Wednesday, August 10, 2011
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Walking Flagstaff is not sponsored by the City of Flagstaff
solvitur ambulando (it is solved by walking around)
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Walking Flagstaff is not sponsored by the City of Flagstaff
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- wednesday afternoon
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August
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...and the support of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court in a process that included an Environmental Impact Statement with public comment periods, that is finally and legally moving forward. Everyone had their time for input; not agreeing with the results does not justify immature, lawless, disruptive behavior.
ReplyDeleteThose 40 acres of alpine forest are not rare, btw.
Troutbum
From Tony Norris, Profaning the Holy --
ReplyDelete"Does anyone else remember the fufuraw in 1987 when Andres Serrano, artist and photographer created a piece of art consisting of a photo of a crucifix immersed in a small bottle of his own urine. Jesus lies back in a honey colored sea. The piece was a winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art's "Awards in the Visual Arts" competition, which is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Senators Al D'Amato and Jesse Helms were outraged on behalf of Christians everywhere. They were all for dismantling the NEA. The artist received death threats and as recently as April 2011, 1000 protestors marched on a gallery in France and men armed with hammers and screwdrivers defaced the the picture of Jesus immersed in urine.
Cut to Dookʼoʼoosłííd, the sacred mountain of the Navajo and Hopi, where the Kachinas live who bring rain, snow and spiritual direction. SNOWBOWL plans to spray the urine of our little mountain town high into the crisp cold mountain air and have it fall back as a jaundiced snow laced with heavy metals and hormones so lawyers and real estate developers from Scottsdale can ski down its wheat colored slopes and leave some of their disposable income here. There are people protesting this to the point of being jailed. I can't help but picture towering Kachinas striding among the dark firs and lifting inscrutable faces covered with yellow snow to an angry sky. Jesus may not be the only one who is coming back."
I apologize. No, no, don’t try to hug me or make me feel better. I feel fine. I apologize for thinking that trees and wildlife and a mountain and a sense of sacredness are more important than profit and revenue and tourists. No, no, I don’t need to sit down, thank you. I’m not that old. I apologize. I apologize that my values are different from the values of the wealthy and the politically connected. I apologize that I haven’t learned that the entire earth is open to plunder. What’s that you say? It’s not plunder, it’s development? See what I mean? How ignorant I am! Okay. I apologize that I have been thinking that development is plunder and pillage and rape. What? I am not to speak of development and rape in the same sentence? I am to re-read the pledge I signed? What pledge? Wait! Wait! I am not done apologiz . . . . . .
ReplyDeleteOur country was founded by people who did "not agree with the results" and found it necessary to engage in "immature, reckless, disruptive behavior." Thank you god for the abolitionists, femiinsts, civil rights workers, environmentalists and all others in history that demanded rights and protection they viewed as fundamental but their governments repeatedly and legally said no to. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, David Brower and many others like them offer us a fine tradition of peaceful protest. (And hey what about those egyptians!?)
ReplyDeleteAnd BTW do we really want to take any governements word for what is rare and valuable? I mean reALLY??
Tania
For some, the earth is so much window dressing, a backdrop for living out one’s personal melodrama. For some, the earth is an alive breathing being with which one has close intimate relationship. Some switch back and forth between these two “worlds” – crossdressers of consciousness states if you will. All three groups come from the same Wellspring and are differing dimensions of awareness. Each thinks their way of seeing is absolutely correct. At certain flashpoints, their worlds collide.
ReplyDeletemy heart aches for the mountain. these changes in it's face bring tears. and what is even more frustrating is that i don't feel i can take a side! half of my family loves to ski. a portion of our income comes from the mountain in the winter... any shouting at snow bowl now has to be aimed at my loving husband and my sweet father and many of my friends! they too are against making fake snow... but they love to ski. and though i feel great giving snow bowl the finger, many of my friends and family may not be willing to sacrifice their recreation to speak out against this greedy grab from snowbowl... and what's ironic, is that they are out there skiing because they love the out doors! where do i plant my feet? i hate snow bowl (but they have paid some of my bills). i love the mountain (but i can't protect you). i'm sorry.... i'm so sorry...
ReplyDelete~apl
Arizona Snowbowl occupies a small area compared to the entire San Francisco Peaks. There are thousands of acres of spruce-fir-aspen forest on the Peaks. Opening new ski runs provide edges for wildlife and meadows for grazing during summer months. Biologists have found a good combination of openings and edges are a plus for wildlife such as elk, deer, and turkeys. Ski runs also provide fire breaks and ultimately may lead to the protection of vast continuous stands of the spruce-fir-aspen ecotype. Logged trees are made available to tribes for the construction of lodges.
ReplyDeleteSnowmaking will use reclaimed, recycled water with an A+ rating. The water isn’t broken, it isn’t urine, and it is currently being used to water Flagstaff parks and playgrounds, golf courses, for dust abatement, and various other irrigation uses.
Water of this quality is currently being pumped into groundwater basins and extracted for drinking water and other domestic uses in some California and other cities. The use of recycled wastewater is on the rise throughout the world because human populations demand more water than is naturally available and must rely on reclaimed water to meet their needs.
If the Kachinas faces are stained yellow from urine, it’s due to the hundreds of thousands of hikers, cross-country skiers, campers, backpackers, and other recreationists who urinate and defecate across the face of the Peaks. Perhaps those people should be carrying human waste bags? At least, Snowbowl provides restrooms for their patrons.
From my perspective this protest and objection to snowmaking doesn’t seem to be well informed, just pissed off (pun intended) because their definition of multiple use of our National Forests doesn’t fit their paradigm.
Troutbum
Troutbum, i appreciate your thoughts. Somehow they do lessen the sting of what is going on on our mountain and in our community. But I still think making fake snow is a terrible idea on many levels. At least it is not the end of the Peaks. Oh how we love the San Francisco Peaks! And oh how I love our diverse community. What a crazy, beautiful world...
ReplyDelete~apl
The Snowbowl has existed for decades using the natural snowfall. Some years are better than others, but generations have enjoyed the area, with and without the snow nature has provided. So what is driving the sudden urgency for artificial snow-making, other than greed on the part of both businessmen and the skiers who cannot be satisfied with enough, but want "more, more, more" of everything.
ReplyDeleteNo, the water is not urine, but ask any microbiologist or biochemist about the risks associated with the pharmaceuticals and hormones that remain in recycled water. Because we currently expose portions of our landscape to those pollutants does not justify expanding the practice to the Peaks. Expanding upon that illogic justifies the perpetuation of all types of pollution simply because we're already doing it. Huh?
None of the commenters has addressed the water issue itself. Flagstaff has been under water restrictions for several years, its taxpayers are funding the purchase of ranchland and the construction of a pipeline to bring water to Flagstaff from miles away. Ironically, the self-same taxpayers are subsidizing the construction of the pipeline to turn precious water into snow that only a handful have the resources to utilize. Essentially, enjoyment for the wealthy, brought to you by the taxpayers. Would it not be better to spend these tens of millions of dollars bringing graywater capacity to Flagstaff homes?
It is time to start thinking of water as the precious resource it is, essential for life.
Cynthia J.