Columnists - The Journal

A mosaic, not a melting pot: La Plata County and immigrants

Some bumper stickers read: “Colorado native.” Others offer: “Not native, but I got here as fast as I could.” We are a state of immigrants. Immigrants built the roads and bridges, ...

DATE: Apr 1, 2021 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's travels

Leopold Grasse’s Boot and Harness Shop in Cortez

Leopold Carl Gottfried Grasse (pronounced “Grassy”) and his wife, Augusta (nee Shoneboom) Grasse, came to Cortez about 1909. Both descended from German immigrants and spoke German as well as...

DATE: Apr 1, 2021 | CATEGORY: Looking back

Stop eating these foods to protect the trillions of tiny soldiers fighting for your health

“My what?” you may be asking. The microbiome is the vast collection of trillions of bacteria in your digestive system that work together to maintain health. Your microbiome begins...

DATE: Mar 31, 2021 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

Michael Fields: 10 ideas for a GOP “Contract with Colorado”

A week after this last election, I wrote a column saying that Republicans need to develop a “Contract with Colorado” based on conservative policy proposals that 55% or more of voters support...

DATE: Mar 24, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Writers on the Range: An Idaho congressman aims to dump dams

Rep. Mike Simpson is a conservative Republican from Idaho whose concept of wildness in the 1990s was going into the rough at a golf course. He fought higher taxes and remains a strong advoc...

DATE: Mar 23, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Jan and Greg Phillips: How to evaluate health-care reform proposals

Regardless of political leaning, most Americans can agree that the U.S. health care system is problematic. Per capita health care spending is nearly twice as high as that of other wealthy na...

DATE: Mar 13, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Erin McKay: Vaccine programs working well in Montezuma County

The United States has just reached a dreadful milestone: more than half a million people dead from the coronavirus. And yet Coloradans can feel good about living where they do; our state has...

DATE: Mar 1, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Dr. Royal W. Calkins, physician, surgeon, legislator and friend of the schools

Dr. Royal W. Calkins was born March 18, 1870, in Wyoming, Iowa. Lorilla Calkins Crowson shared her memories of her father in 1987. “As a boy, he moved with his family to the homes...

DATE: Feb 26, 2021 | CATEGORY: Looking back

Mitch McConnell condemns Trump, but refuses to convict

Editor’s note: Following is a transcript of Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s speech made after McConnell voted not to impeach former President Donald Trump. McConnell went on to say he...

DATE: Feb 16, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Keeping the ancients warm: Ancestral Puebloans created turkey feather blankets

I love seeing turkeys in ponderosa woods, moving slowly uphill like priests absorbed in morning prayers. At twilight, they are dark shapes seeking acorns and insects, always leav...

DATE: Feb 12, 2021 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's travels

Erin McKay: Will we protect our democracy?

In 2017, a handful of individuals were arrested in the Hart Senate Office Building for reading scripture aloud. They were protesting the GOP-backed tax bill, which they felt was unfair to th...

DATE: Feb 9, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Smokestacks come down: The end of an era in Page, Arizona

On the morning of Dec. 18, massive simultaneous explosions leveled three huge 775-foot-tall smokestacks at Page, Arizona. It was the end of an era for the Navajo Generating Stati...

DATE: Feb 5, 2021 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's travels