Columns

There was a time in Evergreen in the early ‘70s when you got your Birkenstocks from Pat Pendleton and Ted Lothammer out of the back of a Chinook camper. They also offered human-potential workshops at their Evergreen Retreat Center up above the Lake. The couple’s work eventually morphed into People House, Facilitator Training and so much more. Ted’s legacy has been documented in a new book, “Patron Saint of Rascals,” by Cheryl Williams Card.

In the waning hours of the legislative session earlier this month, leadership in the Colorado House of Representatives used procedural delaying tactics to kill a civil-unions bill that otherwise had the votes to pass. In a special session less than a week later, the same bill was assigned to a different committee, resulting in it being killed a second time — again, when it had the votes to pass the whole House.

As work in the state House of Representatives ground to a halt on the second to last night of the legislative session last week to ensure that no vote would be taken on legislation to create civil unions, I found myself reflecting on the role my hometown of Steamboat Springs played in the debate on same-sex unions way back in 1975.

As we enter the most intense period of the American political cycle — Ppresidential election season — it’s worth reminding ourselves that not everything is political. This may sound obvious enough, but lately the line between politics and everything else has become blurred.