Dear HCN, Barbara Schuster’s confusion about the Mormons’ bad rap is not shared by many “Gentiles” who grew up in the Beehive state. Obviously she didn’t spend her childhood in a neighborhood where most kids are forbidden to play with non-Mormons. She was never dropped off at Primary (Mormon catechism) by a public school bus. […]
Lester Wood
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Futile firefighting
Dear HCN, Louise Wagenknecht’s essay on the futility of firefighting (HCN, 5/7/01: The year it rained money) confirmed my family’s observations during a nearby fire last year. We watched in horror as 250 firefighters set pointless backfires, bulldozed miles of roads, and sawed down huge, rare trees that would not have burned. We saw dozens […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
The bulldozer wins
Dear HCN, “Bulldozers Roll in Tucson” described the tragedy one can expect when wildlife gets in the way of children – and their parents. I learned this lesson at a middle school built in a piûon-juniper forest near Cedar City, Utah. The spring after the school opened, roaming students spotted a nearby great horned owl […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Sadness from a native son
Dear HCN, Your article, “Greens not welcome in Escalante” reminded me why I left my home state (HCN, 5/24/99). Southern Utahns have long regarded nature as an enemy to conquer, dating back to the days when Brigham Young sent them to colonize a howling wilderness. Considering the local belief that the Earth is a mere […]