Our unions getting behind Occupy movement

Meg Lanker-Simons at Occupy Casper. Her union supports Occupy Wall Street. I wonder about mine, SEIU. Meg is one of my co-panelists (with Jaren Artery) for the presentation "Snarky Slacktivists of Online Outlaws: Leftie Bloggers in Red-State Wyoming" at the John R. Milton Writers' Conference Oct. 27-29 in Vermillion, S.D. 

Something organic (and very soggy) about Occupy Denver rally

Author with soggy sign

Whenever I attend a protest in another state, I always try to exhibit a little bit of Wyoming. It ties me to home. It causes strangers to approach and say, "Hey, I'm from Wyoming too." On a fall football Saturday, someone might come up and say "Go Pokes."

That's what happened today in Denver during the Occupy Denver rally and march. A young man perused my soggy sign (see above).

"You're from Wyoming?"

"Yes" I said out of my soggy face.

"I'm from Torrington."

"Cheyenne," I said.

"Go Pokes," he said, making a fist.

"Go Pokes," I answered. "They're going to need a lot of Go-Poking today at Utah State."

He laughed and moved on. We were marching and the rain was coming down. My wife Chris and I took turns holding the sign. It was permanent marker inked on poster board. Neither of us are great sign makers as we lack whatever genome helps you make readable yet artistic lettering on a white board. But the sign possessed some Wyoming soulfulness which probably drew the young Torringtonite to us. And later, two young women from Gillette who now live in Denver.

Getting ready to march

They were young, most of the occupiers. The age of our kids. Motivated and peaceful too. Their signs were mostly better than ours, and some had machine-lettered placards which looked really good. Some had covered their placards with plastic. They had planned ahead. It takes some planning to attend a protest, even when that protest seems to have grown organically out of the wet ground.

Some of the Occupy Denver people have been living outside for weeks. Their impetus comes from Occupy Wall Street, which began its life in Manhattan's Liberty Square Sept. 17. The weather, for the most part, has been glorious. Treatment from the Denver Police, pretty good. People drop off clothes and food. The multitudes have assembled their own security force. I asked one of the security guys how he got his job. "I was tall," he said, "so they asked me."

When it comes to visibility, it helps to be tall. Tall and festooned with orange. It is hunting season, after all, and you can't be too careful.

This teacher testifies about the damage done to public education by the undue influence of large corporations. 

Chris and I located the core of Occupy Denver on the Capitol grounds along Broadway. There's also a small tent city which provides shelter for the hardcore OD crew. Each occupy event focuses on what night be called "testifying." A person calls "mike check," comes to the center of the circle and proceeds to outline his/her reasons for attending. Savvy folks break their narrative into bite-bized chunks so the rest can follow. It's basically repetition. It turns all of us into motivational speakers. It engages the audience.

He: The top 400 in this country

Us: The top 400 in this country

He: Have more money

Us: Have more money

He: Than the bottom 150 million

Us: Than the bottom 150 million

Former First Lady Dottie Lamm interviews one of the more seasoned occupiers

And that person goes on until he/she is finished -- or until someone else in the crowd calls "mike check" and take the soapbox. That person may want to dispute what the previous testifier said. That happened at least once today. One guy, obviously infused with the populism of the day, told everyone that the streets were ours and that we were going to walk in the streets during our march, no matter what the police said.

"Mike check," said one of the tall security guards.

Despite what the previous person said!

Despite what the previous person said!

We are not going to walk in the street!

We are not going to walk in the street!

He went on to explain that OD did not have a permit for today's march and that it might be in the best interest of everyone here not to rile the police who, for the most part, have been very helpful and understanding. We were policing ourselves, he noted, and wrapped up with "peace."

"Peace" we all said.

As we testified, two DPD paddy wagons rolled down Broadway. I couldn't help but notice that a squad of riot-equipped officers clung to the side of each wagon.

"Uh oh," I thought.

"Uh oh," thought those around me.

Occupy Denver occupies Colfax Avenue

As it turned out, there was little cause for alarm. Marchers chanted and followed the rules and we walked down Colfax Avenue. Police prowlers prowled the inside lane and the security teams made sure we followed the walk-don't-walk signs. A seasoned woman in a funky hat came up to me and said that she was interviewing "older" participants and she couldn't help but notice that Chris and I were, possibly, a bit older than the majority of the assemblage. She hoped that we didn't mind if she pointed that out. We didn't mind. She introduced herself as Dottie Lamm and said she was writing a column for the Denver Post. She asked why were here on this cold rainy day. We believe in the cause. We were curious. A good excuse to get out of town. She asked for our phone number so she could interview us in detail later. We traded numbers. And she moved on to interview other older participants.

Dottie Lamm, in case you don't know, is Colorado former First Lady, wife of Governor Dick Lamm (1975-87). Dick Lamm was a firebrand in his day, as was his wife. She ran from the U.S. Senate in 1998 and was defeated by Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who had earlier defected to the Republicans.

We walked down Colfax in the rain. We received quite a few honks and we yelled in response.

Who are we?

We are the 99 percent!

What's democracy look like?

This is what democracy looks like!

Whose street is it?

Our street!

But we didn't walk in it. We walked along the sidewalk to Fillmore, crossed the street (with police assistance) and headed back to the Capitol. More chanting. More rain. We called it quits, had lunch and drove back to Cheyenne in a heavy rain.

What had we learned? A lot, as it turns out. I'll explain tomorrow...

A short story about one government-issue, middle-class, Middle-American family from Denver

My government-issue parents in Denver, circa 1950. Thanks to my sister Mary for the photo.

I was born in Denver at the tail end of 1950.

My father was a World War II veteran who used the G.I. Bill of Rights to graduate from Regis College (now Regis University) in three years. It was a private Catholic college, one he never could have afforded without the government program, promulgated by Pres. Roosevelt and sponsored by Democrats and Republicans, that provided college degrees for millions of American men. The U.S. Navy paid for my mother's nurse's training at Mercy Hospital in Denver. The war was over before she finished so she didn't have to join the fight. But she did use her government-supported training to help support her nine children from 1946 until she died forty years later. My father spent most of his working life building Defense Department-funded ICBM missile silos around the West and then with the space program in Florida. His salary, directly and indirectly, was paid by Uncle Sam.

My father's father made a pretty good living in Denver selling insurance with Mutual of New York. But before he joined private industry, he served with the Iowa National Guard on the U.S. Mexico border and then in France with the AEF. After repeated gas attacks, the Army shipped him to Fitzsimons Army Medical Hospital outside Denver. During his recuperation, he struck up a friendship with an Army nurse, Florence Green from Baltimore, who had traded the life of a debutante to tend to shattered soldiers on the front. The U.S. Army trained her in the healing arts. Grandpa Shay was forever grateful. Both Grandma and Grandpa received the lion's share of their medical care from Veteran's Administration hospitals in Denver and Cheyenne. They both were buried in Denver's government-administered military cemetery, Fort Logan. You can go visit them. Notice what a fine job the V.A. does in maintaining this national landmark. Go ahead, notice.

My mother' mother was the first postmistress in a little town outside Cincinnati. She liked her government paycheck. But one summer she joined her sister and two friends for a road trip via flivver to the Rocky Mountains. The roads were rough. Fortunately, Brevet Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower had led the U.S. Army's Motor Transport Company from D.C. to California in 1919 and made the road navigable. A year later, she was following the same government-blazed trail and, a year after that, she and her sister were living in Denver and visiting the mountains regularly.

Ike was from Kansas but he liked Denver. He got married in Denver to Mamie Doud and later fished the U.S. Forest Service mountain streams during his breaks from the Oval Office. During one Mile High trip, he suffered a heart attack and recuperated at Fitzsimons Army Hospital. I was four -- almost five -- at the time. Our family lived just off of Colfax Avenue in Aurora and my father took me down to the corner, pointed at the well-lit building across the street, and said: "Our president is right over there." The president was a Republican. My father was a Democrat -- then. But he said "our" president. Gen. Eisenhower had been his supreme commander in the ETO. And now he was his -- our -- president. We then walked back to our $8,000 house, purchased without a down payment and paid for with a low-interest loan. At the end of his life, my father was astonished that he paid twice as much for a new car as he paid for his first house. He was a Florida Republican by then, a by-product of Nixon's southern strategy. He seemed astonished by many things, particularly the Liberal politics of his eldest son. Even though he passed away almost a decade ago, Dad may be astonished still.

Spawn of our government-sponsored parents (see above), taken in her backyard in Daytona Beach, Fla.,
where we used to watch government-sponsored rockets blast off into space (from the Mary Shay Powell archives).

My mother's father came from Ireland in 1917. He worked with his brother on the Chicago El until he got sick and had his infected lung removed at the city's charity hospital. The doctor advised him to take his one remaining lung and go to the healthy climes of the West. Grandpa made it as far as Denver, liked it, and decided to stay. He worked at the post office for many years, and then the railroad. He also was a handyman and a helpful neighbor. He only had a sixth-grade education, but I learned more from my Grandpa Hett than I did from almost anyone else. He was a strong believer in the healing power of ice cream. This also is my belief.

These are my forebears. An imperfect lot, to be sure, and I carry on that tradition. It is possible that we all would be perfectly fine without the programs and opportunities offered by our citizen-funded government. It is possible, yet unlikely.

On Oct. 8, we Occupy Denver, site of the Democratic Party's 2008 convention -- was that only three years ago?

The arts, especiaslly the graphic arts, are laying a huge part in the Occupy Wall Street movement.  This event's right down the  road in my hometown of Denver. www.occupywallstreet.com

CSU's 100 Views of Climate Change looks at the subject from all angles

Until John Calderazzo showed me his web site, I didn't know that there were 100 views of climate change.

That's the name of his site, 100 Views of Climate Change. It's an official Colorado State University site, one among hundreds at this place that started its life as Colorado A&M -- the big white Aggie "A" still lurks on the mountain above town.

John teaches in the CSU creative writing program which is part of the English Department. He is a writer of creative nonfiction which, put simply, means that he uses fiction writing techniques in his published books and articles and essays about volcanoes, rain forests, watersheds, etc. He takes his facts as seriously as he takes his technique. His book on volcanoes is fascinating. He once taught in China and had written extensively about Asia. Recently, he climbed his first big mountain, a 19,000-footer in Mexico. Pretty good for a guy who won't see 60 again.

I had a chance to visit with John when he was in Cheyenne for the Literary Connection put on by LCCC. He served as my first adviser when I went to CSU in 1988 as a thirty-something corporate dropout. We had a lot in common, including Florida roots, and he was only a few years older than me. We worked on several free-lance writing projects together. It's always good to see an old friend.

As is true with many Boomers in their sixties, John is not sitting in his office counting paper clips and marking off the days until retirement on a wall calendar. Well, he may be doing that but he's also bringing the climate change debate to CSU, Fort Collins, Colorado's Front Range and the Rocky Mountain West. He and his wife, Sue Ellen Campbell, are doing this together. Sue Ellen is also a published writer, professor and environmentalist. The duo has seen first-hand the depredations of climate change. They have written extensively on the subject.

When it was time to do something about it, they thought that they might as well start close to home. So many scientists at this university. Climatologists, soil biologists, ecologists, bioethicists, agronomists, water hydrologists and so on. And sometimes, to translate the work of these scientists, in come the artists, writers and performers.

No reputable scientist disputes the fact that global climate change is a real thing. However, the topic of "global climate change" sparks as many storms as a spring Rocky Mountain low pressure system. Policies that address climate change would affect almost all the ways that we've done business in the West for 100 years. They would affect coal mining, oil and gas drilling, coal-fired plants, transportation, infrastructure, home construction, and almost any other topic you could think of. Just the term "climate change" sends Wyoming Republicans into a tizzy. It's likely they work in the energy industry. It's certain that much of their election war chests come from EnCana and Peabody, etc. Many of their constituents work in the energy industry and make better money doing that than they would in almost any other endeavor. Local business groups and chambers of commerce welcome energy companies and energy jobs. The mayor of Gillette was just in Washington, D.C., telling a congressional committee to send more energy jobs his way.

So, it's not surprising that any hint of doing something about climate change causes berserkity to break out all over.

Chris Drury: "Carbon Sink: What Goes
Around Comes Around"

Here's a recent case in point from Wyoming's lone four-year university. A very talented artist, Chris Drury from the U.K., designed and installed a public art work on the UW campus. It's entitled 'Carbon Sink: What Goes Around Comes Around." It's made of real Wyoming coal and real beetle-killed trees from Wyoming forests. The burning of one of these things -- coal -- undoubtedly caused the warming planet which led to the pine bark beetle surviving winters which led to the killing of the trees. All of the parts will eventually return to the earth from whence they came, which is one of the messages of the piece. A giant circle of coal and wood spinning across a university lawn on its way back to the source. This also is our fate. The fate of humankind, of course, will be determined by the way we treat the planet.

Here's how the project was described on the UW Art Museum blog:

Chris Drury's Carbon Sink: What Goes Around Comes Around places beetle-kill pine and coal -- both natural resources in Wyoming -- in a formal structure derived from a mushroom spore, twisting into a vortex to suggest the natural process of decay, decomposition, and transformation.  Typical of the artist's work, who routinely connects natural phenomena from the macrocosmic to the microcosmic, the whirling deep, dark, and beautiful reflective properties of the coal play off the raw wood that has been charred so the materials merge at the center.

Some Wyomingites were not amused (snippets from stories about the installation from both the New York Times and The Guardian via Inhabitat): 

The coal industry immediately took offense: “They get millions of dollars in royalties from oil, gas and coal to run the university, and then they put up a monument attacking me, demonizing the industry,” stated Marion Loomis, the director of the Wyoming Mining Association.  

Two legislators also jumped into the fray -- Republican Representative Tom Lubnau and Gregg Blikre from Cambell County, site of the massive Powder River Basin coal mine. 

“While I would never tinker with the University of Wyoming budget – I’m a great supporter of the University of Wyoming – every now and then you have to use these opportunities to educate some of the folks at the University of Wyoming about where their paychecks come from,” stated Lubnau.

Read more here: Chris Drury’s “Carbon Sink” Art Installation Strikes Nerve of Wyoming Coal Industry Carbon Sink by Chris Drury – Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World 

As it turns out, it was a tempest in a teapot. No coal-crazed Republican legislators attacked the UW Art Museum budget. But we'll have many more of these. Some will be a lot more serious.

Chris Drury is obviously a thoughtful man in search of meaningful discussion of a big subject.

Maybe UW needs a dose of 100 Views of Climate Change. CSU is right down the road...

5K walk raises awareness for PTSD after suicide by Fort Collins soldier who was treated at Cheyenne VA

Here's a sobering statistic from a story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan:

The Veterans's Administration Regional Medical Center in Cheyenne "in fiscal year 2011 (through July) had 1,954 veteran patients with PTSD, comprising 10.7 percent of the veterans seen, according to VA spokesman Andrew Ruben."

That breaks down to almost 200 patients a month being treated for PTSD. And that's only at one VA Center in our little corner of the world.

U.S. Army Spc. Nicholas Larson of Fort Collins was treated for PTSD at the Cheyenne VA. It wasn't enough. Larson, a 22-year-old Iraq War veteran, killed himself May 12, 2010, leaving behind a wife and son, among other loved ones.

Elizabeth Larson-Haag (sister) and Larson's mother, Monica Meisner, have since started A Soldier's Silent Cry, a petition for the U.S. military to require that troops who have served overseas undergo regular mental-health evaluations.

They are organizing a 5K run/walk that walk starts at 10 a.m. Sunday beginning and ending at Veterans Plaza at Spring Canyon Park in Fort Collins. Contributions benefit Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, which helps people who have lost loved ones in the military.

More staggering stats:

PTSD affects 11 percent to 20 percent of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' website.

Ruben at the Cheyenne VA said veterans struggling with PTSD can find assistance at their local medical center, which can be found at http://www.va.gov or by calling the 24/7 Veteran Combat Call Center at (877) 927-8387.

For more information about registering for the walk or the petition, visit http://www.asoldierssilentcry.com or call (970) 581-7905.

Grant Family Farms looking for band to play live music Sept. 24 at bus repainting party

This comes from Grant Family Farms in Wellington, Colo.:

BAND WANTED!

I'm hoping you all have heard about our bus repainting party this Saturday (Sept. 24). Well, to make this a fun day we would love to have some live music there! If you are willing to donate your time for a few hours ~9-12 please let us know. Would love to have you at the farm!

Go to http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110917/NEWS01/109170393/Vandals-hit-Grant-Family-Farms-chicken-buses-Wellington?odyssey=tab

Grant Family Farms hosts painting party Sept. 24 to erase hate speech vandalism

From today's Denver Post:

Mobile chicken coops on the Grant Family Farm in Wellington were vandalized with messages of hate last week. Swastikas and anti-gay messages were scrawled on the sides of three buses the farm uses as mobile chicken coops. Sometime between Sept. 7 at 9 p.m. and Sept. 11 at 11 a.m. vandals entered the farm passing clearly marked private land and defaced the buses, said Angela Simon, chef for Grant Family Farms and representative of Boulder Community Supported Agriculture.

"It's a blunt reminder there are individuals who think that way and want to promote their message," Simon said.

The all-organic farm fosters an open community with a diverse staff, she said. The colorful buses add an element of mobile art with messages of peace and love to the utility as a chicken coop.

The buses are taken to different areas on the more than 2,000 acre farm to allow the chickens to roam free and help with fertilizing and weed control.

The Larimer County Sheriff's office is investigating the vandalism and trespassing as a hate crime, Simon said.

The chicken buses are decorated at painting parties hosted at the farm.

Sept. 24, there will be a painting party open to the public to cover up the vandalism and to paint two new coops.

Simon said she hopes they will have a gracious donor provide paint for the party. which will start at 9 a.m.

"It will take some work to cover it up," Simon said."We will do the best we can."

In July, Hummingbirdminds wrote about the 30th anniversary of the Grant Family Farms store here in Cheyenne. It's been a real boost to locavores and gardeners in southeast Wyoming. And my daughter had a summer job there two years ago. I'll be at a literary conference in Casper for the Sept. 24 (9 a.m.-noon) painting party. But if you're around, get down to Wellington and support Grant Farms. Activities will be happening at the field near Cuca's Kitchen, just to the west of the farm offices at 1020 WCR near Wellington. Wear your painting clothes, bring water for drinking and any extra house paint suitable for covering swastikas and anti-gay slogans.

Here's a better photo courtesy of towleroad at http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/peace-loving-colorado-farm-hit-by-anti-gay-neo-nazi-vandal.html

Coming soon to reality TV: jousting

Is jousting the next big thing on reality TV?

That's what people were saying over the weekend at the 35th annual Scottish-Irish Highland Festival in Estes Park.

"Jousting is the next big thing on reality TV."

That's right. Jousting, as seen in movies such as "The Adventures of Robin Hood," "A Knight's Tale" and "Court Jester," is making a comeback.

Here's an article in New York Magazine about the History Channel's proposed jousting show:

The History Channel is taking a cue from Game of Thrones and putting together a jousting-competition series, Full Metal Jousting. "It's sixteen guys and they're gonna knock the crap out of each other," vows the show's executive producer. Fully armored competitors will charge at each other on horses "bred for warfare," and "someone's going to get hurt." If that sounds appealing, and you're "proficient with horseback riding while simultaneously performing physical activities requiring hand-eye coordination," then this is the casting notice of your dreams. Last summer, the New York Times wondered if jousting was "the next extreme sport," and now it seems the answer is "well, sort of."

For awhile there -- 400 years or so -- jousting had fallen out of favor. Guys kept getting killed and some of them were the knights and nobles who made up the majority of professional jousters. It would have been O.K. if the rabble was getting killed. They were, after all, expendable. But when the King of France (Henry II) had a broken lance puncture his brain -- a fatal wound -- that was enough. 

No nobles in the lists Saturday at Fairgrounds Stadium in Estes Park. There was a guy who was a martial arts champion from Utah and a young man from Texas whose father is in the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. But no Earl of Cumberland or Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein of Gelderland. 

There were lots of cameras. Handheld cameras, cameras buried in the ground, cameras embedded into the tips of lances.

It was fun watching fully-armored men charge each other on horseback. Lances shattered. Jousters fell to the ground.

This will make great reality TV.

Now only if we can get Snooky fitted with armor, a lance and a big horse...

Robert Greer's "Astride a Pink Horse" explores the twisted legacy of Wyoming's atomic era

Robert Greer

Robert Greer left Gary, Indiana, as soon as he could to attend college and eventually become the only international cancer specialist and best-selling African-American mystery writer to raise cattle in Platte County, Wyoming.

Not a bad claim to fame.

Robert has a new book coming out in March 2012:

ASTRIDE A PINK HORSE North Atlantic Books Hardcover: March 27, 2012, ISBN-13: 978-1583943694 

The Cold War ended years ago, or did it? 

For Thurmond Giles, a decorated African American Air Force veteran found dead, naked, and dangling by his ankles inside an entry tube to a deactivated minuteman missile silo in desolate southeastern Wyoming, the answer is no. The labyrinthine investigation that follows, led by Air Force fighter pilot Major Bernadette Cameron and ex-college baseball phenom-turned-reporter Elgin "Cozy" Coseia, reveals how the atomic era's legacy has continued to destroy minds and lives. 

Set in contemporary times, Astride a Pink Horse follows Bernadette, Cozy, and Cozy's eccentric boss Freddie Dames as they match wits with a gallery of unforgettable murder suspects: a powerful, politically connected cattle rancher, long bitter over government seizure of his land for defense purposes and the expulsion of his son from the U.S. Air Force Academy; a declining 76-year-old WWII-era Japanese internment camp victim and her unstable math professor nephew; an idealistic lifelong nuclear arms protestor; and a civilian Air Force contractor with a 20-year-old grudge against the murder victim. Do three amateur detectives stand a chance against these characters and the conspiracy that may be behind it all? 

Robert Greer's trademark mix of vivid eccentrics, surprising plot twists, and political edge makes this one of his most memorable thrillers.

Arts entrepreneurial idea from our neighbor to the South

Cool idea. No surprise that Colorado's Governor was an entrepreneur before a politico

2011 SI Snowsport Entrepreneur Award

Future leaders wanted. Apply here today.

The dynamics of business are changing. Something Independent is looking to hear from future leaders who are creating this change by embracing the core tenets of entrepreneurism – innovation, creativity, purpose and perseverance – in pursuit of their ideas and passions. In the creation of this first-time award, we look to the Colorado snowsport community, all that it represents and all that it inspires, to help us feature the ideas and companies that are poised to become leaders in Colorado’s new entrepreneurial economy. Is that you? Apply today.

Tell us your story by submitting a 60-90 second video demonstrating you’re idea, product or service, why you’re passionate about bringing it to life, how Colorado has inspired your idea and how the industry and culture of snowsports influences your business. All entries must be uploaded to http://tinyurl.com/somethingindependent by Friday, September 9, 2011.

This winning entrant will receive a cash award of $1,500. These funds will be unrestricted and may be used at the discretion of the award winner. Other benefits include a marketing & communications package from Sprocket Communications and media recognition from ColoradoBiz Magazine, media sponsor of the 2011 SI Snowsport Entrepreneur Award.

Requirements

·       Video entry required – 90 seconds or less. Tell us your story. Get creative. Inspire us.

        o      Video entry requirements

                §       Explains and/or demonstrations of idea, product, service;

                §       Why you are passionate about bringing it to life;

                §       How has Colorado influenced and/or inspired your idea, product, service;

                §       How has the industry and culture of snowsports influenced and/or inspired you

·       Idea originator must live in Colorado

·       Idea must be original to the person or business

·       Applicant agrees that SI has right to use their video footage for promotional purposes

·       Applicant agrees by virtue of submitting video application that Something Independent has the right to use all content, in any manner, all or any portion thereof or in connection with the Award

        Program or otherwise

·       Winning idea agrees to show how award has furthered growth

·       Deadline: Submissions must be received by 5 p.m., Friday, September 9, 2011

Colorado Rockies get desperate as another season tanks

This is the most ridiculous promotion I've ever seen. Rockies Faith Day? Why not call it Rockies Sucking Up to Churches Day? Or maybe New and Interesting Ways to Fill the Ball Park as the Rockies Choke Day? Maybe Rick Perry could conduct the opening prayer?

Weird.

If this is a trend, sign me up for Rockies Flying Spaghetti Monster Day.

Go to http://mlb.mlb.com/col/ticketing/faithday.jsp?partnerId=aw-5951796513581239158-1070

Brother Duane said "eat a peach for peace," so I did

Eat a peach, ya'll

Eat a peach for peace.

That's what Duane Allman did. In an interview shortly before his death by motorcycle in October 1971, Duane was asked in an interview what he was doing for the revolution. Replied Duane:

"There ain't no revolution, it's evolution, but every time I'm in Georgia I eat a peach for peace."

Eat a peach. Let the juice run down your chin.

That's what I did this morning. It was a Colorado peach from Palisade, where they grow ones almost as good as the Georgia variety. Peach State. Peachtree Street, where Margaret Mitchell stepped off a curb and was killed by a car.

When I eat a peach I think of the Allman Brothers namesake album, the last one recorded with the full original band makeup, before Duane and Barry Oakley discovered the joys of driving motorcycles in Macon, Georgia.

Eat a peach for peace.

I did a little farmers' market shopping, as I said in my previous post. The Depot Plaza was crowded with vendors and shoppers. Miller Farms out of Platteville had some good deals. I was intrigued by Miller Farms flyers announcing its fall harvest festival. From Labor Day weekend through mid-November, Miller Farms opens the gates for "harvest-your-own" days. In October, the farm has pumpkin harvesting and a haunted adventure, including a corn maze. Interesting how Front Range farms, at least those that have survived the housing development boom of the past 30 years, have gone in big for the local foods movement. Miller Farms has a big Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. It's not officially a state historic site but it does advertise that it's been around since 1949 and is "a true Colorado treasure."

In September, I am going down to Miller Farms to pick my own.

I wonder if people can shop at farmers' markets and avoid grocery stories. Some of us are having a tough time making ends meet. Grocery prices have climbed with transportation costs. Unemployment is low in Wyoming, but it's not exactly a hot market for those looking for work. Hiring is hot in the energy industry, especially in the Niobrara oil shale country of northern Colorado and southeast Wyoming. The service industry is always hiring, although jobs are barely minimum wage. The job market for professional is static, although that's better than "awful."

I spent $30.70 at today's market and probably got enough food for the weekend. Here's what I bought:

Goat chops from Wag's Livestock in Laramie, $9.70
New potatoes from Destine Hoover's Laramie County farm, $3
15 ears of corn from LaSalle, Colo., $5
Container of Palisade peaches from Dick's Place, Cheyenne, $10
Slice of strawberry/rhubarb coffee cake from Robin's Treats, Laramie, $3

I probably should have bought steaks from Wag's but Jim Waggoner talked me into goat. I told him I'd never tried it and he replied that this was enough of a good reason to buy some. I had to agree. Jim and Sue spend their Friday afternoons and evenings at the Laramie market and then drive over the pass to Cheyenne for Saturday.

At the farmers' market work, I would have had to spend at least $100 to get through the week. Even then, I'd have to go to Albertson's for milk and other food items. I still think it's great that Community Action of Laramie County now takes credit, debit and EPT cards. And this is only second weekend for thew Saturday market.

But, as the Miller Farms flyer said, "eat nutritiously, buy locally and be healthy."

Eat a peach for taste. Eat a peach for "local." Eat a peach for health.

Eat a peach for peace.

The Progressive: ALEC, Republicans Beat Up On Kids in Special Ed

To see what's coming Wyoming's way in the form of ALEC-sponsored "education" bills, read this story in The Progressive: ALEC, Republicans Beat Up On Kids in Special Ed

Wyoming Republican legislators will be traveling to the ALEC wingnut conference in August to get their marching orders for the next session. Beating up on special ed kids will be in the mix.

I am the father of two children who benefited from the very comprehensive special education programs offered in public schools in Colorado, Maryland and Wyoming. While not all teachers and administrators were easy to work with, they all had to comply with federal regulations as spelled out in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other legislation.

It's a different story in private schools. Those schools do not have to comply with IDEA. And some of those schools according to The Progressive, are fly-by-night academies who prey on parents desperate for solutions to their children with learning disabilities and/or behavior problems.

The Fix list is in, and hummingbirdminds is on it

Chris Cilliza at the Washington Post's The Fix recently put out a call for the year's best political blogs in each of the 50 states.

Making the list for Wyoming are Jeremy Pelzer's Wyoming Capitol Journal at the Casper Star-Tribune and hummingbirdminds. Thanks to Larry Kurtz at South Dakota's Interested Party for pointing this out.

Regional prog-blogs making the list are Square State in Colorado, Madville Times in S.D., and Montana Cowgirl in Montana.

Great company for this humble ink-stained electron-drenched wretch.

If you want to see candidates for future best-of lists, go to my right sidebar under WY Progressives and click away.

Baby Boomers are juvenile to think that low taxes make for a great retirement

Cheyenne Frontier Days

AARP The Magazine has named Cheyenne one of the ten most livable cities in the U.S.

This could be seen as a compliment. Until you examine AARP's criteria.

"Cheyenne meets many of the criteria for what Baby Boomers are looking for in a place to live."

What are those criteria? Great coffee? Lots of arts and entertainment venues? Fantastic restaurants? Lifelong education venues? Community service opportunities?

No. They are:

Low cost of living.
No state income tax.
No tax on pensions.
Low sales tax.
One of the lowest property taxes in the nation.

What is this, St. Petersburg, Fla., in the 1960s? Really? Low taxes, early-bird buffets and 24-hour shuffleboard?

I am a Baby Boomer in good standing. Born in 1950. I am looking forward to retirement in a few years. But what kind of retirement?

For one thing, I'm going to get as far away from golf courses as possible. And Republican golfers. I have nothing against either. But the lowest circle of hell is reserved for people whose only conversational topic is golf. If I knew that my final years would be spent with golfers, I would request an immediate execution.

My guess is that we've moved beyond golf and shuffleboard and even retirement communities when we talk about retirement.

Here's what I'm going to do in retirement. Read every day. Write every day. Grow some of my own food. Work for the arts, either as a volunteer, a grant writer or an event coordinator. Spend time with my wife and my kids and maybe (some time in the future) my grandkids. Think about the future. Talk to young people about the future. Drink good beer.

And when I complain about the gubment, have some suggestions about how the gubment can do things better.

I think that it's juvenile to be a senior citizen depending on Social Security and Medicare and other retirement income but pining for a place with low taxes. Juvenile and stupid.

NEA"s "Our Town" grants supports creativity in our towns

Artist's rendering of Casper's Sunshine II development that will include an arts space for resident and neighbors

Here's a whole lot of creative placemaking that will be supported by almost $7 million in "Our Town" grants from the National Endowment for the Arts: http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/11grants/Our-Town.html

One of those is a $50,000 grant for Casper to develop a public art space alongside the 26-unit Sunshine Apartments II development now under construction. The site is across from the Nicolaysen Art Museum and just west of where the now-demolished KC Apartments were located. Some of you may remember the rundown KC Apartments as a slumlord-run blight on the neighborhood that mercifully was closed down by the city and then demolished.    

The new Sunshine II low-income development feature LEED-certified buildings and now an arts space. 

Project organizers envision the space as a gathering spot for apartment residents and the surrounding community. The museum also intends to create educational and outreach programs for the site. 

“It’s part and parcel with a whole mindset or plan for downtown Casper on how to integrate arts with our everyday lives,” said museum Curator Lisa Hatchadoorian. 

--clip--

Hatchadoorian isn’t aware of any other public art spaces in Wyoming tied to low-income housing. Organizers hope their project will encourage similar efforts in other parts of the state.

“It’s a community-building experience,” she said. “A lot of times, when you have a public art space where people can interact, it just brings everyone ... it makes the community more available to each other. It just makes a better place to live.”

Read more: http://trib.com/news/local/casper/article_b59063b2-7991-51f2-8698-204d1b7b01fc.html#ixzz1RxrMkUst

Another one of the NEA's "Our Town" grants goes to a neat "arts incubator" project just down the road from Cheyenne in Fort Collins, Colo.:

To support the creation of the Rocky Mountain Regional Arts Incubator (RMRAI) in the historic Carnegie building in downtown Fort Collins. The RMRAI will offer students and professionals a multitude of services to assist them in creating, redefining, and sustaining their creative careers in the new economy, including educational courses, internships, continuing education for practicing artists, and gallery and performance spaces.

The project is a collaboration among the non-profit Beet Street, the City of Fort Collins Cultural Services Department and the Colorado State University School of the Arts. The incubator will be located in the Carnegie Building in the city's Library Park.

The Beet Street web site doesn't say, but the org's name probably trades on Fort Collins' aggie reputation, namely its years as a center of sugar beet production. CSU got its start as Colorado A&M, home of a fantastic veterinary school and lots of farming and ranching courses. That's what the big "A" up on the mountain stands for. CSU grew into a place where the arts shared a campus with the aggie arts. What's interesting is that the university (my alma mater) now is investing heavily in green technology and sustainable agriculture, putting the A&M back into the name in new and interesting ways.

Olyeller clashes with Olblue

Tea Party Slim has recreation on his mind this Fourth of July weekend.

"Glendo?" I asked, mentioning a state park about 90 miles north of Cheyenne.

Slim sneered. "Too many Greenies."

I nodded. "We should put up a southern border fence."

Slim looked pensive. "Might work -- just a fence to keep out the Liberals. Colorado's crawling with them."

I laughed. "A fence with a Liberal detector? Turn back anyone with a pointy little head?"

"Or drinking a latte." He joined the laughter.

"Obama bumper sticker? Turn 'em around, tell 'em to get back to Boulder."

"Two Obama bumper stickers? Lock 'em up!"

"On what charge?"

Slim paused. "Reckless endangerment -- of Wyoming's citizens."

"DUI: Driving Under the Influence -- of Liberal Ideas."

A real knee-slapper. Slim slapped his knee. "Aiding and abetting -- terrorists."

I ceased laughing. "See Slim, there you go ruining a good time by going all Tea Party on me."

"What?"

"And we were having such a good time together bashing Colorado Liberals."

Slim tried to make amends. "Look, I was just..."

"Heard it all before, Slim. Obama is soft on terrorists. He may be one himself, seeing as he's from Kenya and his father was a Muslim. Isn't that the Tea Party line?"

"There's no Tea Party line," Slim said, looking defensive. "We're not a political party so we don't have a party line."

"That's true," I said. "Let's just say that those are typical Tea Party talking points."

"We don't have talking points."

"Yelling points?"

Slim smiled. "I just yelled once at a town hall meeting last year and now I'm a yeller?"

"Ol' Yeller?"

"That's a pretty good Twitter handle."

"I'll steer clear of your posts."

"C'mon Mike, I'll be olyeller and you can be Ol' Blue, as in blue state."

I stared at Slim. "Not bad -- Ol' Blue. But it sounds a bit like the name of a hound dog some Alabama KKK guy would own. 'Sic 'em, Blue, sic that pointy-headed Liberal. Get that colored fella next."

Slim slapped me on the back like some Alabama KKK guy. "I love joshin' with you Olblue, but I have to get rolling. The misses and the RV are waiting."

"Where are you going?

"It's a secret."

"State park?"

"No."

"National park? National forest?"

"No."

"BLM land?"

"None of those. A bunch of us own some land up around Laramie Peak. Private land, so we can recreate in peace."

I imagined a forest grove with a dozen RVs circled up like Conestogas. Slim and his fellow Tea Party windbags sat by the fire roasting Obamacare and big gubment. The little women were barefoot (too old to be pregnant) and busy cooking and cleaning and cutting firewood. I wondered what circle of Dante's Inferno this would be.

"You have fun, Slim. While you're recreating in the mountains, the Liberal misses and I will be plotting the overthrow of the U.S. Government."

"Hey," he said, standing tall, "that's our job."

Photo: Tea Party Slim is out there somewhere, plotting mischief. Photo of WY Shirley Rim/Hwy. 77 (used under Creative Commons license).

Who needs Rainbow Family Rocky Mountain gatherings when you have the Koch Brothers Platinum Lovefest?

A brave coterie of protesters gathered outside the recent Koch Brothers Right Wing Lovefest in Vail, Colorado. CommonBlog has a list of corporate aircraft that flew Right-thinking corporate CEOs and pundits to the conference. Thanks, planespotters. Target is on the list. See if your favorite corporation is there. For more, go here.

Bob Greer comes to Cheyenne to talk about his books and African-American history in the West

My wife Chris is on the planning committee for the annual Cheyenne Juneteenth celebration and the fund-raising banquet put on by the Wyoming NAACP. Chris and I are both proud members of the NAACP and freckle-faced Celts of Scots (she) and Irish (me) heritage. My Mom was Black Irish, if that means anything.

Chris asked me about a speaker for the Juneteenth dinner. I suggested Robert Greer, Dr. Robert Greer, "Bob" to most of us. Bob found a fine literary magazine, the High Plains Literary Review, back in 1986 and accepted my first published story in 1990. I'm eternally grateful for his good taste. I've read two of his CJ Floyd novels and listened to the audiobook for another while driving across Wyoming several summers ago.

CJ Floyd is a bailbondsman working out of the colorful Bail Bonds Row across the the Denver Police Department. Several of CJ's adventures have taken him all the way to Wyoming. Usually he is ferreting out miscreants and consulting with his sources in the city's Five Points neighborhood, which was the black section of town during the racist days of red-lining. Denver attempted to keep all the "Coloreds" in Five Points, Larimer Street and Lower Downtown, now the Yuppie and artsy enclave of LoDo. Denver thought that an invisible red line would stop minorities from migrating to the swankier parts of town.

My mother used to take us to our family doctors down in Five Points. Our doctors' names were Kobayashi, Momei and Hosakawa. Colored folks. Nisei. Two of the three fought with the 442 Regimental Combat Team in World War II. My father, a World War II vet of the European Theatre, never went with us. He never objected to my Mom's choice of doctors. But he was a product of his times and he was damned if he was going to go to a "Jap" doctor.

Denver has an intriguing history and Bob does his best to inject it into his mysteries.

Bob will come to the Cheyenne Holiday Inn on Saturday, June 4, to speak at the annual banquet of the Wyoming NAACP. His theme will be the contributions that African-Americans made to the history of the West. He will sign copies of his books from 6-7 p.m.. Dinner will follow, with Dr. Greer's speech at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 per person, $50 per couple. You can purchase tickets for the event by calling Abe Stevenson at 307-634-8304 or Bennie McLaughlin, 307-634-5527.

When he's not writing, Dr. Greer is a professor of pathology, medicine, surgery and dentistry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in. He also holds a master's degree in creative writing from Boston University and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Miami University of Ohio, his alma mater.

Greer has lived in Denver for thirty years. In 1986 he founded High Plains Literary Review and continues to serve as its editor-in-chief. He is the author or co-author of three medical textbooks and over 125 scientific articles. His short stories have appeared in dozens of national literary magazines and his short story collection, Isolation and Other Stories, published in 2000 by the Davies Group Publishers, is also wonderfully illustrated.

Greer has been involved in cancer research at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center for more than thirty years. In 1983 his research group was the first in the world to report a synergistic link between smokeless tobacco use and human papillomaviruses in certain cancers of the mouth. That research foundation is the basis for the plot of his novel,The Devil's Hatband,the author's first novel featuring Denver bail bondsman and detective CJ Floyd. Several of his novels are set in Wyoming.

Spoon, Greer’s 2009 novel of the contemporary American West, won the Colorado Book Award for literary fiction. It also was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Spur Award and received the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union 2010 Media of the Year Award. Wyoming’s Craig Johnson, author of Another Man's Moccasins and The Dark Horse, had this to say about the novel: "With Spoon, Robert Greer tells the story of a modern-day range war in wildfire prose both taut and lyrical."

Greer also reviews books for a Denver National Public Radio affiliate, KUVO, and raises cattle on a ranch in Platte County, Wyoming