Our Voice, Green Freedom

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Our Voice

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Elect Your Environmental Policy
Register to vote by October 6th to let your voice be heard.

           Improving the condition of the environment is something that we should all strive to do. Individually there are many things that each of us can do every day to help. To really make a difference elected officials must be taking steps towards a greener tomorrow. There is only one way to get the people that we need to do this in the office and that is by voting.

           But before we can do that we must be registered to vote. Some students may be a bit confused by this process, especially if they have just moved here from another state or county, but it is very easy. All you need is to be an American citizen, have an address here in La Plata County and your school I.D. card. You can fill out a voter registration form at the information desk or voter registration table, if it is set up, in the CUB. Voter registration is also available at the DMV (305 S. Camino Del Rio) or the courthouse (1060 East 2nd Ave). Then you are ready to go in November. The deadline for registration is October 6th, so we have to get a move on.

           As to who to vote for that is totally up to you. You can get great information on all of the candidates at govotecolorado.com. Also to read the individual environmental policies of the presidential candidates you can go to barackobama.com or johnmccain.com. No matter whom you vote for you must be informed on the policies of that particular candidate. The most important thing is to go out and vote and have your voice be heard.

Royce Johnson

Local and Global
Poverty is here in our own town, just open your eyes.

           Poverty is everywhere, in developing nations and in our own. Even here in Durango we can see the effects of poverty. Durango has a sizable homeless population but many people do not even know it exists. For most people, the words hunger and poverty bring up images of children in some foreign culture who need help. Rarely, if ever, do people think about the local issue of poverty and hunger.

           The global aspect of poverty should not be forgotten, but it is also important to look to our own community. By fighting poverty in our own community, we can learn how to better fight it on a global scale. If we could end poverty here in Durango, then we would serve as a case study for how to fix the global problem. Donations play a large role for any group trying to fight poverty. Each of these groups deserves donations. Donating to a large campaign, like One or the Make Poverty History Campaign, can help out a greater number of people, while donating locally will help the people on our own streets. Both are important and hold equal value. One benefit of donating locally to groups, such as Manna Soup Kitchen or to the Durango Family Center, is that you can directly observe the effect of the donation. Each person must decide for themselves who they would like to help.

           So when you are looking to donate to a campaign to end poverty, look to the local groups as well as the global and remember that we have problems in our own community. Whether in our own country or in another, poverty is one of the most pervasive and important issues that we have to deal with. There are many ways to help people and many people to help so whether local or global please continue to support the fight against poverty.

Ben Rogers

T. Boone Pickens
The Man With the Plan

Wind Turbines at sunset                                                                                                                                           EC File Photo

          If you have not noticed by now there is an energy crisis going on and the easiest place to see this is at the gas pump. It seems that America is addicted to gasoline and cannot find any other way to power this great nation. But luckily there is a man with a plan. T. Boone Pickens has come up with a plan that will not only save the nation billions of dollars every year but will also be beneficial to the environment.

        The problem that Mr. Pickens, as a business man, is concerned with is that “…we will send $700 billion [of oil] out of the country this year alone”. That is money that we could be using for further development of renewable energy research. “Everyday 85 million barrels of oil are produced around the world. And 21 million of those are used here in the United States”. That is a huge problem. We are addicted to this source of energy. But this is all included in the plan.

       We have a great wind resource in the Great Plains states.   Which is a great location because the energy gained here can easily be transported either east or west. On his web site Pickens mentions that it will be a large expense to build the wind power and infrastructure to move the power, but this is a onetime payment compared to the $700 billion annually that we are currently spending. Also by investing in this wind program will create skilled jobs both in building and maintaining these wind energy sites, as well as jobs at the facilities. This all makes way for changing many cars from using gasoline to natural gas, which we also have an abundance of.

           You can find more information online at www.pickensplan.com/theplan/. We need to do what we can to save the environment and the economy; this plan takes care of both.

Royce Johnson

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