I wrote this letter last year, but since this blog is a portfolio of writing samples, I’m including it here…

Dave Cooper, National Conservation Area Manager

Bureau of Land Management

Winnemucca Field Office

5100 East Winnemucca Boulevard

Winnemucca, NV 89445-2921

  

Dear Mr. Cooper,

        I admit that I sometimes find it difficult to understand the wrestling matches between agencies and bureaus and other such organizations of authority, but the present difficulties surrounding the issues of policing and safety at Black Rock City during Burning Man appear, clearly, unnecessary. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” would be a quite fitting (not to mention wise) axiom with respect to your decision on these matters.

        My wife and I have attended Burning Man four of the last five years and have been both impressed by and thankful for the organization of the event, the preparedness of the people involved, and the peacefulness of the proceedings. The cooperation of the entire community (paying participants, volunteers, and paid workers) has produced, each year, a bustling and beautiful city with the criminal reputation of a Sunday school picnic (certainly compared to cities and events of comparable size).

Requiring Burning Man to pay for local law enforcement and staff, giving said law enforcement unfettered eviction authority in Black Rock City, and establishing a population cap are not only unfair but unnecessary. The efforts to keep Black Rock City safe have yet to show themselves broken, Mr. Cooper. There’s nothing to fix.

  

Sincerely,

Keith Jenkins