As if We Were Grownups: A Collection of “Suicidal” Political Speeches That Aren’t Jeff Golden, 147 pages, softcover $12. Riverwood Books, 2004. Sick of endless political spin? Oregon writer Jeff Golden is, too. He makes the case that politicians need to treat voters like adults and tell us the difficult truth, even if it’s not […]
Politics
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Where were the environmentalists when Libby needed them most?
The story of an ailing town in northwestern Montana calls into question the health of the environmental movement
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Nun calls the faithful to an ‘ecological ministry’
NAME Joan Brown VOCATION Head of the Ecological Ministry of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Order of St. Francis AGE 51 HOME BASE Albuquerque, New Mexico MOST NOTED FOR Taking on social and environmental issues with a Catholic sensibility INSPIRED BY Catholic priest and philosopher Thomas Berry, who said, “If we lose the grandeur of […]
Posted inWotr
The Great White Father comes up with a new scam
On long winter nights beside the Knife and Little Big Horn rivers, tribal elders still sit around fires and tell their grandchildren stories to help them make sense of the world. It’s a custom as old as silence. Here’s a story: A black man, a white man and an Indian arrive at the Pearly Gates, […]
Posted inWotr
Kerry blue and snow white: Ski counties vote Democratic
The recent Snowdown festival in my town of Durango, Colo., celebrated with silly costumes, a parade, risque humor and even some events centered on snow. People threw themselves down the slopes on everything from skis and snowboards to kayaks, bicycles and even unicycles. The enthusiastic diversity shows how ski areas have evolved, and it also […]
Posted inWotr
Property rights have become the new sacred cow
These are wild and radical times in parts of the “conservative” West. It’s not big news that property rights are a powerful issue, or that plenty of Westerners would like to expand them. But the current discourse leaves you wondering if there’s room left for any balancing values. That’s especially true in my state after […]
Posted inWotr
A rotten environmental legacy is in the making
Though consumed by the day-to-day duties of office, deep in the mind of every American president must be questions about how his decisions will be dissected by historians in the decades and even centuries after he leaves office. Presidents, especially those in their second term, usually turn a watchful eye to their so-called legacies. The […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
Bush’s second-term shake-ups
The political appointments you don’t hear about — and how they affect the West
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
‘Redneck liberal’ defends a hard-to-love landscape
“I want to see people enjoy this country the way it was meant to be enjoyed, the way God created it,” says Tim Faber, speaking about Montana’s arid, rough-hewn Missouri River Breaks. “It’s a place like no other place in the world.” Faber grew up on a cattle ranch in the Bear’s Paw Mountains east […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2005: Written in the Rings
Civil Disobedience: Poetics and Politics in Action
Civil Disobedience: Poetics and Politics in Action Edited by Anne Waldman and Lisa Birman 469 pages, softcover $18. Coffee House Press, 2004. This anthology contains 40 essays, lectures and interviews with notables such as Gary Snyder, Joanne Kyger and Bobbie Louise Hawkins. In need of some raucous poetry, fiery speeches and a few good reasons […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2005: Written in the Rings
It’s the West’s turn to call the shots
I was recently invited to a seminar at a university whose thesis might be considered insulting. The American West, said the invitation, “lacks an intellectual, cultural or social presence within either the country or the continent. Eastern publishers, Eastern intellectual centers and agencies, public and private, based in Washington, D.C., still provide the authoritative voices […]
Posted inWotr
It’s the West’s turn to call the shots
I was recently invited to a seminar at a university whose thesis might be considered insulting. The American West, said the invitation, “lacks an intellectual, cultural or social presence within either the country or the continent. Eastern publishers, Eastern intellectual centers and agencies, public and private, based in Washington, D.C., still provide the authoritative voices […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Conscientious Objectors
Public employees and their allies on the outside fight against Bush’s war on science
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Riding high on political inappropriations
Appropriations bill is stuffed with pork — and some horse meat, too
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Protecting the people’s right of way: Public-access advocate Bill Calvert
The Yuba Goldfields in California’s Central Valley is one of the more bizarre and intriguing landscapes in the state — a swath of moonscape, wetlands, and sagebrush that stretches along both sides of the Yuba River. Huge piles of rock tailings, left by gold dredgers in the early part of the last century, loom over […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Nevada BLM cleans out cleanup project manager
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Conscientious Objectors.” Earle Dixon was in for a surprise this fall, when he showed up for a meeting at his office in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Carson City Field Office. Over the previous year, Dixon had overseen the cleanup of the Yerington […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Go West, Democrats, in the path of Harry Reid
Can a teetotaling Mormon from a busted mining town in Nevada lead Democrats to the Promised Land of national power? This much is certain: Democrats rallied behind Harry Reid in the hope that he can take them safely through purgatory — or is it hell? — as minority leader of the 44-member Democratic caucus in […]
Posted inWotr
A sleeping green giant may yet awake
Consider the matter of Row v. Wade, and no, that’s not a misspelling. We’re talking fishing here, and the never-ending debate over whether the best way to catch fish is from a boat or while walking through the water. What does this have to do with the re-election of President George W. Bush? As any […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Taking the West Forward
Facing four more years with the Bush administration, it’s time to seek fresh paths through the terrain ahead
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Transforming the Forest Service: Maverick bureaucrat Wendy Herrett
Since the frontier age, the West’s forests have been home to all kinds of rogues and rebels, from family logging operations to stubborn ranchers to hard-core eco-defenders. And for nearly as long, the U.S. Forest Service has been charged with keeping them all in balance. But sometimes, the Forest Service needs its own mavericks. For […]