Was flipping through “Fear and Loathing in America,” one of Hunter S. Thompson’s collection of letters ,when I came across, yes, a shocking screed.
Hunter was writing to Mike Moore on May 30, 1970 about the publication, Aspen Wallposters, he was putting together with artist Tom Benton.
“If we can sell enough copies to make the Wallposter pay for itself we can give enough away to create some kind of working unity on Aspen’s political front. This Valley is full of people who came here for reasons other than to turn the whole place back into a nazi-thinking condominium-complex & make it a safe & saleable resort for the Texas Cavaliers & the Atlanta Ski Club. There is a hell of a huge difference between skiing as a sport — or even as a lifestyle — and skiing as an industry, a boom-time fad like golf or bowling. Or beating up Peace Freaks on your lunch hour.
“But fuck skiing. All it is, in Aspen, is a swollen sugar-tit for a gang of aging nazis who are not the local establishment. The Wallposter is the voice of Aspen’s counter-culture – the people who last fall came within six (6) votes of electing a 29-year-old bike racing head/lawyer as Mayor (The ’69 Joe Edwards campaign). And before 1970 is out they may — or may not — seize control of the town & the whole valley, or at least enough control to short-circuit the greedheads & land-rapers who’ve descended on the place like a plague of water rats. The conflict has already degenerated into dynamitings, street-violence and a sense of almost constant political crisis that never lets up, not even in the off-seasons. On one side are the cops and the Mayor and the County Commissioners, along with local realtors and corporate land developers from Chicago & LA & Texas — and even NY & Boston. These people see Aspen as a resort and they want to sell it. And they are. Indeed — for the past 20 years they’ve been selling harder than New Orleans street-pimps.
“The other side is a weird mix of locals, liberals, freaks, dropouts, ranchers, heads, geeks & other less commercially oriented types who see Aspen as a place to live — not to sell — a refuge, of sorts, from the same kind of rotten urban madness that these scum-sucking developers are trying to sell here in Aspen. The town is already faced with horrors like smog, parking-problems & sewage in the drinking water. The Aspen Ski Corp. has threatened to put a limit on lift tickets — raising the specter of $100 a day ski-tourists standing in the lift-lines from dawn until noon, then being turned away ‘because of the quota.’
“The summer looks more and more like Coney Island. A Holiday Inn is already here — right next to the route of the new 4-lane highway in town — and there’s also a Minnie Pearl Chicken Palace going up, just across the street from Stein Erickson’s ski shop. Selah.”
7.30.2009
7.29.2009
McNamara's lessons from Vietnam
When former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara passed away recently, I covered his passing because he had a long history in Aspen and Snowmass Village. (McNamara had strong ties to Aspen) Say what you will about McNamara, he had a lifelong love of the mountains.
More importantly he worked hard in his later years to try and share the lessons he learned about the failures of Vietnam. In his book, "In Retrospect," he devotes a chapter to “The Lessons of Vietnam.” The lessons go beyond Colin Powell’s doctrine of “if you go in, go big.”
Here is an abridged versions of the 11 main lessons McNamara cited about Vietnam. They are very relevant to the current U.S. experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, etc., etc.
1. We misjudged then - as we have since - the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries ... and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of our actions.
2. We viewed the people and leaders of (pick your country) in terms of our experience. We saw in them a thirst for - and a determination to fight for - freedom and democracy. We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
3. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values - and we continue to do so today in many parts of the world.
4. Or misjudgment of friend and foe alike reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
5. We failed then - as we have since - to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces and doctrine in confronting unconventional, highly motivated people's movements. We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds people from a totally different culture.
6. We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale U.S. military involvement in (pick your country) before we initiated the action.
7. After the action got under way and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course, we failed to retain popular support in part because we did not explain fully what was happening and why were doing what we did. We had not prepared the public to understand the complex events we faced and how to react constructively to the need for changes in course as the nation confronted uncharted seas and an alien environment. A nation's deepest strength lies not in its military prowess but, rather, in the unity of its people.
8. We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Where are our own security is not directly at stake, our judgment of what is in the another peoples or country's best interests should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our own image or as we choose.
9. We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action – other than in response to direct threats to our own security – should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.
10. We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions.
11. Underlying many of these errors lay our failure to organize the top echelons of the executive branch to deal effectively with the extraordinarily complex range of political and military issues, involving the great risks and costs – including above all else, loss of life – associated with the application of military force under substantial constraints over a long period of time.
More importantly he worked hard in his later years to try and share the lessons he learned about the failures of Vietnam. In his book, "In Retrospect," he devotes a chapter to “The Lessons of Vietnam.” The lessons go beyond Colin Powell’s doctrine of “if you go in, go big.”
Here is an abridged versions of the 11 main lessons McNamara cited about Vietnam. They are very relevant to the current U.S. experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, etc., etc.
1. We misjudged then - as we have since - the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries ... and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of our actions.
2. We viewed the people and leaders of (pick your country) in terms of our experience. We saw in them a thirst for - and a determination to fight for - freedom and democracy. We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
3. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values - and we continue to do so today in many parts of the world.
4. Or misjudgment of friend and foe alike reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
5. We failed then - as we have since - to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces and doctrine in confronting unconventional, highly motivated people's movements. We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds people from a totally different culture.
6. We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale U.S. military involvement in (pick your country) before we initiated the action.
7. After the action got under way and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course, we failed to retain popular support in part because we did not explain fully what was happening and why were doing what we did. We had not prepared the public to understand the complex events we faced and how to react constructively to the need for changes in course as the nation confronted uncharted seas and an alien environment. A nation's deepest strength lies not in its military prowess but, rather, in the unity of its people.
8. We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Where are our own security is not directly at stake, our judgment of what is in the another peoples or country's best interests should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our own image or as we choose.
9. We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action – other than in response to direct threats to our own security – should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.
10. We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions.
11. Underlying many of these errors lay our failure to organize the top echelons of the executive branch to deal effectively with the extraordinarily complex range of political and military issues, involving the great risks and costs – including above all else, loss of life – associated with the application of military force under substantial constraints over a long period of time.
7.27.2009
Morning coffee stop in Woody Creek in the crisp morning air.
It was a crisp clear morning after Sunday evening's rain storm swept through the valley. It was a fine morning to stop at the Woody Creek Community Center for some coffee and pastry. Ran into an old friend and the mayor of Aspen stopped by during an upvalley bike ride. The community center has evolved into a great place to stop for morning coffee and sit on the shady patio for a bit. It is, as the sign advertises, a true "haven."
7.20.2009
Bear buffet open in Aspen.
City bears have returned to our fair city. Heard tales this morning of a mother standing guard outside a home while the cubs ransacked the kitchen. We’ve now got bear families with a history of dining on people food in Aspen going back several generations. Plus da bears have a powerful sense of smell and Aspen around cocktail/barbecue hour can probably be sniffed out by bears miles away, so we also probably have some recent immigrant bears delighted to have found the mother lode of sweet summer food. “Garbage kills bears” is an oft-sighted bumper sticker in Aspen and on this enclosure there is even a little notice to “be bear aware,” despite the dumpster’s normal “all you can eat” status. While walking home at night, if you hear what sounds like an alien thrashing around in a dumpster, that would be a bear, being a bear.
7.05.2009
7.04.2009
7.03.2009
New ground for Ideas Festival
Thursday night's "The News Has No Clothes" event at the Aspen District Theater Thursday night definitely broke some new ground for the Aspen Ideas Festival. Produced with a potential TV show in mind, the event featured some straight-ahead adult stand-up comedy from D.L. Hughley, Lewis Black and Larry Wilmore, a panel discussion hosted by Kurt Anderson, and satiric video news reports from The Onion. The rowdy stand-up was appropriately rough on Aspen, with Hughley offering a one-word piece of advice to the Ideas Festival to make up for the lack of air in Aspen: "Vegas!" The mix of comedy with straight-laced guests was a tad awkward at times, but perhaps no more so than on Bill Mahr's HBO program. Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino was on the panel and came across as a tad uptight (she crossed her legs tightly exactly once, and never changed position) and defensive about the former administration, which was just completely abused by Hughley before he sat down next to her and made conversation. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff joined the panel and gamely tried to find the fine line between comedy, terrorism and a disgraced former administration. Andrea Mitchell and economist Vijay Vaitheeswaran fared better, but the evening might have been stronger with just Hughley, Black and Wilmore doing stand-up between the Onion clips. Still, it was a funny, direct and extraordinary evening for the Ideas Festival and especially for the often staid Aspen Institute. Would Mortimer Adler have approved? Probably not, but he might have still laughed.
7.02.2009
7.01.2009
Ideas/not the security detail...
Lynda Resnick and Michael Chertoff prepare to take the stage for an event mixing the year in politics and passages from Shakespeare. Both Resnick and Chertoff did well with their lines, especially Chertoff. While the photo could clearly be better, it is at least a glimpse of Chertoff in what looks like in peasant garb. He was on crutches as he injured his foot while running.
Fw: Ideas: non-proft community-funded journalism has strong potential, says panel.
From: aspenjournal@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 17:47:05
To: AAAhoboaterblog<bgardnersmith.hoboater@blogger.com>; AAspenJournaltwit<AspenJournal.6836@twitpic.com>
Subject: Ideas: non-proft community-funded journalism has strong potential, says panel.
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