Columnists - The Journal

La Plata ‘exhausted options’ for managed camp, closing Purple Cliffs in 2022

La Plata County’s Board of County Commissioners, as well as the county staff, law enforcement and legal professionals, stand behind our ongoing efforts to find workable solutions to mitigate...

DATE: Jun 18, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Identifying red flags prevents school violence

Recently, public discourse has begun to emphasize mental health challenges as the source of mass shootings. Prevention science specifies interventions, and identifying red flags and signific...

DATE: Jun 13, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Make a difference in health care at ballot box

Since the 1980s, Americans have been told that inserting private health insurers as middlemen between patients and physicians will save money and improve care. After 40 years, that theory ha...

DATE: Jun 12, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Lake Powell’s future: As water recedes, new opportunities for recreation

Lake Powell, the blue-green gem of the Colorado River and one of the 20th century triumphs of the Bureau of Reclamation, is in trouble. Not a lake but a reservoir, its shrinking water level...

DATE: Jun 11, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Summer Milky Way an impressive sight

Greetings, stargazers. June is the month with the fewest nighttime stargazing hours. Not only are there more daylight hours, but the twilight hours are extra-long at this time of year, too. ...

DATE: Jun 10, 2022 | CATEGORY: Columnists

Police blotter highlights good old days in Durango

Will Rogers famously described Durango as “out of the way ... and glad of it.” (Look him up, young’uns). When I arrived in Durango in 1988, you could still pull a U-turn on Main Avenue and n...

DATE: Jun 10, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Suicide, mutual cooperation and the future of humanity

I was 13 when Jim Hackett died by suicide. Jim and his wife worked for the Forest Service substation in Norwood, where I grew up. Like other parts of Southwest Colorado, my community was pla...

DATE: Jun 6, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘Nuisance’ yard a wild, interconnected ecosystem

I was hustling out of the house, ignoring my un-walked dog’s aggrieved expression, when I found the yellow slip tucked into our front door. A citation from the City of Durango informed us th...

DATE: Jun 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Can we enter abortion, gun debates with compassion?

The debates about abortion and guns in the United States rage on. When does life begin? Religious traditions offer answers ranging from “life begins at conception” to “life begins with the f...

DATE: Jun 3, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘Ascent seems to be religious school cloaking true nature’

As reported by The Durango Herald, the Colorado Department of Education has directed the Durango School District 9-R board to review the charter application of Ascent Classical Academy withi...

DATE: May 27, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Advocates, ranchers outfitters can coexist with wolves

Wolves are returning to Colorado. About half of us are happy about this and about half of us aren’t. Working together, however, we can make it work for all of us. Proposition 114, passed by ...

DATE: May 26, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

The poppy of Flanders Fields: a Memorial Day symbol of sacrifice

Red poppy rises from World War I battlefields to a place of honor

DATE: May 25, 2022 | CATEGORY: Living