Back in March of this year, a Rifle library patron reported to our security guard that a man was apparently sleeping in the bathroom. The guard contacted our staff, and they went carefully to investigate. The man was not asleep. But he was unresponsive and drooling. There are people reading this that are already nodding. […]
Columns
Mature Content: Extractions of the heart
I awoke feeling sad about my appointment to explore having some teeth pulled. I love my teeth and don’t want to separate from them, but these thoughts were soon pushed aside by thoughts about another loss I’m even less ready for. My youngest granddaughter decided to complete her senior year of high school in Salt […]
Ps&Qs: Coincidence and doll parts on Twining Flats Road
This life is crazy: full of beauty and wonder, but with a dark and dirty underside. The enactment of Project 2025 has us sliding down a hill as steep as any slope on Aspen Mountain, right toward fascism. Before the Heritage Foundation took hold of our government by the short hairs, the old rats-in-a-cage analogy […]
Nutritionally Speaking: Superfoods — What are they and why are they called ‘super?’
By Ricki McKenna There are many “superfoods” considered chock full of vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients considered good for almost every human. However, there are also people who have sensitivities and allergies to some of them. So, are they for everyone? My logical answer is “maybe,” then come the reasons or at least the […]
Money Juice: Seeing through your money dysmorphia
I know this to be true: If you were talking to someone with triple your income and they were lamenting how they’re living paycheck to paycheck, you would scoff, roll your inner eyeballs and think, “If I was making that much, I wouldn’t be living paycheck to paycheck.” You are both people in this story; […]
VOICES Radio Hour: From Burger King to the classroom
I came to the United States when I was 16 years old, carrying a suitcase full of dreams and shaky hope. I didn’t know the language, didn’t understand the culture and I had no idea what path to take. The only thing that was clear was that I was in a new, unfamiliar country and […]
Elevate Your Future: A story of struggle, faith and community
By Antonia Peña I’m originally from Chihuahua, Mexico, and over 25 years ago, I came to the United States with a dream: to find better opportunities for myself and my children. It wasn’t easy to leave behind my country, my people, my roots. Nor was it easy to start from scratch in Parachute with no […]
As government steps back, we must look after our own
Dave Reed is LIFT-UP’s development director. Our valley is a land of stark contrasts, with great wealth coexisting with near-poverty. While many among us enjoy unprecedented luxury, thousands of families and individuals from Parachute to Aspen struggle from paycheck to paycheck. Recent federal policy changes will make life even harder for the people who keep […]
Seeking Haystacks: Collective innocence
In third grade, Ms. Ames kept us spellbound for weeks, months even, in a state of wonder, reading us versions of “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” We discussed who was heroic, and what it looked like to have virtue, to be brave, to be kind. It was my first exposure to what it meant to look […]
Historiography: Teddy Roosevelt — The Conservation President
For over a century, big game hunters have been coming to the rugged mountains of Western Colorado to escape their stressful everyday lives and lose their cares in the primal pursuit of deer, elk, sheep, lion and bear. In 1905, Jake Borah was a successful hunting guide in the Glenwood Springs area. Most of his […]
