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Jim Macdonald
BiographyAs you could find on my blog., Jim's Eclectic World, I have diverse passions ranging from philosophy to Yellowstone National Park to anti-authoritarian organizing and activism. What you might not get from the blog is a sense of my actual biography. I was born in Bowling Green, Ohio, on October 10, 1973, the day that Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned from office. Agnew was Greek, and I am half-Greek, and so you can imagine I had to compete with some other news the day I was born. I grew up all over Ohio as my dad bounced around with a career in retail store management and then dramatically into the ministry of the United Methodist Church. They were all from the Cleveland area, but as a kid I also had stints in the Columbus area, Morrow County, Youngstown, and finally in Cambridge where I grew up. I went to Ohio Northern University and received a degree in philosophy and history, moved to Seattle a couple of years, got married, moved back to Ohio to Toledo where I received a master's in philosophy, and then in 2000 moved to Washington, DC, where I lived for 7 1/2 years in eight different homes. In 2005, I pointed the organizing with the DC Anti-War Network on a counter-inaugural march against President Bush that drew 15,000 people (on a budget of less than $2,000 - a true grassroots effort organized in a de-centralized manner with dozens of other organizations). I've since been divorced, but fret not, I've been with a wonderful partner for the past 4 years. We had a beautiful boy born in October 2007. Where does Yellowstone fit in this? During my time in college, I worked for the now defunct Hamilton Stores in Yellowstone National Park. I worked there from 1993-6 and 1998 doing nothing more glamorous than wrapping bull horns. However, the obsession grew in the most amazing place I have ever known. In December 2007, we moved to Bozeman and love being close to Yellowstone again. I have now gotten involved heavily with the Yellowstone buffalo issue and helped found Buffalo Allies of Bozeman in April 2008.
Too much information? Perhaps! Not enough of my soul. I'd encourage you to check out a lot of stuff on the aforementioned blog, as well as my Web site listed below. Another way to get a sense of the things I think about is to see the news compilation project on Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and the surrounding ecosystem that I update all the time called the Yellowstone Newspaper. Sometimes, you can get a sense of me just by reading about the place I live for.
Homepage:
- 11/10/2009 10:43 am - Only Snow Drought Likely To Block Your Access To Yellowstone National Park This Winter : On other Yellowstone news, a number of organizations and individuals have just sued the NPS and the USFS over their role in the bison slaughter. See http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/press0910/pressreleases0910/110909.html and http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/article.php?art_id=5273. Jim Macdonald [url=http://www.yellowstone-online.com]The Magic of Yellowstone[/url] [url=http://www.yellowstone-online.com/newspaper.html]Yellowstone Newspaper[/url] [url=http://www.yellowstone-online.com/eclecticworld.html]Jim's Eclectic World[/url]
- 10/21/2009 10:34 am - Reader Participation Day: Winter Park Visits, Snow or Sand? : Snow, of course ... can't wait to get on my skis -- see Tower Fall with no one around; ski right by the upper terraces at Mammoth, ski in the NE corner, and try something new ... I actually got on my skis in Bozeman on October 10; not really ...
- 10/12/2009 10:05 pm - Columbus Day is also Native American Day : Ray, They definitely should unless we get our act together, especially as in Columbus's time and in our own time, there were and are people who find such behavior unacceptable. We aren't people of our times, perhaps, as those few voices speaking out in Columbus's time weren't, and that's too ...
- 10/12/2009 4:39 pm - Columbus Day is also Native American Day : Are you kidding? Don't you know about many, many thousands that Columbus was responsible for in his own lifetime? You could ask the Taina Indians about their plight under Columbus? Oh wait. You can't. He and his men killed them all. As for what came after, yes, Columbus does hold ...
- 10/12/2009 10:59 am - Columbus Day is also Native American Day : Agreed, though I have used Columbus Day in the past as a way to hold educational forums on what Columbus actually did to indigenous peoples and what his legacy caused as well, connecting it to today. They were very successful and well attended events; it might be okay to hold ...
- 10/11/2009 12:26 pm - A Conversation With Jon Jarvis, the New Director of the National Park Service : Did you ask him about buffalo in Yellowstone? I was disturbed by his apparent response to the issue in another recent interview. Here is what [url=http://www.grist.org/article/2009-10-09-new-national-parks-chief-jon-jarvis/]the article[/url] by Jonathan Hickes in [i]Grist[/i] says: [i]Fair enough. There’s also the issue of shifting habitats—animals and plant species moving in and out of ...
- 10/06/2009 11:01 pm - Bikes in the Parks: A Look At What's Up at Grand Teton and Big Bend National Parks : Thanks for the report on Grand Teton use; it's good to see that serious bikers have the option to continue using the road whereas families and others just out enjoying it can use the pathway. That's a nice mix and allows for greater safety for everyone. I always felt safe ...
- 10/06/2009 9:28 am - Bikes in the Parks: A Look At What's Up at Grand Teton and Big Bend National Parks : I'm a little confused by the Grand Teton regulations. Can bikes still use the roads also; or do they have to use the pathways where they are available? I think there are a number of cyclists who would resist using the pathways, where pedestrians can often take up all the ...
- 10/06/2009 9:06 am - Annual Elk Hunt Scheduled to Begin in Grand Teton National Park Oct 10 : In any event Elk Lover, I've always been curious why these so called pro elk groups almost never have anything to say about incursions by the livestock industry on elk. Most people know about what the industry has done to keep buffalo out of the wild, but most don't know ...
- 10/05/2009 7:34 pm - Annual Elk Hunt Scheduled to Begin in Grand Teton National Park Oct 10 : Elk Lover, We look forward to your support on Wyoming (and increasingly Montana's) needless testing of elk for brucellosis, especially the capture and release program in Wyoming. Or, is the only danger you perceive to elk wolf predation? Are you more an elk lover or a wolf hater? If the ...










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