Kathleen has a unique message for many markets.

LIVE ‘LITE’ AND PROSPER

Haven’t you noticed how recreation and tourism (R&T) seem to be the ONLY politically correct and morally acceptable ways to earn a living these days? Not only in the Rocky Mountain region, but throughout the Global Village! Having spent the last 10 years adapting to lite this and low fat that, we are now being socially engineered into lite living and low fat incomes. Respect and pride in working for a living outside of these industries are calories to be avoided and benefits to be ignored.

Our preoccupation with R&T as the end all and be all of economic development perhaps accounts for so many young people focusing on high priced tennis shoes and CD Roms to equip them for life after mom and dad! Boy are they in for a surprise!

Social engineers attempt to convince us that justification for our existence in any scenic area of the global village can only be found in the moral high ground of recreation and tourism. To act or think otherwise is to exhibit an insensitivity that cannot be allowed. Now, these two industries — and they are industries — make many positive contributions to our lives. Unfortunately, there are those who would reduce recreation and tourism to nothing more then outings into the ‘WORLD OF WAS’!

Hotels, gift shops, tours are provided to make certain the global citizen gets a taste of how life was at some selected point in time. In our region, this time zone goes by the name of pre-settlement conditions. I’m still waiting to see the video that captured with such precision, those pre-settlement conditions which the social engineers seek to preserve.

Perhaps reducing recreation and tourism to nothing more than carnival culture qualifies as living litely on the land! Carnival culture is all about dressing the part, and nothing to do with living the part. You know how it goes-cowboys but no cows, mining museums but no miners, log homes but no loggers. Past lifestyles of only pre-settlement people are considered heritages worth continuing and celebrating. In the lite living of the global village one can time travel. You go from pre-settlement times directly to the 21st century — don’t go through times of industrialization and population expansions. You might learn to appreciate some of those contributions, and have a more balanced experience. Remember — we’re after ‘lite’ here-not balance.

Aside from revisionist history, what is wrong with only part of the story? Well, first it culturally imprisons people to look and act a certain way to fulfill tourist expectations.

The thin veneer of carnival culture cannot hide the fact that the spirit has been destroyed by non use. The wonderful characters that tourists once met in towns of genuine spirit are becoming only memories, replaced by cartoon characters playing an ol’time part-and not doing it all that well. What was once and still could be a rich living history is reduced to only postcards and tee shirts.

A second problem with allowing only R&T for economic development is the damage we do to future generations. When you don’t provide living, breathing examples of how civilizations learn from past mistakes, young people will come to the conclusion that only no action will avoid past problems. This subconsciously molds young people to fit nicely into the DO NOTHING comfort zone, where their actions and attitudes continue to be shaped by helpful social engineers. They are led to conclude that impacts of humans are always negative, and to be avoided. How’s that for a heritage that teaches problem solving!

Along with living litely on the land, we want diversity, and more diversity. To the social engineers planning our lives, however, one should never get any more diverse then recreation and tourism. Social engineers will play the con game of supporting living litely on the land via recreation and tourism just long enough to eliminate the real foundations and strength of an area. Then the moral high ground is redefined in terms of buffer zones, green corridors and natural areas. These then become necessary to mitigate the negative impacts of too much recreation and tourism. Sound familiar?

Economic boom and bust cycles are not eliminated by recreation and tourism in spite of what the spinmasters say. To live ‘lite’ and prosper requires a well balanced diet of real economic diversity.

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