There's a world of difference between $240,000 and $5,000. The quarter-million dollars was what local officials told the governor they needed to help jump-start tourism after two big fires at Mesa Verde National Park stalled it. The small change was what Colorado Gov. Bill Owens came up with.

Granted, probably nobody expected the governor to come up with the full amount. Government grant funding is like selling an old car: You ask for a lot and take what you can get. But it was hardly unreasonable to expect Owens to take the request seriously and try to find some money to help solve the problem before it became worse.

Now we're appealing to the other Four Corners states for assistance, and not only is that a long shot, it's an insightful comment about politics and geography in the West. Yes, tourism is a regional concern that extends beyond state boundaries, and we sometimes feel we have more in common with our neighbors than with the Front Range. But Montezuma County is in Colorado. We pay taxes to Denver. We vote in the governor's race every four years. We don't have much clout in New Mexico, and even less in Arizona and Utah, whose capitals are as geographically and economically remote from the Four Corners as ours is. Owens is the one who bears the responsibility for assisting us.

The state of Colorado certainly benefits when the southwestern counties are economically healthy. Sales tax flows to the state coffers, so much of it that residents have received refunds the last couple years. That suggests that there should have been some money available to invest in the economic recovery of Mesa Verde Country. Spending some now, as seed money, is certainly more palatable than spending multiples of that amount later, when a downward spiral has taken firm hold.

No matter how you feel about "subsidies," it's important to all of us that the tail end of the tourist season go well, and our best shot at making it go well was to publicize the fact that our attractions are open and barely scorched. "Help us pull in some visitors and earn the money we need to survive the winter." That's what we were asking, and it's not quite the same as "Poor pitiful us; send us some cash because bad luck has befallen us."

Tourism is big business in Colorado and in Montezuma County. It contributes an essential component of our revenue every year. Providing disaster assistance after a catastrophic fire should be no different than providing agricultural aid during a drought. It's not welfare but economic stabilization.