Have you ever wondered about the economic transition of America over the last 150 years — from a pioneering, individually self-sufficient, and agrarian society to a manufacturing and industrial “engine” with production on an international scale, and finally to a consumer oriented economy that is dependent on foreign commodities (e.g., oil), merchandise (e.g., toys from China) and foreign/menial or illegal labor; this transition has resulted in: the devaluation of the U.S .dollar, higher prices for all goods and services, greater unemployment, more governmental infrastructure, loss of trust in governmental institutions, and finally the loss of the traditional “American” character; ergo, where have all of the “Americans” gone?

Looking at what Americans were and have become, we see a matriculation or transformation from: 1) the settler/farmer/rancher with his individualistic freedom and self-sufficiency, albeit, lacking in a “lifestyle” of self-indulgence (e.g., shopping centers); to 2) the small and large machinery manufacturers (e.g. John Deer) and highly efficient commodity producers (e.g., wheat farms, mining, oil production); to 3) a nation of self-indulgent, dependent, materialistic consumers and avaricious developers who prey upon the new found frailties of these new “Americans” (e.g., “lifestyle centers”).

Philosophically, the concept and proliferation of super-highways and malls throughout our land epitomizes what we have become, and where we are going — morally and financially bankrupt; we simply cannot afford to live in this country with our present mind-set, our overindulgence, our overburdening tax structure, our nonresponsive and self-dealing government, and the price of staples and necessities; in other words, America is ripe for the picking by foreign investors or invaders of a different sort. The Eagle River Station project represents No. 3 in our time and place — it reflects that we overly consume fossil fuels just to get to the mall from far away places (Aspen, Steamboat, etc.); it portrays a lifestyle that is non-productive and self-indulgent of non-necessities, and it presages a blighted future for Eagle.

America at large needs to tighten its belt and economize, to promote and preserve our farming and ranching lands for efficient food production, to preserve and enlarge our wilderness hereitage for the spirits of future generations, to again return to a nation of independent businessmen engaged in meaningful production of goods and services, and to eschew consumption of frivolous and non-necessary commerce. Eagle can start down this road by denying the Eagle River Station application and the degenerate “lifestyle” it attempts to foist upon us.

If I had a vote in the matter, I would reject Trinity/Red’s promises of corporate corpulence, dubious wealth for the public and a New York/L.A. lifestyle, and I would opt for simplicity, a healthy and a stable (but modest) local economy composed of individual businessmen who actually live here with their extended families. Eagle can follow Trinity/Red into its vision of the future for us, or it can step back, and take another look to where we can return!