Essay by George Sibley
Society – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
READING ABOUT the presidential race that the Rover Boys managed to foist off on us a year early (to distract us from their still unfolding dismantling of the American economy and polity), I find myself once more thinking about the people who used to live across the runway here in Gunnison, on the slopes of “W” Mountain just south of town.
Letter from Slim Wolfe
Society – July 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Once again George Sibley’s column (June Colorado Central) touches on that mother of all topics, the social contract. Though I’ve taken the direction of independence (and near isolation) here in Central Colorado for the best part of thirty years, I grew up in New York City in the nineteen-fifties in a world full of social contract. Parks, schools, recreation facilities, health care, transportation, housing, in short, almost every aspect of life was the taken-for-granted right of every citizen rich or poor. I didn’t have much concept of the private sector except when shopping, and there wasn’t a lot of money for that at all. But it was good: apart from the noise and the crowds there was nothing wrong with life under the social contract. There were lots of options, too, because it was a large and well-developed system. Call it the workers paradise or call it the welfare state, it was the brainchild of progressive thinkers like Jacob Riis who saw the need to help immigrants and poor people keep their heads above water, for the good of the whole world.
Sidebar by Ed Quillen
Society – October 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
WARNING
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me,
…
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple
Article by Marcia Darnell
Society – October 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
AS I SEARCHED for my seat at the Creede Repertory Theatre last summer, I found myself among a sea of purple — purple shirts, purple jackets, and purple dresses. When I saw that each of the women wore a red hat, too, I knew I’d found my kind of people.
Column by George Sibley
Society – January 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
THERE WAS A PEACE RALLY in Gunnison in mid-November, and I didn’t really rally. I went to hear the speeches because some friends were speaking, and I saw a lot of people there that I like a lot. But I couldn’t bring myself to join in the two-block march up and down Main Street, led by a police car.