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Archive for James Bishop, Jr.

Who Needs Earth Day?

By Contributor
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

photo_bishopBy James Bishop Jr.

It is not enough to understand the natural world; the point is to defend and preserve it. —Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire

“The sedge is withered from the lake, and no birds sing,” —John Keats

Pesticides kill bees sorely needed to pollinate flowers and vegetables. Honeybee populations are declining, air pollution fouls the air above cities from Phoenix to Beijing, Monarch butterflies are changing migration routes and West Virginia mountaintops are being destroyed by coal shovels.

Wait a minute?

What year is this?

It is now. Read More→


Categories : James Bishop, Jr.
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Is Journalism on the Wane?

By Sedona.biz Staff
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

photo_bishop

By James Bishop Jr.
(February 13, 2013) 

“It’s been the ride of a lifetime” –Steve Ayers

The esteemed Tom Jefferson himself might feel a modicum of gratitude were he to return today to observe the collapse of print newspapers across America, indeed around the world. As he wrote in the 1800s, “I do not take a single newspaper, or read one a month and I feel myself infinitely happier for it.” Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, James Bishop, Jr.
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Whither Sedona Recycles and the Verde River

By Contributor
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013

photo_bishopBy James Bishop Jr.
(January 29, 2013)

“Beautiful weather isn’t?” said the postman standing in the rain. Indeed, mismatches between the expected and the actual result are seemingly everywhere. Think of the state politicians blaming teachers for allowing classes to be too large while lobbying at the same time to have more teachers laid off. Think of the professor who never answers questions and never explains the key concepts of the course; however he expects students to read the assignment, and be prepared to answer the professor’s questions. Then there is the issue of Mad Magazine showing Alfred E. Neumann face down in the desert crushed to death by a parachuted crate of first aid supplies. How ironic, a classic mismatch between the expected and the actual result. Sometimes you hear people say “that’s ironic,” when it is not. For example, rain on a wedding day is not ironic, just bad luck. However, if the weatherman predicts sunshine, and it rains cats and dogs, well that’s ironic. Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, James Bishop, Jr.
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Media Reporting: Asleep at the Switch?

By Contributor
Thursday, December 13th, 2012

By James Bishop, Jr.
(December 13, 2012)

photo_bishopOur doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt 
- From Measure for Measure

Sunlight is the best disinfectant
- Mr. Dooley

As time goes by, life is becoming so complicated that even Fourth Estate reporters shun delving into challenging conundrums. Consider our energy and our food distribution systems which often cause veteran reporters to stumble all over themselves trying to understand how the global economy actually works. Such is the case with the nation’s educational dilemmas asserts prize-winning Arizona teacher, Elaine Watkins: “In my opinion, the media does a surface job with education. It may be that they can’t understand it.” Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, Education, James Bishop, Jr.

Art Meets Recycling

By Contributor
Tuesday, October 30th, 2012

By James Bishop, Jr.

Sedona AZ (October 30, 2012) – Sedona Recycles is proud to launch its latest program “Art In Public Spaces” with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to feature the first recycle bin to be adorned with a copy of an original painting by a local artist. Longtime local artist Jack Proctor painted a beautiful Sedona landscape in a Plein air style, which was photographed and turned into a high-definition image to fit a recycle bin. Sedona Recycles’ Art in Public Spaces is in keeping with Sedona’s signature theme, “A city animated by the arts.”

Future bins dressed with art will make the streets of Sedona even more picturesque when viewed against Sedona’s magnificent backdrop. Mayor, Rob Adams and Chamber of Commerce President, Jennifer Wesselhoff will be invited to the ribbon cutting on Saddle Rock Drive at 3 PM on November 8th, 2o12.  Read More→


Categories : Arts and Entertainment, James Bishop, Jr.
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Creeping Socialism: Is fracking headed our way?

By Contributor
Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

By James Bishop, Jr.
October 16, 2012 

There was a time when politicians spread tales of women receiving huge taxpayer funds for their allegedly lurid lifestyles which included their refusal to do more with their time each day then wait for the next welfare check. “Welfare Queens,” as they were dubbed in the 1980’s, were leading America down the road to socialism. These days, amidst a nasty election campaign, cries of socialism ring out again about the new healthcare system, even though the new law creates a bonanza for private sector insurance companies.

Now we are hearing about big oil companies which may soon be threatening some of the most melodramatic natural treasures and favorites of many Sedona hikers and campers —- the Canyonlands National Park and even the Arches National Park in Southern Utah. Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, James Bishop, Jr.

Believe it or not: Cactus Ed Abbey will be 85 years old

By Contributor
Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

By James Bishop, Jr.
September 25, 2012 

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell
—Edward Abbey

In “Postcards from Ed,” a welcome volume of Mr. Abbey’s thoughts and dreams, hopes and fulminations, the distinguished Terry Tempest Williams writes “I miss you. We all do.” She is not alone. Charles Bowden, Abbey’s friend and fellow author observes that “Ed taught us to see the Southwest as something else besides real estate to butcher. And now we have to see it without him.”

Twenty three years have passed since the twentieth-century polemicist and desert anarchist, whose often sardonic, always lyrical words delighted or infuriated his readers, died of an incurable disease and was buried secretly in the desert he loved. “I love it so much that I find it hard to talk about,” he wrote. “Nothing but desert, nothing but the silent world…both agonized and deeply still. Like death? Perhaps.” Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, James Bishop, Jr.
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The death of a poet

By Contributor
Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

By James Bishop, Jr.
Sedona AZ (September 5, 2012)  

Weary of dreary jobs and basement beds from Texas to Chicago, and seized with hope for sobriety and a passion to write, a young street poet wandered into Arizona’s red rock rim country before thirty years of his life had passed. For thousands of years human beings had lived there because of water, clear running creeks, blessed life-giving tongues rimmed with Cottonwood trees; because of pine-dotted mountains still wild with lions, deer, and bear. Sacred land said the Indians, a Mecca for the drifting lost penned a British writer; a place where newcomers might have a chance to stop escaping from their own lives or oblivion’s wall. His name was Christopher Michael Lane. Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, James Bishop, Jr.
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Online Education: Is the bloom already off the rose?

By Contributor
Thursday, August 16th, 2012

By James Bishop, Jr.

Technology will tie a tiny fine wire around your soul
–Adlai Stevenson

From coast to coast, and from Tucson to Dewey, questions are rebounding off the walls of living rooms, city halls, appearing in Op-Ed pages and where teachers gather: Are Americans now focusing far too much on how to use the tools of communication than on ways to better communicate? As a result, are we becoming computer/online gurus who can’t write and think creatively? What’s more, has technology set us back in the field of thinking because we trust gadgets to do our thinking instead of using them to enhance our lives? Answers to those questions—some yes, some no– will be found in Adele Seronde’s latest book, “Looming Breakthrough for the Muse: Occupation Days Ahead.” Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, Education, James Bishop, Jr.

Welcome to the Other Sedona

By Contributor
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

By James Bishop, Jr.

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat
—Cicero

Sedona AZ (August 7, 2012) – Observing the mind-numbing presidential campaign and U.S. government inaction on the ailing economy isn’t time for citizens everywhere to actually think locally, act locally? On that score, greater Sedona is way ahead of the game. Known around the world as a Shangri-la for artists, tourists, and New Age high jinks what’s rarely celebrated is the fact that Sedona citizens “step up to the plate when asked,” asserts swarthy Vince Monaci. “This is a powerful community. I hear people say what do mean? Sedona people need a food bank, I don’t believe it. Believe it not, they do.” Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, James Bishop, Jr.
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Teachers: What Have They Done Wrong

By Contributor
Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

Teachers open the door, you enter by yourself
— Chinese Proverb

“I am glad I retired when it did. Whew!”
— Noted Cornville-based teacher

By James Bishop, Jr.

Sedona AZ (June 27, 2012) – From New England to Seattle, from Phoenix to the VerdeValley, a new nemesis has emerged in the national debate about the quality and direction of public education: the teacher. Caught up in nets of reform created by non-educated reformers, free-market advocates from Wall Street and major foundations, the nature of public education in the U.S. has been fast changing from offering basic standards and broad-based curricula to testing and teacher accountability. What’s emerging has all the earmarks of an episode from The Twilight Zone. When student test scores don’t measure up, schools lose federal funds, and any number of punishments loom: fire the principal, turn the school into a charter school or some kind of private management—and of course blame the teacher, even releasing the names of teachers whose students did not test well enough on multi choice test which is often not in their native language. Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, Education, James Bishop, Jr.

Riding the Rails No More

By Contributor
Monday, May 21st, 2012

By James Bishop Jr.

The world can always wait when one is young.
— L. Eiseley

Sedona AZ (May 21, 2012) – Don’t look now but railroad trains are back in our lives—the Verde Canyon Railroad, the popular train from Williams to the Grand Canyon and the Southwest Chief from Los Angeles to Chicago with a stop in Flagstaff. Sitting on a bench the other day by the rail tracks in Flagstaff watching some of the 87 daily freights rumble by I looked for box cars, and rods beneath them where hobos might be hitching rides, the scenes I saw as a kid growing up in New York state. Back from deep memory rose tales of the hard times—and how many people rode the rails. People called them hobos. Books and film recount the times when people lost their homes and jobs and took to the road and the rails for places where the times weren’t so hard, maybe California where they might find work. Suddenly rootless and roofless, history tells us that some sang songs to brighten the hours, the endless days on the road. Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, James Bishop, Jr.

Remembering Earth Day: Bad News and Good News

By Sedona.biz Staff
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

By James Bishop, Jr.

April 17, 2012

I love nature because she is not man, but a retreat from him
— Thoreau

Time to remember the words of John Quincy Adams in 1821 when he praised America: because “she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” For arguable reasons, America has gone abroad –at great cost to our fighting men and women, not to mention resources. Historians will remember it all differently but from this pilgrim’s perspective facts about current concerns don’t exist simply because they are ignored. With so much focus on monsters abroad, do we also have monsters in our midst? Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, James Bishop, Jr.
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Open Letter to Sedona Mayor Rob Adams

By Contributor
Monday, March 26th, 2012

By James DP Bishop, Jr.

Dear Mr. Adams:

The mystery deepens. why oh why did you wait so long to knife a project that had passed city muster over and over again over nearly a decade!

What a shame to waste all the time and money of city staffers, volunteers, realtors and chamber of commerce leaders, Chip Davis and Coconino County staffers, dentists, doctors, small business people, the greatest grass roots force ever assembled in my 26 years.

Give the impending divorce, a projected 6-1 defeat for Park proponents, such a grass roots force has little chance of ever gathering again given the cobwebs of deceptions. This is bigger than angry neighbors, or Friends of the Posse Grounds, bigger than Barbara’s Park. It is about ethics and credibility. It is about listening to the voices of the people. It is community-building an issue which i believe you ran on.

It is not late to see the light.

James DP Bishop, Jr.


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, James Bishop, Jr.
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Barbara’s Park Seeking Broad Based Support

By Contributor
Monday, March 19th, 2012

The need for this project is non-debatable.
— John Sather, renowned architect and planner

by James Bishop, Jr.

Sedona AZ (March 19, 2012) – Friends of the Posse Grounds, the veteran volunteer board behind creating Barbara’s Park, has a mission: to provide a community gathering place within Sedona’s Historic Posse Grounds Park, one that will preserve and enhance Sedona’s small town character by attracting local live music, family gatherings, youth and adult classes and picnics in nature’s glory. Citizens have seen it in a action already at Red Dirt Concerts, Holiday Sings and Art Scrapture events, poetry, yoga, country music, speeches. Read More→


Categories : City of Sedona, James Bishop, Jr., Parks
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Long live the Posse Grounds – Sedona’s Legendary Community Park

By Contributor
Monday, March 5th, 2012

By James Bishop Jr.

A secret to too many!

A man who has a vision is not able to use that power until he has performed that vision on earth for the people to see.
– Black Elk

Writing about what he observed in the U.S. in the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville judged Americans to be “avaricious, self-serving, and aggressive.”

But he was also amazed at their collective keenness to join together in one cause or another, the fruits of that concern for community being libraries, historical societies, hospitals, and yes – parks.

And, amazed also, by those citizen volunteers who created and sustained parks back when they were the heart of small towns, of neighborhoods, when they were invigorating places for picnics, concerts, neighborly gatherings and such.

What happened?

Where did they go? Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, James Bishop, Jr.
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Bombarded by Junk Mail: What can we do about it?

By Contributor
Monday, December 26th, 2011

By James Bishop, Jr

Sedona AZ (December 26, 2011) – Snow is falling in the distant mountains, Christmas music is echoing through the malls and many mailboxes are stuffed—but not with gifts from far flung loved ones– just never-ending junk mail, more than enough to dampen the holiday spirit. Deserving of a page from Ripley’s Believe it or Not, the extraordinary fact is than 100 million trees’ worth of such mail will arrive in America’s mailboxes by year’s end—that’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. And we are talking tons of it, in fact 5.5 million tons of it which end up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream—enough to fill over 420,000 garbage trucks. If those trucks were parked bumper to jumper, they’d extend from Albuquerque to Atlanta, Georgia.

Gloomily for our nation’s future, just 32% of those tons make it to recycling centers from coast to coast while the rest is buried in landfills—largely unread and unopened. As it is, paper and paperboard waste makes up 40 % of the solid mass that fills landfills from coast to coast. By the year 2010, it is predicted to make up about 48%. Read More→


Categories : Editorials/Opinion, Environment, James Bishop, Jr.
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