Perspectives of a Wandering Geographer

I am heartened that, so far, 180 people have looked at my July 4 blog post (Blogger shows me how many people read each post but not their identities).   I also have received some great responses via email from various sides of the political spectrum.   I would like to share these with you, identifying the writers by their first names and where they live.   I’ve “cleaned up” some of the grammar, punctuation, etc. but I’m not going to comment on these emails although you are free to do so or send me more emails for future publication on the blog. By the way, I’ve decided to scrap my idea of visiting Colorado politicians’ offices in person.   I discussed this idea briefly with a friend who has experience lobbying Congress.   “Should I make an appointment to speak to staffers or just show up at their offices?”   I asked.   “You need an appointment but they are unlikely to give you one,” he replied.   This snapped me into reality:   Why bother making all the effort to speak for 2 minutes wi

The Wandering Geographer hasn’t done so much wandering lately, at least not internationally.   Since my ill-fated trip to Chile last November, I’ve been gun shy about getting on another plane to fly to an exotic destination.   Save for a few days in northwest Mexico in February, I’ve not ventured outside the border. Yesterday, I finished a water resources and soil erosion report for our visit to the Heartland Ranch Wildlife Preserve (southeastern Colorado) in late April.   Now I’m ready to do a bit of personal writing.   Needless to say, I find myself despondent, angry, cynical, and in a state of defeatism following the Biden-Trump debate a week ago.   When Biden got to the inarticulate statement, “…we beat Medicare…,” I buried my head in my hands, shook my head, and exclaimed, “No, no”.   I’ve never seen such a fucking fiasco from a President of the U.S.   I wanted to cry but couldn’t find the tears. At the end of this shit-show, CNN had a panel discussion.   I was half-expecting