“Life on the gay rodeo circuit” (HCN, 3/18/19) brought back a memory: My wife and I were spending the night at the Fort Lauderdale Airport Hilton before flying home early the next day. As it happened, the Hilton was the host hotel for the big annual event of the Florida Gay Rodeo Association. As we […]
Letter to the editor
Posted inApril 29, 2019: A History of Violence
What about the real criminals?
Reading Paige Blankenbuehler’s excellent exposé about the plight of the Devils Hole pupfish (“Scene of the Crime,” HCN, 4/15/19), I couldn’t stop thinking about how arbitrary and weighted toward the wealthy the American legal system is. Here you had an admittedly foolish young man who broke into a natural hot springs and accidentally killed a […]
Posted inApril 15, 2019: Scene of the Crime
Don’t scapegoat the horses
Debbie Weingarten’s cover piece depicts the conflict over the Salt River wild horses and the mythology of wild horses as symbols of an unbridled West (HCN, 3/18/19). But in venturing further afield, the article echoes destructive myths about America’s free-roaming wild equines. Overpopulation is not “a real problem.” The Bureau of Land Management and the […]
Posted inApril 15, 2019: Scene of the Crime
Stop the Border Police state
Kudos to Ruxandra Guidi for journalistic excellence and her report on the Border Police’s abuse of, among other principles of democracy, the First Amendment (“Detention nation,” HCN, 3/18/19). Guidi reports the truth (there is no such thing as an “alternative fact”) in a clear, concise and logical progression, without name-calling, supposition or what rhetoricians call […]
Posted inApril 15, 2019: Scene of the Crime
Wild horses do us good
As a wildlife ecologist, I did two in-field investigations and reports on the Salt River herd and its habitat in 2012 and 2015 (“Arizona’s Wild Horse Paradox,” HCN, 3/18/19). These involved interviews, ecological transects and literature review. Based on my findings, I believe that Debbie Weingarten is overlooking much of the greater truth about these […]
Posted inApril 15, 2019: Scene of the Crime
Conciliation and compromise
For the last decade I’ve read almost every issue of HCN cover to cover, starting at the back cover with “Heard around the West,” but I usually just gloss through the “Editor’s Note.” Not this time: Paul Larmer’s essay on contradictions was spot-on (“Embracing contradiction,” HCN, 3/18/19). Last week, I finished teaching a 300-level environmental law […]
Posted inApril 15, 2019: Scene of the Crime
Conversations and communities
As a longtime subscriber to HCN, I have always appreciated your approach in illuminating all sides of an issue as a step towards resolution on clear issues like water or land. Recently, a spate of articles has asked more amorphous questions, from people looking for a sense of belonging or struggling to stay in New […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2019: Arizona's Wild Horse Paradox
Free beer vs. carbon tax
One of the insights offered by recent Nobel economics laureate William Nordhaus was that the framing used to advance carbon fees/taxes is really the whole story (“What Killed Washington’s Carbon Tax?” HCN, 1/21/19). Instead of putting a carbon tax on the ballot, we might have better luck with “free beer,” “health care for all,” or perhaps […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2019: Arizona's Wild Horse Paradox
Navajo generating station
You are missing one of the pieces to solve the puzzle (“Healing wounds from the war on coal,” HCN, 3/4/19). I have always admired the Navajo Coal Plant as a great opportunity to generate electricity and provide jobs on tribal land. Currently, I am working with another of the tribes to develop a wind-generating facility that […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2019: Arizona's Wild Horse Paradox
Resisting what?
The essay by Raksha Vasudevan (“Mountain biking is my act of resistance,” HCN, 3/4/19) has disquieted me. This may be the intent of HCN’s editors, but I wonder what the takeaway is for most readers. For me, it is frustration with a mindset that claims victim status just for being different, and with a publication […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2019: Arizona's Wild Horse Paradox
Roadkill beats factory-farmed
If one wishes to eat animal flesh, then Ella Jacobson is correct that it’s far more ethical to eat animals that were accidentally killed on highways than ones cruelly killed in slaughterhouses (“Road-killed cuisine for the Anthropocene,” HCN, 2/4/19). Unlike cows, chickens and pigs, most animals killed on roads have lived a free life and died […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
Brave and bravo!
Integrating this form (comics/graphic novel) into a journalistic outlet is brave; it opens up a lot, formally. By amplifying an Indigenous storyboard, HCN is strengthening its adaptive ability to meaningfully respond to the myriad challenges we face, further opening the possibility of a magazine that enacts the actual context of the West, whose past, present, and future […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
Editorial drift
I’m concerned about HCN running a 10-page comic book as the cover story in the magazine (“Nizhóní Girls”). I have nothing against comic books. When I was a kid, I enjoyed the debut of Spider-Man in 1963. As a young man, I enjoyed the revolutionary underground comic books of the late 1960s and 1970s, such […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
Journalistic insanity
I just received my Feb. 4 issue of HCN and was surprised to see that the “environmental bi-weekly for people who care about the West” had morphed into Rolling Stone. With Donald Trump in the White House dismantling environmental regulations, assaulting the Endangered Species Act, filling top spots with corporate polluters and environmental destroyers, attacking […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
More visual storytelling
HCN’s effort to delve into visual storytelling has been one of the most exciting things I’ve seen in the many years I’ve been reading my favorite magazine. You can’t please everyone. I hope to see this trend continue. Dave BastionGrand Junction, Colorado This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
Moving story
“Nizhóní Girls” was an important and moving piece. I still can’t read it without tearing up. Pauly DenetclawManuelito, New Mexico This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Moving story.
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
Not up to standard
I appreciate Associate Editor Tristan Ahtone’s account of the Indigenous storytelling tradition, and I’m glad to hear of the success of these motivated and talented girls, but journalism this is not. HCN has such a wonderful history of hard-hitting investigative journalism, stories that involve research, face-to-face interviews, extensive travel and persistence when confronted with less than cooperative […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
Spurred to subscribe
Osiyo. We most respectfully have been spurred to subscribe for a year due to your perspective commentary by Kim TallBear. Wado. Sarah Mix and Susan StrubelCitizens of Cherokee Nation Ashland, Oregon This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Spurred to subscribe.
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
Unwarranted critique
I am very much enjoying your focus on Native American issues, and I thought the “Nizhóní Girls” comic was marvelous (HCN, 2/4/19). But I was disappointed with Kim TallBear’s critique of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, “Playing Indian.” As a former elected official for the Green Party, I’m proud that San Miguel County, Colorado, adopted Indigenous Peoples Day […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2019: Barriers to Entry
Focus on journalism
I am usually excited to receive High Country News each month and read about the important issues across our beloved American West. I am therefore disappointed in your choice to include cartoons as a cover story (“Nizhóní Girls,” HCN, 2/4/19). I did not learn anything new or gain a greater appreciation for the Navajo culture. […]