I enjoyed Blair Pittman’s account of the humanitarian rescue of a cow from Santa Elena Canyon in 2007 [“Cow in the Canyon: a true story with a twist,” March 2008], but his statement that the event was the first time that a cow had been through the Rockslide is incorrect by almost 30 years.

Sometime in 1979 or 1980, Far Flung Adventure guides Mike Davidson (me) and John Morelock rescued 2 cows from small sandbars just inside the canyon, where they had been stranded by high water. They had enough grass for only a few days, after which they both faced death by starvation.

The cows belonged to a local friend, Tomàs Garcìa, from the tiny settlement of El Bosque, located about 3 miles south of the entrance to the canyon. These animals represented a significant asset for Tomàs who asked us if we could give him a hand.

The first cow was rescued by rowing over, tying a rope around its neck, rowing upstream out of the canyon and then pulling the troubled bovine up and out of danger.

A good lesson we learned about ropes and rivers is that when an animal or person is in moving water with a tight rope, they go straight to the bottom. The cow was submerged for quite a while, but emerged no worse for the wear.

The second animal was further inside the canyon, where this approach would have been impossible. We walked to El Bosque to ask his mother’s permission to take Tomàs with us on the river to handle the cow. Tomàs was about 30 at the time. We spent the night with the Garcìa family at this beautiful and splendidly isolated location, then walked back to the river the next morning to complete the job.

In fact the cow was better company than a couple of the thousands of human passengers that I hosted on river trips in a 25-year guiding career, but of course with the latter I did not have the prerogative of hog-tying them.

Tomàs and cow left our company right after the canyon exit, and walked to Santa Elena, Mexico, where Tomàs had relatives who would market the animal for him. The fate of the cow was the same either way, but we were able to help out a neighbor in need, an action which these days could land us in jail.

However, the most unlikely thing I ever carried through Santa Elena was a stand-up bass fiddle, but that is another story.

Mike Davidson
Alpine & Terlingua

We would like to commend and personally thank all who were involved in fighting [mid-March’s] wildfire in Limpia Crossing, from professionals to volunteers.

Special recognition goes to volunteer firefighters from Fort Davis, McDonald Observatory, Davis Mountains Resort and elsewhere. These exceptional men and women exhibited skill, courage and selflessness as they protected life, limb and property.

We felt very secure knowing that our home was in such capable hands. Without a doubt, had these dedicated volunteers not been on the scene, several structures would have burned.

Knowing that weather conditions were favorable for the fire to re-ignite on the second day, Fort Davis Fire Chief Kelly Bryan and Jeff Davis County Fire Marshall Mike Ward had the foresight to call in professionals from the Texas Forest Service.

When the inevitable did in fact happen, planes, helicopters and additional fire crews were in position to halt the fire’s progress once and for all.

In no small way, the positive outcome of what could have been a disaster was due to the ongoing training and equipment acquisition that the Fort Davis “Mile High Volunteers” have pursued over the past several years under Kelly’s leadership.

In this light, we encourage everyone to make a donation to your local volunteer fire department: you may well need them one day.

David and Linda Hedges
Limpia Crossing, Fort Davis

In preparation for the March 4 primary election, many hundreds of people here in Texas worked to get the vote out.

One comment heard often was “I don’t vote because my vote doesn’t count.” But, people were assured, their vote DID count, that everyone’s vote counts.

Now it appears that the “no vote” folks were right – many votes didn’t count – or get counted.

Voting is an absolutely essential part of a democratic government. Democracies don’t work without the consent of the governed, and voting is the way the governed get to express their will.

Without a full, accurate and timely vote count, democracy is compromised.

Each primary or caucus since the beginning of this primary season has seen huge voter turn out – so citing an “unexpectedly large turn out” is not an excuse for a slow vote count.

Having a lack of election workers is easily remedied by asking the public to work on the election – citing a lack of people to count the votes is not an excuse.

And “finding” unexpected ballot boxes in vaults? Give me a break!

The District Attorney’s race results are not the only ones affected by this complete breakdown in accounting for the March 4 votes.

Will a recount resolve these inaccuracies? Or is it time for another election?

Dallas Baxter and Jerry Mitchell
Alpine

Can someone please explain the ethics of Assistant District Attorney Steve Houston being intimately involved in saving his boss District Attorney Frank Brown’s job? Does simply putting on his County Attorney hat absolve Mr. Houston from recognizing the seriousness of the conflict of interest he’s involved in? Or is it time to notify the Texas Bar Association that “Houston, we have a problem?”

Additionally, if Mr. Houston couldn’t recognize an ethically challenged situation when he was in one, why did it take our County Judge/Chief Elections Officer over two weeks to bring in outside counsel? And who exactly is that counsel representing, Brewster County’s voters or our elected officials?

(Hiring an Austin attorney didn’t seem to be a problem when it was time to shoot down the idea of a Sub-Regional Planning Commission to fight La Entrada Al Pacifico.)

Commissioners and taxpayers were given a staggering misinterpretation of an SRPC’s form and function with no questions allowed, in an eerie parallel to the telephone conference that Mr. Houston set up with the county elections administrator, local party chairs, and the Secretary of State’s office on the morning of the incomplete Democratic canvass. (Apparently no notes were taken, and Jesse Gonzales’ representatives weren’t invited!)

Messrs. Brown and Houston were fond of saying that “the public’s business should be done in public” when they alleged violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act by Alpine City Council members. Why doesn’t that standard apply to protecting Brewster County’s voters?

It is well past time that ethically-compromised Brewster County elected officials remove themselves from our vote-counting scandal, and allow knowledgeable, impartial state officials to get to the bottom of a process that has disenfranchised hundreds of honest, taxpaying citizens.

Peter A. Smyke
Alpine

I’m not certain that these votes [in the three later-discovered ballot boxes] shouldn’t be counted or that we shouldn’t have a redo, but do locals have to say that the election process is flawed, secretive, and disrespectful?

I worked precinct 4 all day election day, counted the paper ballots from 10 to 7. The last thing the volunteers who work at the precincts are is flawed and disrespectful. Most of us are retired people who give the time to the community and try to do the best we can.

The caucus at the end was a real pressure. The radio announced for people to be there at 6:30, yet the polls don’t close until 7 and they had to stay outside, then 60 people crowded in at 7 while our precinct judges were still trying to do their work in the same room. We were counting in the room where the caucus was to take place so we were under pressure to hurry, hurry.

As far as secretive: I don’t know about the downtown people, but we, as election workers, can’t say a word about what we count nor can we leave the building until our job is done.  

What might be addressed by someone is what they pay the election administrator and what are the job requirements as far as education. I helped one of the previous administrators and it is certainly a mixed bag as far as responsibilities. On one hand, you are just a clerk who types things in the computer, on the other, you are expected to know election law, get a million details correct, and be responsible for the whole election. I don’t know this current one nor do I know how long she’s been doing this - was this her first election?

Have you considered working at the polls Do you know what they pay our county officials? Do you know what they pay the Democratic party people? (I don’t know the answer to any of the $$’s). I do know that Dale C., the Demo chair, looks awfully tired and I expect he works for free.

The caucus stuff added a whole new dimension to this election. The last time I worked the primary, I think we had 4 people. We all want our elections to go smoothly, but most of us don’t want to do the work which is repetitive, detailed-oriented, time-consuming and very non-exciting.

The whole process needs a bunch of checks and balances.

Name withheld
Alpine