/08). I cried. I’m a 30-year teaching veteran, 22 of which I’ve spent in a tiny community college in Colorado, where higher education is 49th in the nation. My classrooms are filled with under-, un-, wrongly and oddly prepared students. Social workers, school counselors, and other do-gooders […]

Ray Ring’s article about his “crazy brother” really touched me (HCN, 3/31/08). I lost my older sister to suicide this past Oct. 31, and our mother killed herself when I was 14. I, like Ray, believe the problems started with childhood emotional traumas that were never dealt with, and as the years wore on their […]

How could HCN, well known for its hard-hitting investigative journalism, publish such an uncritical article on the Yuma Proving Grounds (HCN, 3/31/08)? It doesn’t take a trip to Yuma to uncover some contrary opinions (just a few mouse clicks reveal that there is a serious problem there with depleted uranium pollution) and those cool pictures […]

Drew Pogge believes he is without friends, finding himself “magnetically repelled” by both environmentalists and good ol’ boys because of his empathy for both (HCN, 3/31/08). He is, however, sadly mistaken. He is magnetically repelled because of the stereotypes he insists on articulating. He writes that the conservation movement is often “tainted with hypocrisy” and […]

I thought that Alaska was crazy over wolves, and yes, they still are, but in Catron County, where I now spend my winters, things are crazier yet (HCN, 2/04/08). I’m not sure how the threatened child issue became so prominent in Catron County. Of course, wolves could kill a child, or an adult, for that […]

Having just read the (for the most part) well-written article by Matt Jenkins on Navajo water rights, I just couldn’t get one phrase from the opening paragraphs out of my head (HCN, 3/17/08). He describes tribal water rights commissioner Lena Fowler as possessing a “… cool intensity and a vaguely sexy set of crow’s feet […]

Matt Jenkins’ article on Navajo water claims seemed to exhibit a subtle bias against the grassroots Dine folks on the outside of the tribal bureaucracy (HCN, 3/17/08). And maybe the activists are a little unfair to the white lawyer – after all, there are also Indian lawyers, elected officials, water consultants and bureaucrats who are […]