Why you should care about Arizona this November.
Care not Keri
The Grand Canyon at Mather Point by Peter Gould Richardson.
Arizona is a beautiful state. It’s kind of old fashioned a bit, and very dusty. Dusty dry, rocky, but also very treed. Ponderosa pine streak across the north as saguaro cactus claim the south in what is called The Saguaro National Monument. All the plants seem to have poisonous stickers and the general lack of deciduous trees aren’t a natural emotional salve for all but the Grand Canyon and its little sister, Sedona are truly sights to be seen and seen. And they are by nearly six million and three million people respectively for decades.
National monuments, national parks, state parks have few if any concessions and no Ferris wheels as the notion of what a park actually is, is challenged by the intense lack of development. Claiming statehood in 1912, a good deal of the 6th largest state is either national forest, the peoples land or state land. State land is a little interesting because it is held in trust by the state and is held to generate funds historically selling mining, grazing, agriculture or logging rights. In todays world selling portions of land for development have proved more lucrative, selling 2-3,000 acres per year. Arizona currently has about a million acres in trust checker boarding the map in patches of forest, residential as well as Tribal Reservation lands which command a full 25% of the land mass. It’s complex and extremely sensitive land.
Complex waterways span the typically dry state. Some only flow seasonly and some only every few years. Rivers and creeks converge with washes and springs as water flows from Colorado in the north, to Mexico in the south, the Colorado River being the most prominent with a length of 1,450 miles and the Gila (pronounced HE-la) being 650 miles long.
Arizona’s population is roughly 7 million with a concentration of a million plus in the urban sprawl known generally as Phoenix although it has engulfed older established cities such as Tempe and Mesa as its edges move steadily north through Cave Creek, New River towards Sedona and Flagstaff.
Keri Lake is looking to be Governor of this gritty recreation state known for hiking and mountain biking from Camelback Mountain in Phoenix to Greyback of Sedona. Her qualifications are that she is a weather person from television. Yes, a weather anchor. Keri fits the new GOP profile well. She has no political experience whatsoever. As a citizen she has claimed to be Democrat, at times an Independent and now Republican. Along with the Republican status she has gotten creative about her past reframing events to be more consistent with the farthest right candidates embracing the lie, ivermectin and demands of fraud in an election before it happened. Ms. Lake has all the rights fascist talking points. She’s a follower, not a leader.
Cathedral Rock and Bell Rock in an awkward not so bell like angle in Sedona, AZ. Photo taken at Yavapai Point, Yavapai County by the author.
She’s poised to lose the Governorship, but at what agitation to the process. Not a question but an open statement to ponder the depths of wasted time and money as the calculated bashing of our social fabric continue through the political process. A win is unthinkable for this purple state as Maricopa County, the home county of Phoenix seems bent on taking over this otherwise passively progressive live and let live state. Anyone who is interested in the natural beauty of the United States is surely interested in growth modified by sustainability for Arizona.
Katie Hobbs, Democrat and current Secretary of State is who to look at to support Arizona in 2022.
Public land, the United States Forest Service Land belongs to all citizens of the United States. It is our recreation and our well photographed landscapes of Hollywood fame. Stewardship is Arizona’s history and aim for the future along with growth. What’s the weather lady want? Don’t know. I have some unhappy guesses though.