There's a buzz in the Fort Collins air over the intersection of sign painting, outside wall murals and public sentiment.

At the rejuvenated Lost Fort Collins blog, Terence Hoaglund christened the blog's re-design by publishing an article about the outside wall murals in Old Town. I've hyperlinked to the article, above, and it's worth reading. Terence expresses his enthusiasm for Old Town's murals, which reflects my own and that of many others in Fort Collins. We like how the murals look on our buildings. "They add depth and character to otherwise blank facades", Terence says – And while public murals can do more than that (think of the political perspectives WPA artists sometimes brought to their public art), in Fort Collins, depth and character is enough.

In addition to wall murals, Old Town is famous for its ghost signs – which are commercial advertisements from 50 years ago and before that, painted on the sides of buildings. All of Old Town's ghosts are in plain sight, but you have to know where to look. The most famous ghost is the Coke sign on the wall at CooperSmith's (the home of Sigda's Green Chili beer, which I like and recommend) on Mountain Avenue. Local sign painter and graphic artist Don Brown painted the sign in 1958 for Angell's Delicatessen, which Coke reimbursed for its promotion of the new, 12 oz, king-sized bottles of Coke (even then, soft drink manufactures wanted to supersize us).

Commerce created the Coke sign, but it now serves as a visual anchor defining how we see and experience Old Town (those of you who live in more metropolitan areas might think it's quaint that an advertisement plays such a prominent role in the Fort Collins landscape, but you have to realize how compact the scale of this city is, as compared with, say, Denver). The sign functions as a worthwhile landmark... How it and other Old Town landmarks will evolve into the future is something else entirely.

But not so fast. The city's Historic Preservation Office has been trying to contend with Don Brown and his legacy for a while. And finally, a series of recent Coloradoan articles announced the Office has raised over $44,000 to preserve the Coke sign. I've cited one of the Coloradoan articles above and reproduced it below, with the highlighting mine. The Coke sign will move forward with Fort Collins and not, for the foreseeable future, fade away.

What's undetermined, at this point, is the stage-of-life that the Coke sign will assume in its preserved, forward-looking condition. Will preservation turn-back the clock to the sign's spanking-new appearance in 1958? That would be pretty ugly, but the possibility of doing so focuses our attention on the wide range of successive stages in the sign's history that preservation could reproduce.

Once we get the Coke sign squared away, what's next? Are we going to preserve all the other ghost signs in Fort Collins? All the outside wall murals? All the other public art that the city's funded in its program to deter graffiti?

We'd agree not all the outside art – and related visual phenomena – in Fort Collins is worth saving forever. But, do we know where to draw a circle around the art that means the most to those who live here?

The art I want to see included in that circle – every time someone enumerates the worthwhile visual experiences in Fort Collins – is the outside and inside murals by Susan K. Dailey at Avogadro's Number on Mason Street in Old Town.

Susan Dailey's murals (also see her website hyperlinked above) are one of the reasons why eating at Avo's is a great experience and what makes Avo's a Fort Collins landmark. It's a place remembered by people who visit here (and a place where creatives always end up), which is what Avo's seer and owner, Rob Osborne, told me; and he should know – he's officiated over Avo's since the early 1980s. (Kristian – who, herself, is a force-of-nature and the author of the Feasting Fort Collins blog – really needs to add Avo's to her must-visit list, and when she goes there, I recommend the falafel sub, although she'd be remiss not to try the tempeh.)

Having said all that, Susan Dailey's Avo’s murals illustrate stories we know immediately, even when they're new to us. Stories that include:

•The link between Easter Island's megaliths and Star Trek's exploration of space.

•Our familiarity with a jungly environment, where bobcats and elves emerge from behind the leaves.

•Our familiarity with a Poudre River pastoral, where deer graze beneath the cottonwoods – and keep us at several snouts distance from the picture plane that they gracefully inhabit.

Then, on the outside wall of the north side of the building, there's a wizard sitting in a tower. He's studying a book of ciphers (we assume it's Avogadro's Number), while eating a sub. Children – or the representatives of some diminutive species – play in the bushes. That is, they play in the landscaping. Part of what makes the mural enjoyable is the way it accommodates, wraps itself around, and comments upon the building's door, windows and shrubbery. You don't see that kind of site specificity in other Old Town murals or in the ghost signs.

Susan Dailey began painting the mural in 1982. For years, Avo's patrons enjoyed it when eating on the terrace. Sometime in 2003 or 2004, Rob Osborne closed the terrace and moved Avo's outdoor dinning to the back yard.

How many of Avo's patrons experienced the mural in its 20+ years of active life? Find out for yourself:

Total number of patrons =
Patrons on the terrace per day × Days amenable to outdoor dinning per year × 20 years

What estimate do you get? Somewhere between several hundred thousand and a million patrons? That's a lot – and all of them passed through the terrace in warm proximity to Susan Dailey's mural.

What's the status of the mural now? It's still there – overlooking a gravel parking lot. The colors seem less vibrant to me, and I think they're fading. When I asked Rob Osborne about that, he said he thought the mural looked OK. Which is true; the mural is very far from end-of-life. But it's also in the precarious position of no longer being connected directly to the daily activity at Avo's. Susan Dailey's mural is in the same orphaned position that Don Brown's Coke sign was in, when Angell's Delicatessen closed up in the 1960s.

I asked Rob Osborne what would happen to the mural. He said he hadn't thought about it, but probably it would fade away.

Fair enough. I wonder if all the people who have enjoyed Susan Dailey's mural over the years would agree that that's the mural's appropriate fate.

Fort Collins Preservation Officials Consider Signs in Old Town Square
Preservation Officials Working on Specifics
by Kevin Duggan • kevinduggan@coloradoan.com • June 8, 2010

An iconic Old Town "ghost" sign may be restored in the coming months, although just how lively it will be remains to be seen.

Fort Collins historic preservation officials are exploring their options for preserving the familiar Coca Cola and Angell's Delicatessen signs on a brick wall near an entryway to Old Town Square off Mountain Avenue.

The faded, peeling signs were painted on the side of the building that now houses CooperSmith's Pub & Brewing Co. in 1958 by noted local artisan Don Brown.

In 2009, the city's Historic Preservation Office received a $22,200 grant from the Colorado State Historical Fund to preserve the signs.

During the past year, matching funds for the grant have been secured for the project, including $13,411 from the Downtown Development Authority, $6,388 from the city, $2,195 from Progressive Old Town Square LLC, which owns the building, and $500 from the Fort Collins Historical Society.

Contractors that would stabilize the wall and work on the images have been selected. Now comes the hardest part, said Carol Tunner, a historic preservation consultant who is managing the project – deciding what the spruced-up signs should look like.

"Everybody has an opinion," she said. "I'm going to do what I can to make everybody happy."

The issue is choosing the point in time at which the signs should be restored, said Tunner, who formerly worked as a planner with city's Historic Preservation Office.

Options include repainting the signs to their original colors, keeping them as they now appear and recreating what they looked like some years ago based on photographs, she said. Some people support just letting the signs continue to deteriorate until they naturally fade away.

"I personally don't like that idea," she said. "I think they should be saved for future generations to see."

Considerable public input has already been received about the project, said Karen McWilliams, a planner with the Historic Preservation Office.

More input will be taken before choosing which treatment to apply to the sign, she said. Stakeholders include the state historic fund, the city's Landmark Preservation Commission and the City Council.

"We just want to make sure everybody is on the same page," she said.

During a recent City Council meeting, some members said the Coca Cola sign should continue to look old to fit in with the ambience of Old Town. Mayor pro tem Kelly Ohlson said "a giant, new Coke sign" would not "look right at all."

Ohlson said "lightning would have to strike" before he would support restoring the sign to its former appearance.

"I think we ought to protect it as is," he said. "I think going back even five years and trying to make it look kind of old and funky... (is) even more faux than redoing it."

Mayor Doug Hutchinson, who ate at Angell's Delicatessen while growing up in Fort Collins, said he was "bowled over" by the thought of a sign being painted to look like new.

Restoration efforts will include replacing mortar between bricks in the wall, removing flaked paint and applying a special varnish to the paintings to stop further deterioration, Tunner said.

The J.L. Hohnstein Block, which has the signs, dates to 1904.

Hand-painted advertising signs on the sides of commercial buildings were common in the era before mass-produced signs and billboards, city officials say.

Coca-Cola paid Brown $400 to paint the sign; the restoration project is budgeted for $44,694.

Tunner said the process of preserving the sign will be complex. Special scaffolding will be brought in during the work, which is likely to happen this fall or next spring.

Earlier this week on Tuesday, the Coloradoan published another letter to the editor by Larimer County's own Republican Super Patriot, Tom Bender. The letter was as mean-spirited as Bender's letters always are. He wrote (apparently not on spec for the Onion):

"Replacing Obama's godless team at the polls with conservative representation to restore government subservience to our Constitution and the people is the first step in stopping enslavement of Americans into Obama's socialist world of serfdom, misery and poverty."

It's impossible to hold Bender accountable for the ridiculous, anti-social things he says. Many have tried over the years – most often pointing out the divisiveness that Bender brings to public discourse, but they've had no effect on Bender's propensity to spew forth his fetid thought. Besides that, you can tell how much pride he takes in being able to capture in writing and popularize the private knowledge that his particular right-wing cultus subscribes to.

Occasionally however, the Coloradoan publishes a rejoinder to one of Bender's letters where Bender gets pwned so thoroughly that even he would have to concede he's been bettered. Susan Lauscher manages that in her letter published yesterday. She observes:

But I found myself going back to Bender's claim of "Obama's Godless team." I must admit that I have trouble understanding how God has anything to do with government and politics (except perhaps as a negative example such as the government of Lebanon, and, yes, even Israel, during the years), but I began to wonder if these are code words for something else. I don't pretend to know what President Obama's religious beliefs are, although I have heard him express religious sentiments, but I do know that Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff, is a practicing Orthodox Jew. David Axelrod, Larry Summers, Ben Bernanke are all Jews. The president and his family have honored his Jewish staff and Judaism by celebrating two Passover Seders in the White House. I don't look for anti-Semitism around every corner, but I am wondering what a "government of moral stability" really means.

Our thanks and respect go out to Susan Lauscher for calling Bender on his rhetoric.

So, who is Tom Bender anyway? He's been writing-in to the Coloradoan for as long as I've lived here, which is 17 years. In the 1990s his Coloradoan dispatches were more frequent than they are now, and I wonder if the Coloradoan is now limiting his access to its pages.

From 2001-2004 Bender served one term as the Larimer County Commissioner from District 2 (approximately the middle third of the county). He was defeated in the November 2004 election by Karen Wagner, his Democratic challenger.

Beyond that, Bender's official profile – from the time when he was a Commissioner (which I retrieved from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine) – provides biographic information about him (the hyperlink below is mine):

Tom is a California native who moved to Colorado in 1950 where he graduated from Limon High School and enlisted into the U.S. Air Force in 1957. Tom ended his military career, moved to Larimer County, built his home, and established the Bender Tree Farm in 1977. During his military service, Tom was awarded the Bronze Star and Air Force Commendation for his participation in four combat campaigns in the Republic of Vietnam.

Tom and his wife, Mary, of 43 years have three daughters, a son, and nine grandchildren. Tom and Mary are members of John XXIII Catholic Community and he is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

Business:

Tom worked in the electronics division of Woodward Governor until 1984 when he became a full time tree farmer...

Volunteer Activities:

•Served as a county fair natural resource judge for 4-H projects and exhibits at the Larimer, Weld, and Adams county fairs over the past 6 years.
•Served as a volunteer firefighter for the Rist Canyon Fire Department and as fire chief for six of those years.

Associations:

•Member, former chairman, and co-founder of the Larimer County Tree Farmers Association.
•Former member and president of the Colorado Forestry Association.
•Served for ten years on the Colorado Forest Stewardship Coordinating Committee.
•Served two years on the Extension Renewable Resources Committee. Tom is one of the first graduates and practitioner of the Colorado Master Tree Farmer program.
•The Tom and Mary Bender Tree Farm was designated the first Colorado Stewardship Forest in 1991.
•Designated Colorado Tree Farmers of the Year twice.
•Designated Western Regional Tree Farmers of the year in 1996 for outstanding resource management and environmental stewardship.
•Received a leadership and "Teammate" of the year awards from the Colorado State Forest Service.
•Received many certificates of merit from the National Arbor Day Foundation.
•As a member of the Larimer County Farm Bureau Board of Directors for the past ten years, Tom served as the National, State, and Local Legislative Affairs Chairman and for four years on the Colorado Farm Bureau Land Use Policy Development Committee.
•Member of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Military Organizations:

Tom continues to serve as an active member in patriotic, American organizations such as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the National Rifle Association. Tom is a member of the American Legion and VFW honor guard and firing squad for flag honor ceremonies and military funerals.

Political Associations:

Tom has served as an election judge, a precinct committee chair, delegate to the State and 4th Congressional conventions for the Larimer County Republican Party. Tom is a graduate of the Republican Leadership Program in 1998. Tom is a member of the Larimer County Republican Breakfast Club, Larimer County Republican Club, and auxiliary member of the Larimer County Republican Women's Club.

Fort Collins and Northern Colorado saw record precipitation and snowmelt this spring, which resulted in the Poudre River cresting on June 12 at over nine feet in town. You can read a first-hand report on all the meteorological and hydrologic excitement – which most of us in Fort Collins were only barely aware of – here (Steven Goddard, 13-Jun-10, Poudre sets a record, online at wattsupwiththat.com).

The city of Greeley, which is downstream from Fort Collins, was very aware of the record-setting hydrology that hit it. Floods inundated low-lying fields and homes and caused the closure of county roads and city streets.

So, the Poudre River made some waves this year – although the second week of June is when the river usually crests.

The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District recognized the Poudre's high water flow and distributed a press release describing the large volume of water that might have been impounded for future use, if Glade Reservoir and the NISP project had been built by now. I've cited the press release above and reproduced it below (with the highlighting mine).

The press release also speculates that Glade Reservoir would have "alleviated some of the recent regional flooding concerns."

Mark Easter, who's chairman of the organization Save The Poudre, responded to the press release in a Coloradoan editorial (cited above and reproduced below, with the highlighting mine). Easter focuses on the claim that Glade Reservoir will help protect Northern Colorado from flooding – which is not an important theme in the press release. You have to wonder why Easter would go to such lengths to refute something that the press release only mentions in passing. But, I suppose that hysteria and an uncompromising, knee-jerk reaction are what we expect from environmentalists, aren't they?

Easter explains how water impoundment, for conservation purposes in a reservoir, reduces a river's flow, which in turn results in sedimentation of the river channel. In other words, when you reduce the flow of water down a river, a river becomes shallower – both in water depth and in channel depth.

Less water means less water, so that's easy to understand.

But why should the channel fill in? Because the force from the river's flow in the spring, when the water is raging, carries away accumulated silt from the channel. That's a good thing. The water rises within the channel but not into your basement (assuming your house isn't built on a flood plain, which you wouldn't do, would you?). Easter points out that impoundment reservoirs, such as Glade, increase the risk of downstream flooding.

Actually, the Poudre River's flow is already reduced because of high mountain dams, which have been in place for a long time – and as a result of those dams, Easter explains, Greeley must spend $12-$16 million this year to dredge out the Poudre channel. Greeley – and other Northern Colorado cities – will have to spend even more than that on dredging and flood control, if Glade Reservoir is built.

Who pays for the flood control needed by Fort Collins, Timnath, Windsor, Greeley and the other towns and cities, which have to protect their citizens from the elevated risk of flooding that results from Glade Reservoir? Not the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. Not Brighton and all the other places that want Poudre water... Fort Collins pays for flood control. Timnath pays for flood control. Windsor pays for flood control. Greeley pays for flood control.

And on top of that, all we get is a "depleted, stinking ditch" of a former river. Locals disproportionately bear the impacts from Glade Reservoir and receive no benefits from it... And that's why Easter's explanation of the relationship between Glade Reservoir and flooding is worth reading twice. Your wallet thanks you if you do.

For Immediate Release – June 11, 2010
Contact: Brian Werner 970-622-2229 (office)/970-481-2927 (cell)

Proposed Glade Reservoir Would Be Half Full
NORTHERN COLORADO – It's been a wet spring and many of the region's rivers have been raging for the past week, especially the Poudre River. Much of that water could have been conserved for later use if additional storage were available.

The proposed Northern Integrated Supply Project includes 215,000 acre feet of storage. Diversions for this storage would mostly be available during high runoff years. Galeton [Reservoir] would have filled during the past fall and winter and remained full with the huge spring runoff.

"More than 50,000 acre feet of water from this spring could have been stored in Glade Reservoir were it built, in addition to water during 2009," said NISP Manager Carl Brouwer. "And Galeton Reservoir would have been full."

Glade and Galeton reservoirs are the key components to NISP, which is proposed by 15 Northern Front Range cities, towns and water districts and is currently under review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. When full, Glade would store 170,000 acre feet of water and Galeton would hold 45,000 acre feet.

"This is one of those years when you wish we had these projects in place so the water could be saved for the citizens of Northern Colorado," said Northern Water General Manager Eric Wilkinson. "It also means a lot of water that Colorado is entitled to is flowing out of state to Nebraska over and above our legal requirements."

With NISP online some of the recent regional flooding concerns would have been alleviated and the floodwaters would have been stored for future use.

"NISP could be storing water right now and we could be pumping 2,000 acre feet a day to storage and still have a significant amount flowing downstream to Nebraska," Brouwer said.

The Poudre River peaked on Tuesday at more than 4,300 cubic feet per second at the canyon mouth. The average peak for the river is a little more than 2,900 cfs. While the river's flow has slowed the past few days there is the possibility of another peak flow with rain in the forecast this weekend.

It's a good year for water supplies throughout Northeastern Colorado and years like 2010 illustrate the reason storage reservoirs are a practical, prudent and responsible method to provide water to Colorado's 5 million residents.

Additional information about NISP can be found at gladereservoir.org.

Morphing Project Vows Cure for All Water Woes
In a June 11 news release, the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (Northern) speculated that if the NISP/Glade project had been built already it could have reduced recent flooding on the Poudre and South Platte Rivers.

NISP/Glade project has morphed into a new brand of snake oil, promising to cure all of our water ills, flooding included. Northern has a tendency to tout every meteorological, environmental and economic whim and trend as a reason to Build NISP/Glade and destroy the Cache la Poudre River. Got drought? Build NISP. Got flooding? Build NISP. Expecting climate change? Build NISP. But when one looks carefully at the facts behind the issues, the case for NISP unravels, as is the situation once again.

NISP would actually increase flooding risk below Poudre Canyon. Case in point: Greeley and the Corps of Engineers are preparing to spend between $12 million and $16 million of taxpayer money to dredge the Poudre River to reduce flooding risk. Why? Because nearly two–thirds of the Poudre River's flows have already been stripped from the river by upstream dams and diversions. The river through Greeley no longer has the flow level and energy needed to flush sediment out of its way. Every year, the river perches inches higher within its banks as sediment builds up in the streambed. NISP/Glade would dramatically worsen that problem by taking away the last of the regular peak flows.

In extraordinary years like this one, there would be no place for the river to go but out of the banks and into the streets – and living rooms – of Bellevue, LaPorte, Fort Collins, Windsor and Greeley. All of these communities would be locked into long-term, costly flood-control programs that Greeley now confronts if NISP/Glade is built. Why not let the river do that work for us by protecting peak flows?

NISP/Glade is not a flood-control project. Flood control is nowhere in the project's objectives. Ask any dam engineer about the differences between water storage and flood-control projects, and he or she will say they are engineered very differently. Northern's recent claims about NISP/Glade and flood control are like most others they have made – only true in a very narrow context. This project is chock full of irony, and it presents an interesting conundrum – Greeley's recent flooding problems are caused by past dam and diversion projects coupled with poor land-use decisions. Building another dam is like a physician prescribing a larger belt and bigger pants to a patient with a weight control problem.

NISP/Glade would turn the Cache la Poudre River into a depleted, stinking ditch. Follow the money: Nearly all of the so–called benefits of the project would go south to Denver suburbs, leaving the rest of us to deal with the expensive, ugly mess it would leave behind. The proposal for NISP/Glade is already on life support, and Northern seems prepared to do or say anything to resuscitate it. They just want to build a dam, period; the rest of us be damned.

Mark Easter, chairman of Save The Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper
Fort Collins

I watched the forecast for Sunday all week, because I wanted to take my daughter hiking to the Pawnee Buttes – which are an hour and a half northeast of Fort Collins, out on the shortgrass steppe. The forecast promised ideal, sunny weather. Then on Sunday, as we drove east out of Fort Collins, we noticed the clouds and the rain.

We stopped for breakfast in Ault – at Gray's Cafe. And let me tell you – Gray's Cafe is the Best! I ordered two eggs over-easy with hash browns and toast. My order arrived within minutes and could not have been better. Sometimes, hash browns come to you too greasy or undercooked or not-great looking (although usually still good to eat). Sometimes an over-easy egg comes to you as less runny (or more runny) than what you want. Sometimes the toast is "blackened" rather than toasted. None of those problems characterized my breakfast at Gray's. What I got was a simple breakfast prepared perfectly. It's worth your drive out to Ault, just to try Gray's for yourself.

We continued towards Grover, which is the town nearest to the Pawnee Buttes. The weather didn't improve, and heavy clouds hung overhead. At Grover, we turned north and anticipated the six mile drive to the Pawnee Buttes turnoff. We drove eight or ten miles and turned around. We then turned east onto a county road, which looked like a likely candidate for accessing the buttes.

We got lost.

We drove for an hour, up and down the county roads, some of them paved and some of them gravel. We saw more large raptors than I've ever seen before in such a short period of time. The birds looked like hawks and mostly sat on the fence posts. There's no doubt how exciting it was, watching such birds spread their wings and fly as we approached. We also saw a lot of pronghorn antelope and chased two of them down the road, before they darted towards the fence and wriggled underneath.

Eventually, we crested a rise in the landscape and came upon the Cedar Creek Wind Farm. The propellers of the wind machines slowly rotated in and out of the fog. The photos, below, give you some idea of how surprising but eerie the sight was. Cedar Creek is the world's largest wind-energy project engineered as a single facility. It includes 275 wind machines, all located between Grover and Hereford and positioned along the crest of the Chalk Bluffs. It cost $489 million to develop; employs 20 permanent staff to maintain; and one-third of it is owned by BP Alternative Energy (yes, the BP that's in the news).


We returned to Grover. I noticed some brilliant yellow roses growing along a fence in one of the alleys. I told my daughter that the original Grover homesteaders probably brought those roses with them – and therefore the roses connected us directly with who those people were and what they liked. She rolled her eyes and didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about.

I'm not a horticulturalist or a rosarian, but I'm interested in the relationship between the built and natural environments.

We explored the unpaved streets and alleys of Grover and took photos of the roses. I later looked up antique prairie roses online. The description of Harison's Yellow fits the rose we saw:

Deep yellow. Mild to strong fragrance. Up to 25 petals. Average diameter 2". Medium, semi-double to double, borne mostly solitary, globular bloom form. Once-blooming spring or summer.

Homesteaders brought Harison's Yellow with them when they settled the west. It's a hardy plant, and as a result, it's now naturalized across the prairies. In the Grover area, many homesteaders came from Iowa in the first part of the twentieth century. The rose my daughter and I found probably came with them.

Grover, itself, has experienced better days – it's now as remote a place as you can find in Northern Colorado, but the rose – whether it's Harison's Yellow or another cultivar – is still going strong.


After driving around Grover and photographing the rose, we returned to the crossroads on the east side of town. We turned right and went south – and immediately saw a large sign directing us straight ahead to the Pawnee Buttes.

Throughout our hike, the fog drifted across the landscape and often obscured our view of the buttes. Then, the sun would come out, and we'd see how dramatic, massive and isolated the West and East Buttes were. Raptors nest in the crevices of the buttes and all along the Chalk Bluffs, but none showed themselves during our hike.


As we drove home, the sun came out – which causes cactus flowers to open to their fullest. Between Briggsdale and Ault we came upon a stretch of prairie that was thick with prickly pear cactus (probably Opuntia polyacantha), and all of the plants – for as far as we could see – were in full bloom. Prickly pear is native to the shortgrass steppe, and the form we saw grew in small clumps and low to the ground. It must be a nightmare for management purposes, but it was gorgeous to see.

3D's daughter's review (she who is about to enter 11th grade)

Ted Haggard is a fake person who likes to use people who have had a hard life or who live differently from him.

On Sunday June 6th my Mom, Dad and I went down to Ted's house in Colorado Springs. As we were pulling up to the front gate, we could vaguely see a sign posted on the side. When we got closer we could see it was a notice telling everybody that by passing through the gate we were agreeing to have our picture taken and be filmed for a documentary. This sort of surprised us. Sure we had expected to be photographed, but not filmed. It was a little unnerving.

There was a man at the gate who was "greeting" everybody coming in. I say "greeting" because it sounded like he just wanted to pry information out of us and that's it. We only talked with him for a few minutes when Ted himself walked up, shook my Dad's hand, and welcomed us in. As we were driving away we could hear Ted say, "You can't be up here."

We parked and started to walk up the drive. We didn't make it very far when a man in a black shirt walked up and asked if my Mom and I wanted to be in their documentary. He didn't even look at my Dad until the end. We told him no thank you, and when he walked away my Dad said that he probably only wanted to talk to us because we're "different" and have Crouzon syndrome. The sad thing is that that's the truth. The only people we saw them really talking with were the people who they had pinned as "not normal."

The church service wasn't really... well it wasn't very churchy. What I remember is that it was in a barn, we were cramped up next to everybody around us, and it was very hard to pay attention, with all the cameras running around. It just sort of looked like a set up. On top of that, it felt like every two seconds Ted would yell out "Now Media, that was a joke!" It was sort of funny the first time, but by the fourth, I just wanted to stand up and scream at him to stop. At the end of his long speech about money and "helping people," Ted had people come up and give testimonials. This is where I started to feel disgusted. The first couple of people were OK, but it was the last few that made me feel really bad.

There were four of them: a massage therapist who wanted to commit suicide, a gay man flown in from Texas, "Brody", not his real name but that's what the tattoo on his arm said, who didn't really have a story and just kept saying I've done bad things, and a woman who was on heroin. I felt so bad for these people because not only was Ted parading them in front of a crowd but also in front of cameras. For the rest of eternity their stories will be watched by millions of people never to be taken back. I think this is where it really hit me. Before seeing this I knew that he wasn't a good man, but this just showed me he was a user and an abuser. He didn't really care about those people at all, and you could see it written all over his face. Sure you had to squint a bit, but once you looked past that plastic smile, it was there. The only reason they were standing up there with him was because he was using them to show that he was "changed" and that his church is for everyone. It was a sad sight.

What I think I got from this outing is that even though this man has done bad things and will most likely continue to do so, people will still blindly follow him. People need to start opening their eyes.

3D's review (he who isn't grey yet)

On the Monday following Sunday's Saint James launch party, Ted Haggard tweeted a shout-out to the Colorado Springs Gazette religion-writer, Mark Barna. Ted tweeted¹:


And Barna's brief article² is complementary of Ted. In fact, Barna was the only reporter who was allowed to attend the launch party, and his reporting on Saint James has been entirely complementary. Bana wrote about the launch party³:

What was supposed to be a launch party Sunday for St. James Church in Colorado Springs turned out to be much more.

Standing on a wooden riser surrounded by hay bales, Ted Haggard gave his first sermon as pastor of St. James in a barn next to his home on Old Ranch Road. About 160 people sat elbow to elbow on folding chairs to hear Haggard sermonize about sin, love and forgiveness.

"This is Easter morning for me," Haggard told the congregants, referring to his view that the establishment of St. James represents his "resurrection." "We will be cheerleaders for good."

Indeed. Cheerleading was an important part of the service I attended at Ted Haggard's barn. Also important was the participation of a sympathetic media, which included Mark Barna – whose Gazette articles describe only some of what happened. And then there was Long Pond Media, the production company.

I was struck by how readily those in attendance went along with Ted. They knew all the words to the songs (although my daughter told me the songs are standards at the Fort Collins megachurch, which she's attended with her mother). They laughed at Ted's jokes. They wrapped Ted in the presence of followers. They gave Gayle a standing ovation. They applauded Jesus, on cue.

When I turned around, I saw the principals from Long Pond Media were signaling Ted on how to pace the service. My ex said they did so throughout. They directed Ted, for example, on whom to invite to the front to give a testimony.

The Long Pond crew was unavoidable. A cameraman came and went – and crouched in the tiny space in front of Ted in order to film the pivotal moments of the service. Another cameraman stood at the rear and leaned over the rows of people in order to film. Two members of the crew sat up in the loft and filmed everyone below.

Long Pond's activity made the service different from what a church service usually is.

Given the congregation's robotic enthusiasm for Ted and the directorial role played by Long Pond Media, I felt like I was participating in the filming of an infomercial, rather than attending church. There wasn't anything spiritual about the event – or even all that church-like. It was programmed and calculated, and those in attendance went along with it.

Fine. Ted invited a bunch of people to his house, so he could film an infomercial promoting his "resurrection." We knew (or should have known) that that was his plan, when we read the notice posted at his front gate about Long Pond filming the event.

What's hard to understand is why Ted's self-promotion had to come at the expense of others. My daughter writes about this in her review, above – how Ted orchestrated the service to include testimonies of praise for himself from a series of troubled people. Very unfortunately, Ted is serving as a counselor to many of those people. How could a counselor ask those who rely on him for help to subject themselves to the public scrutiny that comes from saying laudatory things, into a camera, about a counselor who would be the first to admit his life is spiked with controversy? The danger comes when the person later decides that the counselor betrayed their confidence and made their life worse.

Likewise, why did Ted gloat over the prospect of making people cry when they received a large gift of money from a congregation that had decided to award them a portion of the morning's offering, on the spot and in public, because it had deemed them to be needy? Ted related several such stories, as he explained how Saint James Church would disburse its offerings and tithes. And yes, the person receiving such assistance might be needy and appreciative of the monetary gift, but they accept it in exchange for giving up a measure of their self-respect. In contrast, there's something gained by not letting your right hand know what your left hand is doing, which is why churches support their benevolence committee, where recipients experience privacy and givers experience the grace of humility.

And lastly, Ted, I call you out on making fun of Alexandra Pelosi. Who the hell are you, to self-righteously proclaim yourself as "spirit-filled" and superior to her because she's a member of a family who identifies themselves as Roman Catholic?


¹Ted Haggard (07-Jun-10, 2:59 pm), online at twitter.com/tedhaggard7.
²Mark Barna (07-Jun-10, 9:03 am), Haggard on fire about St. James—at least on Twitter, Colorado Springs Gazette, online at thepulpit.freedomblogging.com.
³Mark Barna (07-Jun-10, 11:47 am), Ted Haggard's new church starts early, Colorado Springs Gazette, online at www.gazette.com.

At Ted Haggard's press conference last week, he announced he'd formed Saint James Church. He also invited everyone to his home for a "launch party," which would be held on Sunday. Ted said (02-Jun-10, Prepared Press Conference Statement, online at tedhaggard.com/SaintJamesChurch.htm):

So this Sunday, June 6th, we welcome anyone who would like to join us at 10:00 AM for the launch party of Saint James Church here at our house. It’s supposed to be a beautiful day, so come dressed casually, park in one of the fields here in front of the house, we’ll meet together for an hour or so and talk, then we’ll have a BBQ and eat while the kids swim. So bring enough food for yourselves and a few others, and bring some soft drinks and bottled water. Those who want to play badminton or jump on the trampoline may, while others, like me, will want to sit around in the shade of a tree and talk. It will be great to see some of our old friend, and certainly we welcome anyone who would like to come who we’ve not yet met.

Colorado Springs is only a two hour drive from Fort Collins, so we decided to attend the party... The three of us: My daughter, her mother and myself. It was our first outing as a family since November, 1998.

What we heard and saw

1. When we drove into the Haggard driveway, we saw two signs announcing that Long Pond Media would film the launch party and that, by entering, we agreed to be part of the production (see the photo below and click to enlarge).

2. We parked in a field west of the Haggard home. We walked down the driveway; dropped off the potato salad we had brought; and moved back onto the driveway – where we were immediately approached by a film crew who wanted to interview us. We declined.

3. The church service was held in a barn, which hadn't housed any horses in a long time. The service started shortly after 10 am.

4. Ted Haggard announced that the launch party was his "resurrection day."

5. Gayle Haggard spoke about how happy she was to be part of a church community again.

6. A guitarist and his violin accompanist led the congregation in a short set of songs, which concluded with three verses of Amazing Grace.

7. Ted spoke briefly on why Saint James Church was named in honor of James and how Ted and "others" would preach on scripture at the services, starting with a study of Hebrews.

8. Ted offered a prayer.

9. Ted explained in detail how members of the church would present offerings of money to each other during each service. Ted also explained that, at future services, a tithe would be collected, followed by the direct disbursement of collected money. (This was the first time I'd ever heard of an offering and a tithe being separate opportunities for giving during the same service.) Ted described how Saint James Church intended to help one person at a time. He asked Gayle to hand him the paper bag she'd brought, and from it, he removed a stack of decals printed with the word "ONE." Ted invited everyone to pick up a decal after the service and to put it on their car. (I put mine on this post, as you can see above.)

10. Ted announced that the offerings would now be given, and someone gave my ex $40. (She accepted the money, but the exchange made her feel uncomfortable. Later at lunch over the serving table, she saw the woman who had given her the money, and they spoke briefly. Later on the way home, we stopped at a Farmers Market, where she bought fresh rolls and some new potatoes to give to her own mother – purchases, she said, that she wouldn't have made if she hadn't had the extra cash – which, she said, did not mean that she liked where the extra cash had come from.)

11. Ted gave a sermon on love, which included an emphasis on the non-judgmental component of love. He also described a worthwhile spiritual exercise, although he didn’t call it that. Ted suggested that we could rate our homes on a love scale (perhaps deciding that our home rated a 4 out of 10). Then Ted asked what we could do to increase our home's rating (so it became a 7 out 10, for example).

12. Ted requested testimonies from those present on what Saint James Church meant to them.

13. Testimony 1: Man offered kudos to Ted.

14. Testimony 2: Man offered kudos to Ted.

15. Testimony 3: Woman who had traveled from New Mexico offered kudos to Ted.

16. Testimony 4: Man who ran a junk yard offered kudos to Ted. (Actually, the man's testimony was the most affecting of all, and if Ted wants Saint James Church to succeed as a going proposition, he should make sure that that man gets whatever it is he needs from Saint James Church.)

17. Testimony 5: Woman presented Ted with a framed picture illustrating the Biblical lesson, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

18. Testimony 6: Woman described how Ted had recently saved her from committing suicide.

19. Testimony 7: Man obliquely described his problematic life and how he therefore appreciated Ted.

20. Testimony 8: Gay man offered kudos to Ted and mentioned their counseling relationship. (On Monday, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported [Mark Barna (07-Jun-10), Ted Haggard's new church starts early, online at www.gazette.com] that the gay man had answered a Craigslist ad to receive counseling. Long Pond Media had placed the ad anonymously and had flown the man from his home in San Antonio, Texas to Colorado Springs, so he could attend the launch party on Sunday. Likewise, the Gazette reported that the woman who experienced suicide ideation lived in Colorado Springs and had also answered an anonymous ad for counseling placed by Long Pond Media.)

21. Ted offered a closing prayer.

22. Testimony 9: Woman described how she had stopped using heroin eight days ago, thanks to Ted.

23. The service concluded before 11:30 am.

24. Everyone went to the backyard and had lunch.

25. We stopped at New Life Church on the way home, since the church turns out to be only a short drive down the road from the Haggards. Ted basically lives on top of New Life Church. He founded it, of course, and built it into the megachurch it is today. Even by the supersized standards of megachurches, the New Life campus is huge, as you can somewhat see in the photo below.

What it looked like

Ted Haggard took to the microphones yesterday. He held a press conference. He announced he had founded a new church... And he presented us with a world-class example of how to manipulate Christianist religion for personal gain: He aligned himself with James.

Haggard said:

Gayle and I and our children are here to announce this morning that we have, indeed, decided to start another local church here in Colorado Springs, and that we wanted to call the church St. James Church, in honor of the Book of James.

(Talk about acting upon "your lusts that war in your members" [James 4:1]. But I'm getting ahead of myself.)

Christianists believe that James authored the Epistle of James and that he headed up the Church at Jerusalem – which means that James headed up the first church anywhere. Also, Christianists believe James was Jesus's brother, who Jesus managed to convert sometime after Jesus rose from the dead but before He ascended into Heaven.

You'd think those credentials would elevate James to the highest authority on Christianist belief and practice. But that's not the case. James had the misfortune of butting heads with Paul. The adversarial relationship between the two of them is barely papered over in scripture (Luke does what he can in Acts). And most unfortunately for James, Paul was the one who got out and about, as a missionary, and who busied himself as the more prolific writer.

It's Paul's take on spirituality and organizational hierarchies (and biases) that form the basis of the Christianist/Evangelical religion we see today. You can verify this by scanning the Statement of Faith adopted by Ted Haggard's former Church – the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Look at the Biblical citations in the Statement (n=32), and you'll see 56% of them cite Paul (n=18); 3% cite Peter (n=1); and the rest cite a Gospel author (Matthew, Luke or John; n=13).

Differences between Paul and James could not have been more contentious. First, they differed on how Jewish tradition integrated with the belief system they were inventing. James wanted to follow the Law and, for example, circumcise those who professed an affiliation with Jesus. Paul was against that. I'm giving just the barest indication of the issues that divided them, but Paul got so pissed-off at James that he cursed him (Galatians 1:6-7).

One of Paul's and James's most prominent areas of disagreement lay in the balance between faith and works. Ted Haggard quoted James's formula on the subject at his press conference: "[F]aith without works is dead" (James 2:20). Paul vehemently disagreed with that, and it's Paul's teaching on salvation through faith alone that we see reproduced in Christianist places like the New Life Church and its Statement of Faith.

On the other hand, it's James, not Paul, who contributes insight into matters of peace and justice, which aren't even taught at Christianist bastions like the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Oral Roberts University.

Thus, Ted Haggard's decision to align himself with James looks convincingly like he's inserting a wedge between himself and his Christianist/Evangelical background.

But for what purpose? Ted doesn't say directly, but (for better or worse) he indicates where's he's headed.

In the press conference video, hyperlinked above, Ted references James and explains that, over the past three and a half years, he and his family have found, "The expressions of love towards us that were in a tangible form were especially valuable." Which seems to be the sum total of the experience and exegesis Ted applies to his newly found affinity for the Epistle of James.

Ted goes on to inform us, "St. James is a church for sinners, and a church for people who have hit rock bottom, and a church for people who want to help people who have hit rock bottom." And who could argue with that? But, it begs the question of which rock-bottom Haggard is prepared to recognize. He tells us:

Earth is not Heaven. And here on Earth...

•Sexuality is very complex and very confusing.

•Weight issues are a deep struggle people go through.

•Health issues.

•Prayer issues.

•Whether there's a God issue.

•How do I keep my family together issue.

•How do I keep from being so angry and broke [i.e., broken].

•How do I keep from hating other people.

And that's it. That's Ted's list of the problems ("issues") that afflict the middle-class and the upper-middle-class, where he – and his newly incorporated Church – can offer support.

Wisely, Ted has appropriated James as a way of differentiating his new church from other Christianist enterprises, which also compete for the dollars that "broken people", as Ted calls them, spend on recovery.

Ted turns James into a marketing tactic.

Only a week ago, Rand Paul rode high as the winner of the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky. We all learned how Teabagger support was key to Paul's victory and to his nomination as the Republican candidate for the seat being vacated by Republican Jim Bunning.

Then we learned that Rand Paul cannot bring himself to endorse the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It's not that Rand Paul supports segregation in public places, but his Libertarian beliefs compel him, he says, to uphold the right of private businesses to choose those patrons with whom they want to do business. In the world of Libertarians, Teabaggers and right-wing Republicans, that right is called personal freedom. In American history, it's called Jim Crow.

When I was young and my family lived in New Jersey, outside of New York, I remember one Sunday after Church in the mid-1960s, we went to the Rahway train station. My father must have needed to buy tickets. We went into the station and did whatever it was we needed to do and returned to the car. But apparently, we forgot something, and my mother jumped out and went back to the station. My father parked in front of a barber shop.

A barber's pole was mounted on the building outside of the shop, along with a sign that said "Colored". I hadn't seen a sign like that before, but I knew what it meant. Through the door, I could see only Black people were inside.

While we waited in the car for my mother, a dog barked in front of the shop the whole time. The dog was tied to a street sign. My father said the dog was barking because Black people had a strong odor (he did not say "a bad smell") – which struck me as strange, because the dog seemed to belong to one of the Black people inside the shop.

That memory touches on the economic and associated social dynamics that Rand Paul values and wants to increase: (1) The operation of businesses for particular classes of patron; and (2) The application of bias to define the distinguishing characteristics of different classes of patron. All of which is consistent with the Libertarian/Republican effort to privatize private intercourse. (Don’t be fooled by Rand Paul's smarmy abhorrence of Jim Crow returning to the public square – Paul's interest is our freedom to discriminate in private.)

Keep in mind how funny it is that right-wingers vehemently deny the operation of racial bias at the level of whole populations (at the level of the individual's racial affiliation), right up until that time when the right-winger claims the holy personal freedom to act upon such bias for business purposes.

Many Kentuckians – it turns out – don't see things Rand Paul's way. The report I've cited above describes the results of a poll that shows Kentuckians have withdrawn their support for Rand Paul, after learning what he stands for.

For a gallery of segregationist photographs of how businesses once operated – as Rand Paul thinks they should – and catered to different races, prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, see the Library of Congress Photographs of Signs Enforcing Racial Discrimination: Documentation by Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Photographers.

Our local Teabaggers have been writing-in to the Coloradoan over the last two weeks and complaining about the way they're misrepresented and misunderstood. They say they receive unfair treatment from liberals (a group I call my own). It seems that mischaracterizations of Teabagger politics, which liberals promote, raise the Teabaggers' umbrage and hurt their feelings.

In the interests of fair and balanced dialogue, I've reproduced below the Teagbaggers' three recent letters (with the highlighting mine). In reading the letters, I wonder if you'll notice, as I did, that each letter is distinguished by an economy of expression that avoids elaboration and the inclusion of even the simplest explanatory detail but, rather, uses short, clearly worded clauses and sentences to make points. It's not an easy way to write, but all three of the letter-writers express themselves using the same style, as if the same author composed all the letters. For example, note how Steve Goppert (letter 1) and Wes Tucker (letter 3) both dramatically inform us in their second paragraphs that, "I am white".

Regardless, we learn from the letters that Teabaggers are non-violent, non-racist and fervently committed to upholding the Constitution.

Tea Partiers are Not Violent
Listening to news and progressives, I found out that, because I went to the Tea Party parade in support of the Constitution and smaller government, I am an angry, violent racist. Because this is so far off the mark, one can only conclude that the folks saying that are grossly misinformed or intentionally misleading.

Perhaps some are confusing passion with anger. I talked to everyone I could at the Loveland gathering, and everyone was smiling and friendly. I am white; however, like Martin Luther King Jr., I believe we should judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

Our president called us a nasty slur rather than Tea Partiers. His Secret Service called the SWAT team to protect him from a peaceful Tea Party group in Illinois. Those people looked a lot like us in Loveland and were peaceful. There was no reason for the SWAT team. In Phoenix, SWAT was needed because of the violence at a La Raza, SEIU, socialist demonstration. Police were hit by rocks. Who is violent?

This same president said that the Arizona immigration law would allow the police to stop people based on race at a ice cream parlor and demand their papers. The Arizona law specifically prohibits that. Who is truthful? Who uses race (blacks and Chicanos support me like you did for the election) and class (tax the rich) to stir up support?

Who is passionately for America and the rule of law? Nonviolent, concerned Tea Party people.

Steve Goppert
Loveland

Liberals See Through Race-tinted Glasses
There they go again. Recently, there have been two letters from liberals, the true obsessive racists who see everything through race-tinted glasses, suggesting that the only possible motivation for the "Tea Partiers" is (gasp) racism.

There could, after all, be no other possible reason for disagreement with a president who has taken on President George W. Bush's already horrible deficits and compounded them with the result that the national debt is headed inexorably toward $10 trillion. Yes, these ignorant dissidents would surely have no other reason than blind racist hate to be upset about their country going so deeply into debt that there is not enough money in the known universe to pay it off.

Back in the Bush years, we were constantly admonished that "dissent is the highest form of patriotism." Although liberals are offended by the existence of those who choose not to wash the feet of the Obamamessiah – if it was true then, it's just as true now.

Robert C. Michael
Fort Collins

Race has Nothing to do with Tea Party
In a recent letter to the editor, Kate Forgach agreed with Jerry Robinson that tea partiers are angry in part due to the president's race. What is the evidence of that? Andrew Breitbart even offers $100,000 for anyone with proof. Go for it!

I've been participating in Tea Party protests for over a year now and have seen absolutely zero support for that idea. Actually, I'm appalled to be categorized as such and I certainly wouldn't hang out with any group that promotes it. I am white and have a black son from Jamaica and a Hispanic son from Mexico. Both are currently serving their country in the military. I spend time in Haiti helping out.

Am I racist? I would be happy for either of my minority sons to be president of the United States. It's not about the president's race, it's about his agenda.

I wasn't in agreement with Bush's spending, the prosecution of the Iraq war or lack of border security in a post 9/11 world, but if Bush's spending was wrong, how is Obama's spending four times as much in 1.5 years as Bush spent in eight right?

The concern of the tea partiers is this administration's abandonment of a constitutional republic in exchange for European-style socialism or worse.

That's what I and my fellow tea partiers are angry about. To ascribe it to racism is nonsense.

Wes Tucker
Fort Collins

The Teabagger letter-writers (whether they be three writers or a solitary ghost) eloquently declaim the slings and arrows of liberal criticism. I am genuinely touched by the Teabaggers' passion. I had no idea they dislodged themselves from FOXNews long enough to hear what the rest of us had to say.

I feel abashed. I feel I have underestimated the Teabaggers' capacity for self-reflection. I feel the need to walk in the Teabaggers' shoes and see how the world looks from their point of view.

It's my hope, in my comments below, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with my brother and sister American Teabaggers and help them push back at the ugly inaccuracies that liberals direct at them. I will use the Teabaggers' own words to reveal the integrity of their positions and the infamy of liberal slander.

First, let's put to death the lie about Teabaggers being violent. The Teabaggers' placards and guns, which they patriotically carry at their rallies, show otherwise, as you can see in the photographs below (click to enlarge). There's not even a hint of a brandished weapon to be seen in any of the photographs. And thus, we do not have any reason to accuse the Teabaggers of advocating violence.

What's that you say? You're put-off by the Teabaggers' unnerving enthusiasm for guns and by their well-articulated threats to use them? Let me explain something to you: Brandishing a gun is illegal. Carrying a gun (by any individual, at any time and in any place – according to right-wing evangelists) is a constitutionally guaranteed right.

I honestly don't know why you – or anyone else – troubles themselves over the exuberance of Teabagger rhetoric or by the Teabaggers' patriotic promises to use their guns, in a non-brandished way, against us and the Republic. Such rhetoric proves the Teabaggers love the Constitution (probably more than you do).


Secondly, it's never crossed the Teabaggers' minds that Barack Obama is a scary Negro. Teabaggers are the suffering victims of liberal bias – a bias that refuses to see the Teabaggers' positions, except through a racial lens. The writers to the Coloradoan make this point, above, as do the Teabaggers in the photos below. It represents a fearsome critique of liberalism.


All of us are challenged – in a good way! – by the Teabaggers' use of racial stereotypes. As you can see in the photos below, Teabaggers are fearless in adopting racially-charged material to spread their non-racist message.

Some of us would think twice about using the catchphrases from Black TV sitcoms to criticize the policies of a Black President. We would think such catchphrases reduce our critique to a racial caricature. But the Teabaggers know better. They triumphantly turn material from Diff'rent Strokes (NBC, 1978-1985, and ABC, 1985-1986) and In Living Color (Fox, 1990-1994) into hilarious, biting commentary. The Teabaggers are truly racially blind. I encourage you to follow their lead – And feel free to crack some pithy Teabagger humor at your racially diverse workplace.

•From Diff'rent Strokes, the Teabagger placcard below refers to Gary Coleman's catchphrase, "What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

•From In Living Color, the Teabagger placcard below refers to a sketch entitled Homey D. Clown, which includes the line, "I don't think so... Homey don't play dat!"

And what can we say about the Teabaggers' enthusiastic comparison of Barack Obama – a Black man – to a monkey? The comparison is redolent of racism and underscores the Zen-like center of non-racism, from where Teabaggers operate. Otherwise, we could only observe that the Teabaggers adopt one of the most incendiary and derogatory portrayals of Blacks in order to advance their politics.

Likewise, what else can we do but slap the Teabaggers on their backs, for giving us their telling portrayal of Obama as a witch doctor?

Having said all that, let's turn to the Teabagger portrayal of Barack Obama as the "massa" (slave-Negro dialect for "white property owner") of a slave-owning plantation. Talk about incendiary! Who can deny that every one of us is the victim of Barack Obama's uppity victory in the last election? The fact is, representational Democracy is a Teabagger bitch, which renders us, in the Teabagger non-racist worldview, as "The Jews For Obama's Ovens". I have nothing else to say.


And what's not to like about a political party that adopts a sexual practice as its defining metaphor? I like how the Teabaggers promote teabagging. They use the term in an affirmative way, when describing their own actions, and as a derogatory slur, when applying the term to their opponents. Who would have guessed that John Waters' popularization of teabagging in the movie Pecker (1998) would have resulted in right-wingers adopting it as their own?

And yes, the wonderful image of an elephant requesting service from a donkey was proudly displayed at the Teabaggers' rally in Fort Collins on April 15, 2010. The Coloradoan's Executive Editor Bob Moore tweeted the following first-hand report (twitter.com/BobMooreNews):



Lastly – please – Teabaggers are anything but morans. Orthography be damned! God bless FOXNews!

The Japanese associate an odd melancholia with the experience of viewing cherry blossoms. To the Japanese, the pleasure of viewing the blossoms is undercut by the brevity of the blooming season, which lasts for only a week or less. The Japanese find a sadness in this and a metaphor for the impermanence of life itself. The haiku poet Basho expressed the feeling this way:

A lovely spring night
suddenly vanished while we
viewed cherry blossoms

Here in Colorado, it's the middle of May, and we thought that winter had vanished. But winter returned to us on Wednesday with one last snowfall. The snow accumulated several inches deep and covered the crabapple trees, which had been at the height of blooming. All across town, crabapples lost their limbs to the snow.

The weather struck hard at crabapple health. And that reminded me of this region's former prominence in cherry production and how the cherry industry went belly-up because of severe weather in the 1950s. (Other factors also contributed to the demise of the cherry industry here, but bad weather did its part.)

Loveland, Colorado (the town south of Fort Collins in Larimer County) had been the center of Northern Colorado's cherry industry since the late nineteenth century. In fact, cherry production in Loveland extends back as far as the first permanent settler, Mariano Medina, who was the Hispanic Mountain Man born in Taos, New Mexico who operated a ferry and then a toll bridge at Namaqua, for crossing the Big Thompson River. (At least, I think in researching this article I read that Mariano Medina grew a cherry orchard, but now I can't find the reference – Do you know it?)

By the 1920s, the Spring Glade orchard in Loveland was the largest cherry orchard west of the Mississippi River. Cherry production continued to expand in Northern Colorado throughout the 1930s and 1940s and reached its peak in the 1950s, when three processing plants were located in Loveland, and cherry orchards surrounded the city.

Then the industry declined, although as late as the 1970s commercial cherry orchards still operated in Northern Colorado and included one orchard on west Prospect Road in Fort Collins.

We've lost something – as the agricultural landscape in Northern Colorado has evolved away from cherry orchards. The loss is hard to explain, but we see it reflected in Loveland's annual Cherry Pie Festival. Cherry orchards are gone from Loveland, but the city's cultural attachment to cherries remains. It's an attachment that persists for no good reason, other than history and sentiment. This year's 24th annual Loveland Cherry Pie Festival will be held on Saturday, July 24th from 5-8 pm at Peters Park next to the Loveland Museum and Gallery.

But, are cherry orchards completely gone from Loveland and Northern Colorado? As Wednesday's snow stressed the limbs of the crabapple trees in Fort Collins, I called up the Larimer County Extension Service, Loveland Museum, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Sunrise Ranch, and Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch. I asked, "Are there any commercial cherry orchards left in Northern Colorado?"

Eventually someone suggested there might be a pick-your-own cherry orchard located on Highway 27, south of Masonville and south of Eden Valley (where Sunrise Ranch is located) but north of the intersection with Highway 34 (and thus not far from Sylvan Dale).

On Wednesday afternoon after school, my daughter and I set off with our camera, in search of the last cherry orchard in Larimer County and Northern Colorado.

We found it. The photo above shows one of the healthier trees. Most of the trees have suckers growing up from their rootstock and cankers practically girdling their trunk. But, an irrigation pipe lies between each row of trees, which suggests that someone wants to extend – for a bit longer – the life of the last cherry orchard in Larimer County.

I think the Japanese would understand my ambivalence about the 24th annual Loveland Cherry Pie Festival and about finding the last (sickly) cherry orchard in Larimer County. The Festival and orchard defy, yet commemorate, the transience of this region's agricultural landscape.

The trees in the Loveland orchard are either sweet or sour cherries (probably cultivars of Prunus avium or P. cerasus, although the botanic taxonomy of cherries, like that of most commercial fruits, is anything but straightforward). Still, whatever the taxonomic identity might be for the cherries growing in the last cherry orchard in Larimer County, that identity differs from the ornamental flowering cherry of Japan, which is known as sakura cherry.

Shown below are five examples of the sakura cherry blossom pattern (and a sixth example is shown above). Graphically, each example minimizes the predictability of a repeating motif, as compared with the graphic effect of a diaper pattern. The sakura patterns thereby convey a sense of spontaneity and movement. The examples shown – some of them more successfully than others – suggest the image of blossoms falling in the breeze, which serves to underscore the transience of sakura flowering.

A sakura pattern can be distinguished from the similar ume plum blossom pattern by the depiction of five sakura flower petals, where the individual petals are often notched and sometimes include a depiction of stamens. An ume pattern also depicts five flower petals, but the ume petals are usually rounder than those in a sakura pattern or the ume petals might be represented abstractly as circles. In addition, an ume pattern often depicts the ume flower's central carpel as a central circle.

Today's when Glenn Beck and his 9.12 Project descend upon Washington and, oddly enough, attempt to recreate the national unity we felt following 9/11 by launching a partisan broadside against Barack Obama, our popularly elected President.

It's all right-wing craziness, of course, where national unity gets synonymized with Republican politics.

The problem with Glenn Beck's 9.12 Project isn't that he exploits the 9/11 tragedy for his own benefit. The problem – for Beck – is that we remember 9/11 and how it made us feel. We felt support for our country that transcended politics. It's a memory and feeling that allows us see the deceit behind Beck's grandstanding and gives us the resolve to push-back against it.

The morning of the 9/11 tragedy, I took my daughter to school; returned home to my office; turned on the K99 Good Morning Guys – and heard them talk about incomprehensible things. For two guys whose show includes impersonations of Norwegian-American farmers, I recall on 9/11 the two of them rose to the occasion and performed their jobs well, although I soon changed the station to NPR.

In the days and weeks following the tragedy, my support for President Bush and the Congressional leadership (Republicans all) remained sincere and free of critique. It's the patriotic response I heard from every level of government and from my friends and colleagues. Like no other time in my life, this was the time I saw our country stand-up as a united nation.

Then, six weeks after 9/11, an editorial authored by then-County Commissioner Tom Bender appeared in the Coloradoan. I vividly recall reading it. It was shocking. Heinous. Partisan in using 9/11 as an opportunity to demonize, in Bender's words, the "American Taliban" who had been a "serious threat to America for almost 70 years." No, Bender wasn't talking about the American Middle Class, which had risen to prominence over the 70 years between 1931 and 2001, he was referring to his liberal political opponents, with whom he disagreed.

Bender's sentiments foreshadowed the partisan divisions that Bush's policies and warfare would soon inflict upon the country – as Bush and the Republican Party used the 9/11 crisis as an excuse to circumscribe our Constitutional civil liberties, commit preemptive war, deny the requirements of international law, and all the while, sink the country into Chinese-held debt, while redistributing the country's wealth to the tiniest sliver of the already unimaginably well-off few.

At the top of this webpage you can see a scan of the Coloradoan's Opinion page from Saturday, October 27, 2001. You can see the first part of Tom Bender's letter, and you can see the political cartoon the Coloradoan ran next to it. The cartoon is by Canadian cartoonist Aislin and shows the trajectory from 9/11 disaster to national unity. Tom Bender – and Glenn Beck – show us how irrelevant that trajectory is to Republican political practice.

Tom Bender's editorial is reproduced below.

PC Activism Doesn’t Serve Nation Well During Crisis
The Sept. 11 Taliban terrorism attack on America shattered the fantasy world temporarily created by the anti-American, politically correct, or PC, activism here at home.

This violent terrorist attack brought the real world of good and evil into the lives of many PC victims. It's unfortunate that a national tragedy perpetrated by a like PC agenda relying on dishonesty, hate and fear must occur to awaken and unite America.

We patriotic Americans have alerted citizens for years of the American-loathing PC agenda that has been a serious threat to America for almost 70 years. The American Taliban represents itself as a loosely bound coalition of PC special interests. Their recognizable tactics are intimidation and fear perpetuating racism, class warfare, environmental dishonesty, gun control and moral vandalism to divide and politically suppress naive Americans.

Except for a few local Taliban loyalists using the Coloradoan and other local media editorial sections, the PC media elite, such as the Dan Rathers and Rosie O'Donnells have discontinued further bashing and apologizing to the world for America, our Constitution, rule of law, military, patriotism and our flag within hours after the foreign attack.

An intercepted message dated Sept.12 from Allen Mattison [Sierra Club Director of Media Relations and Press Secretary] to his organization staff, temporarily halted all political activities in response to our nation's crisis. In part, he wrote: "In response for the immediate future. We have taken all of our ads off the air, halted telephone banks, removed any material from the Web that people could perceive as anti-Bush and are taking steps to prevent the ____ ____ ["Sierra Club" redacted in Bender's original letter] from being perceived as controversial during this crisis."

My position is that if a political agenda or ideology is not good for America during national crises or hard times, then it's not good for America at any time. Turning patriotism on and off and displaying our flag only to create favorable public perception is the height of hypocrisy and betrayal.

True patriotism is more than displaying our flag. Patriotism is the honesty, loyalty and courage to faithfully defend American values, institutions and traditions from all forms of political terrorism at all times.

Real Americans do not abandon courage for phony PC civility. Local PC terrorists recently insisted that the individual doesn't matter and the idea of informed people thinking for themselves is the real threat to America.

One local activist claims that I and other Americans with steadfast allegiance to American values are out of touch with and not representative of her political values and those predominantly held by urban residents of Fort Collins. She is correct that her PC politics are contrary to American values but to speak for Fort Collins is a little extreme.

Another Taliban activist criticized my American devotion to the preservation and legitimacy of those fundamental inalienable human rights of life, liberty and especially property endowed to each individual by our creator as fanatical.

As proud Americans, don't allow terrorists to intimidate you down to their level; but instead tolerate their anti-American dissent when they come out of hiding. We don't have to be active military members to do our part in defending America from terrorism. It's our duty to remain informed, vigilant and active combating all forms of anti-American terrorism as a untied force politically and at the ballot box.

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." – Edmund Burke, 1729-1797

Tom Bender
Larimer County Commissioner

Up here in Northern Colorado, we got rained out from hiking to American lakes last weekend, but we went back yesterday to try the hike again (more or less). It was a fantastically beautiful day with no rain. Aside from the fact that the hike was twice as long as what would have been enjoyable, it was still a pretty great day, as I think you can tell from the photos below (even if I did forget to photograph the lakes – the scenery is so spectacular, the lakes only become the destination by default).

Yesterday being the Fourth of July, it seemed like a good time to take my daughter hiking up to American Lakes, which are two lakes located above treeline, at the crest of Cameron Pass, about 70 miles and a two-hour drive up the very beautiful Poudre Canyon. Unfortunately, it started raining on the ride up, not that you can let a thing like that bother you.

The trail's around four miles one way, starting at almost 10,000 ft and climbing to a little over 11,000 ft. All of which means it's an easy hike. The photo shows where we were headed. It also shows the overcast sky...


OK. It started to rain, and we turned around and headed back. Call us wussies. Rain. Thunder. and Lightening didn't seem like the ideal conditions for hiking above treeline. Of course, the photos don't show all of that.


With nothing else to do, we drove through North Park – a high-elevation (>8,000 ft) plateau surrounded by mountains. Unbelievably, people have ranched up there since the 1880s. That's one of the original ranch houses in the photo. The other photo shows the Michigan River meandering across the plateau.


We ended up in the big town of Walden, the county seat of Jackson County – and in fact, it's the only town in Jackson County, which boasts a total population of 1500 people. "There's no music scene here", my daughter said. I think she's right. Even so, there's a yoga studio... I can only imagine what the classes are like. The photos are of us in front of the county courthouse.


Very sadly, the forests of Jackson County are heavily infested with the Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae, a species of bark beetle), which has killed hundreds of thousands of acres of trees. Blame it on climate change. Changes in annual precipitation combined with slightly higher annual temperatures have weakened the trees, which makes them more sensitive to beetle feeding, which kills them. It hasn't hit the east side of Cameron Pass yet, but it's said to be on its way.


On our way back down Poudre Canyon, we stopped for supper at the Mishawaka Amphitheatre, a fantastic place for a show. Located in the middle of nowhere (45 minutes from town), it attracts bikers, hippies and gays. I told my daughter we fall into the hippie category. There wasn't a show scheduled for the Fourth. But Indigo Girls will be there tonight and Parliament Funkadelic next Saturday. The restaurant is cantilevered over the river.


Not to make a big deal out of it, but the Mish Burger made me sick to my stomach for the next five hours... Happy Birthday, United States of America!

A bad day that also had a good side...

The bad part: Riding my bike this morning on the city bike trail, a child decided to run in front of me. I didn't quite hit the child, but there was an accident, which left the child unhappy. I gave the child's father my business card – and felt like a piece of shit. The bike suffered some kind of major problem that will take a couple hundred dollars to fix.

When I got home, the last thing I wanted was to be at home. So, I decided to hike to Greyrock, which is only a half hour away.

The good part (not that it wiped out the bad): Did I mention it was an overcast day, with rain predicted for the afternoon? OK. It rained during the hike. But, by the time I got to Greyrock Meadow, which is behind Greyrock Mountain, the rain had stopped.

The elevation is probably 7000 feet, and in the meadow the Rocky Mountain Iris (Iris missouriensis), along with other wildflowers were all in bloom. The photos tell the story.

The trail guides I've seen – including the one hyperlinked above – recommend taking the Meadow Trail up to the base of Greyrock Mountain and then returning to the trailhead by the Summit Trail. I prefer the reverse. IMHO, when you take the strenuous Summit Trail up to Greyrock Mountain and then return by the gently descending Meadow Trail, it makes for a better, more pleasant hike.

On the eve of Barack Obama's inauguration, here's a look back at where we've been

"The single most damning legacy of the new right as practiced by the Bush administration is the abandonment of analysis and discourse in favor of political ideology. By subverting rational thought processes in favor of wishful thinking, by abandoning scientific data, by ignoring academic experts who spent lifetimes studying specific areas, by promoting political goals over the well being of the country, the new right has failed this nation at every level. Whether we are talking about foreign relations, intelligence, economics, or civil liberties, the Bush administration has pursued goals based on purely political stances that had no real basis in fact. Every expose written about the white house by republican insiders essentially tell the same story. A complete lack of analytical thought, no dissent, and no real intellectual engagement by the President. There is no substitute for stupidity."

groland, commenting on the article W. and the Damage Done by Vincent Rossmeier and Gabriel Winant (article and comment published at Salon.com, January 8, 2009)

"Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists."

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third President of the United States
First inaugural address, March 4, 1801

"[Conservatives] are impervious to reason, but thin-skinned when it comes to criticism."

James Wigderson (15-Dec-08) writing at his blog The Other Side Of My Mouth, where he paraphrases someone else's observation and enjoins us to ridicule conservatives as our patriotic duty





UPDATE, Saturday, January 10, 2009: Case closed.

Sarah Palin turned up in the news this week and whined like an adolescent about the unfair treatment she says the media gave her during the presidential campaign. Palin's comments lacked the bearing we expect from someone who aspires to high public office, but she gave us a first-class example of the knee-jerk defensiveness that James Wigderson tagged above.

The YouTube video of Palin's comments (Sarah Palin takes on the media!! Exclusive interview for "Media Malpractice", video 95wkCMeUkk, posted January 7, 2009) has been viewed more than one million times, indicating that many remain fascinated and horrified by her. Politics aside, Palin's performance is entertaining in a Jerry Springer kind of way – especially when she picks catfights with Katie Couric and Caroline Kennedy.

Unfortunately however, Palin is as serious in her indignation as any adolescent who possesses an unfirm grip on their emotions.

Palin is egged on in her confusion by right-wing propaganda producer John Ziegler. Ziegler interviewed Palin for a film he's producing about the biased reporting that prevented McCain and Palin from getting elected. Riiiiight. Top-down conservative thinking, such as Palin's and Ziegler's, brooks criticism not on substance but on the way it makes the conservative feel and whether it allows the conservative to get what they want.

Or, any criticism whatsoever permits the conservative to write off the media entirely, as Palin does with the controversy surrounding her fifth child's, Trig's, birth.

The editor of the Anchorage Daily News happens to agree with Palin that there is no controversy surrounding Trig's birth. Belatedly, he assigned a reporter to the story, in order to refute the unsubstantiated claims. His sympathetic support escaped Palin.

Reproduced below is the editor's blow-by-blow description of how Palin reacted badly to his newspaper's supportive inquiries. The article was originally posted online at community.adn.com by "editorsblog" at the Anchorage Daily News on January 9, 2009.

Gov. Palin's Press Office: 'There they go again?'
The governor's office issued a press release this afternoon with the title:

Governor Palin Says to Media, "There You Go Again"

You can read the full press release on the Alaska Politics blog, but this was the paragraph that jumped out at me:

Meanwhile, bloggers, the Atlantic magazine and even the Anchorage Daily News continue to give credence to the sensational allegation that the governor's child, Trig, is not hers.

The comment about the Daily News struck me as curious, at the least. Here's why:

On Dec. 31, eight days ago, I received an email from Gov. Palin asking several questions about news coverage in the Daily News. I took her inquiry seriously and by the end of the day had prepared a long email addressing each of her questions in detail.

This was her final question:

And is your paper really still pursuing the sensational lie that I am not Trig's mother? Is it true you have a reporter still bothering my state office, my very busy doctor (who's already set the record straight for you), and the school district, in pursuit of your ridiculous conspiracy?

This was my reply:

Yes, it's true.

You may have been too busy with the campaign to notice, but the Daily News has, from the beginning, dismissed the conspiracy theories about Trig's birth as nonsense. I don't believe we have ever published in the newspaper a story, a letter, a column or anything alleging a coverup surrounding your maternity.

In fact, my integrity and the integrity of the newspaper have been repeatedly attacked in national forums for our complicity in the "coverup." I have personally received more than 100 emails accusing me and the paper of conspiring to hide the truth (about Trig's birth.)

(I should acknowledge, however, that many people who commented on adn.com have alleged a coverup. Many of those were deleted as soon as we saw them, but many were not.)

I want to be very clear on this: I have from the beginning and do now consider the conspiracy theories about Trig's birth to be nutty nonsense.

If that's true, why has Lisa Demer been asking questions about Trig's birth?

Because we have been amazed by the widespread and enduring quality of these rumors. I finally decided, after watching this go on unabated for months, to let a reporter try to do a story about the "conspiracy theory that would not die" and, possibly, report the facts of Trig's birth thoroughly enough to kill the nonsense once and for all.

Lisa Demer started reporting. She received very little cooperation in her efforts from the parties who, in my judgment, stood to benefit most from the story, namely you and your family. Even so, we reported the matter as thoroughly as we could. Several weeks ago, when we considered the information Lisa had gathered, we decided we didn't have enough of a story to accomplish what we had hoped. Lisa moved on to other topics and we haven't decided whether the idea is worth any further effort.

Even the birth of your grandson may not dissuade the Trig conspiracy theorists from their beliefs. It strikes me that if there is never a clear, contemporaneous public record of what transpired with Trig's birth, that may actually ensure that the conspiracy theory never dies. Time will tell.

According to the "return receipt" feature of my email, my reply was opened shortly after I sent it on New Year's Eve. Other than that, I have received no response or acknowledgement of that email.

I think I was clear that we were not asking about Trig's birth in an effort to validate the conspiracy. Instead we were focused on the persistence of the conspiracy allegations. In the end, we didn't think the story was worth the effort required to develop it.

So I don't understand the behavior of the governor's press office. Did the governor not share my email with the press staff? Did the press staff deliberately ignore what I said in order to have a longer list of press "outrages"? Or are they just sloppy with details? I don't know.

The governor's press release ended with this:

As a public official, I expect criticism and I expect to be held accountable for how I govern... often the refusal of the media to correct obvious mistakes, unfortunately discredits too many in journalism today, making it difficult for many Americans to believe what they see in the media.

Will the governor's press office correct its misrepresentation of the Daily News?

Time will tell.

"'Private property,' in the mouth of a rightie, refers to the idea that the principal purpose of government is to become a protector of inherited wealth and privilege at the expense of upward mobility."

Barbara O'Brien (aka Maha) (27-Dec-08) at her blog, The Mahablog