Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Colorado 150

The bonds that cannot be dissolved
Rocky Mountain Voice, National, Top Stories

The bonds that cannot be dissolved

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board The Declaration of Independence opens by taking something apart. Before it reaches life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it lays out why one people must "dissolve the political bands" that tie them to another. The founding act is a break. The signers put a tie of their own in its place. The last line is a pledge they made to each other, "our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." Two hundred fifty years later, that pledge still holds. We asked readers on the Fourth to show us how they were marking America's 250th birthday and Colorado's 150th. The answers came from Washington, the California coast, a Delta County parade, festivities in Thornton, family fun in a backyard, a Castle Rock-to-Westminster flag drive and a smoke-dimme...
Volunteers bring America’s 250th birthday party to Grand Junction’s fairgrounds
Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Volunteers bring America’s 250th birthday party to Grand Junction’s fairgrounds

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice July 4 has always meant fireworks in Grand Junction. This year, a group of local volunteers think it should mean something more. Liberty on the Lawn – America 250 comes to Mesa County Fairgrounds/Lions Club Park on July 4, noon to 7 p.m. It's free. Bring a chair, a cooler and the kids. Austin Dewitt, the event's coordinator, had one goal going into it. "I wanted Liberty on the Lawn to be more than just another Fourth of July celebration,” he told RMV. “I wanted to create something that brings people together, honors America's 250th birthday, and reminds us that even with different backgrounds and perspectives, we share a lot more in common than we often realize." How it came together About a dozen community membe...
Beverly Aikins on faith, recovery and the next right thing
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Beverly Aikins on faith, recovery and the next right thing

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Hillbilly Elegy made her a character in her son's book. Ten years into recovery, the nurse and grandmother is telling it herself—and bringing it to the RMV Freedom Fest on June 26. Last Christmas, everyone in Beverly Aikins' family opened a gift she had made by hand. She had not sewn in years. The machine had been quiet a long time. Somewhere in a decade of getting well, it started running again. She counts that as recovery. Not the headlines. The sewing. Most people who know Aikins know her secondhand. Her son wrote about her addiction in his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. He talked about it again at the 2024 Republican convention, where the cameras found her in the crowd. This time the questions are hers to answer. Aikins...
Prose that just happens to rhyme: Larry Gatlin on books, faith and the America worth passing on
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Prose that just happens to rhyme: Larry Gatlin on books, faith and the America worth passing on

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Soccer wasn't really happening for Royal Gatlin. The three-year-old was on the field as a player, technically. But he was picking little purple clovers for his mother and bringing them to her. When the game break came, Royal found a package of Goldfish crackers in his baby brother Walker’s stroller and grabbed it. "Papa, I can't open it." Larry Gatlin did. After eating a few, Royal got a question from his grandfather. Could Papa have one? "No." What followed wasn't a lecture. It was a lesson. "What would the world look like if everybody acted and thought like you did? What if nobody would share stuff?" Gatlin recalled asking. "It's called the categorical imperative." Papa was teaching German philosophy written in 1785...
Polis Push for Legacy Bridge Meets Overwhelming Public Backlash
State, Approved, kdvr.com

Polis Push for Legacy Bridge Meets Overwhelming Public Backlash

By Heather Willard | KDVR Fox 31 DENVER (KDVR) — A proposed pedestrian bridge that would have connected Civic Center Park to the base of the Colorado Capitol building in celebration of Colorado’s 150th anniversary will not be built after the governor’s office received overwhelming results in a survey. According to the Colorado Governor’s Office, almost 94% of respondents (over 82,000 votes) were against the initiative. The results showed that over 3,000 voters (3.8%) were in favor of the project, while another 2,043 people (2.3%) voted “maybe” on the bridge. The survey was open through midnight Monday. The project has drawn criticism from numerous groups, including veterans who said their monuments and memorials where the bridge would be located would be “desecrated” by the projec...