Dear HCN,
After reading Ed
Marston’s column, “Show me the science,” (HCN, 3/16/98), I feel
compelled to respond to your criticism of modern Western
environmentalists wherein you called them “enemies of rural life
and rural economies.”
Why do you, and so many
others, think that Western rural lifestyles and economies must be
based upon traditional practices like ranching, logging and
mining?
Can’t you imagine a nice, quiet little
town where most people spend their work week writing innovative
software programs, let’s say, while their weekends are spent
appreciating, in a responsible manner, the natural splendor of the
surrounding public lands? It could be a place where someone who is
different doesn’t feel uncomfortable? A place where the elected
public officials don’t seem to be in some sort of contest to prove
which of them is the most ignorant, or the most
rigid?
Can’t the rural West join the modern world
in a positive way? I don’t think change is inherently bad. In fact,
it’s long overdue in many
places.
Jeff
Burgess
Tempe,
Arizona
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The rural West should grow up.
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