Letter from Curtis Imrie
Politics – January 1995 – Colorado Central Magazine
The past 45 years may ultimately be seen as a unique time in history. The world was polarized by superpower confrontations to an age of economic and political order, and it has been my privilege to watch this world unravel — although I’m not sure I can stand the steadily accelerating pace.
The paradox, if I can use that word, of my loss in the 1994 state representative election was that white male voters were grumpy despite the district’s and the nation’s growing economy. It comes from that uncertainty that people feel about change to an information-based society. That transition is occurring even here in rural Colorado.
We can rail against crime, gun control, open-ended growth, the Environmental Protection Agency, education, habitat destruction, etc. But these are just parts of a larger crisis, and complaining won’t help us understand that.
Some people enjoy the luxurious delusion that because my no-budget campaign failed, then Ken’s must have succeeded.
And now, as the “New West” and the so-called “New World Order” drift into our back yards, the context of dissent, of disagreeing, becomes more subtle yet universal as it sheds the old obvious labels and is distilled into primary contrasts in the roots of human nature.
It goes that deep, as basic as the difference between ranchers and hunter-gatherers, killers and healers, grabbers and givers. In this tumult of change one of the hardest things to remember is that some things do endure. Reason remains a constant; civilization in Central Colorado is cumulative. It is not rebuilt overnight. Progress relies on honesty and virtue.
I remain unrepentant. I expect Ken to shape up and finally pass significant legislation that profoundly helps people, and to use his seniority for something besides carving up the state and rubber-stamping projects that would come to the district anyway.
I’ll be here watching, getting on with my life and work. I’ll never be a career politician. But whenever someone is downtrodden, I’ll be there to help. Wherever there is a fight in this district for social, economic, and environmental justice (not meaning “just us”), I’ll be there. I thank the 6,000-plus people who voted for me and I promise I won’t betray that trust.
Sometimes losing is winning; sometimes nothing is a real cool hand in life’s poker game. Maybe what we had here was a failure to communicate. Even though we were outspent 10 to 1, we still need to raise more ante to pay off my campaign debt. Anyone who meant to, or cares to, continue this people’s campaign (unlike Ken, we took no big business or special-interest money) can send small donations to the Committee for Curtis Imrie, 11023 Hwy 291, Salida CO 81201. Checks of $94 or more will receive videotapes of the “epoch” Hungry Ghosts which includes this House District 61 campaign.
My work and the campaign are expressive of a culture that has had the possibility of attaining material fulfillment while failing at the simple business of conducting human lives. Toward that end, I have firm faith in wildness, friends, and great teachers.
Curtis Imrie
Buena Vista