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Perhaps it is time to add all of southern Colorado to the acreage the next time the federal government sets aside some wilderness areas. How could it be any worse off if it were run by bears, badgers and buzzards?
Last week, Roger Larsen, our district prosecuting attorney, was charged with a felony: purchasing half an ounce of marijuana with intent to distribute it -- to his wife.
As crimes go, that ranks right up there with driving 67 mph on a rural interstate; a man sworn to enforce the law should know better, but it was more of an indiscretion than an injury to the peace and dignity of the citizenry. As investigations go, this one must have been thorough, since it involved the Cañon City Police Department, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This is a poverty-stricken area where there are traffic jams every time free cheese is distributed. But the public treasury somehow managed to come up with the thousands of dollars it must have cost to investigate this heinous offense.
It isn't the first time in Cañon City that an alleged bush-league offense by a public official has turned into a major-league extravaganza. A few years ago, when the late Dennis Faulk was district attorney, he wanted more money to run his office. He didn't get it, largely on account of opposition led by a Frémont County commissioner.
Faulk was angry. Not long thereafter, that same Frémont County commissioner was charged with shoplifting a can of hair spray. That went to a long and gaudy jury trial, where Faulk led the prosecution.
Now ponder the current brouhaha. Martin Stefonich, the Cañon City police chief, wanted Larsen to impanel a grand jury last summer. Larsen didn't go along with the police chief. Larsen now finds himself facing felony charges and disbarment, as a result of an investigation instigated by Stefonich.
When they play games in Cañon City, they play
hardball. Larsen, a Republican, had been running unopposed
for another four-year term as DA. Now the local Republicans
are saying Roger Who?
Not that the Democrats here are any better off. They say
John Who?
whenever our Fifth District congressional
race is mentioned.
The Fifth District was created by Sen. William Armstrong, then in the Colorado legislature, back in the early 1970's. The idea was to give Armstrong a solid Republican base when he ran for U.S. Congress. It was so solid that even when Armstrong rose to the U.S. Senate in 1978, a vacuum like Ken Kramer could easily win election after election. Even after redistricting caused by the 1980 census, the Fifth remains as Republican as a country club.
Democrats understandably have trouble finding competent candidates for the quixotic endeavor of running for congress from this classic gerrymandered rotten borough. This year, one John J. Mitchell volunteered as the biennial sacrifice.
Mitchell, however, had apparently been circulating posters which accused Trans World Airlines of spreading AIDS. TWA has sued him for $500,000. Just when the campaign should be reaching fever heat, Mitchell has vanished from public sight. Colorado Democratic leaders are working hard to pretend that they never heard of Mitchell.
That's the public sector in Southern Colorado. Our
private sector is even less inspiring, if possible. The
U.S. Forest Service just gave up on reviewing plans for the
proposed Quail Mountain Ski Area because the promoter could
not provide any proof of financial capability.
This
came after six years of the promoter's assurances that he
would deliver an economic boon to depressed Lake and
Chaffee counties; nobody has heard from him since the
Forest Service announcement.
Another promoter was raising money from Fairplay citizens so that he could build a bobsled run there, again with promises of an economic boom. With cash in hand, he left town. He just got arrested in Illinois on a Colorado warrant charging securities fraud.
Southern Colorado is where the rivers run a toxic orange, unemployment runs in double digits and men who attain prominence seem to run from public sight. But it remains a beautiful place on autumn mornings when the first rays of the rising sun catch the high peaks. Give Southern Colorado back to the bears, because it's too good for the people who've been trying to run it.
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