Letter from Deric Pamp
Salida – March 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Friends:
We are leaving Salida. Barb has been working part- and then full-time in Colorado Springs for a year — our judicial district dangled a job for her twice but each time decided to spend the money elsewhere, never mind that tape recording is inferior. We need the medical insurance her job permits, but we are really tired of living apart so much.
Essay by Deric Pamp
Media – April 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
CHAFFEE COUNTY was, in the not-so-distant past, a Republican stronghold, but today, all three county commissioners and most other elected officials are Democrats. I think an official’s party affiliation is his or her least important attribute, but the partisan nature of national and state politics resonates here: to many voters, a candidate’s party registration is of great importance. One of the Democratic county commissioners recently admitted to illegal acts in his leisure time, and I expect that local Republicans may do more than simply complain. How partisan the voters of Chaffee County are, or have become, may be tested.
Essay by Deric Pamp
Politics – November 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE EVIDENCE IS MOUNTING that America’s invasion of Iraq was a lousy idea from the start, badly planned and badly executed on a strategic level, and has only gotten worse. More Americans are calling for a halt to this ongoing disaster. The Administration refers to this as the “cut and run” strategy and suggests that dissent to government policy dishonors the brave kids who have died over there.
Essay by Deric Pamp
Life – October 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
OUR FAMILY INCLUDES an aging Golden Retriever, a smart and loving female named Bonnie. She is 12 years old now. She has thyroid trouble and arthritis, and last year diabetes took her sight before we could get it regulated with insulin. Even so, she is cheery, and we think it’s entirely fair that we take care of her now and act as her seeing-eye persons. After all, she protected us from prairie dogs, marmots, and rabbits for all those years, so it’s our turn.
Essay by Deric Pamp
War – May 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY of America’s invasion of Iraq was March 19. Whatever its strengths may be, this Administration does not cheerfully seek out opinions that differ from Administration policies, so I would not expect our elected leaders to respond to protests against the war. I doubt that they even notice them: Bush is too busy boogying on some mental stage, Rummy is planning the bombing and subsequent invasion of Iran, and Cheney simply doesn’t care about the little people who protest the war or fight in it. Nevertheless, I joined the small group of people who met in Riverside Park in Salida on March 19 to mark the date and to state our upset and disagreement with the war.
Essay by Deric Pamp
Christo Project – March 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
It was cold again this morning, the temperature at zero and a brisk wind ruffling the rabbit brush. I had made excuses to the dogs yesterday, explaining how cold it was and how they really would not be happy out there. Today they sat around me in a half circle as I drank coffee, clearly unwilling to brook any more nonsense about cold from one who wore shoes and could insulate the rest of his pelt. So I wrapped up, put on my favorite old knit wool hat, and took the dogs out to the truck. Their joy was loud, energetic and complete. As we skidded down the driveway, they were already barking at a horse, three fields over and half a mile away.
Essay by Deric Pamp
Mountain Life – December 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
We walk our dogs, most mornings, in one of several narrow canyons that drain the Arkansas Hills and run down to the flood plain, across the river from Salida. We get there by driving a rough county road that runs only a mile or so to a dead end. The road has few users other than dog-walkers, some dedicated runners, and an occasional beer-drinker who leaves his spoor glinting in the bushes near the road until we pick it up. We recently found that someone had used the road to dump the carcass of a canine: headless, pawless, and skinned, we could not tell if it was a coyote or a domestic animal. Its slim, muscular body seemed naked and pathetic. It had been doubly defiled, stripped of its dignity as well as its coat, then tossed carelessly into the rabbit bushes along a county road. Our dogs found it, of course, but it upset them and they acted very subdued.
Letter from Deric Pamp
Free Speech – August 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
I have been struggling with my harsh opinion of Ward Churchill [who spoke in Salida on June 5]. My reaction is not just to his “little Eichmanns” comment about the 9/11 victims, but to his whole, posturing schtik: the cowboy boots and all-black outfit that makes him look like an entertainer like Johnny Cash, the raised fist in victory like Huey Newton despite his upper middle class life, his advocacy that is so thinly disguised as scholarship, and since his visit to Salida, his intellectually dishonest defense of his record. He’s a Vietnam vet, and therefore he’s my brother. He is speaking out against the ruling oligarchy, and I am a First Amendment zealot. I should like him but in fact, from top to bottom, front to back, Churchill sets my teeth on edge.