Opinion Columns – The Durango Herald

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Don Coram: Let’s better fund public schools

When I wrote my last column, we had concluded the budget in the Senate and the House had concurred on several amendments. The Joint Budget Committee kept some of those amendments but change...

Mike Littwin: If you missed Biden, you missed something important

According to the folks at Nielsen, Joe Biden’s big speech Wednesday night – his first, if unofficial, State of the Union – was a ratings flop. But if those who skipped the speech ...

DATE: May. 4, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Timothy Egan: Some Statues Tell Lies. This One Tells the Truth.

The United States is in a muddle over how to tell our history, stuck between an aggressive revisionism that would leave few commemorative statues standing, and a stubborn clinging to all the...

DATE: May. 2, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Ezra Klein: Let’s launch a moonshot for meatless meat

I’m a vegan, but I’m also a realist. There’s no chance humanity is going to give up meat, en masse, anytime soon. That said, we can’t just wish away the risks of industrial animal agricultur...

DATE: May. 2, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Our View: We’ll take those cocktails to go, please

To-go, delivery drinks help restaurants

DATE: May. 1, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Tracy Jones: Guilty verdict for Chauvin is relief, not victory

The guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial is a relief, but not a victory. A victory is when we no longer need a witness to record the murder of a Black man in order to reciev...

DATE: May. 1, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Barbara McLachlan: Colorado agriculture is nonpartisan

My grandfather was a mover and shaker in the Colorado sugar-beet industry with Great Western Sugar, and he was also a professor of agriculture at Colorado State University. But the agricultu...

DATE: Apr. 30, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Mike Littwin: Gun-violence bills in state won’t be matched in Congress

Give credit to Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg and others in the state legislature who, in the wake of the Boulder King Soopers shooting, are trying to actually do something about gun v...

DATE: Apr. 29, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Lawrence S. Wittner: Despite COVID-19, other crises, major powers increased military spending in 2020

Last year was a terrible time for vast numbers of people around the globe, who experienced not only a terrible disease pandemic, accompanied by widespread sickness and death, but severe econ...

DATE: Apr. 29, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Rural startups fuel the future

Durango native explains the coming boom

DATE: Apr. 28, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Letter: Address Native poverty, leave ’the Chief’ alone

Are we still wasting time and energy on the Toh-Atin Chief? Really? Perhaps those who are so supportive of its removal would like to interview Native Americans in Newcomb, New Mexico, on the...

DATE: Apr. 28, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Writers on the Range: Pumping up fear on the Colorado River

Some Colorado River tribulations today remind me of a folk story: A young man went to visit his fiancé and found the family trembling and weeping. They pointed to the ceiling, where an axe w...

DATE: Apr. 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Fort Lewis Lacrosse Fort Lewis College women's lacrosse take on CSU-Pueblo on Friday at FLC.

Fort Lewis College women's lacrosse take on CSU-Pueblo on Friday at FLC.

Strater Hotel sold The Strater Hotel, owned for decades by Rod Barker and his family, sold the hotel this week to Ross Garrett, who lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The Strater Hotel, owned for decades by Rod Barker and his family, sold the hotel this week to Ross Garrett, who lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Rail car restoration The Galloping Goose Historical Society in Dolores works on restoring five rail cars that ran on area rialroad tracks.

The Galloping Goose Historical Society in Dolores works on restoring five rail cars that ran on area rialroad tracks.

Fort Lewis College women's soccer quarterfinal The Fort Lewis College women's soccer took on Westminster College in the RMAC quarterfinals on Tuesday at Dirks Field in Durango.

The Fort Lewis College women's soccer took on Westminster College in the RMAC quarterfinals on Tuesday at Dirks Field in Durango.

Bayfield at Durango volleyball Non-league rivals Bayfield and Durango met on the volleyball court in a big showdown Wednesday night at DHS.

Non-league rivals Bayfield and Durango met on the volleyball court in a big showdown Wednesday night at DHS.

K-9 search and rescue Jon Bonnette works with his dogs, training them for search and rescue and human remains detection.

Jon Bonnette works with his dogs, training them for search and rescue and human remains detection.

Durango High School volleyball beats No. 7 Montrose Durango High School volleyball takes on Montrose High School on Saturday at DHS.

Durango High School volleyball takes on Montrose High School on Saturday at DHS.

Bennet remembers Boulder victims on Senate floor In tearful address, senator shares anecdotes, demands gun control

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet shared personal anecdotes and urged his colleagues to vote for better gun control legislation Wednesday on the Senate floor in the wake of Monday’s deadly shootings in Boulder. “My heart goes out to all the families, and the entire community of Boulder,” Bennet said. “We have endured too many tragedies as a state.” On Monday, less than a week after eight people, mostly of Asian descent, were shot and killed in Atlanta, 10 people were killed in a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder. The suspect has been charged and is in custody. “It’s long past time for Congress to take meaningful action to keep deadly weapons out of the wrong hands,” Bennet said in a news release issued Monday after the shooting. “There are steps that the overwhelming majority of Americans want us to take. And they have every right to expect us to finally do something about gun violence in our country. Enough is enough.” On Wednesday, he called for similar action. “We can’t allow this to become normal,” Bennet said on the Senate floor. Bennet spent 15 minutes talking about the Boulder shooting. In his speech, he shared information about the 10 victims, lamented how younger people, including his 21-year-old daughter, have grown up “in the shadow of gun violence” and urged his fellow senators to pass legislation to prevent future tragedies. “My daughter’s generation will always bear the burden of a national government that did nothing to protect them,” he said. Bennet, D-Colo., shared the names of the victims, their ages, their occupations and some personal anecdotes, quoting their family and friends in his speech as well as some of their own posts on the internet. He said each of the victims represent “the best of Colorado.” “I’m just asking us to show an ounce of their courage, by doing whatever we can to keep weapons of war out of our communities; to pass universal background checks; to limit the size of magazines; to address the epidemic crisis of mental health in this country,” Bennet said. “It seems like that would be the least that we could do.” The senator’s tone and presence was solemn during his speech, and he was visibly choked up at times. He frequently paused to wipe away tears.

“They have grown up with a reasonable fear that they will be shot in their classrooms, or in their schools, or at a movie theater, or in any public place,” Bennet said. “I didn’t grow up in an America with more gun-related deaths than virtually any country in this world. And we can’t accept it for their America.” He brought up the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas and the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. He said the vote taken in the Senate after the Sandy Hook shooting was “one of the darkest moments” of his career, because “the Senate couldn’t even pass universal background checks.” “Who are we to insist that they live terrified in their own country? Nobody insisted that we live that way,” Bennet said. “But our failure to act has helped create these conditions. And we can’t wait any longer. The Senate needs to act. There’s nobody else to act but the United States Senate.” Earlier in this month, the U.S. House passed two bills that would increase background checks on people looking to purchase firearms in a partisan vote. Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., opposed the legislation. Boebert condemned the violence on Monday, but maintained her stance against gun control and said Democrats should “stop focusing on gun control and start focusing on border control,” in a tweet Thursday. The two gun-control bills have been received in the Senate, but have yet to be scheduled to be debated or voted on. Grace George is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C.

In tearful address, senator shares anecdotes, demands gun control

New Bayfield gym teaches Native American fighting art Pine River Valley to be hub for guardian art

Flutes, kicks, spins and flips are common features of Bayfield’s newest gym, Nexus Guardian Art. To the regular bystander, Nexus lessons seem like a mixture of parkour, mixed martial arts and self-defense. But students are learning a Native American ancestral fighting art rooted in the original game of lacrosse – guardian art. And the Pine River Valley plays a leading role in Nexus’ plans to bring guardian art to the Four Corners. “I guess in modern English words ... it’s kind of like real life ninja training for kids and adults,” said Great Owl Lightning, co-founder of Nexus Guardian Art and a member of the Ojibwe Nation.

Guardian art fighters have competed successfully against other disciplines, like Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. But Lightning was careful to distinguish between them: The guardian art philosophy does not focus on martial concepts, such as strike first, strike hard, no mercy, that can be found in other disciplines, he said. “A guardian is not trying to go to war with life. A guardian is trying to nurture life,” Lightning said. “It’s all about being a guardian for yourself, for your community, for your family. Part of our teaching is how to be a guardian to the Earth.” Nexus offers virtual and in-person training to kids, starting at age 3, and up to the adult level. A typical class features self-defense moves, climbing, acrobatics, striking, grappling and spirit running, which is comparable to modern-day parkour. “The cool thing about it is it’s really a diverse skill set that they’re teaching,” said Andrew Trujillo, whose three children train at Nexus. “That’s why I like it. The kids aren’t doing the same thing every time. It’s evolving as they learn, as they grow.” His kids are building their self-confidence, friendships, agility – and spending more time at home jumping around on the furniture, Trujillo said.

The program is open to everyone. It’s a way for people to share in Native American culture and North American ancestry, Lightning said. “If you’re going to practice like a Japanese art, you almost have to become Japanese in order to learn it,” he said. “We want people to honor their own ancestry. And that’s a big part of our teachings.” The guardian art movement and philosophy is based on Native American lacrosse, played across North and South America and even in coastal Asia from time immemorial, Lightning said. The game did not look anything like the lacrosse known today. Instead of a field, they played on a mountain. Teams would score points by hitting a ball on a totem pole at the top of the mountain. It was also a full-contact game. Players needed to be skilled in stick fighting, tackling, wrestling, spirit running, kicking and punching in order to reach the totem pole. “This is how communities used to settle disputes with each other. That’s why you won’t find a lot of communities having big battles and war in North America,” Lightning said. “They would call it ‘little brother of war.’”

Nexus Guardian Art began teaching 20 years ago, primarily in Canada or its headquarters in California. During the past eight years, the training school held programs with the Navajo and Hopi tribes. Starting in 2018, they held programs, featuring language immersion, with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. Nexus considered opening a location in Ignacio, but progress froze when the COVID-19 pandemic began. It opened up with Bayfield Gymnastics and moved into its new location in January. Nexus opened doors to the public at the end of February, Lightning said. Nexus also purchased a property near Forest Lakes to host summer camps in the Four Corners, part of the organization’s nonprofit arm, called Guardian Saga. Guardian Saga holds camps and training programs that attract Indigenous, rural and underprivileged youths from across North America. “It’s about really investing out here. We think this place is just beautiful and magical,” Lightning said. smullane@durangoherald.com

Pine River Valley to be hub for guardian art

Inside DeNier A look inside the vacant Robert E. DeNier Youth Services Center in Bodo Industrial Park.

A look inside the vacant Robert E. DeNier Youth Services Center in Bodo Industrial Park.

Don Coram: Let’s better fund public schools

Mike Littwin: If you missed Biden, you missed something important

Timothy Egan: Some Statues Tell Lies. This One Tells the Truth.

Ezra Klein: Let’s launch a moonshot for meatless meat

Our View: We’ll take those cocktails to go, please

Tracy Jones: Guilty verdict for Chauvin is relief, not victory

Barbara McLachlan: Colorado agriculture is nonpartisan

Mike Littwin: Gun-violence bills in state won’t be matched in Congress

Lawrence S. Wittner: Despite COVID-19, other crises, major powers increased military spending in 2020

Rural startups fuel the future

Letter: Address Native poverty, leave ’the Chief’ alone

Writers on the Range: Pumping up fear on the Colorado River

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