Ashland Area Elements that I Could Do Without

The idea of this post was directly taken from a post on the Crallspace blog about the town in Oregon that he resides in. Normally I try to list the positives going on here, but hey, everyone has some issues about where they live. So here are mine:

* Wal-Mart. In a city of just over 8000 we have one going supersized. A group of locals tried to get them to add green elements to their new building, like a couple of their stores have, Wal-Mart claimed to consider but declined.

* Bear Hunters. This so-called sport makes no sense to me. It consists of radio collared dogs that chase a bear up a tree. Then the hunter shoots the bear and drags it to his truck with an ATV. What's worse is when one of their dogs is killed by a wolf because they where hunting to close to the wolf's territory. Then our tax dollars pay the hunter for the price of his dog.

* The Coal Burning Power Plant. This thing sits right on Lake Superior and is ugly, smelly, and partly responsible for te mercury in our lakes. There has been a lot of push to start putting wind farms on the Great Lakes, but many are opposed because of aesthetic reasons. Yeah these look much better.

* ATV and Snowmobile Recreators. Many people argue these have their place and bring revenue to our depressed economy, but they annoy me. Most of the revenue goes to the bars and gas stations anyhow. Plus, there are always cases of some yahoo tearing up a wetland causing decades of environmental damage because he thought it would be fun to go muddin'.

* April and May. Winter here just never seems to end. I greatly enjoy it early on, but by the time maple sugaring is done, I'm ready for spring. Instead we get a month or so of freezing, thawing, snow storms, and slush.

* Hunters for sport only. In about a month the woods will be filled with blaze orange. I think hunting is wonderful. We have too many deer up here and it's great to get some venison from neighbors and friends, but the individuals who just want the buck head sicken me. There are often reports of deer being found in the woods skinned and beheaded.

* The person who leaves those fearful Christian Pamphlets at the artesian well. The one that was there the other day was called "Happy Halloween" and was about a boy who got hit by a car and went to hell because he quit going to Sunday School and refused to repent his sins and give his life to Christ. They are all so negative and fear based. They really give Christianity a bad rap.

* Green Bay Packers stuff everywhere I look. I'll admit I'm not a fan of football (I used to be and I liked the Packers), but there should be a limit.

* Huge consolidated schools. Like many places, a lot of the small country schools have been closed down forcing kids to travel sometimes over 30 miles to school. No wonder so many people homeschool up here.

* Rich yuppie tourists from the cities in GIGANTIC SUV's that tailgate me into town. Enough said.

Well I guess that was enough complaining for one evening.