Letter to the editor

Is it funny or sad that where one person sees “Bush-bashing” another sees “reporting the facts?” Please keep “reporting the facts.” Agustin Goba Snowmass Village, Colorado This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Hmmmmmmmm….

I have been a subscriber and very vocal supporter of HCN for most of a decade. A few years ago, through stories about water in the El Paso/Juárez metropolitan area and the Sierra forest plan, I got my VERY conservative father to admit that your coverage of the issues was comprehensive. So I bought him […]

It seems some people who wrote you letters in the July 19 issue are under the impression that High Country News is supposed to be a “just the facts” newspaper with no slant. I was never aware that HCN ever claimed to be purely “objective,” “balanced” or not “ideological.” I’ve been a subscriber off and […]

Don’t lose any sleep over charges that HCN lacks objectivity. Middle-of-the-road pragmatists did not coax us out of the caves, launch the industrial revolution, or give birth to the idea that nature is more than a supporting cast of extras. All that and more, the good and the bad, was the work of advocates — […]

Oh, come on, Mark Matthews. As I started your Writers on the Range article “I’ve tried, but I can’t eat the view” (HCN, 6/7/04: I’ve tried, but I can’t eat the view), I expected an analysis of Tom Power’s anthem on how we make worthy sacrifices to live in the great West, trading some monetary […]

In a recent letter to the editor, Felice Pace argues that there are no true grassroots campaigns to preserve wilderness in the Western United States today (HCN, 6/21/04: What grassroots wilderness movement?). That would come as a surprise to the 900 people who appeared recently at three forums in Oregon to support new wilderness protections […]

I am responding to Felice Pace’s letter, in which he portrays the Arizona campaign to designate wilderness in the Tumacacori Highlands as the brainchild of the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the grassroots activists as Pew’s pawns (HCN, 6/21/04: What grassroots wilderness movement?). That perception couldn’t be further from the truth. The decision to promote the […]

Felice Pace’s assertion that there is no grassroots wilderness movement in the West is simply ridiculous (HCN, 6/21/04: What grassroots wilderness movement?). We have a thriving grassroots movement here in Colorado, one that long precedes the assistance of the Pew Charitable Trusts. The support of the foundation did not change our strategy one bit — […]

Looking at the opinions and positions of the writers in HCN, it’s clear that many don’t have the same ambivalence that I have. I grew up in the country of southwestern Pennsylvania and enjoyed it immensely. Always a rebel, I was pro-McGovern and anti-Nixon, and gradually became a Reagan Republican, ever retaining my love for […]

I am writing in support of HCN’s coverage of the Bush administration’s attack on the environment. I suppose, at one point, wanting a healthy habitat for human beings was a nonpartisan issue. Unfortunately, it seems these days if you care about anything that could be vaguely termed “social equity” or “conservation,” you’re automatically a pinko-commie […]

Regarding the note in “Dear Friends” about readers troubled by HCN’s tough coverage of the Bush administration’s policies across the West: Let ’em be troubled and angry! These are troubling, angry times. The Bush administration is carrying out an array of highly controversial policies across the West. I speak as one who’s been reporting on […]

I am a longtime subscriber to HCN. The willingness to address the political causes of land-management decisions in the coverage of HCN was striking, with the selection of a new executive director. But I believe that it is important. Politics is the modus operandi of the corporations and their political allies who recognize only the […]

I love the subtitle of HCN, “The paper for people who care about the West.” I care about the West. I also care a great deal about the dialogue of people who care about the West. HCN is an important part of that dialogue, but I wish I could say I am comfortable with what […]

I’m sorry to hear your board of directors gave you “a ringing endorsement” of your current editorial direction. It is for just that reason I’m letting my subscription lapse. I’ve been bothered by the increasingly strident and anti-Republican tone of your periodical as well as the sophomoric stereotyping of your articles. The confirmation you intend […]

Thank you for the invitation to “toss in my two cents.” I literally grew up with your newspaper in my home. My late father, Louis A. “Sam” Bibler, subscribed to HCN beginning in the 1970s, and was one of your most enthusiastic readers. I lament the changes in your paper since that time, and especially […]

No excuse that the “staff feels that the doings in D.C. are the most critical right now” to justify a lack of objectivity and balance. Maybe you and the staff need a refresher course in Journalism 101. Either you’re journalists or advocates, and should declare where you stand politically. Jim Nielson Cody, Wyoming This article […]

Congratulations to you, the staff, and the HCN board for your in-depth reporting on environmental and natural resource issues in the West. Ideally, we would also prefer emphasis on collaborative efforts to manage land, water, and wildlife. Unfortunately, at the behest of its right-wing constituents, the Bush administration is dismembering environmental protection and cloaking these […]

As the president of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, I have many responsibilities to attempt to prevent the types of water wars that ultimately tear communities apart. The fact is that in a small community like our San Luis Valley, nothing is possible if we are unable to present a united front in the […]

HCN is on the right track. Collaboration works with people who understand the concept. The Bush administration does not collaborate, but stubbornly follows its own agenda to its sole benefit. The mainstream papers have fallen down on the job and don’t call Bush on it. Now is the time to expose the policies of the […]

As a newspaper publisher in the Western U.S. for 20 years, I make it a point not to cancel subscriptions out of anger. But, while I may yet be enlightened to a different perspective, I’ve found HCN, to which I subscribed in February, to be much more about ideology than news. Because it was too […]