Desert Messenger

6 www.DesertMessenger.com December 5, 2018 LETTERS TO EDITOR POLICY Desert Messenger encourages letters from its readers. Letters should be no longer than 300 words, and may be edited for grammar, content and length. OPINIONS EXPRESSED HEREIN DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THOSE OF THE DESERT MESSENGER. We invite you to not only see a problem, but search for the solution to share with the community, keeping the benefit of all in mind. Letters considered libelous, in poor taste, on a personal issue, mean spirited or dominated by Scripture quotes will not be published. Third party letters will not be accepted. To avoid confusion over people with common or similar names, writers must provide a full name and indicate the name they are known by. Writers must provide a full street address and phone number. Rvers can provide the location of park/BLM land, etc. Street addresses will not be pub- lished. Phone numbers are for verification only and will not be printed. Mail letters to: Desert Messenger, P.O. Box 3185, Quartzsite, AZ 85359 or E-mail to Editor@DesertMessenger.com 928-916-4235 DESERT MESSENGER Quartzsite's FREE Community Paper Proud to be a Quartzsite Licensed Business 928-916-4235 O� T��� - E���� T���! Founded by Walt Akin October 1, 2004 P�������� �� P���� R��� P��������� C�. P.O. Box 3185 Quartzsite, AZ 85359 P�������� ����� � ����� 1st & 3rd Wednesday Sept. thru May with Special Summer Editions June, July & August EDITOR/PUBLISHER Shanana "Rain" Golden-Bear CONTRIBUTING JOURNALIST Joanne Winer GUEST COLUMNIST Gypsy Jane Finley CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Starr BearCat NAME PLATE LETTERING Paul Winer www.DesertMessenger.com www.MyQuartzsite.com E-mail: Editor@DesertMessenger.com 2018 © Copyright All Rights Reserved Copyright 2013 Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Desert Messenger. LIKE US on Facebook.com/ DesertMessengerNews FOLLOW US on Twitter @QuartzsiteRain By Shanana "Rain" Golden-Bear Editorial Neighborhood Watch to meet Thurs.DEC. 6 Town of Quartzsite invites every- one to attend the next meeting of Neighborhood Watch at 6:00 PM, on THURSDAY, DEC. 6th, 2018, at the Quartzsite Com- munity Center. For more information contact the Quartzsite Police Department at 928-927-4644. "Unity is strength... when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved." ~Mattie Stepanek Coming to Quartzsite this Season 2018-2019 Evening Speakers Pro- gram. All programs are at the Town Hall, 465 N. Plymouth Ave., Quartzsite. 7 pm to 9 pm FREE Sponsored by The Quartzsite His- torical Society and the Friends of the Quartzsite Library. Made possible by a grant from Arizona Humanities. 12/6 Set in Stone - Allen Dart, Southwestern Indian Rock Art But not in Meaning (Petroglyphs and Pictographs) interpretation. 12/20 AZ Kicks on Route 66 Marshall Shore, History and what happened, when it was by-passed 1/24 Orphan Train Alison Moore, Stories from the train that Phil Lancaster brought orphaned children to the west. 2/7 Specters of the Past with Jay Mark Arizona ghost towns. 2/20 On the Road Since, Wm Holden ,The Colorful History of AZ High 1925, Highways Magazine. Library programs DEADLINE : WED. DEC. 12 TH for the dec 19 th edition Desert Messenger News Email: editor@DesertMessenger.com 928-916-4235 www.DesertMessenger.com As I begin writing this morning, the bright red and orange sunrise calls me to take a break and just enjoy the beauty we have surrounding us. Are we so blessed or what to be in the beautiful Sonoran Desert? We sometimes forget the beauty around us, and get caught up in the nega- tive news of the world. Okay, so I'm addicted to news, as I'm sure many of us are. But how do we deal with information over- load and fi gure out what is factual? We can listen to those more experi- enced than ourselves, our elders. As the world grieves President George HW Bush, we remember the charac- ter of a man, even though his presi- dency was met with some contro- versy. The public is mourning more than a political leader; we recognize the lack of decency in our world. We mourn the high standards of decency, grace, fair play, humility, compassion, love of family and love of country. As we mourn, let us re- member to be grateful for our elders still with us. Quartzsite has its own gathering of elders each year; they're known as "snowbirds". Just listen to their words of wisdom, hear the hope for the future, and their love of life. Quartzsite is known for many things; swap meets, beautiful winter weath- er, "the Gathering Place", the "put it on your bucket list", friendly people, vendors, social connections, music jams, entertainment, more RV parks per capita than anywhere, thousands of acres of Sonoran Desert camping, incredible ATV trail rides, tons of rocks for sale or rockhounding, rich history of colorful characters, gold mining, creativity of RVers, ... and lots of "elder" Snowbirds! The next time you're visiting with an "elder," listen for how they teach, through sharing of stories. One elder, Uncle Willy Whitefeather, a Cherokee Story Teller, also passed away this week. He spent hours shar- ing his wisdom in restaurants, book- stores, classrooms, in parking lots- anywhere people would listen. His stories were fi lled with hard lessons learned from the past and much Hope for the future. In his book, a grandfa- ther teaches a young Cherokee how to avoid the hard knocks of the river of life. Let us work together for a bet- ter future for our childrens children. After all, we're all in this together!

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