The Durango Telegraph, March 7, 2024

4 Walking the talk

The parallels between the treatment of Palestinians and Native Americans by Kirbie Bennett

RegularOccurrences

4

5

6-7 Soapbox

5

Muddied waters

Glen Canyon Dam and the muddy mess it’s left behind by David Marston /Writers on the Range

11 Storytime

After four-year hiatus, Raven Narratives return to sold-out acclaim by Jonathan Romeo

10 Not in vain

Durango teens turn tragedy into statewide effort to stop more deaths by Rae Ellen Bichell / KHH News

EDITORIALISTA:

Missy Votel missy@durangotelegraph.com

ADVERTISING SALES: telegraph@durangotelegraph.com

STAFF REPORTER:

Scoops McGee telegraph@durangotelegraph.com

The Durango Telegraph publishes every Thursday, come hell, high water, tacky singletrack or mon-

STAR-STUDDED CAST: Kirbie Bennett, Jonathan Romeo, Jeffrey Mannix, Rob Brezsny, Lainie Maxson, Jesse Anderson & Clint Reid

FAN MAIL ADDRESS: P.O. Box 332, Durango, CO 81302

VIRTUAL ADDRESS: www.durangotelegraph.com

ster powder days. We are wholly independently owned and operated by the Durango Telegraph LLC and dis-

8 Local News

10 State News

11 Murder Ink

12-13

13 Ask Rachel

14 Free Will Astrology

15 Classifieds

15 Haiku Movie Review

Ear to the ground:

“In full disclosure, I flunked Wordle yesterday.”

– We feel your pain

Gulo gulo time

Move over wolves and lynx – you may soon have a new neighbor. On March 4, state legislators, including our own Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, took the first step toward reintroducing the North American wolverine to Colorado. Senate Bill 24-171 is set to kickstart the animal’s reintroduction following its listing as a threatened species in late 2023.

In Colorado, legislative action is required before Colorado Parks and Wildlife can begin reintroduction of any threatened or endangered species. The bipartisan bill would start the process, allocating $750,000 for the reintroduction effort. However, before reintroductions can take place, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must first pass a Section 10(j) rule, declaring reintroduced Colorado wolverines as a non-essential experimental population.

For those unfamiliar with the largest member of the weasel family (species name gulo gulo), it is described, using your best “Honey Badger” voice, as a tenacious scavenger that thrives in a harsh world of snow and ice. With a solitary nature and a strong survival instinct, the wolverine is an icon of arctic, boreal and alpine environments. With short, rounded ears, a broad head and stocky body, wolverines are sometimes compared to a skunk-badger-bear combo. Or a furrier, nongreen Shreck.

On the cover

Local artist Jon Bailey’s drawing “Still Holden” captures the current brown and barren season perfectly.

REAL WORLD ADDRESS: 679 E. 2nd Ave., Ste E2 Durango, CO 81301

PHONE: 970-259-0133

E-MAIL: telegraph@durangotelegraph.com

MAIL DELIVERY AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3.50/issue, $150/year

tributed in the finest and most discerning locations throughout the greater Durango area.

Unfortunately, wolverines are defenseless against climate change and loss of snowpack (or the state’s sky-high housing prices, but we digress.) “That’s why it’s so important that Colorado moves forward with returning these animals to the high mountains, where we can help give them a fighting chance,” Michael Saul, of Defenders of Wildlife, said.

Following eradication from much of the Lower 48 through trapping and poisoning in the 20th century, it’s estimated there are fewer than 325 wolverines remaining. They face threats from habitat fragmentation, increased human presence and the loss of snowpack. Wolverines rely on hard-packed snow in the winter to store food and dig dens for raising young.

Colorado wildlife officials considered restoring the wolverine, along with Canada lynx, in the 1990s. However, due to complexities, the wolverine plans were shelved in favor of the lynx (probably because the lynx is a lot cuter). After lynx restoration was deemed a success, CPW returned to the wolverine in 2010, but that was halted because of uncertainty surrounding the federal listing.

Of course, all this begs the question: is there a South American wolverine?

What would Jesus do?

For months now, I’ve been watching the days get longer every Sunday afternoon at Buckley Park. Week by week, the sun gradually takes its time resting on the shoulders of Smelter Mountain. And for a few hours on that corner, the sidewalks turn black, white, red and green with flags, signs and chalk art as we hold another demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Our demonstration goes from the park to the train station and back. Seven blocks to voice our rage and grief. Seven blocks to plead for peace. Seven blocks to shout demands, calling for an end to genocide, occupation and settler violence everywhere. Seven blocks to put hope, power and meaning into our words.

During these demonstrations, it’s not uncommon to hear insults from bystanders. One time an old man yelled, “What would Jesus do?” Jab or not, it’s an amusing rhetorical question. We all know Jesus would be at these weekly demonstrations for Gaza.

Other times, people have cynically yelled, “What’s the point?” and “Do you think you’re really making a difference?” And we’re not oblivious to those questions. There are moments when those thoughts haunt us, and we talk about it collectively. I sit with those questions, and let my heart cradle them.

ancestors to return home was eventually honored.

I think of my Indigenous history when I witness the 75 years of occupation endured by Palestinians in Gaza. I don’t know if anyone in the 19th century was speaking out about the violence forced on my ancestors. But I’m here now, and it’s a blessing, and I can’t look away from Gaza. Our struggles for justice are entwined, and that’s what brings me back to the park on Sundays.

We know change can’t happen overnight. But in the case of Israel’s massacre of the Palestinian people, the U.S. government could bring it to an immediate halt. Imagine President Biden ending the slaughter with just a phone call. Ronald Reagan did so in 1982. After an Israeli bombing campaign on Beirut that lasted more than 11 hours, killing more than 100 people, Reagan picked up the phone and called the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. Reagan bluntly said, “Menachem, this is a holocaust.” After more pressure, the Israeli government complied and ended the assault. (After Reagan got off the phone, he told staff, “I didn’t know I had that much power.”)

So what’s the point of our constant demonstrations? The fact that the U.S. government wields so much power and chooses to be complicit in genocide, by vetoing numerous UN resolutions demanding a ceasefire and continually giving military aid to Israel, compels us to take to the streets. I come from a people who were once forcibly removed from our ancestral lands, Diné Bikéyah. We were held for years in a concentration camp. The defiant resilience of our

Thumbin’It

Well, after this week’s Super Tuesday, we guess it’s official. Donald Trump will run against Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election. Yippee.

Hey, the Durango Demons Varsity Hockey Team won the Colorado High School Athletics and Activities Association Class 4A Championship in Denver on Tuesday, beating rivals Summit 4-2. Not bad for a bunch of kids from a place where cacti grows.

And speaking of local teens, good on friends of Gavinn McKinney for taking their mission of naloxone overdose-death prevention to the State Capitol to help others across the state and hopefully prevent more tragedies.

When we assemble and walk through downtown, unhoused folks raise their fists, and I think about this backwards country spending endlessly on war and death but providing nothing for shelter and life. When we assemble and walk through downtown, we pass that racist Toh-Atin art gallery statue. It’s a frozen image that stereotypes and dehumanizes Indigenous people, and I see no difference between that and news headlines dehumanizing martyred Palestinian civilians, and since that terrible statue’s not coming down soon, wouldn’t he look better with a keffiyeh covering his face and neck and giant Palestinian flags in each hand? When we assemble and walk through downtown, people cheer, some I know and love, some strangers, all voicing solidarity, and some join spontaneously and at the red lights cars honk in support and it balances out the cynics and my emergency heart flutters with butterflies.

When we assemble and walk through downtown, I think about how we show love for each other, and that is partly what brings us to any gathering against injustice. If people in power choose to make invisible and ungrievable the martyrs of Gaza, we are here on these streets to grieve publicly. We carry grief and rage and love and joy, and we know this demonstration is just one way of resisting, one way of using our bodies. Some set themselves on fire outside an embassy, like U.S. Air Force member Aaron Bushnell, bless his eternal soul. That’s something Jesus would have done.

After a full trek through downtown, we meet back at Buckley Park. To debrief, decompress; to replenish ourselves with water. Collectively, we’re vulnerable and unassailable. As long as this genocide continues, we’ll keep showing up. And as people disperse, there’s this brief eternal moment when the setting sun brightly shimmers against Smelter. All these people with hearts that hold the world are golden. This time of day reminds me that we are fighting for life and beauty. While we’re living, we should always fight for life and beauty.

– Kirbie Bennett

SignoftheDownfall:

We may have gotten snubbed by last week’s storm, but South Jordan, Utah, did not. Residents awoke on Saturday to “tumblemageddon” – thousands of tumbleweeds burying homes, roads and cars. Residents literally had to shovel tumbleweeds. So at least we got that going for us.

Revelations that oil companies transferred ownership of low-producing wells to fraudulent shell companies that soon went bankrupt, shifting the onus of clean-up onto the state, and us, the taxpayers.

The disinformation campaign cranking up against a proposed Dolores River monument. Among the complaints: it would stymy new uranium mining in the region. Uh, haven’t we been there done that?

Muggy Shot

Abbie Newman, of Georgia, spent four days in jail late last year for “drunken shoplifting” in an Atlantaarea Walmart. When she got out, she discovered that her mugshot had been posted on @mugshawtys, which is an Instagram account dedicated to attractive criminals. And of course, Abbie also had an OnlyFans account at the time, so everyone from @mugshawtys subscribed, and now, Abbie is making $24,000 per week. I usually end these things with a funny pun, but instead, I’m chugging tequila and planning a shopping trip.

The big muddy

Move over Missouri River, Glen Canyon Dam has created a world of mud

by Dave Marston

When the San Juan River flows out of the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado, it contributes 15% of Lake Powell’s water.

But there’s a problem: The river carries a hefty 55% of the sediment entering the reservoir, and that mud is piling up.

The sediment-heavy river flows south into New Mexico before jogging into Utah, then it joins the Colorado River close to the Arizona border. The confluence is submerged under Lake Powell.

After decades of drought, the reservoir created by Glen Canyon Dam has dwindled to just a third full. Now, as the San Juan River flows toward Lake Powell, it rambles over a huge pancake of mud that’s 49 miles long, a mile wide in some places, and as much as 120 feet deep in the final reaches of the San Juan River.

Unique hydrology has contributed to this plug, A relatively wide canyon and multiple waterfalls slow down the river, allowing sediment to drop out. Though the San Juan is the muddiest tributary, all the Colorado’s tributaries drop a good deal of mud 100 miles or more upstream of Glen Canyon Dam.

It’s a Western phenomenon caused by damming swift rivers, Jeff Geslin, a geologist at Fort Lewis College, said. The result is that reservoirs in the West have become “temporary sediment-storage facilities.”

If that mud could move through the Grand Canyon, like it did before the dam, biologists say that would help restore the canyon’s ecosystem, which depends on sediment-laden flushes in spring to scour riverbanks. Then, as the river slows, beaches form and vegetation returns.

Gary Gianniny, Professor of Geosciences at FLC, has been studying the San Juan River, along with river researchers who call their team, The Returning Rapids Project. The group’s big worry, he said, is that without drastic action – draining Lake Powell to let the Colorado River run free – time may be running out for the languorous San Juan River.

Researchers boating the San Juan River where it approaches Lake Powell say they’re forced to navigate an ever-moving pile of sediment that also involves portaging around rock waterfalls. When they finally arrive at Lake Powell, there’s dangerous liquefied clay and sand to navigate.

“I’ve seen people sink to their chests in the mud, saved only by their flotation devices and nearby boaters,” Mike DeHoff, principal investigator of the

Calving sediment, aka “mud bergs” on the San Juan River, below Clay Hills, Utah. Thanks to Glen Canyon Dam disrupting the normal flow of sediment through the Colorado River system, a pancake of mud 49 miles long, a mile wide and 120 feet deep has formed above the San Juan’s confluence with the Colorado, impacting the natural ecosystem of the canyon./ Photo

Returning Rapids Project, said.

Gianniny noted a drone is needed to study the area. Researchers with Returning Rapids talk a lot about what to call these giant slabs of calving sediment. DeHoff, who lives in Moab, suggests “mud bergs.”

Semi-solid mud walls along the river have already been dubbed “the Dominy Formation,” named after the avid federal dam-builder Floyd Dominy.

Technically, Gianniny said, the giant mud plug is a “mass of uncompacted mud and sand that causes alluvial fanning.” And falling slabs of sediment, aka “mud bergs,” act as semi-permanent river features.

BLM River Ranger Chad Niehaus uses a packraft to regularly visit what researchers are calling the Lowest San Juan. He floats over 30-plus miles of the muddy river, finishing with a 4-mile hike out out to a four-wheel drive vehicle 48 miles from Page, Ariz., as the crow flies.

Niehaus marvels at the deserted region. “Sediment is moving around, and you must be vigilant in a different way than you do on a ‘normal’ river.”

Drought, climate change, “whatever you call it, the Lowest San Juan has re-emerged,” Niehaus said about

the ecosystem in the once-submerged canyon. “I’ve seen river otters, mountain lions, coyotes – even pelicans – but the most astounding aspect is how quickly nature is coming back.” In places, cottonwood trees are 20 feet high, he said.

“When I was a teenager there were places on maps that were considered forever gone,” he said, pointing to sections on the map entitled, “Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.”

Now, he said, “some forever-gone places are revealed.” He mentions Cathedral in the Desert, a wondrous site on the nearby Escalante River. Enough water has receded to make it visible, though some of this sacred place for Indigenous people is buried under 30-plus feet of sediment.

Meanwhile, the muddy end of the San Juan River is wild again: “I rarely see a footprint.”

Dave Marston is the publisher of the independent nonprofit, Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He lives in Durango. ■

by Chad Niehaus

Marston

Democracy on the ropes

On Feb. 28, the Supreme Court granted review of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ denial of Trump’s bogus claim that he is immune from any criminal acts he committed while he was President of the United States. The Court set the week of April 22 for oral argument and will issue a ruling before its present term ends – about June 30. As a practical matter, the Court’s rulings have reduced to close to nil the chance that Trump can be tried and convicted in the federal courts before the November election.

By brazenly stretching out the timeline for rulings, filings and oral arguments at various stages of the prosecution of Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, the Supreme Court’s extreme right-wing majority has shown itself to be more interested in promoting the Trump-driven Republican agenda than in upholding the Constitution and the law. American democracy is on the ropes, and only a solid victory at the polls for Democrats this November can save it.

–Edward Packard, Durango

Bloodshed only leads to more

A former Prime Minister from Israel, Ehud Olmert, recently said on Fareed Zakaria’s CNN talk show, “GPS,” that, “Israel’s moral foundations are in severe danger.” Olmert also believes the Palestinians deserve a two-state solution like President Joe Biden wants. But Biden is caught between a rock and a hard place with

uncommitted Muslim/Arab/younger voters in Michigan and many other states wanting an immediate end to Gaza’s death and destruction crusade by Israel.

The present dictator, Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, loves Trump like a bro and ignores Biden’s plea for peace in Gaza. Some of Bibi’s Jewish citizens in Israel are extremely unhappy/suspicious since October 7. Bibi is responsible for 30,000 Palestinian civilians dying by 2,000-pound bombs, bullets and inadequate delivery of food/water causing starvation – all classified as the world’s worst crisis.

Please, President Biden, stop supplying this Bibi with any kind of ammo that ends up destroying far more Palestinians than Hamas, who are hiding underground with hostages in Gaza or God knows where else. According to Middle East conferences, for every killed Arabic/Muslim child, woman, man or soldier, their surviving family members are easily recruited to become the newest terrorists that avenge the deaths of their loved ones.

–Sally Florence, Durango,

Vote so history doesn’t repeat

Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson are about to repeat history of Adolf Hitler. Hitler removed Germany from the League of Nations. Trump wants America to leave NATO to appease Putin.

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Britain appeased Hitler in 1938 and gave half of

Czechoslovakia to Germany. This was to appease Hitler not to invade France or England.

Well, six months later Hitler invaded Poland, and WWII started. We helped England with the war effort with supplies, and Americans flew fighters for the Royal Air Force as they had family in England and France.

Trump wants Putin to win, and said who cares what happens to Ukraine. The next step for Russia is Poland when we are out of NATO as Putin wants. We need to help Ukraine. Read history. My uncles all served in

WWII and against Hitler and Mussolini. All were from Italian Immigrants but true Americans.

I can’t say that about Trump. Vote this year, it will last forever.

–Bob Battani, U.S. veteran, Durango

Why you should vote for me

My name is Sean Murray, and I am running for District Attorney of the Sixth Judicial District. The district attorney must be dedicated to keeping the community safe while also protecting the rights of the accused.  The district attorney must zealously advocate for the voices and rights of victims. A district attorney should be extremely experienced handling serious cases as well as someone with the leadership background to properly supervise a busy prosecutor’s office. Voters expect a district attorney to be rooted in the community and to consider the community’s values and concerns when making policy and reaching important decisions. I’d like to explain here why I meet these expectations and am the right candidate for the job.

I am currently the Assistant District Attorney of the Sixth Judicial District, the number two person in the office. In a smaller office like ours, there are not enough lawyers to handle all the cases coming in the door without the DA and the Assistant DA doing trial work. So in my position, I both help manage the office and shoulder a significant percentage of the felony caseload. I have taken more than 45 cases to jury trial in Colorado, many of them of the most serious type, cases involving murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and

child abuse. I have also argued many cases that turn on difficult points of law in front of the Colorado Supreme Court.

My criminal justice philosophy is to hold offenders accountable and keep the community safe but also to use diversion and restorative justice when appropriate. This is based in part on my past work as a public defender, where I was able to see things from the perspective of someone caught up in the system. It’s also based on what data analysis has shown are some of the realities of our justice system regarding disparate outcomes for minorities and unnecessary and draconian sentences for nonviolent offenders. I have spent the last 13 years developing an expertise in rehabilitation programming in problem-solving courts such as mental health courts, drug courts and veteran courts. I have worked on a statewide training and education subcommittee implementing best practices in rehabilitation courts. I have also worked for more than 12 years on local drug courts where we not only reduced crime, we also gave those struggling with addiction and mental health disorders a new lease on life. I am also the Chair of our community corrections board, working to improve our local Hilltop House.

I believe the key to operating a fair and efficient office is hiring, training and maintaining quality lawyers and staff. We are fortunate to have a highly dedicated group of people working for the office now. For example, our victim advocates Jane Foy and Carol Little have recently won statewide awards for their work.  Because many of our lawyers are relatively new to the profession, there is a strong need to mentor and provide informed legal advice. I believe one of my

strengths is training attorneys to become excellent trial lawyers and most critically, to be fair.

Perhaps the best assessment of my qualifications and ability comes in the form of endorsements made by people familiar with my work. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has endorsed me. District Attorney Christian Champagne has endorsed me. La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith and Archuleta County Sheriff Mike Le Roux have both endorsed me. State Rep. Barbara McLachlan has also given me her endorsement. There is a consensus among criminaljustice stakeholders that I am the standout candidate for this important position.

I would like people to know how much this community means to me. I met my wife, Maria Jose, here. I am raising four of my five children here and the fifth is a Marine serving overseas. It’s important to me that my children grow up feeling safe. It’s also important they see the adults in their lives working hard to build a society that is tolerant and shows compassion for those whose circumstances have led them to make poor decisions.

We need a District Attorney’s Office that has the capacity to meet new challenges and a leader with the knowledge and vision to see and prepare for them. We need a district attorney that will be diligent in keeping the community safe and in promoting a fairer system. We need a district attorney with more than a decade of experience rehabilitating those suffering from mental health disorders and substance use disorders. I believe I can be that leader.

–Sean Murray, Sixth Judicial D.A. candidate, Durango

Who’s ready for storytime?

At long last, Raven Narratives return with community-connecting event

by Jonathan Romeo

After a four-year hiatus, the Raven Narratives is making a comeback, bringing to life a storytelling event where your neighbors take center stage, telling tales filled with laughter, tears and sometimes really embarrassing details about their lives.

“We’re coming back,” Sarah Syverson, who founded the event with Tom Yoder, executive director of KSJD, said. “And almost four years exactly to the date.”

The Raven Narratives kicked off in early 2016 with a straightforward but daunting idea (especially for the public-speaking averse): get regular people to share a personal story on stage, each time focusing on a different theme.

Up until 2019, the Raven Narratives held around four events a year across Southwest Colorado, mostly in Durango and Cortez. Indeed, the events, which usually sold out quickly, evidently struck a nerve within people who wanted to tell a story and those who wanted to listen.

“It’s a very human experience to want to tell a crazy story you experienced from your life, or something that

transformed your life,” Syverson said. “And we invite everything from the micro to the macro.”

But then… 2020. However, even after the pandemic, Syverson and Yoder said they were not quite yet ready to bring the event back. In fact, it wasn’t until this past fall that the two started to feel the timing was right, compounded by interest from the community.

“We kept being asked by community members if we were bringing it back,” Syverson said. “I’m amazed people remembered. But it was an impetus for us.”

And so, at long last, the Raven Narratives will return this March, fittingly with the theme “Reemergence.” The shows sold out in record time, Syverson said, but take heart. Now that Raven Narratives is back for good, organizers are planning at least two other events this year

“For it to sell out so fast, signals that people really want it in their lives,” she said. “I think it connects the world in a way we need. It shows we’re not so siloed and isolated; we’re more alike than we think we are.”

See if it sticks

Around the time the Sunflower Theatre in Cortez was being built in the mid-2010s, Yoder started to think of

outside-the-box ideas to bring to the community event space. Meanwhile, Yoder attended “The Moth,” a national storytelling event, in Telluride in May 2015.

“It was so impactful to hear these stories,” Yoder said. “It lit a fire in me.”

Yoder then talked to his friend and former KSJD colleague Syverson, who had done some one-woman shows over the years. The initial thought, Yoder said, was to bring a localized version of The Moth to Southwest Colorado.

The first event was in February 2016. Yoder and Syverson decided on “Wild Places” as the theme, and then reached out to their circle of friends and network for anyone interested in telling a story. Two nights were booked – one at the Sunflower and the other at Durango Arts Center.

“We were just like, ‘Let’s try it and see if it works and see if people are interested,’” Yoder said. “And it was really well received.”

Breaking the ice

A few months before an upcoming event, Raven Narratives will announce the theme and put out a call

Ellen Shinkle tells her story at the Raven Narratives in 2020 where the theme was “First/Last.” Ironically, it was the last Raven Narratives since the pandemic hit. Now, after four years, the local story-telling event is returning./ Courtesy Photo

for pitches. Each story must be real, told in the first person and last about 8-10 minutes. Oh, and also no soap-boxing for your favorite presidential candidate or pizza place.

Syverson and Yoder come up with themes on their own, looking for that sweet spot for topics open enough for everyone to take their own spin on them. Past ones have included “Baggage,” “Exposure” and for Halloween, “Spooked.”

“We didn’t want everything to be challenging stories of drama and tumult,” Syverson said. “We wanted a mixture of joy, comedy, the unexpected –everything.”

The best part? Anyone can submit a pitch, whether they’ve had experience on stage or not. Yoder said his favorite tales often come from those who were initially shy about speaking up –but went for it anyway.

“You can feel them quiver on stage, and that they’re not a natural storyteller,” he said. “But still, there’s something in them wants to tell it, and you can see their transformation on stage. That’s some of the most beautiful storytelling we’ve had.”

part of my story and journey.”

Quinn, who previously had stage experience, ended up writing and performing a one-woman comedy show about it, “Felony Ever After.” And, she now heads Lower Left Improv, an improv company based in Durango that teaches improv classes and holds regular shows at the DAC.

“Without Raven Narratives, that burden and guilt would have stayed with me,” she said. “Now I have a sold-out show.”

Tom Garcia also found Raven Narratives at the right time. Still dealing with the emotions of the passing of a close friend, Garcia started working with medicine and holding fire ceremonies – practices that transformed him spiritually and made him feel less alone, he said. So it was only fitting he told his story when Raven Narratives held a show in October 2018 with the theme “Belonging.”

Letting it all out

Mary Quinn was in a similar situation. Previously, Quinn hadn’t spoken publicly about her felony charge and the stigma that some people associate with it (which was for having weed in South Dakota and was ultimately vacated. We know, boo South Dakota!).

“When I got my felony, I retreated into my shell,” Quinn said. “So it was like a release to be able to talk about it. I realized it does not identify me; it’s just

“For a long time I felt alone, even though I had a wonderful wife, kids and a great community,” he said. “(Speaking at Raven Narratives) was like moving a big boulder out of the river so the rest (of my emotions) could flow through me. It was a turning point in my life to tell that story from the stage.”

For the lucky few who have tickets, Garcia will be taking the stage once again for Raven Narratives’ March shows.

Back better than ever

So, with people clearly pumped to share their tales, and consistently soldout shows proving the demand, what happened to Raven Narratives in the years since the pandemic?

Well, it’s tough to talk about, the pair said. Syverson and Yoder admit those pandemic years hit hard, struggling to

grasp how people all over the country and political spectrum reacted to everything happening.

“The pandemic hit me in a way, where I can say I lost my faith in humanity,” Yoder said. “I had to work through some general resentments, just about society and how things were looking from a cultural point of view.”

What’s more, Syverson said they wondered if they had it in them to host the event anymore.

“I felt like I was withdrawn,” she said. “Did I want to be that person on stage?”

Turns out, the same community spirit that made Raven Narratives a hit also sparked its return. Whether at the grocery store, in restaurants or wandering around town, people kept bumping into the duo, asking, “When is

Raven Narratives coming back?”

“It got to the point, for me, where something shifted and it felt like (Raven Narratives) had a higher good; it wasn’t just entertainment or creating a place for someone to tell stories on stage,” Yoder said. “It was something that connected people on a deeper level.”

Syverson said that storytelling is such a deeply human experience. It’s a way to share, a way to connect and a way to build community. And now, more than ever, she’s hearing from people that this is precisely what they’re craving in their lives.

“We’re re-emerging, too,” Syverson said of the Raven Narratives. “We’re clear who we are, what we can offer, and we’re here to learn and grow and be aware of things as possible for the future.” ■

Sarah Syverson and Tom Yoder co-founded the local story-telling event based on “The Moth” national storytelling event, in 2016./ Courtesy Photo

Turning tragedy into action

Durango teens take Narcan mission to state level to prevent more deaths

by Rae Ellen Bichell/ KFF Health News

After successfully lobbying Animas High School and School District 9-R to allow students to carry life-saving naloxone on campus, Durango students have taken their mission to the State Capitol.

Local students testified last month in front of state lawmakers in support of a bill they helped write to ensure students throughout the state can carry naloxone on campus. School districts tend to have strict medication policies. Without special permission, Colorado students can’t even carry their own emergency medications, such as an inhaler, and they are not allowed to share them with others.

Durango students rallied to change that policy locally in the wake of the overdose death of 15-year-old Gavinn McKinney in 2021. A student at Animas High School, McKinney died of fentanyl poisoning at a friend’s house in December 2021, just shy of his 16th birthday.

McKinney’s death hit the community hard. His friends say it was the first time he tried hard drugs. His memorial service was so packed, people had to stand outside the funeral home. After McKinney died, people started getting tattoos of the phrase he was known for, which was emblazoned on his favorite sweatshirt: “Love is the cure.” Even a few of his teachers got them.

But it was classmates, along with their friends at Durango High School, who turned his loss into a political movement. Now, his peers are trying to cement their friend’s legacy in state law.

“We’re making things happen on behalf of him,” Niko Peterson, a senior at Animas High School and one of McKinney’s friends who helped write the bill, said. “We realized we could actually make a change if we put our hearts to it. Being proactive versus being reactive is going to be the best possible solution.”

Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that can halt an overdose. Available over the counter as a nasal spray, it is considered the fire extinguisher of the opioid epidemic, for use in an emergency. (People often refer to it as “Narcan,” one of the more recognizable brand names.)

The Biden Administration last year backed an ad campaign encouraging young people to carry the emergency medication.

Most states’ naloxone-access laws protect do-gooders, including youth, from liability if they accidentally harm someone while administering naloxone. But without school policies explicitly allowing it, the students’ ability to bring naloxone to class falls into a gray area.

Many Colorado schools are training staff to administer naloxone and are stocking it on school grounds. But, it was clear to Peterson and other Durango teens that having naloxone at school isn’t enough.

“The teachers who are trained to use Narcan will not be at the parties where the students will be using the drugs,” he said.

And it isn’t enough to expect teens to keep it at home. Especially in a rural area like Durango.

“It’s not going to be helpful if it’s in somebody’s house 20 minutes outside of town. It’s going to be helpful if it’s in their backpack,” Zoe Ramsey, another of McKinney’s friends and a senior at Animas High School, said.

But students in the area, and their school administrators, were uncertain: Could students get in trouble for carrying the opioid antagonist in their backpacks, or if they distributed it to friends? And could a school or district be held liable if something went wrong?

“We were informed it was against the rules to carry naloxone, and especially to distribute it,” Ilias “Leo” Stritikus, who graduated from DHS last year, said.

He, along with Ramsey and Peterson, helped form

Students Against Overdose. Together, they convinced Animas High and 9-R to change policies. Now, with parental permission, and after going through training, students may carry naloxone at school.

Durango School District 9-R spokesperson Karla Sluis said at least 45 students have completed the training.

The fentanyl mortality rate across the U.S. has spiked in recent years, with more than 1,500 children and teens dying of overdoses the same year as McKinney. Most youth who die have no known history of taking opioids, and many likely thought they were taking prescription opioids like OxyContin or Percocet – not the fake pills that increasingly carry a lethal dose of fentanyl.

“Most likely the largest group of teens dying are really teens that are experimenting, as opposed to teens that have a long-standing opioid-use disorder,” Joseph Friedman, a substance-use researcher at UCLA, said.

Friedman said Colorado is a hot spot for adolescent overdose deaths, with a mortality rate more than double that of the nation from 2020-22. “Increasingly, fentanyl is being sold in pill form, and it’s happening to the largest degree in the West,” said Friedman.

He said he would like to see schools provide accurate drug education about counterfeit pills. Allowing students to carry a low-risk, lifesaving drug is in many ways the minimum schools can do, he said.

“I would argue that what the schools should be doing is identifying high-risk teens and giving them the Narcan to take home with them and teaching them why it matters,” Friedman said.

The following story was written by KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN) and appeared on Colorado Public Radio’s news website. It was edited for length and to add local context. To read the story in its entirety, go to www.cpr.org. ■

Zoe Ramsey, a student at Animas High School, testifies in front of state lawmakers in February over a bill that would permit students to carry lifesaving naloxone at schools./

Photo by Rae Ellen Bichell

Gavinn McKinney was part of the Thunder Clan of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. He also had Kickapoo and Assiniboine heritage. / Photo courtesy Trennie Burch

Going abroad

Venice, Paris take center stage in two masterful mysteries

by Jeffrey Mannix

The Italian writing duo of Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini have for more than four decades of working together. They have written newspaper and magazine articles, literary essays, edited anthologies and published six best-selling mystery novels. Their first novel, “The Sunday Woman,” was made into a film in 1975 starring Marcello Mastroianni, Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Louis Trintignant. In good news to American audiences, on Feb. 20, Bitter Lemon Press of London released the first English translation of the duo’s 1986 novel “The Lover of No Fixed Abode” in the United States.

Sited in Venice, “The Lover of No Fixed Abode” is such a stunning narrative and tour of Venice that the reader will feel thoroughly traveled through the plazas and alleyways of this complicated and bizarre city. The crime itself, presented and translated with perfect pitch by Gregory Dowling, is only possible in the eccentric City with the stench of barely circulating waterways.

The story is set over the course of three days in the 1980s and involves the lives of only two characters, “bookended,” as the cover blurb discloses, “by the arrival of a plane and the departure of a ship.”

Mr. Silvera is a tour guide of indeterminate age who speaks a half dozen or more languages, lives on cruise ships, airplanes, buses and in quaint hotels, and is employed by a budget travel agency. His valise is handy, contents are minimal, and he wears his only suit every day, pressing his trousers under the mattress of the hotel bed. He completes his belongings with a classic, hardwearing trench coat. He’s a man of routine, knows the rap on every tourist attraction, herds his charges to every stop on the itinerary and is skilled at relieving unending gripes, quarrels and disappointments. He knows thoroughly every inch of Venice.

And then there is the comely middle-aged fine-art

scout on a buying trip to Venice who is the other half of this story – or more rightly, she’s the third character when Venice itself is rightly counted as a character. She’s referred to as the Roman princess throughout the book, and it’s made increasingly clear that her inspection of fine art is not limited strictly to originals.

Silvera and our travel weary art buyer meet by chance. And as often occurs with travelers, proprieties are relaxed and the sophisticated art specialist permits herself to be beguiled by the enigmatic Mr. Silvera. And what plans to be an espresso under a cafe umbrella turns into a misbehaving afternoon tryst. She becomes obsessed to learn more about Silvera as he directs her to sequestered art treasures then disappears for hours to reappear next to her under cool, ironed hotel sheets.

This is an edge-of-yourseat story in slow motion written by two very talented writers. If you think mysteries must include murder and sleuthing, this isn’t the book for you. But if crime can be knitted into life itself, this will keep you suspended until the sun comes up.

Before I close out, you should also know about a

Soho Press hardcover book by Cara Black that dropped on March 5 titled “Murder at la Villette.”  As Venice played a character part in “The Lover of No Fixed

Abode,” Black’s new book is a tour de force of hideand-seek through the alleys and dive bars of the 19th Arrondissement of Paris by private investigator Aimée Leduc. Leduc, who arrived one night to meet the estranged father of her daughter Chloé on the Bassin de la Villette, found Jérome Melac stabbed and slipping into the canal. As she struggled to pull him back over the edge, the murderer bludgeoned her unconscious and wrapped her hand around the bloody knife used to murder Melac.

Aimée wakes up in police custody charged with the murder of Malec, a homicide detective with a dubious career who had a target on his back from years of bullying and prosecuting murders.  Aimée maneuvers herself out of jail, and with her employee René sets out with changing disguises and patterns to find the killer.

Besides a detailed tour of Paris, Cara Black has written a clever, fast-paced and exciting book I promise you will need to peel your fingers off. ■

Thursday07

Storytime, 11 a.m., Pine River Public Library, 395 Bayfield Center Dr., Bayfield

San Juan Symphony Bach Lunch Concert No. 4, 12 noon, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 E. 3rd Ave.

Tea & Tinsel Thursdays, 12-4 p.m., Durango Sustainable Goods, 1259 Main Ave.

Actor Alex Riad speaks as of the Durango PlayFest’s speaker series, 1–2 p.m., Fort Lewis College Theatre Building

Live music by High Altitude Blues, 5-7 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.

Leah Orlikowski plays, 5-8 p.m., El Rancho Tavern, 975 Main Ave.

Bluegrass Jam, 6 p.m., Durango Beer & Ice, 3000 Main Ave.

4th annual Power to Act Fundraiser to bring justice, kindness and dignity to women facing adversity, 6-8 p.m., Fort Lewis College Ballroom, www.powertoact.org

Live music by Andrew Schuhmann, 6-9 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.

Live music by Matt Rupnow, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.

Trivia Night, 6:30 p.m., Powerhouse Science Center, 1330 Camino del Rio

Jazz Concert featuring Christian McBride, 7:30 p.m., Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.

Drag Trivia Night, 7:30 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Friday08

BID’s Coffee and Conversation, 8:30-9:30 a.m., TBK Bank Community Room, 259 W 9th St.

Full Body Stretch, 8:15 a.m., Pine River Public Library, 395 Bayfield Center Dr., Bayfield

Free Friday Yoga, 8:30 a.m., Lively (a boutique), 809 Main Ave.

Friends of the Durango Public Library book sale, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m., Durango Public Library

Live piano music by Gary B. Walker, 10:15 a.m.-12 noon, Jean-Pierre Bakery & Restaurant, 601 Main Ave.

San Juan Symphony Bach Lunch Concert No. 5, 12 noon, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 E. 3rd Ave.

Fanny Pack Friday, 3 p.m., The Nugget Mountain Bar, 48721 North Hwy 550

Friday Mocktail Happy Hour, 3:30-6 p.m., Durango Sustainable Goods,1259 Main Ave.

Leah Orlikowski plays, 5-8 p.m., El Rancho Tavern, 975 Main Ave.

Live music by Jack Ellis & Larry Carver, 5:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.

Banff Mountain Film Festival, 6 p.m., Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, fundraiser for San Juan Citizens Alliance.

Live music by Dustin Burley, 6-9 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.

Friday Dance! 6 p.m. West Coast swing lesson; 7 p.m. dance-of-the-month lesson; 8-10 p.m. open dancing, VFW, durangodancing.com

A Night of Improv, 7-9 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.

“Urinetown the Musical,” 7-9 p.m., Durango High School Auditorium, 2390 Main Ave.

Aria PettyOne presents Aria’s Pizza Party, 8:30-9:30 p.m., Father’s Daughters Pizza, 640 Main Ave.

Fired Up Fireworks and Torchlight Parade, 6:30-7 p.m., Purgatory Resort

Saturday09

Women of Colorado Snowshoe and Mimosa Brunch, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m., El Moro Spirits & Tavern, 945 Main Ave. www.womenofcolorado.co/events

Democratic Caucus and Assembly, check-in 9:30-11a.m., caucus 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., assembly 12 p.m., LPC Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall

Friends of the Durango Public Library book sale, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.

Live music with Dana Ariel and the Coming Up Roses, 1-3 p.m., Purgy’s, Purgatory Resort

SJMA and Mountain Studies Institute Snow Science & Social, 1-3 p.m., Andrews Lake Winter Parking Area Hwy 550

Women in Early La Plata County, part of the Second Saturday Seminar Series, 1 p.m., Animas Museum or Zoom, animasmuseum.org/events.html

“Urinetown the Musical,” 2-4 p.m., Durango High School Auditorium, 2390 Main Ave.

Euchre Tournament, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.

Karaoke, 6 p.m., Durango Beer & Ice, 3000 Main.

Community Yoga, 6-7 p.m., Yoga Durango, 1485 Florida Rd. Donations accepted

PlayFest play unveiling, 5:30-7 p.m., FLC Center for Innovation, 835 Main Ave.

Adam Swanson plays ragtime, 5:30-10 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.

Live music by Matt Rupnow, 6-9 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.

Banff Mountain Film Festival, 6 p.m., Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. Fundraiser for San Juan Citizens Alliance.

Durango Bach Festival Final Concert, 7 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 E. 3rd Ave.

Road to Tico Time Bluegrass, Liver Down the River and Kind Hearted Strangers, 8 p.m., Animas City Theatre 128 E. College Dr.

Silent Disco, 10 p.m.-12:30 a.m., 11th St. Station

Sunday10

Community Knitting & Crochet Group, 10-11 a.m., Pine River Public Library, 395 Bayfield Center Dr., Bayfield

Durango Food Not Bombs mutual aid and potluck, 2-4 p.m., Buckley Park

Board Game Sundays, 2 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.

Walter Dear Student Honors Recital, 3 p.m., Fort Lewis College Roshong Recital Hall

Durango Palestine Solidarity rally, 4 p.m., Buckley Park, 12th St. and Main Ave.

Sunday Funday, 6 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Live music by Ben Gibson, 6-9 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.

Blue Moon Ramblers, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.

“Facets,” a dance performance featuring 20 Moons Dance Co. and the San Juan Symphony, 7 p.m., Stillwater Music’s The Lightbox, 1316 Main Ave.

Monday11

Happy Hour Yoga, 5:30 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.

Live music with Joel Racheff, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.

AskRachel Dysfunction junction, dysfunctional junk & junk dysfunction

Interesting fact: Self-storage is a $40 billion industry annually. I’m in the wrong business.

Dear Rachel,

I think the Cork Screw Mixmaster is about to be changed at the 15th and Florida intersection in Durango. I bet most accidents were caused by men, and it was built by men, and it sucks. So, I see that the city is going to pay $78,000 for a study. What’s with that? I say save the money and we can use our thoughts and ideas to fix it. We can build pickleball courts or a new police station with the savings.

– Rosie the Riveter

Dear Rivie the Roseter,

Forget saving the money. If we’re going to give our thoughts, the city can pay us that 78 large instead of whoever is conducting the study now. The dough stays local, and you and I can split it. How’s 30/70 sound? I could sure use a big chunk, and you can use your third (ish) to put a pickleball court in your own damn yard.

– Good deal, Rachel

Dear Rachel,

I cannot understand the macho mindset around not spaying and neutering dogs. (Probably not all men, to be fair, but definitely leans macho.) You must have no heart to know that a bunch of puppies are going to

Comedy Showcase, 7:30 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Tuesday12

Economic Development Alliance Meeting, 8-9 a.m., Center for Innovation (Main Mall), 835 Main Ave., Suite 225

Yoga for All, 9-10 a.m., Pine River Public Library, 395 Bayfield Center Dr., Bayfield

Yoga for Kids, 10:15-11 a.m., Pine River Public Library, 395 Bayfield Center Dr., Bayfield

Great Decisions International Affairs

Discussion: “Science Across Borders - Mideast Realignment,” 11:45 a.m. - 1:45 p.m., Durango Public Library

Cowboy Tuesdays, 12 noon, Strater Hotel/Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.

Community Yoga, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Yoga Durango, 1485 Florida Rd. Donations accepted

Women’s Resource Center Photo Display and Open House, 5-6 p.m., Durango Public Library

Slow Bluegrass Jam, 5:30-7:30 p.m., General Palmer

come into the world when there are already too many puppies and not enough homes. Or, you’re up to something more nefarious I don’t even want to think about. Do you have insight into this mindset?

– To Snip or Not to Snip

Dear Barbie and Snipper, I don’t get it either (unless you’re a legitimate breeder) (or an illegitimate one, because money spends either way). But I do know that for many of the testicularly graced in our society, their entire identity and self-worth is wrapped up in those little danglies. And, everything they own becomes extensions thereof. You want to neuter their dog for the good of the world? You might as well neuter the men themselves. Or, heck, I don’t know, ask them to recycle for the good of the planet. Doesn’t matter. Hands off, buckaroo.

– Getting snippy, Rachel

Email Rachel at telegraph@durango telegraph.com

Dear Forgotten But Not Lost,

Dear Rachel,

I keep thinking I should try this whole minimalist approach and clean out my closet, drawers and garage. But, do you know the joy of discovering something in the back of your wardrobe you haven’t worn in years, and it’s like you have a new accessory all over again?

If I cleaned out, I’d never experience this glee again. Which is the right way here?

– Lost and Found

Hotel, 567 Main Ave.

Live music by Terry Rickard, 6 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.

Live music by Sean O’Brien, 6-9 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.

Open Mic Night, 7 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Wednesday13

Restorative Yoga for Cancer, 9:30-10:45 a.m., no cost for cancer patients, survivors and caregivers, Smiley Building, Room 20A. Info and register at cancersupportswco.org/calendar

Yoga With In the Weeds, 10-11 a.m., The Hive, 1150 Main Ave., Ste. A

Green Business Roundtable with Bike Durango, 12 noon, Powerhouse Science Center, 1333 Camino Del Rio

Kids Junior STEAM Power Hour, 4 p.m., Pine River Public Library, 395 Bayfield Center Dr., Bayfield

Live music with Donny Johnson, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.

Two words: Storage. Unit. You get the delight of cleaning house and living in a Swedish interior design showroom. You also get the delight of your significant other not realizing that all your junk is just a short drive away, behind a padlocked sliding door. Sure, there’s an extra expense in renting such a unit just to house junk you will never touch again. But if you want in on our road-study scheme, we can probably cut you in on a couple g’s.

– The junk drawer of the newspaper world, Rachel

Open Mic, 6:30 p.m., EsoTerra Ciderworks, 558 Main.

Hideaway Ukulele jam, 6-7:30 p.m., Smiley Building Studio #114 and online via Zoom

Author event and book signing: Deborah Taffa discusses her memoir, “Whiskey Tender,” 6-8 p.m., Maria’s Bookshop

“Archeoastronomy at Chaco Canyon,” San Juan Basin Archaeological Society, 7 p.m., FLC’s Lyceum Room

Trivia Night, 7 p.m., Bottom Shelf Brewery, 118 Mill St., Bayfield

Geeks Who Drink Trivia, 8 p.m., The Roost, 128 E. College Dr.

Karaoke Roulette, 8 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Ongoing

Full Body Fit workout, Mon., Tues. and Thurs., 8:15 a.m., Pine River Public Library, 395 Bayfield Center Dr., Bayfield

“Connections Across Continents,” thru March 15, Blue Rain Gallery, 934 Main Ave., Unit B

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow talent to the dark place where it leads.” So wrote Aries author Erica Jong. Is that true? Is it hard to access the fullness of our talents? Must we summon rare courage and explore dark places? Sometimes, yes. To overcome obstacles that interfere with ripening our talents, there may be tough work to do. I suspect the coming weeks and months will be one of those phases for you, Aries. But here’s the good news: I predict you will succeed.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In October 1879, Thomas Edison and his research team produced the first electric light bulb that was viable enough to be of practical use. In September 1882, Edison opened the first power plant on the planet, enabling people to light their homes with the new invention. That was a revolutionary advance in a very short time. Dear Taurus, the innovations you have been making and will continue to make are not as monumental as Edison’s. But I suspect they rank high among the best and brightest in your personal history. Don’t slack off now. There’s more work to be done – interesting, exciting work!

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I watched as the Thai snake charmer kissed a poisonous cobra, taming the beast’s danger with her dancing hands. I beheld the paramedic dangle precariously from a helicopter to snag the woman and child stranded on a rooftop during a flood. And in my dream, I witnessed three of my Gemini friends singing a dragon to sleep, enabling them to ramble freely across the bridge the creature had previously forbidden them to traverse.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The horoscopes you are reading have been syndicated in publications all over the world: the U.S., Italy, France, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Netherlands, Russia, Cambodia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Ireland and Finland. Yet it has never appeared in a publication in the UK, where there are over 52 million people whose first language is English – the same as mine. But I predict that will change in the coming months: I bet a British newspaper or website will finally print Free Will Astrology. I prophesy comparable expansions in your life, too. What new audiences or influences do you want to be part of? Make it happen!

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Author JeanDominique Bauby wrote, “Today it seems to me that my whole life was nothing but a string of small near misses.” If you have endured anything resembling that frustration, Leo, I have good news: The coming months won’t bring you a string of small near misses. Indeed, the number of small near misses will be very few, maybe even zero. Instead, I predict you will gather an array of big, satisfying completions. Life will honor you with bull’s eyes, direct hits and master strokes. Here’s the best way you can respond to your good fortune and ensure even more good fortune: Share your wealth!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo advice expert Cheryl Strayed wrote some rather pushy directions I will borrow and use. She and I say, “You will never have my permission to close yourself off to love and give up. Never. You must do everything you can to get what you want and need, to find ‘that type of love.’ It’s there for you.” I want you to meditate on this guidance right now. Why? Because I believe you are in urgent need of re-dedicating yourself to your heart’s desire. You have a sacred duty to intensify your imagination and deepen your willpower as you define what kind of love and tenderness you want most.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Author Adam Alter writes, “Perfect success is boring and uninspiring, and abject failure is exhausting and demoralizing. Somewhere between these extremes is a sweet spot that maximizes long-term progress.” And what is the magic formula? Alter says it’s when you make mistakes an average of 16 percent of the time and are successful 84 percent. Mistakes can be good because they help you learn and grow. I’m guessing you’re in a phase when your mistake rate is higher than usual – about 30 percent. (Though you’re still 70 percent successful!) That means you are experiencing expanded opportunities to learn from what doesn’t work well.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Sometimes Scorpios are secretive. You understand that knowledge is power, and you build your potency by gathering information other people don’t have, or resources to access. But it’s also true that you may appear to be secretive when in fact you have simply perceived more than everyone else. They might be overwhelmed by the deep, rich intelligence you have – and would actually prefer to be ignorant of it. So you’re basically hiding stuff they want you to hide. I suspect now is a time when you are loading up with juicy gossip, inside scoops,

tantalizing mysteries, taboo news and practical wisdom that few others would be capable of managing. Please use your superpowers with kindness and wisdom.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Here’s a little-known fact about me: I am the priest, wizard, rabbi and pope of Parish #31025 in the Universal Life Church. One of my privileges in this role is to perform legal marriages. It has been a few years since I presided over anyone’s wedding, but I am coming out of semiretirement to consecrate an unprecedented union. It’s between two aspects of yourself that have not been blended but should be. Do you know what I’m referring to? Before you read further, please identify these two aspects. Ready? I now pronounce you husband and wife, or husband and husband, or wife and wife, or spouse and spouse – or whatever you want to be pronounced.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “You don’t have to suffer to be a poet,” said poet John Ciardi. “Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.” I will add that adolescence is enough suffering for everyone, even if they’re not a poet. For most of us, our teenage years brought us angst, self-doubt, confusion and fear sufficient to last a lifetime. That’s the bad news. The good news is the coming months will be one of the best times ever for you to heal the wounds from adolescence. You may not be able to get a total cure, but 65 percent is very possible. Seventy-five percent isn’t out of the question. Get started!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A psychic once predicted that I would win a Grammy award for my music. She said my dad and mom would be in the audience, smiling proudly. Well, my dad died four years ago, and I haven’t produced a new album for over 10 years. So that Grammy prophecy is looking less and less likely. I should probably give up hope that it will come to pass. What about you? Is there any dream or fantasy you should consider abandoning? The coming weeks would be a good time to do so. It could open your mind and heart to a bright future now hovering on the horizon.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I invite you to entertain the following theory: Certain environments, companions and influences enhance your intelligence, health and ability to love – while others either do the opposite or have a neutral effect. If that’s true, it makes good sense for you to put yourself in the presence of environments, companions and influences that enhance you. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to test this theory. I hope you will do extensive research and then initiate changes that implement your findings.

Deadline for Telegraph classified ads is Tuesday at noon. Ads are a bargain at 10 cents a character with a $5 minimum. Even better, ads can now be placed online: durangotelegraph.com Prepayment is required via cash, credit card or check. (Sorry, no refunds or substitutions.) Ads can be submitted via: n www.durangotelegraph.com

n classifieds@durango telegraph.com

n 970-259-0133

n 679 E. 2nd Ave., #E2 Approximate office hours:

Mon-Wed: 9ish - 5ish

Thurs: On delivery

Fri: Gone fishing; call first

Announcements

Earn Your Master of Social Work

(MSW) From the University of Denver (DU) here in Durango – for the two-year program starting in fall 2024. Classes are held on Fridays. For more info., contact Janelle.Doughty@du.edu or www.du.edu/ socialwork.

Call for Volunteers

Help repair things at a Repair Café @ Durango Tool Library on April 21. Volunteers are needed for repairing: phones, tablets, computers; small kitchen appliances; clothing; outdoor gear; furniture and upholstery; stuffed animals. Learn more at durangotoollibrary.com/events.

Melania Alert

Missing from action. If you see her, call Nikki asap.

Friday 6pm Dancing Lesson at VFW Go to DurangoDancing.com to get on notification list.

KDUR is Celebrating 50 years of broadcasting in 2025. Staff is on the hunt for past DJs who have a fond memory, story or even some recorded material! If you do, please email station manager Bryant Liggett, Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu or call 970.247.7261

Wanted

Cash for Vehicles, Copper, Alum Etc. at RJ Metal Recycle. Also free appliance and other metal drop off. 970259-3494.

Books Wanted at White Rabbit!

Cash/trade/donate (970) 259-2213

Lost/Found

Missing Puppy

Bex was lost on Feb. 23, 2024, in Durango near Colorado Timberline Academy (about 15 miles north of town). Description: 7 months old, around 50 pounds, boxer/shepherd mix, cute floppy ears, turquoise collar, spotted tongue Owner’s phone number is 970-846-3975. Please call or text any time of day or night with any information about Bex!

HelpWanted

Massage Therapists Needed

Amaya is hiring massage therapist part-time positions, must be available weekends. Email triciagourley13@gmail.com or drop off resume to apply

Do You Drive to Bayfield?

The Telegraph is looking for someone to deliver papers to Three Springs/Bayfield every Thursday. Four stops. $25/ week. For info., email telegraph@durangotelegraph.com.

ForRent

Office Space for Rent

Beginning April 1st in Colorado Heritage Plaza at 150 E 9th St., Ste 200. 305 sq/ft at $625/mo. includes all utils except internet. Internet ranges from $30$50/mo. Please email or call Matt:  matt@homesfund.org; 970-2591418 ext. 4

Integrative Health Clinic

Renting beautiful office downtown. Patio, sunlight, reception with park view. 970-247-1233

ForSale

TaoTronics 4k Action Camera

New and in the box. Comes with user guide and all accessories: waterproof housing, handlebar/pole mount, mounts, battery, tethers, protective back cover, USB cable and lens cleaning cloth. $50. J.marie.pace@gmail.com

Reruns Home Furnishings

Brighten up your space. Good selection of furniture, art, linens and other housewares. Looking to consign smaller furniture pieces. 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.-Sat. 385-7336.

Services

Boiler Service - Water Heater

Serving Durango over 30 years. Brad, 970-759-2869. Master Plbg Lic #179917

Grid Down Internet

Stay connected no matter what - Free consultation, installation and edu. guide.jt@gmail.com

Electric Repair

Roof, gutter cleaning, fence, floors, walls, flood damage, mold, heating service.

HaikuMovieReview

‘Dumb Money’

A kitty roars as tenacious underdogs nip at the hand of greed

– Lainie Maxson

Lowest Prices on Storage!

Inside/outside storage near Durango and Bayfield. 10-x-20, $130. Outside spots: $65, with discounts available. RJ Mini Storage. 970-259-3494.

BodyWork

Massage by Meg Bush

LMT, 30, 60 & 90 min., 970-759-0199.

Lotus Path Healing Arts

Now accepting new clients. Offering a unique, intuitive fusion of Esalen massage, deep tissue & Acutonics, 24 years of experience. To schedule call Kathryn, 970-201-3373.

CommunityService

Nonprofit Professional Development

The Community Foundation serving Southwest Colorado in partnership with Knudsen Coaching & Consulting will host a three-hour workshop designed to provide nonprofits with the tools and knowledge to thrive in today’s everchanging landscape at the Durango Public Library on Wed., April 3, from 8:30 -11:30 a.m. Learn more at swcommunityfoundation.org

Volunteers Needed

Do you want to make a difference in the lives of others? Alternative Horizons is always in need of volunteers to staff our hotline. AH has been supporting and empowering survivors of domestic violence since 1978. Training and ongoing support provided. Next training April 19, 20 and 26. For more info., call 970-2474374 or visit alternativehorizons.org/ March 7, 2024 n 15 telegraph