By Hal Walter
As heavy smoke blows over Custer County from the fires near Wolf Creek Pass, it struck me what a frenetic energy has been running through our little community for the past few weeks; and how sometimes we pay too much attention to the little things rather than the big picture, like the world burning up around us, for instance.
We started June with what proved to be the biggest running event ever held in Custer County. The Hardscrabble Mountain Trail Run attracted nearly 300 runners from far and wide for challenging 5K and 10K courses on Bear Basin Ranch. We had several local entrants as well as runners from as far away as Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Nevada, Texas, Wisconsin and even Canada and Mexico – four Tarahumara, or Raramuri, runners from Mexico’s Copper Canyons were top finishers in the 10K.
The event was held as a benefit for land conservation – specifically the San Isabel Land Protection Trust and the Palmer Land Trust, which together have saved thousands of acres of ranch and farm land, as well as water resources, from development in Southern Colorado.
As race director I was truly amazed by the outpouring of support for the race from so many people in the immediate community, as well as sponsors in surrounding communities, including Salida, Cañon City, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. We had prizes, live music and food, and I saw a lot of people there enjoying the company, smiles and tales from the race.
When we began organizing the event back in January, I thought, “This will be great if it actually happens.” With just a few weeks before the event, it was clear that not only was it going to happen, but it was going to be an awesome event. I had insisted we start the race with a shotgun blast and enlisted Bear Basin owner Gary Ziegler as our honorary starter.
Within days after the race was over, we were already talking about next year, adding an ultramarathon to the lineup and the very real possibility we might double participation.
To decompress from organizing the event, I planned a trip to Taos with the family to see Mumford and Sons, my son Harrison’s favorite band, at Kit Carson Park there. This was a slightly bigger event than our little footrace – somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 tickets were sold for the concert. There was a big line to get into the park, and a flyer stated clearly that we were not to bring in glass bottles, alcohol, firearms or other weapons. And they did a pat-down search on everyone as they entered the park. Never, not once, did I consider my First- or Second-Amendment rights violated by any of this.
The last time I attended a big rock concert was well before our society had such concerns, maybe 30 years ago, so it was a reawakening to adjust to the loudness, the laser light show and the crowd, including those who left on stretchers apparently due to overconsumption of certain substances. But it was OK.
Shortly upon our return to Westcliffe, we found the community embroiled in controversy over the annual Fourth of July parade. Local tea party folks had passed out a flyer urging people from far and wide to bring guns and join them in marching in the parade.
As an owner of firearms since I was 12, and a supporter of the Second Amendment with a few sensible caveats like universal background checks, I found this offensive. Clearly to me this was intended as a belligerent political display in a parade that should be celebrating our togetherness in freedom and independence. Unfortunately, parades have become a local forum of sorts for political rhetoric.
The local newspaper, The Wet Mountain Tribune, soon editorialized against allowing the guns in the parade. Many people called on the chamber of commerce, the parade’s sponsor, to disallow firearms in the parade. I saw the immediate fault in logic, in that if the chamber disallowed the guns, then the tea party folks would claim their First Amendment rights were being violated as well as their Second Amendment rights.
My reaction was to just not go to the parade, and to urge all my friends to avoid it as well. Peer pressure would have a greater effect on people like this than some edict from the chamber. In fact, I had already decided to avoid town altogether that day when the chamber announced it was actually canceling the entire event over this issue of guns in the parade. The fireworks and other activities were still on, but the parade was off.
The tea partiers then announced their intentions to march regardless of whether there was a parade, a splendid metaphor to their entire approach to politics – a lonesome and loud little band of misinformed malcontents marching largely alone, worrying about their guns and other red herrings while the real issues of the world burn around them.
But then the Westcliffe Town Board stepped up and decided to sponsor the parade and allow the marchers with their firearms – and so the controversy continues.
It all made me think back to the beginning of the month when the community joined together to host the Hardscrabble Mountain Trail Run, and do something positive. People getting together to have a fun time, enjoy some outdoor activity, food and music, and raise money for a worthy cause.
And meanwhile the smoke from the fires continues to blow. Mother Nature bats last, and she could care less about our parade and our guns.
