Dear HCN,
So my law school
classmate, Debra Donahue, has applied her formidable legal mind to
try to de-cow most Western public lands (HCN, 2/28/00: A prof takes
on the sacred cow). Note to Wyoming ranchers: When you calm down
enough to want to address the merits of her arguments, come
prepared. Deb is a very able advocate who has probably already
thought up responses to most of what you’re going to
say.
Note to University of Wyoming professors:
Please stop wrapping yourself in the American flag if your views
anger those who pay 40 percent of your salary. How come you have
the unlimited right to bite the hand that feeds you when the rest
of us don’t? Nothing is stopping you from exercising your First
Amendment rights to criticize cows or water buffaloes without a
public subsidy. Is a piece of scholarship inherently more valuable
than the (to some) controversial works of art that led to changes
in the grant-funding criteria for the National Endowment for the
Arts?
I wish High Country News
had run Professor Thurow’s response to Donahue’s provocative
column, rather than Steve Gloss’ breathy complaint about lost
funding to do an unnecessarily duplicative study of Platte River
endangered species issues. Instead, we just got Donahue’s rebuttal.
Does HCN have a problem with politically
dissident points of view? Just
checking.
Jim
Witwer
Denver, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Some free advice.
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