NAYSAYER OF THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY, 2016 by PHIL GOODSTEIN

Editorial opinion
The Naysayer of the Month
The Naysayer of the Month Aprime achievement of Wilma Webb was transforming Martin Luther King Day from an insurgent festival into an official celebration of the establishment. Her husband, Wellington Webb, saw that the police became as brutal as ever while he was mayor. In the process, the city especially targeted young black men. This has been a continuing pattern, especially under the city’s second black mayor, Michael Hancock. Despite the latter’s alleged reform of the police department, police killings of suspects soared in 2015 to a rate that had last been seen when Wellington Webb was still in office. Amidst this, rather than listening to the endless usual blather of Martin Luther King Day speakers, members of Black Lives Matter sought to take over the affair on January 18. For failing to bow down to the pious hypocrisies of successful black politicians, its activists are the Naysayer of the Month.
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The United States government has readily resorted to violence. Not only does it have a heavily armed goon squad surrounding the president and other dignitaries, but it has rained bombs, death, and destruction on foreign enemies. Its drone program is nothing less than a new form of murder incorporated. Unfortunately, there is a virtual silence about such behavior as deadly violence has become ever more present at home. On the contrary, those with no depth and no ability to connect cause and effect, mindlessly decry guns as responsible for a culture of violence and death.
Colorado State Representative Rhonda Fields is among them. She has not only been outspoken in the demand for more gun control, but she has also been a most vocal advocate of the death penalty. Her message is clear: state sponsored violence is appropriate. Private violence, including efforts of members of the population to defend themselves, is forbidden. Not surprisingly, President Barack Obama, whose administration has embodied the sanctimony of condemning some violence while readily imposing state terror on others, has heralded Fields, arranging for her to attend his church-like condem-nation of guns. For personifying the hypocrisy of the gun-control crowd, Fields is an Associate Naysayer of the Month.
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Frederick Bonfils and Harry Tammen were the city’s ultimate pirates when they ran the Denver Post in the late 19th/early 20th century. Under them, it was as much a blackmailing operation as it was a voice of enlightenment and entertainment. The paper was quick to smear its opponents while it quickly flipped its positions depending on whether it had been paid for its editorial views. At times, the only thing it understood was violent force. It clammed up in its criticisms of architect Frank Edbrooke, for example, when he trained his rifle on the office of Bonfils and Tammen.
Among those the Post targeted in 1899–1900 was William H. “Plug Hat” Anderson, an attorney who had gotten on the wrong side of the paper during its crusade to free cannibal Alferd Packer. To settle their differences, Bonfils and Tammen invited Anderson to their office at the Post, “The Bucket of Blood,” on January 13, 1900. Anderson came armed, knowing that Bonfils and Tammen were thugs who readily assaulted those whom they could. When the two men attempted to jump him, he pulled out his revolver, badly wounding both of them. Eventually, after exposés of jury tampering by Tammen, a jury acquired Anderson. Former Governor Charles Thomas, who had long been the target of the Post’s vitriol, heralded the acquittal, informing Anderson “I congratulate you upon your intention, but must condemn your poor aim.”
The attorney’s action of defending himself was a horror to city council member Mary Beth Susman. She was among the members of the city legislature defeating the nomination of Anderson’s historic house at 2329 Eliot Street as a landmark. By rejecting the proposal, council has given a greenlight to a developer to raze the residence that is part of the architectural patrimony of the Jefferson Park neighbor-hood. Also, the vote is a message that resistance to tyranny, including that personified by Bonfils and Tammen, is intolerable. For following the lead of Susman and rejecting the landmark of the Anderson House, the majority of city council shows it has as much appreciation of Denver’s heritage as ISIS does of historic locations in Syria and Iraq which it has wantonly destroyed. This makes it an Associate Nay-sayer of the Month.
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Condominiums will be built shoddily or they will not be built at all. Such was the message of a recent ordinance city council passed 12– 1. The measure eases the liability of developers putting up poorly constructed units. Real estate speculators have loudly yelled that the shortage of condominiums stems from existing consumer protection giving buyers of badly designed homes legal recourse against those profiting from them. Opposed to such deliberation, the construction and real estate moguls have made condominium ownership a veritable utopia, a first step for people to buy ever more expensive houses. In reality, this not only means chaining purchasers to banks, institutions notorious for their shady and corrupt mortgage policies, but also entwining buyers of condominiums into compulsory homeowners associations, fre-quently with extremely steep monthly fees. It is a message that there is no alternative to such dismal policies and limited housing choices. Those benefiting from this bleak situation have launched another publicity and political campaign to get the General Assembly to ratify their short-sighted, grasping immunity for shoddy construction.
Only Paul Kashmann, a former newspaper publisher who frequently endorsed the development agenda and has voted against saving landmark houses, had the integrity to vote against the Denver ordinance. Supposed voices of opposition who won seats on council last year such as Rafael Espinosa and Wayne New went along with it. For saying no to a really bad act, Kashmann is an Associate Naysayer of the Month.

Unhappy Parks - Opinion by Phil Goodstein, the Naysayer, October 2015 Edition

Denver deserves none but the best.  Such was the message of Mayor Michael Hancock when he announced a national search to find a new manager for the department of parks and recreation.  The effort resulted in the appointment of a veteran lobbyist/political hack, Allegra “Happy” Haynes, to the post—she was originally part of the search committee.  Amazingly, those loving Denver parks were surprised by the result. 

Talent searches are among the endless charades of the government and academia.  The efforts are often nothing but ways to tab a previously selected person.  In many instances, they are a means of rewarding consultants who spend lavishly on the effort.  Particularly when they involve highly charged and controversial positions, the reviews are a way by which one institution dumps an unwanted administrator off on another community.  The national searches additionally assume that outstanding talent is extremely rare.  Mile High insecurity endlessly believes that locals are not good enough to fill leading positions.  On the contrary, boosters eagerly drool over carpetbaggers to reshape the city’s skyline and direct its educational and cultural endeavors. 

The sham talent search was an insult to the populace.  Voters elect the mayor to run the city.  Members of his cabinet are not faceless bureaucratic administrators, but political choices who reflect the values of city hall and reward various constituencies.  Hancock, following in the steps of ex-Mayor John Hickenlooper, has clearly shown a thorough contempt for parks as quiet open spaces.  On the contrary, he demands they become commercial ventures.  Where possible, he has been ready to trade or sell them off. 

Haynes fits in well with the mayor’s agenda.  Since the 1980s, she has been an available woman.  Besides serving on city council and the school board, she has been part of CRL Associates, a lobbying firm which puts Brownstein Hyatt to shame in terms of directing city council and assuring the adoption of very bad policies.  Never in her career has she stood up as a bold dissenter, challenging the mayor or 17th Street.  At the most, she well fills the bill for those who love tokenism:  they endlessly herald her as a black woman who has done well within the system. 

Haynes has always been quick to play the race card, claiming any opposition to her unquestioning devotion to the status quo is primarily a reflection of people uncomfortable with a black woman having a position of power.  The prime difference between Haynes becoming manager of parks compared to an outsider is that she will eagerly plunge into the job, doing Hancock’s bidding with a vengeance.  In contrast, it would take a outsider months to get fully in synch with the mayor’s anti-park agenda. 

Hancock’s naming Haynes to lead parks and recreation also shows the thorough waste of talent searches.  Given the revolving door between city hall, 17th Street, consultants, lobbyists, and nonprofits, powerbrokers could simply rent out such functionaries as Haynes to the mayor.  But this would be too blunt:  it would reveal the dictatorship of big money over the citizenry.  Hence the need for the sham search finding that Haynes is the best of all possible executives to lead the department of parks and recreation.  Her tenure might well spawn nostalgia remembering the first term of Hancock as a golden age of the city’s parks. 

An Appropriate Memorial - Opinion by Phil Goodstein

 For years, Denver never named public facilities after members of city council. Beginning with the dubbing of the land near 15th Street and Cleveland Place “MacIntosh Plaza” in the early 1980s, this started to become a trend. It recalled the establishment stalwart who had served on council from 1959 to 1980, never challenging the worst of the status quo. Then, in 1990, council had honored the city’s first black member of the body, Elvin Caldwell, with a small plaza at 26th Avenue and Emerson Street adjacent to the Five Points Community Center. The Blair-Caldwell Library, opened nearby in 2003, further honored him. By this time, the city had memorialized former councilmen Hiawatha Davis and Bill Scheitler with existing recreation centers.

The man who defeated Davis in the race to replace Caldwell on council in 1980, King Trimble, was honored in 2004 with the “Economic Prosperity Center” at 2980 Curtis Street. Failing to bring prosperity to the neighborhood, it soon became the home of a charter school. Elbra Wedgeworth, who was Mayor Wellington Webb’s handpicked candidate to succeed Davis in the seat in 1999, was always a dependable supporter of the administration and the estab-lishment. The city honored her in 2014 by designating a major wing of the Five Points Community Center for her.
Shortly after his death in 2005, Denver Public Schools recalled black Park Hill city councilman Bill Roberts (1971–90) with a charter school near Montview Boulevard and Akron Street. For some years, Roberts clashed with Caldwell. Eventually, he was a right-hand man of Federico Peña, especially in pushing through Denver International Airport. By that time, his early crusades against a racist establishment had long disappeared, especially when he was on the receiving end of numerous government efforts to reward black entrepreneurs who heralded working within the system.
Besides being the political patron of Davis, Caldwell was also something of the godfather of Wellington Webb. As mayor, the latter showed himself an egomaniac. Despite a statute prohibiting naming public buildings for an incumbent, he got his rubber-stamp city council to designate a new city office building for him. For the most part, it was sealed to the public, complete with extremely unfriendly private guards whose primary function was to keep everyday citizens out of the public space. The naming was indicative of a thoroughly insecure politician afraid that he would not have a legacy without having his name attached to a building.
Webb had a point. Lacking buildings recalling them, it is doubtful if many would remember Scheitler or Davis, both of whom served on council under Webb. In office, neither stood out as crusaders working to change bad policies and reorient the direction of the city. Indeed, it is hard to recall any memorable acts associated with their careers on council. To his credit, Davis had been a draft resister who preferred prison to joining the military during the Vietnam War era. In the early 1970s, he had loudly opposed Caldwell when he projected himself as a most militant black nationalist. None of this was part of dedicating what had been the Skyland Recreation Center in his memory.

Now a push is underway to christen a long-delayed, well-over budget, and far less than promised Capitol Hill recreation center for Carla Madison.


She won the seat of Caldwell–Trimble–Davis– Wedgeworth in 2007. The white victor was something of a darkhorse against the black establishment candidate, Sharon Bailey—the latter ran a hideously bad campaign.  Despite suffering from cancer, Madison had an excellent record of attending council sessions until her untimely death just before the 2011 balloting.  In office, she never took on the administration.  At no time did Madison stand out as a bold opponent of the status quo, offering alternative programs that eventually emerged as triumphant.  No more than Davis or Scheitler did she leave behind a legacy as a model for those seeking relief from the 17th Street domination of the city. 

Part of Madison’s district included North Capitol Hill.  The only modern member of council from that neighborhood who came close to showing the possibility of a different approach from business as usual was Cathy Donohue.  She ran as a rebel in 1975.  On council, she joined with other insurgents in challenging the Bill McNichols administration, eventually besting the mayor on some crucial issues. Nor did Donohue go along with the corporate orientation of the Federico Peña administration.  Eventually, she made her peace with Webb in 1994, taking a city job to assure she had a good pension.  In retirement, she has again voiced her views, challenging city policies that have virtually given parks away to politically well-connected business interests. 

If politicos urgently believe they have to name the Capitol Hill center for one of their own, an even better choice than Madison would be Donohue’s immediate predecessor in district #10, Bob Koch.  He was the personification of the bozos who have long led many to mock council as a dead end for drunks.  An affluent oil man who was a vestige of conservative, elite Capitol Hill, he committed suicide just before the end of his term to avoid having to report to jail for a hit-and run accident and lying about it.  Or there was C. Paul Harrington, a backer of the Chamber of Commerce who represented central Capitol Hill on council from 1933 to 1959.  He lost his re-election bid during the latter year when the United States attorney’s office announced a grand jury had indicted him for income tax evasion the day before the runoff balloting. 

Madison, who was most responsible in attending endless committee meetings and dealing with the nuts-and-bolts concerns of most of her constituents, was far and away above the tradition of Harrington and Koch.  Still, she did nothing to deserve the honor of being memorialized by a city building.  On the contrary, she was essentially an echo of then Mayor John Hickenlooper with his commitment to the corporate control of the government.  Additionally, she was with the mayor in backing the broken-window theory of policing, an effort essentially making poverty a crime. 

The councilwoman was also a personification of the mayor’s claim that a “creative class” should be the heart of the city.  This was the snobbish rhetoric appealing to people who consider themselves highly enlightened.  Generally, they have all the wit of those who participate in coffeehouse poetry readings in believing they are on the cutting edge of fine literature.  Even at that, Madison was a skilled artist.  Typical of her personality was that her wedding was a joint venture in Denver and Las Vegas, the latter city being the epitome of empty illusion of faux sophisticates.  Even so, Madison was, far and away, the most colorful member of council, a body otherwise dominated by professional politicians, some of whom had never had a real job outside of the government. 

Madison’s one big initiative on council was working to privatize the parks.  In particular, collaborating with Chuck Morris of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, she called for fencing off City Park to the public so a private corporation could profit by endlessly blasting noise through the green as part of the Mile High Music Festival.  The Zoo vetoed the event, realizing the ear-splitting racket would endanger its animals.  This protection of public peace and tranquility was beyond the councilwoman.  Far from discussing her views with constituents, she refused to speak to some of the critics of the event, especially when they brought out she had made a video backing the event before the Anschutz Entertainment Group had publicly announced the venture. 

The drive to name the recreation center for Madison (led by her husband, who, with Madison, had no understanding of the concept of  conflict-of-interest) says nothing about the highly dubious real estate deal by which the city acquired the property for it at Colfax Avenue and Josephine Street from a crony of Mayor Hickenlooper.  Nor does it explain Mayor Michael Hancock’s sudden 180-degree reversal on building it.  He found the money for it when he urgently needed the vote of Capitol Hill councilwoman Jeannie Robb for his highly dubious park policies and purge of the parks and recreation advisory board.  As it is, Taxpayer Sucker Recreation Center is the most descriptive title for the facility. 

2015 Schedule of Tours by Phil Goodstein

Saturday, March 14: West Quality Hill, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Meet the Zang Mansion, 709 Clarkson Street. The cost is $10.00. A copy of this schedule and information about Goodstein’s books is at LeonardLeonard.com/neighborhoods/walkingtours.

Sunday, March 15: Ghosts of Cheesman Park, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Meet at the gazebo near the equivalent of 12th Avenue and Gilpin Street. It is directly south of the RTD bus stop on the 12th Avenue loop in the park. Gilpin Street is the 1700 east block. Park in the park, east bound, on the 12th Avenue loop to the east of the RTD stop. The cost is $10.

Saturday, March 21: South of the Country Club, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Meet in front of Steele School on the east side of the South Marion Street Parkway between Alameda Avenue and Dakota Avenue. (Marion Street is one block east of Downing Street.) The cost is $10.00

Read more »

ORWELLIAN HISTORY by Phil Goodstein - December 2014 Naysayer

Columbine High School was in the news during the 1994–95 school year. Al Wilder, a veteran teacher, sought to give students a view outside of the system’s artificial and banal boundaries. He so showed his debate class 1900, a powerful movie by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci. It focused about life, growing up, fascism, resistance, friendship, and love. Included was a graphic scene about bought sex.
The result was horror and heresy. The students were receptive to the film. That was the problem. Their elders, led by Jefferson County’s premier lunatics, the school board, screamed with outrage. They made it plain that school was not a place to encourage eager youngsters to explore the world and question everything around them; on the contrary, it was to turn them into mindless zombies who readily accept the worst of the status quo. The Jefferson Public Schools consequently fired Wilder. Virtually nothing was said about his fate and the horrific world administrators gave students when the Columbine High School Massacre erupted at the academy in April 1999.

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DEMOCRATS VERSUS THE ENVIRONMENT by Phil Goodstein - December 2014 Naysayer

Washington has again acted to protect Colorado from state officials backed by environmentalists. In particular, the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service, drawing on the Endangered Species Act which passed under the Richard Nixon administration with the support of the Republican president, has declared the Gunnison sage grouse an endangered species. This decree to protect a local animal and its natural habitat has particularly provoked the ire of Governor John Hickenlooper. Sounding just like a states’ right Democrat, he has yelled that Washington is interfering with Colorado’s ability to destroy the climate and obliterate its wildlife. He echoes the laments of Roy Romer and Federico Peña 25 years ago when the Environmental Protection Agency ruled Two Forks Dam was an ecologically devastating project that violated the most basic laws guarding the integrity of the earth. In the process, George Bush I came across as a sterling environmentalist compared to those Democratic officeholders backed by the likes of the Sierra Club.

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DENVER PRESCHOOL TAX by Phil Goodstein - December 2014 Naysayer

The Denver preschool tax once more narrowly gained voter authorization. Since its adoption in 2006, it has been used to fund a coalition of self-styled improvers and babysitters who have embraced preschools as both salvation and a business.
From the beginning, advocates of the preschool tax have not addressed the most fundamental of issues. If preschool is a positive good for society, why should it be in private hands? In particular, why should parents wanting their toddlers in preschool have to pay for enrolling them? Why should not preschools be part of a universal public school system? For that matter, why, instead of drawing on the reactionary sales tax, should they not be financed with the rest of the public school system? By once more avoiding these issues and perpetuating their empire, the champions of the preschool tax show themselves to be the Naysayer of the Month.
(The Naysayers will meet at Javier’s, northwest corner of W. 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street, Saturday, December 6, 4:30 PM.)

The Heart of Historic East Denver - New Goodstein book and lecture dates

 Halloween is over! Now Phil Goodstein can get around to the heart of Denver history. His new
book is
Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond: The Heart of Historic East Denver
(Denver: New Social Publications, 2014), ISBN 0–9860748–0–2, vi + 438 pp, $24.95. It probes the areas northeast of downtown, sections amazingly forgotten over the years.
No sooner had Denver started to recover from the bust in the wake of the Pikes Peak gold rush than real estate speculation became its foremost pursuit. This led to the creation of the city’s first park, Curtis Park, near 32nd and Curtis streets, in 1868. Within a few years, as Den-ver bustled, a distinctive suburban destination emerged at the five-pointed intersection of 26th Avenue, Wash-ington Street, 27th Street, and Welton Street. By the early 20th century, the latter enclave started to become the heart of black Denver. Other nearby elite residential areas, particularly Clements and San Rafael, likewise emerged as home of numerous African-Americans. Through the 20th century, the upheavals and transformations of these enclaves, along with Upper Larimer Street, were at the heart of Denver’s ethnic communities and the burgeon-ing preservation movement.
As is his wont, Goodstein looks at all aspects of the area in this extremely well-illustrated volume. He deals with the politics of confrontation and the civil rights move-ments. There are passing looks at alleged ghosts along with examinations of the impact of the 1976 Winter Olym-pics and the economics of the section. The overall im-pact is a panorama giving the reader a full grasp of Old East Denver and the city as a whole.
Goodstein will talk about the book on:
Saturday, November 8, 3:00 to 4:00 PM
Broadway Book Mall, 200 South Broadway (at the corner of Cedar Avenue)
Monday, November 10, 7:00–8:00 PM
Colfax Tattered Cover, Colfax and Elizabeth Street
Wednesday, November 12, 6:00–7:00 PM
Ebert School, Park Avenue West and Tremont Place. (Enter on the Tremont Place side.)
Saturday, December 6: 3:00 to 4:00 PM
Book Bar, 4280 Tennyson Street (southeast corner of West 43rd Avenue)
Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond
retails for $24.95. Mail orders, including tax and postage,
are $25.00, from New Social Publications, Box 18026, Denver 80218. Internet addicts can get it from capitolhillbooks.com and who_else@ATT@net. For more information, contact New Social Publications at 303/333–1095.

Tours and Talks by Phil Goodstein

October 2014 through February 2015

Thursday, October 30: Ghost Walk, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00. A copy of this schedule and information about Goodstein’s books is at LeonardLeonard.com/neighborhoods /walkingtours.

Friday, October 31: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Wednesday, November 5: Tall Tales of Park Hill, 6:30 pm–7:30 pm
This is a free lecture about the history of Park Hill featuring the usual and bizarre happenings in the neighborhood. It gathers at the Park Hill Library at the northeast corner of Montview Boulevard and Dexter Street.

Saturday, November 8: Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond, 3:00 pm–4:00 pm
Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond is Phil Goodstein’s latest book. This is a free talk about it at the Broadway Book Mall, the southeast corner of South Broadway and Cedar Avenue. (Cedar is one block north of Alameda Avenue.)

Monday, November 10: Five Points at Tattered Cover, 7:00 pm
The Colfax Tattered Cover, Colfax and Elizabeth Street (across from East High School, two blocks east of York Street), will host a talk and signing of Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond.

Wednesday, November 12: Clements/Benedict Fountain. 6:00 pm–7:00 pm
The Clements District, near 21st Street and Tremont Place, is among the areas featured in Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond. This is a free lecture about it at Ebert School, Park Avenue West and Tremont Place. Enter on the Tremont Place side.

Saturday, December 6: More on Curtis Park, 2:00 pm–3:30 pm
Find out more about Phil Goodstein’s books and Curtis Park in another free lecture. It is at the Book Bar, a combination wine bar/bookstore, at West 43rd Avenue and Tennyson Street.

Wednesday, January 14: Everything about Denver, 6:30 pm–9:00 pm
This is the first of a four-week set of lectures on Denver history. This session specifically focuses on the founding of the community during the Pikes Peak gold rush and the nature of the city’s street system. The cost is $10 per person. It gathers in a private home at 1330 Monroe Street.

Wednesday, January 21: Everything about Denver, 6:30 pm–9:00 pm
Denver was an instant city in the late 19th century. It was built on mining, railroads, cattle, and tuberculosis. Added will be sensational love scandal stories. The cost is $10 per person. It gathers in a private home at 1330 Monroe Street.

Wednesday, January 28: Everything about Denver, 6:30 pm–9:00 pm
In the early 20th century, Denver was the city beautiful. It was also plagued by political scoundrels and the Ku Klux Klan while a militant labor movement influenced the community. The cost is $10 per person. It gathers in a private home at 1330 Monroe Street.

Wednesday, February 4: Everything about Denver, 6:30 pm–9:00 pm
Since World War II, Denver has repeatedly remade itself. Mayors, newspapers, schemers, and dreamers have been central to its evolution. The cost is $10 per person. It gathers in a private home at 1330 Monroe Street.

Phil Goodstein (303) 333-1095

Tours and Talks by Phil Goodstein September- October 2014

Saturday, September 13: Ghosts of Cheesman Park, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Meet at the gazebo near the equivalent of 12th Avenue and Gilpin Street. The cost is $10. A copy of this schedule and information about Goodstein’s books is at LeonardLeonard.com/neighborhoods/walkingtours.

Sunday, September 14: The Jews of Curtis Park, 11:00 am–noon
This is a free lecture at RedLine, the south corner of 24th and Arapahoe streets, to mark Phil Goodstein’s new book, Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond: The Heart of Historic East Denver.

Tuesday, September 16: The Taste of Uptown, 5:00 pm–7:30 pm
As part of a tour of houses and restaurants on North Capitol Hill, Phil Goodstein will be talking about his books and selling copies of them, including The Ghosts of Capitol Hill, at the Castle Marne, 1572 Race Street.

Thursday, September 18: Old East Denver, 6:00 pm–7:30 pm
This is a free lecture at the Gardens at St. Elizabeth’s, at the northeast corner of West 32nd Avenue and Eliot Street. (Eliot is one block east of Federal Boulevard. St. Elizabeth’s is the highrise.) East Denver was once the land that is modern downtown. Within a few years, it referred to the sterling Victorian area around the city’s first park, Curtis Park. How the area evolved is the subject of Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond. 440 pages. $24.95.

Saturday, September 20: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Saturday, September 27: Mount Olivet Cemetery, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Meet by the fence across the road from the Madonna Mausoleum. The main entrance to Mount Olivet is west of Youngfield Street on West 44th Avenue. Go up the hill past the administration building to near where there is a big crucifix. On your left is the Madonna Mausoleum. (Coming from the east take exit 266 on Ward Road from I-70 and go west about a half mile to the cemetery. Coming from the west take exit 265 at Youngfield and go north about a mile to West 44th Avenue and turn left. The cemetery is the first exit on the right.) The cost is $10.

Sunday, September 28: Park Hill Promise, 11:00 am–4:00 pm
Phil Goodstein will be hustling his books, especially Park Hill Promise, at the Park Hill Street Fair. This is a free event. The booth should be near 19th Avenue and Forest Street.

Saturday, October 4: Crown Hill Cemetery, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Gather at the parking lot along the main road of the graveyard, just west of the administration building along West 29th Avenue about two blocks west of Wadsworth Boulevard. The cost is $10.00.

Tuesday, October 7: The Ghosts of Platt Park, 6:00 pm–7:00 pm
This is a free lecture about the spooks and spirits of South Denver at the Decker Library, South Logan Street and Florida Avenue. (Logan Street is four blocks east of Broadway. Florida Avenue is four blocks south of Mississippi Avenue.) It features Phil Goodstein’s book, The Ghosts of University Park, Platt Park, and Beyond.

Sunday, October 12: Ghosts of Cheesman Park, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Meet at the gazebo near the equivalent of 12th Avenue and Gilpin Street. The cost is $10.00.

Wednesday, October 15: The Haunts of Central Denver, 6:00 pm–7:00 pm
This is a free talk featuring the city’s ghost lore. It is at the Cherry Creek Library, northwest corner of Third Avenue and Milwaukee Street. (Milwaukee is six blocks east of University Boulevard.) It draws on Phil Goodstein’s volume, The Ghosts of Denver: Capitol Hill.

Saturday, October 18: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Friday, October 24: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Saturday, October 25: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00. It will be repeated on October 24, October 25 and October 31.

Friday, October 31: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Wednesday, November 5: Tall Tales of Park Hill, 6:30 pm–7:30 pm
This is a free lecture about the history of Park Hill featuring the usual and bizarre happenings in the neighborhood. It gathers at the Park Hill Library at the northeast corner of Montview Boulevard and Dexter Street.

Saturday, November 8: Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond, 3:00 pm–4:00 pm
Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond is Phil Goodstein’s latest book. This is a free talk about it at the Broadway Book Mall, the southeast corner of South Broadway and Cedar Avenue. (Cedar is one block north of Alameda Avenue.)

Saturday, November 8: Five Points at Tattered Cover, 7:00 pm
The Colfax Tattered Cover, Colfax and Elizabeth Street (across from East High School, two blocks east of York Street), will host a talk and signing of Curtis Park, Five Points, and Beyond.

Saturday, December 6: More on Curtis Park, 2:00 pm–3:30 pm
Find out more about Phil Goodstein’s books and Curtis Park in another free lecture. It is at the Book Bar, a combination wine bar/bookstore, at West 43rd Avenue and Tennyson Street.

Phil Goodstein (303)333-1095

A PARK THAT IS A ZOO by PHIL GOODSTEIN - NAYSAYER, SEPTEMBER 2014

Steel Panther, Chive Fest, Denver City Park

Since the 1960s, the Zoo has swallowed massive acreage in City Park as part of never-ending expansion programs. In the process, it has added massive slabs of asphalt for its ever encroaching parking lots. Additionally, it has essentially sealed the facility from the park, eliminating entries between the two.
Despite such devastation, in 2008 the Zoo was the foremost defender of City Park when it vetoed the highly controversial Mile High Music & Arts Fest. This was a proposed private, money-making venture of heavily amplified noise (supposed music). The racket, the Zoo explained, would be extremely painful for the animals.
The Zoo’s action was a stopgap. It has mostly been invisible against continued city policies. Far from treasuring City Park as a gem of open space, peace, dignity, and an escape from urban tensions,the department of parks and recreation has repeatedly sought to remodel the greenery as a commercial venture.
Noise has been a keynote of many City Park events. None have been worse than “ecology” festivals. While sponsors present themselves as most concerned about the earth, they think nothing about generating noise pollution. Nor do they reflect on the ecological costs of the noise-generating sound systems.
The promoters of virtually all outdoor events cannot conceive of them without heavy amplification. Illustrative is Big Wonderful. This is a trendy event on Saturday afternoons at Sustainability Park near 27th and Arapahoe streets. Primarily geared to people in their 20s and 30s, who are overwhelmingly white in an area that was long a bastion of black and Latino Denver, it projects itself as a “sustainable green event.” While stressing how committed it is to recycling, it sees no irony in draining electricity for noise pollution that is supposed to be music.
Most musicians have amazingly little understanding of their instruments and such a poor ability to sing and play that they cannot get on stage without an ear-blasting sound system. The result is anything but the beauty of their instruments and voices. On the contrary, it is a thoroughly debased experience embraced only by those who do not know the difference between noise and music. For that matter, it also assures there will be no interaction between the audience and performers. The latter simply spew out their product to passive consumers. This has been concomitant with ever greater musical illiteracy among performers, including a glaring lack of knowledge of the powerful protest anthems central to drives for labor recognition, civil rights, and the crusade for peace.
Precisely preventing any grasping of such music was at the heart of the Chive Fest in mid-August. It was the city’s great achievement in fencing off parts of City Park for a private promoter, complete with a sound system that could be heard nearly a mile away. The Michael Hancock administration justified it, pointing to the decisions of a hand-picked committee on admission-based events in parks. The body never considered that city parks must be oases against the chaos of everyday living. As such, they are not expected to turn a profit or reflect the crassness of corporate America. Opposed to this perspective, Chive Fest was the epitome of the worst of the music machine with eight bands producing an endless drone over the course of 10 hours.
The noise levels of Chive Fest were especially noticeable because of the sparseness of the crowds. This was obvious in the ready availability of street parking by the park, unlike the shortage of it as is often the case with free Sunday evening jazz concerts at the park pavilion. Particularly visible were the few cars in the overflow lots at East High School. But there is no connection between the public staying away from Chive Fest and city hall policies. By permitting the event, the department of parks and recreation showed it has a thorough contempt for residents who treasure the city parks. For that matter, as Mayor Hancock has made clear, city hall is nothing but an annex of the business community, complete with a willingness to rent out the police department and virtually all of its other services. Most of all, Chive Fest was a lot like the mayor: all flash and noise; zero substance, the ultimate result of a politician subservient to 17th Street while his administration endlessly treats all within listening distance with thorough disrespect.

Hiring of police for the 16th Street Mall is reflective of a thoroughly bankrupt city leader­ship

from the August edition of the Naysayer newsletter from historian and social critic Phil Goodstein

No sooner had the 16th Street Mall opened in 1982 than department stores began to close along it. Though no major retail emporium anchors the road, it has been extremely successful as a people place. Even so, business interests, who have claimed the road as their own, have complained about crime along the plaza.

Rather than lobbying the city to make sure that the 16th Street Mall is adequately patrolled with the rest of the city, the Downtown Denver Partnership and cohorts have announced they will pay for more police officers along the road. In other words, the police are not public employees who serve to protect the population wherever they are needed, but are essentially private employees of downtown commer­cial and real estate interests. As such, it is unclear whether they are enforcing city ordinances or serving as the musclemen of the one percent.

For years, the police department has suffered the consequences of its rent-a-cop policies. This specifically refers to the way-it has allowed uniformed officers to serve as private security personnel for bars and other money-making venues. It has never been clear if they are guardians of law and order or mercenaries in the pay of the people writing their paychecks. When officers have brutalized victims in such capacities, the city has had the responsibility. The hiring of police for the 16th Street Mall is reflective of a thoroughly bankrupt city leader­ship. For so embracing it, Mayor Michael Hancock shows himself worthy of being the Naysayer of the Month. 

Brutal Jailers and Brutal Rulers - from July, 2014 Naysayer, by Phil Goodstein

Note: This video is extremely "graphic", in that it show the dying moments of a mentally ill inmate.


"On March 17, 2013, in full view of most of the Defendants, a shackled and stripped Christopher Lopez died alone and ignored, on the cold concrete floor of a cell at the San Carlos Correctional Facility. His death could have been easily prevented by most of the defendants had any one of them simply picked up a phone and called for medical help. Instead, the Defendants, all employees of the Colorado Department of Corrections, ultimately made what could pass as a documentary film on how to ignore the obvious and serious medical needs of a dying prisoner for hours until the very last breath of life leaves his body." from Westword article here.

from July, 2014 Naysayer, by Phil Goodstein
Under Wellington Webb, the Denver Police Department re­turned to its usual brutal practices. Instead of redressing this, Webb advertised how mean and tough he was, surrounding himself with goons to intimidate one and all. He saw that private employees guarded city buildings. Their primary targets were every­day citizens who had the gall to go into public structures.
On succeeding Webb, John Hickenlooper sought to make cosmetic reforms on the police force. Included was the creation of a toothless independent monitor while the city continued to churn out millions to pay victims of police brutality. Simultaneously, Hickenlooper pushed through a failed Webb initiative, a massive new downtown jail and courthouse. While the administration claimed they came in on time and at budget, they were actually severely delayed, poorly designed, and well above the original price estimates. Much worse, rather than solving problems with the hideous treatment of prisoners, conditions have been as bad as ever at the new jail.
Recently, Federal District Court Judge John Kane had the integrity to do what nobody in city hall has dared touch in years: forcing the police and sheriff’s departments to release their records about complaints and assaults at the jail. Frequently, inmates find themselves far more threat­ened and abused by deputy sheriffs than guarded by them. A whitewash has been the system’s primary response while prisoners filing complaints frequently find themselves subjected to new punishments.
Such a policy begins at the top with the mayor. It filters through the Civil Service Commission, the body overseeing the police depart-ment—city council and the judiciary join the mayor in appointing its members. For the most part, the mayor and commission bless the doings of the police and sheriff’s departments. Far more than serving and protecting the public, their primary roles are to intimate and coerce.
The primary targets are the poor and those who fail to embrace the system. Invariably, crackdowns focus on people at the bottom of society, usually leaving affluent plunderers untouched. Particularly during the hysteria induced by the governor and the mayor over Occupy Denver, the message was blunt: overwhelming force will be used against anybody who questions the essence of the status quo.
While the police perform this duty on the streets, deputy sheriffs take charge once suspects are locked up. Given the hideous way they are treated, not surprisingly, inmates often have most surly, vicious attitudes. The result is an escalating cycle of violence. By failing scrupulously to review official violence, city hall encourages it. Were it not for the action of Judge Kane, the city would simply continue to pay out dollars to plaintiffs as the price of keeping the barbarous system in place. The failure of the mayor, council, and the judiciary to intervene, shows they prefer the everyday operations of this hideous machine and the worst of the system it represents.

Tours by Phil Goodstein - July-October 2014 Schedule

Tuesday, July 8: Capitol Hill, 6:30 pm–8:30 pm
Meet at the Capitol Hill Mansion, 1207 Pennsylvania Street. (Pennsylvania Street is five blocks east of Broadway. The cost is $10.00

Tuesday, July 15: Berkeley, 6:30 pm–8:30 pm
Meet in front of the Smiley Library at West 46th Avenue and Utica Street in Berkeley Park. (Utica Street is one block west of Tennyson Street and seven blocks east of Sheridan Boulevard.) The cost is $10.00.

Saturday, July 19: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Tuesday, July 22: South of the Country Club, 6:30 pm–8:30 pm
Meet in front of Steele School on the east side of the South Marion Street Parkway between Alameda Avenue and Dakota Avenue. (Marion Street is one block east of Downing Street.) The cost is $10.00

Tuesday, July 29: Alamo Placita, 6:30 pm–8:30 pm
Meet at the benches at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Ogden Street in Alamo Placita Park. (Ogden Street is two blocks west of Downing Street. The park is directly north of Speer Boulevard.) The cost is $10.00

Saturday, August 2: The Seamy Side of Denver, 5:00 pm–7:15 pm
Meet by the benches near 21st and Blake streets, right by the First Base entrance to Coors Field. The cost is $20.00.

Thursday, August 7: North Capitol Hill, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm
Meet at the Castle Marne, 1572 Race Street. (Race is 20 blocks east of Broadway and three blocks west of York Street. This is the stone bed and breakfast at the corner of 16th Avenue.) The cost is $10.00

Thursday, August 14: Platt Park, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm
Meet in front of the Decker Library, South Logan Street and Florida Avenue. (Logan Street is four blocks east of Broadway. Florida Avenue is four blocks south of Mississippi Avenue.) The cost is $10.00.

Saturday, August 16: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Thursday, August 21: Highland Park, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm
Meet at the west entrance of the Woodbury Library at the southwest corner of West 33rd Avenue and Federal Boulevard. The cost is $10.00.

Thursday, August 28: Park Hill, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm
Meet at the gazebo in Ferguson Park at the southeast corner of 23rd Avenue and Dexter Street. (Dexter Street is seven blocks east of Colorado Boulevard.)

Saturday, September 13: Ghosts of Cheesman Park, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Meet at the gazebo near the equivalent of 12th Avenue and Gilpin Street. The cost is $10.

Saturday, September 20: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Saturday, September 27: Mount Olivet Cemetery, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Meet by the fence across the road from the Madonna Mausoleum. The main entrance to Mount Olivet is west of Youngfield Street on West 44th Avenue. Go up the hill past the administration building to near where there is a big crucifix. On your left is the Madonna Mausoleum. (Coming from the east take exit 266 on Ward Road from I-70 and go west about a half mile to the cemetery. Coming from the west take exit 265 at Youngfield. and go north about a mile to West 44th Avenue and turn left. The cemetery is the first exit on the right.) The cost is $10.

Saturday, October 4: Crown Hill Cemetery, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Gather at the parking lot along the main road of the graveyard, just west of the administration building along West 29th Avenue about two blocks west of Wadsworth Boulevard. The cost is $10.00.

Sunday, October 12: Ghosts of Cheesman Park, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
Meet at the gazebo near the equivalent of 12th Avenue and Gilpin Street. The cost is $10.00.

Saturday, October 18: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Friday, October 24: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Saturday, October 25: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Friday, October 31: Ghost Walk, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Meet at the statute of the Indian on the east lawn of the Capitol along Grant Street between Colfax and 14th avenues. The cost is $20.00.

Phil Goodstein (303)

333-1095

Ludlow: The Public/Private Partnership

from the April edition of the Naysayer newsletter from historian, author, and social critic Phil Goodstein.

Note a different location, La Casa de Manuel at 3158 Larimer, for the Naysayers' meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 4.

Ludlow strikers. (from here)

Events 100 years ago showed what the public/private partnership really means. Both then and as advocated by the likes of Federico Peña and Bill Clinton, it is an alliance of the govern­ment and private capital. In particular, in April 1914 it linked the state government, controlled by the Democrats, with Colorado Fuel & Iron (CF&I). The latter was the state’s largest industrial concern. Besides manufacturing steel in Pueblo, it had coal mines through southern Colorado, being the dominant coal dealer in the region. Most of all, CF&I was the foremost branch of the Rockefeller empire in the Centennial State.

Read more »

Lawsuit against TABOR

from the April edition of the Naysayer newsletter from historian, author, and social critic Phil Goodstein.

Note a different location, La Casa de Manuel at 3158 Larimer, for the Naysayers' meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 4.

The Democrats’ thorough contempt of voters and popular democ­racy is endless. It has surfaced again in the lawsuit filed by party lawmakers against the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). The citizenry adopted this amendment to the state constitution in 1992, partially in reaction to the extravagant handouts and giveaways of the government to private businesses and the scam of Denver International Airport.
Ever since its passage, the governing class has raged against it. This refers to the political elite. Far from seeing themselves as representa­tives of the public, designed to get the government to work for everyday people, they are essentially representatives of the government who try to impose the dictates of the bureaucracy on the populace. They particularly call for ever greater pay for public officials, seeing them­selves as the enlightened guardians of civilization while they surround public buildings with goons to defend the government from the popu­lace. Such ideologues rail against TABOR precisely beside it is designed to check the usual plunder of officeholders with their give­aways to politically well-connected donors.
While endlessly attacking TABOR, the governing class has never tried to repeal it through an open and honest referendum. Rather, as is its wont, it has employed stealth. Its latest scheme is a federal lawsuit, claiming the act is unconstitutional because it ties the hands of lawmak­ers in deciding how much they can tax the populace. In other words, rather than having the courts respect the decision of the electorate, the governing class wants sweeping judicial intervention whereby ap­pointed jurists, with no public accountability, will allow it to have its way despite the mandate of the citizenry. Precisely such policies and arrogance are what fuel the massive alienation of the citizenry from the government. For so illustrating their elitism and contempt for every­body except their cherished government, those pushing the TABOR suit are an Associate Naysayer of the Month.

HIGH SCHOOL ASSASSINS - by Phil Goodstein - Naysayer - January 2014

Historian and author Phil Goodstein

The idyllic world of suburban safety and church-going righteousness has been punctured again at
Arapahoe High School.
Of course, the coverage of the attack on the school, where a student killed himself while gunning for a teacher, did not mention this. On the contrary, amidst the haze of hideously bad journalism, the message was the same as ever: it is outrageous that people in the suburbs act the same as the federal government and the supposedly violent world of the inner-city.
Time and again, the establishment’s answer to outrageous shootings is to demand the disarming of the citizenry. Simultaneously, special police units have ever more weaponry. The Pentagon stages endless terror bombings and assassinations. At least in some inner-city schools, students know enough to carry arms for self-defense. But fighting back is the worst crime imaginable. It might lead the populace to see that it needs to take the initiative in shaping its own destiny, not relying on an ever more violent, intrusive government.
Besides no mention how official state violence fosters a climate where killing enemies is primary policy, the sob stories about the Arapahoe County shooting have zero retrospection on the nature of places like Highlands Ranch. The real estate industry has sold affluent suburbs as places of escape, planned villages in which residents can seemingly shut themselves off from the mundane concerns of everyday urban living.
Denver suburbs especially surged in the 1970s in response to the coercive school-busing program forced on the city by the federal courts. The latter did so with the support of reformers who believed that equal education would automatically result by mixing together students of all backgrounds. Against the chaos that ensued, bringing down much of the quality of Denver Public Schools, the suburbs touted their excellent academies. As the shootings at Columbine and Arapahoe high schools have shown, there have been more murders at the suburban schools than anything in inner-city schools which Democratic Party “reformers” have done their utmost to destroy.
As if this is not enough, the entire thrust of media coverage is to advertise how necessary it is to instill the system’s guilt and religion onto students. The thesis is that psychological disturbances, not social problems, are at the root of personal violence. Of course, when a defendant in a shooting, such as the Aurora Midnight Movie Massacre, pleads not guilty by reason of insanity, prosecutors mock such an explanation. They say nothing, however, about the seemingly omnipresent role of psychologists in the wake of these murders exposing the exceeding tensions and dysfunctions of a thoroughly brutal society.
Until there is an open debate about the culture of violence, fueled by the country’s murderous foreign policy, the killings will continue. That this is an unmentionable topic reflects both the frustration and repression of everyday living. Time and again, residents realize that an escape to the suburbs has been no escape at all. They are still part of a system that makes everything into a commodity while honing its powers of repression against all challengers. Consequently, far from being an aberration, the Arapahoe High School tragedy is another peek at the hideous foundations upon which everyday existence flounders.

MARIJUANA DESTROYS THE BRAIN by Phil Goodstein - Naysayer - January 2014

Historian and author Phil Goodstein

There is no doubt about this, at least in terms of public policy. Since the 1930s, the federal government has been particularly hysterical about the substance. Politicians have shown themselves willing to spend limitless amounts to crack down on the drug and imprison its users. Others have so seen marijuana as salvation that they have risked virtually everything so they can consume it. The current debates about legalizing cannabis, moreover, reflect that the mind-warping debate continues unabated.
In part, the war against marijuana in the 1930s was among Franklin Roosevelt’s intense strengthening the forces of federal repression. The president saw the vast expansion of the powers of the FBI whereby J. Edgar Hoover established himself as the nation’s leading policeman. Simultaneously, the attack on marijuana was also a means of social control. Advocates of banning the substance argued grass was primarily associated with blacks and Hispanos. Rather than seeing that racism was firing their revolts against the status quo, the righteous guardians of bourgeois civilization attributed the protests of these victims of everyday discrimination to their use of pot.
Shallow critics of the status quo have since been of a like mind. This especially stood out during the upheavals of the 1960s. At that time, the counterculture emerged. Unlike the civil rights movement or the New Left, which challenged power and offered programs for political and economic change, there was the Timothy Leary crowd. Drugs were its answer and the alternative to a hideous social reality. Potheads saw no hope of changing the world through conscious mass action designed whereby everyday people could collaborate and forge their own destiny. Drugs, rather, were to provide an exhilarating alternative to a thoroughly irrational world.
From the beginning, this drug culture was as shallow as the most avid advocates of the J. Edgar Hoover police state. The embrace of marijuana and other substances was a parasitical growth on movements of social change. More than that, it was quickly part and parcel of a criminal underworld. The government, in turn, seemingly readily encouraged the use and sale of illicit substances. This not only gave it a pretext to target those whom it did not like, but Washington drastically increased the penalties for drug use while vastly enlarging the prison system. In the process, individuals who had embraced marijuana and other substances as their veritable religion became unwitting political rebels and victims of a vindictive government. A protest against the insanity of the war on drugs, consequently, was a protest against the world that both banned drugs and made recourse to them a most logical option in an alienating, repressive, culturally empty society.
The war on drugs also reflected the pompous hypocrisy of those with power. Now that they had the laws, the police, and the prisons, they had no desire to let go of them. Indeed, the more the government warred on drugs, seemingly the worse drug use and abuse became, particularly with the rise of crack cocaine. Increasingly, anybody with the slightest spunk or integrity saw that the drug-suppression machinery was far more dangerous to the health of the body politic than anything banned substances might produce.
Simultaneously, a rich drug lore grew up. At a time when the medical machine was ever more dependent on fancy, high-priced pharmaceuticals, the more hearsay evidence grew that marijuana might have some excellent medicinal benefits. Far from launching the vigorous tests necessary to substantiate whether there was any validity to these assertions, Washington responded with yet more hypocrisy and further crackdowns. In face of this, the legalization of marijuana started to become the center of a movement of revolt against big government. Ever more citizens, including far more than those who found their religion in opium, saw that an attack on marijuana laws was a tiny wedge through which they could protest the increasing coercion of Big Brother. Added to this, they had the wonderful legacy of Populist and Progressive revolts whereby, through the initiative process, they could challenge state laws against marijuana.
Medical marijuana was the spearhead in the effort. Its success, in turn, revealed another of the mind-warping characters of hashish. No sooner did marijuana dispensaries open than it was obvious they were not places to help the ill, but shops profiting from selling weed. This part of the counterculture so showed itself fully in tune with the worst of American capitalism.
Now, with Colorado’s outright legalization of marijuana, the money-making possibilities of the drug seem unlimited. Promoters have openly and eagerly embraced the tobacco industry as their model. In the name of profiting from growing, processing, and selling marijuana, they want to make it as omnipresent as tobacco was in the mid-20th century. In the same way that the tobacco crowd long touted their drug as a healthy, nerve-calming habit, the marijuana entrepreneurs are oblivious to what the health consequences of marijuana consumption might be. They are as ready as the most obnoxious of tobacco consumers literally to blow smoke in everybody’s face.
Nor do marijuana champions, including those touting its supposed medicinal benefits, ponder that a user constantly drawing smoke into his/her lungs could be direly impairing his/her health. This is not surprising. Many of the self-avowed New Age proponents of the counterculture not only had places filled with drugs, but also with tobacco pollution, including self-described healthy dining establishments. They made it clear that they embraced Jim Crow: those not wanting to breath clouds of smoke were not welcome to their thoroughly phony world.
Given this, the debate over marijuana regulation has been as empty as the rest of the discussion of drug policy. It reflects both an empty civil culture and the utter shallowness of the marijuana crowd. The latter have no concern with why drugs have had such a powerful allure; they simply demand the right to use and abuse them. Opponents, in turn, do not even have the wit to realize why many so want to escape from the distress, alienation, and misery of a heartless society. As such, the whole controversy is apropos of people caught in a miasmic cloud of marijuana smoke combined with the fog and confusion spewed forth by those who accept the status quo as so eternal there is no escape from it but in more drugs.

NAYSAYER, DECEMBER, 2013 by Phil Goodstein

Denver is cursed by majestic, peaceful open spaces. Such is the message of the Beverly Hills-based Levitt Pavilions. It wants to destroy them, especially on Ruby Hill. A supposed charitable foundation, Levitt insists it is necessary to replace what it brands an “underused public space” with a concert pavilion. While promising it will provide money for up to 50 free concerts a year at the bandstand, the company concedes this is a means of having ticketed events at restricted venues in public parks.
Levitt also vows its outdoor events will be year round. Such promises are only for the gullible, like those who swallowed Elitch’s vow of being a year-round facility should voters give it a massive subsidy to move to the floodplain. Worst of all, the Levitt argument is that eliminating open spaces for the amplified noise of the music machine is culture. For its efforts to obliterate the integrity of a historic Denver park, Levitt Pavilions and its supporters are the Associate Naysayer of the Month.