"Swimming Pool, Italy" is the work of French photographer Jonk, who was the Overall and Place winner of the Earth Photo 2020 competition. Source: www.earthphoto.world
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Diana Tittle, a member of the board of Sierra County Public-Interest Journalism Project, was the editor of the Sierra County Sun, the Citizen's precursor. A former resident of Truth or Consequences who now lives part-time in northern New Mexico, she spent her 42-year professional career in Cleveland, Ohio, where she worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine writer and editor, book author and publisher and publishing consultant. She is the recipient of a Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature.
This article gave me pause to consider our micro-universe of TorC. I attended a memorial service for Jan Thedford yesterday which put me in mind of another woman who died recently, Collie Sue Lawson. Both of these women had worked tirelessly through their years here in TorC for causes that reflected the hearts of a TorC that cared about its citizens health and well being and for their gentle footprint on the planet. Both were instrumental in creating the recycling program for the city and for rescuing the Municipal Swimming Pool from it’s downward cycle. They are both dead now as is the Recycling Program and it appears the Municipal Pool is gasping it’s last breath, projected to be open only from Memorial Day to Labor Day next year. It is a sad commentary on the priorities of our town’s leaders. Both of these programs cost a bit of money but what is now apparent is the feeling that this is a city in decline. It doesn’t care for the values that are held by forward-looking citizens and prospective citizens looking for a place in the sun to settle for either retirement or a place to raise a family. Instead we are a place where speed limits are merely a suggestion; cars, trucks and recreational vehicles make more noise than power are the norm; nepotism and last century’s ‘conservative’ values are prerequisites for employment and the beautiful, wildlife-affirming riverine environment is to be sacrificed in the name of commerce and expansion. Who would want to move here where our anti-humanistic values are blatantly celebrated in the local newspaper and every city and county commission meeting? Historically, this was a place of healing and peace. It could be that again if the powers that be would lead or get out of the way.
This article gave me pause to consider our micro-universe of TorC. I attended a memorial service for Jan Thedford yesterday which put me in mind of another woman who died recently, Collie Sue Lawson. Both of these women had worked tirelessly through their years here in TorC for causes that reflected the hearts of a TorC that cared about its citizens health and well being and for their gentle footprint on the planet. Both were instrumental in creating the recycling program for the city and for rescuing the Municipal Swimming Pool from it’s downward cycle. They are both dead now as is the Recycling Program and it appears the Municipal Pool is gasping it’s last breath, projected to be open only from Memorial Day to Labor Day next year. It is a sad commentary on the priorities of our town’s leaders. Both of these programs cost a bit of money but what is now apparent is the feeling that this is a city in decline. It doesn’t care for the values that are held by forward-looking citizens and prospective citizens looking for a place in the sun to settle for either retirement or a place to raise a family. Instead we are a place where speed limits are merely a suggestion; cars, trucks and recreational vehicles make more noise than power are the norm; nepotism and last century’s ‘conservative’ values are prerequisites for employment and the beautiful, wildlife-affirming riverine environment is to be sacrificed in the name of commerce and expansion. Who would want to move here where our anti-humanistic values are blatantly celebrated in the local newspaper and every city and county commission meeting? Historically, this was a place of healing and peace. It could be that again if the powers that be would lead or get out of the way.
For a lighter take on the topic, check out this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/climate/voluntary-human-extinction.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
I have no doubt that a decrease in the number of humans on this planet would be a good thing. It seems we can let nature do it for us or choose it.