Thanks to Will Grandbois
It “takes a village” to create a town, a community, a place of commitment to each other… Historians like to witness and record the development, regulations, people and purpose of a community. Journalists have a unique role. One of the most honored and best records of change and growth is the “local paper.” Lives of our residents, impacts to our special places, new ideas, shared opinions, and the facts that direct our opinions are reflected in the accurate and sensitive reporting displayed by The Sopris Sun and its most recent chief Will Grandbois. Clearly, Will made choices which reflected the best of, and in the interest of, our community’s well-being. He did this with perception, with warmth and love for Carbondale and the Crystal River Valley. He included differing opinions, showed a willingness to express the obvious as well as hidden and in so doing directed the course of our lives and town. The Carbondale Historical Society wants to thank Will for taking his rightful place in a long line of fantastic editors of Carbonale’s local news dating back to 1887.
Stephen Shapiro, on behalf of the Carbondale Historical Society
Carbondale love
Carbondale is a great place to be because everyone that lives here is really nice to me. Carbondale also has great vibes. Carbondale also has great events. I like Mountain Fair and Music in the Park. Carbondale has a lot of great places to eat at like White House Pizza and Peppino’s and Carbondale also has a lot of great art places. The best place to get really healthy groceries is The Beat in Carbondale. Carbondale really inspires me. My favorite place to go is Bonfire because all of my friends work there. Bonfire is also a great place to hang out with friends. One thing I miss doing right now is going to Bonfire because of COVID-19. COVID is one of the hardest viruses I have had to deal with, personally, because I could not see any of my friends.
Camy Britt
Carbondale

Equinox reading
Time is coming for our Sacred Equinox event that we do on every Equinox both spring and fall. If you haven’t had the experience of participating in the Adi Shakti Sacred Mantra reading, you are in for a treat. While my day job is manager of Mana Food, supporting local and organic food in the town of Carbondale, my passion is building the Temple for our 72-hour Equinox mantra reading. We have been building the Temple for the past seven years.
The tradition was started by my husband Paramroop back in 2014 and I have continued since. That makes 13 Temples if you include the one I will create for Mar. 18, 2021. The reading is actually an invitation for the entire community to participate in a Prayer for Peace. The reading, also known as the Akhand Path, is done all over the world and is designed to bring together people of all faiths and walks of life into a common prayer.
The energy is palpable and the readers are blessed with the collective energy we create. In a time when our nation craves unity, each one of us has a role in creating sustainability and community. Consider reading or volunteering to help. Sign up will start at Mana Food in early March.
Sotantar Anderson
New Castle

Unity
Given everything that’s going on in our country these days, I’m struggling with all the talk about “the need for unity.”
I’m certainly not opposed to the concept of unity as an ideal. But we need to remember that we just had a violent insurrection against our nation’s capital led by white supremacists. And white supremacist groups have been growing dramatically in recent years. Before we can work toward unity, we need to agree on some basic ground rules:
Speak truthfully.
Treat every human being with respect.
Seek to understand those whose views differ from your own.
We cannot begin to “heal divides” and work toward unity with others until everyone is doing their best, in good faith, to play by these same rules.
We shouldn’t always expect our leaders to “reach across the aisle” to seek compromise because compromise is not always the right thing to do. We don’t want to seek a compromise with racism or fascism — we want to eliminate them.
It’s always important to try to understand people who hold racist or fascist views — but we don’t need to “meet them half-way.” Reducing by 50% the number of innocent black people who are killed by police is not OK. Reducing by 50% the number of immigrant children separated from their parents is not OK.
When there was division in our country surrounding slavery and then Jim Crow laws, the problem was not lack of unity. The problem was the existence of slavery and Jim Crow laws.
At this point, it doesn’t make sense to champion “seeking unity” as the ideal by which our leaders are judged. Instead, we should hold our leaders to the high standards of speaking truthfully, treating every human being with respect, and seeking to understand the wide diversity of perspectives among Americans today.
Debbie Bruell
Carbondale

Latino opinion?
I’d like to hear the Latino community’s opinion on the caravans heading north because of Biden’s immigration policies. How do they feel about competing with foreigners for jobs and wages? Do they think this will improve or decrease their quality of life? I don’t care what naive, white, “open border” liberals think.
Bruno Kirchenwitz
Rifle

Climate change laws
I have spent a lot of time over the last decade trying to make a dent in climate change. I have served on boards and many committees. I’ve donated to campaigns. I have written dozens of letters and columns on environmental issues. I’ve taken many classes on sustainability at CMC. I read reports and articles on the environment all of the time. I would use stronger language, but I am really ticked off.
Recently I’ve been talking to the sustainability people in other towns in Colorado. I have looked at their climate plans. The problem with climate plans, from ours to the Paris Climate Accords signed by some 200 countries, is the same for all. Nobody is meeting them. Politicians learn in the first five minutes that they rarely get serious blame for what they DON’T do but do get blamed when they do something people don’t like. They also know that they should do what the people with the most money want them to do. Doing what needs to be done to save us from climate change is going to cut into the wealth and income of a lot of powerful people, at all levels.
The standard climate plan is full of great sounding goals and lots of little incremental steps that might add up to something in a few decades. The only serious reductions in emissions are coming from the “greening” of our electricity as renewable energy is growing. That only happened because the cost of solar and wind has been dropping like a rock.
So, let’s have some straight talk. Big changes that will really cut emissions will need to be done by government laws. Gasoline and other carbon-intense products and commodities must be taxed. Have to be. That will shift the whole market. No new buildings or large remodels can be allowed that use natural gas. The buildings must not add to our emissions. The carbon tax will apply to products that travel long distances. Like beef from New Zealand or strawberries from South America. Grow locally.
Local utility companies need to be nationalized. Yes, nationalized! Aspen and Glenwood have their own electric departments. They can be much more aggressive at improvements. Every decision doesn’t have to be approved by stockholders. Same with the gas suppliers. We need to end all heating by natural gas and replace it with electric heat pumps. NOW!
We need government programs based on hard data that will get the huge changes we have to make. Plans need to be made, watched, and adjusted. QUICKLY! All of these existing so-called plans are several years old. That time is lost. You can’t make it up.
Patrick Hunter
Carbondale

Alternate views
The masks aren’t for your protection … They’re a sign of your submission.
Steve Campbell
Glenwood Springs