Proposed quadruped monument and education center

[John Meissner]

I am a 20-year citizen of Estes Park and a big wheel in my household.  I know the hearing on this topic was scheduled a week ago, and other people were able to submit public comments in written form well before the deadline, but I am too disorganized to get my thoughts together when given a deadline that applies to lesser members of the community, and too important to show up in person when oral public comments are allowed, because I might risk having to come in contact with people who disagree with me, especially where the outcome is pre-ordained.

This graven image proposal before you this evening is ludicrous, not only because the name of the proposed statue is offensive to those familiar with the Hawaiian language and the unwillingness to say the name YHWH aloud (and this is not, contrary to supporters' beliefs, the ungulate's "name" - Animals do not have names, and any identification assigned by the animal's parents would not be pronounceable by human tongue), but because the whole proposal is more to glorify the proponents' feelings of self-worth and educate the public on how glorious and holier than thou they are.

The project was supposed to already be funded.  This lack of funding demonstrates the lack of enthusiasm in the community for another statue of a lifeless animal.  Why would we worship images when we have the living, breathing, sinew and bone reality in the exact same vicinity.  Future generations of archeologists unearthing this crap will ask if we were members of some bizarre animal cult.

Restore sanity.  Restore education on wildlife and fly fishing and safe distances from gangrenous things like misguided humans with the best of moronic intentions to parents and schools and hunters safety courses.

Please enter this into public record after the time for public comment has been closed.  Bill Brown knows how to do this, and Greg White plays an attorney on TV if you need a second.

-join the folks whose self-imposed limits on fund-raising are self-honored, and who would be embarrassed to behave otherwise, with their hands always extended in the "give me" posture