The Inbox By Steve Stockmar sstockmar@prescottaz.com Courier City Editor Steve Stockmar keeps an eye on dCourier.com’s article comment traffic. He plays referee, examines the best of the big mouths, puts out some fires and starts others.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Alessandro Della Bella/AP
A festive tree glows at dusk near Arosa, Switzerland last week.
You’ve got to admit one thing, people are coming together. Maybe it’s the organic eggnog, or the thought of Kobe-LeBron on Christmas Day. Something’s in the e-air and it reeks of open-fire chestnuts.
People from all corners are coming together, throwing ideas on the table or throwing support behind coming together, and giving their best. I’m probably hopped up on my wife’s peanut butter fudge, but the good vibes have been palpable.
Let’s get busy on building our economy and confidence. We’re all ears. And if an idea won’t work, be honest, say so and give us a better one.
I am very happy that I made this choice to live here in Prescott. I
thank each and everyone of you who have responded to my letter to
the editor. I wrote this letter in hopes that there could be open
dialogue such as this forum among the leaders of commerce and
tourism in Prescott.
I am a firm believer that, the more we talk to
each other and have an open mind and an open heart, we all can bring
effective change that will not take away from the beauty of this
wonderful town that we live in.
I know, as well as all of you who
have responded, that it will take time for our city to recover from
this terrible economic crisis. It has taken years for our economy to
deteriorate to where it is at today, but if we all start talking to
one another and keep that openness in our hearts and mind we, as a
community, can effect a good, stable outcome.
I mentioned tourism
because this is a viable option to start us on our way to economic
recovery. With our focus and energy on tourism in a reasonably short
amount of time we can start filling our city’s bank account again without putting a lot of the fiscal burden on our community.
I myself do not want to see our great city to lose the elegance of the past.
That past can itself be our biggest draw. It brings to mind an old
saying that my grandparents taught me, "Respect the past as we build on the future." I believe that if we as a community unite, we all can help each other get through this epidemic fiscal crunch.
Well said. And if you think Eric is brimming with cheese, I don’t. He has drawn a line in the sand that divides planning from pouting. I’m with you brother.
RIOT IN CELL BLOCK #9
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we would be debating a proposed prison in Prescott Valley on Christmas Eve eve.
Fred M.: God Bless Mayor Skoogs and 3 of the council member for stepping up for WE THE CITIZENS! My income has been reduced to less than HALF now the building has come to a halt! I love this town, I have raised my children here and will be proud to house a corrections facility in MY TOWN! I pray the other council members remember who they work for THE CITIZENS! Merry Christmas to all!
Kay: I would guess those that don't think we need this prison are retired and do not need employment. You are a minority and I'm glad we have council members, a mayor, Mr Marks, and other local leaders willing to speak up and help those who needs jobs. It would be easier for them to not jump into this pit of controversy than to speak up with support as they have done. Thank goodness they didn't take the easy route but rather the right route. We need jobs. This is an opportunity we can not let slip away. All you naysayers need to grow up and except this fact. I've been here 30 years and I love this community. It's my heart and soul. For those of you who moved here with your preconceived ideas and aren't happy, go home.
tired: A massive letter writing campaign needs to happen from concerned citizens that oppose this. ... If a prison gets built here how will they promote that in the Chamber of Commerce? Opps! We forgot to include that in the brochure! ... And the town wonders why they don't or will not get any tourists to come to the area when they go to Prescott instead!
We can all see this one, can’t we? Of course tired will never begin "a massive letter writing campaign" himself. If he’s looking for a "concerned citizen that opposes this" to take on his charge, I’ve got one for him. He’s about this tall and goes by the name tired. Okay, so maybe you don’t want a writing campaign manager that misspells the word "oops," I’ll grant you that. Then, he says, "the town wonders why they don’t get tourists."
Maybe I’m completely oversimplifying things, but it seems to me that citizens like tired wonder why concerned citizens like tired do so little to contribute to a situation and do so much blaming instead. I’m not naming any names ** pointing with eyes at tired **.
As for me, I’m iffy on the whole notion at the moment. I’m absolutely ready to entertain any proposals to create employment and tax revenue. A prison industry isn’t quite hydrodynamic logarithmic microchip manufacturing, I get it. I’ll need your proposal for financing a semiconductor plant by noon tomorrow.
You know my thoughts. With 300 sunny days a year, any town would be crazy to at least not consider exposed Arizona acreage for solar energy development. Follow the lead of the legislation recently introduced by Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) which provides a 30 percent tax credit to developers that consolidate degraded private land for solar projects.
Not to drop anyone’s candy cane on the carpet but … speaking of renewable energy!
Stay with me. Look at it this way for one second:
Forget about who’s scientific data says what, just please remember that the renewable energy push has another component that’s more than political or scientific. The fact is it’s safer to deal with Mother Nature seven days a week than it is to deal seven days a week with people willing to kill each other over an energy resource. Iranian troops crossed into Iraqi territory this past Thursday and seized one of Iraq’s largest oil wells, located in the Maysan province about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad.
The oil well takeover was carried out by a group of armed Iranians.
"Iraq considers this penetration as a border breach and a violation of Iraq's sovereignty," an Iraqi government spokesman told AP writer Rebecca Santana. "We call upon the Iranian government to solve all the border disputes with Iraq through diplomatic means and to avoid the use of military force."
Never mind the climate charts. Is this who we’d rather do energy business with? If Al Gore is getting rich off global warming, that beats getting dead over oil. To put it in other more scientific terms, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and I have a straw and my straw reaches yoooooooour milkshake ... well, I think I’ve made my point.
CONSPIRACY FREAKS, HUDDLE UP!
This from the same AP story ** shifts eyes**: "The incident could trouble Iraq's drive to attract the international investment needed to develop its beleaguered oil sector, analysts said …"
Look a little closer, squint, focus: "Iraq’s drive …" Iraq’s drive? As long as Iraq currently houses the largest deployment of U.S. troops in one country with 171,000 this month and the war effort there costs our country $7.3 billion A MONTH, we’re calling the shots, ’kay? And if a drive is afoot to attract "international investment" for Iraq’s "oil sector," it sounds to conspiracy guy like someone’s got lots and lots of oil on their War-on-Terror Christmas list.
At the risk of bending the rules of simplicity implicitly to keep it real, put me on the list that favors seizing our nation’s energy through solar panels and fuel cells rather than through armed seizure. And that’s got NOTHING to do with conflicting scientific data or exposed emails, or whose meteorological pressure indicators are more accurate, or who likes Al Gore and who hates him. You tell me which basic means of acquiring an energy source makes more sense.
Merry Christmas.
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, January 11, 2010
Article comment by:
no kids...
Wow, the post from Spyder377 on the forum is really informative. My question would be "is this person a union member"? If so, does this influence the opinions expressed (not that there's anything wrong with that)?
Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010
Article comment by:
jamie
hi everyone, sorry for writing the web address wrong. the forum is at:
http://www.prisontownforum.freeforums.org
Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010
Article comment by:
No name provided
Now the prison debate is headed out to Paulden. Perhaps that is why the powers that be located the new cement plant in Drake? This was planned all along, as Paulden is backwoods and it is not in our back yard and they might be glad to have the prison located there.
Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010
Article comment by:
Steve Stockmar
Hi jamie. Nice post. I'm having the same problems as no kids trying to access your site, but your description sounds interesting. The political ramifications cannot dominate the discussion. There is a real segment of our communities that lives in and near prison culture, and by the sound of your statistics, the population is growing. I'm certainly interested in the voices of the people in the trenches on these issues. Of course any web forum is corruptable, but the right voices get through.
Posted: Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Article comment by:
no kids...
to Jamie -- I tried about every way I could to access your forum address, but could not get through. You may want to post a correction...
Posted: Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Article comment by:
jamie
My name is Jamie, and my father was a correctional officer until recently when NY State downsized the prison system. As a result of my experience growing up in a “prison town” and seeing the impact of this industry on my father, our family and our community, I have started Prison Town Forum, an online forum for people who live in “prison towns” to communicate about their experiences interacting with the corrections industry.
During the 1990s, a prison opened somewhere in rural America every 15 days. Prior to 1980, only 36% of prisons were located in rural communities. Since then, about 350 rural counties became “prison towns” as a result of the prison construction boom. What are the social and economic impacts of these policy decisions 20 years later?
This message board is a space for “prison town” residents and workers to share their thoughts. I want to build a network of voices and identify common realities and needs. Please join me on this message board!
http://www.prisontownforums.freeforums.org
Posted: Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Article comment by:
no kids,...
Steve, hope the r&r did the reboot & restore! Anyway, the concept (from what I understand) was capturing the energy produced from friction from, for example, applying the brakes or the resistance to propulsion (small amount of fuel necessary to provide that energy). The resistance from going downhill was where the gravity concept comes in. What vehicle is worth anything without Allman Brother-sized speakers?!!
Posted: Friday, January 01, 2010
Article comment by:
Steve Stockmar
Hi no kids. Thanks for checking in. Apologies for the reply delay; I was out on some holiday r&r (Ripping open presents and Ranting on the BCS). A car that runs on gravity is news to me. I thought I'd heard it all when it comes to progressive energy, but it turns out I ain't heard nothing yet. Sounds killer. If it's efficient, affordable and has an Allman Brothers-sized speaker system, I'm with you. Happy New Year to you and yours.
Posted: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Article comment by:
no kids, but we still care
My husband & I would both love to see going green becoming more important than fighting over oil. This may be an urban myth, but in the 70's, students from MIT developed a car that ran ALMOST completely on gravity. What was then Esso bought the design & the patent. I'm sure its buried somewhere labeled "used toilet paper" or some such. In any case, corporate greed in bed with insurance companies & the "military industrial congressional" complex have us stymied as far as completing a change in our points of view toward green energy, green living, and making a difference for the world. HOWEVER, we will continue to encourage as best we can a change in attitude by personal example and by voicing our opinion!
Thank you so much for the blog, and may your new year see some really dramatic changes for the good!
Posted: Thursday, December 24, 2009
Article comment by:
Steve Stockmar
Thanks honkyclaus. You too.
Posted: Thursday, December 24, 2009
Article comment by:
honkybrujo
