Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
Once there was a shining spot which was Colorado in the 1970s — a type of Camelot. It’s worth noting that most historians believe in epochs or eras. The one that I’ve always been drawn to is what Jackie Kennedy dubbed Camelot. The very short presidency of John F. Kennedy. Also, again most historians see the sixties as not really beginning until Kennedy is assassinated in 1963, and the sixties don’t end until Richard Nixon resigns. I see a similarity that just occurred in the first week of November.
Dick Cheney dies but reappears in the speech by the newly-elected, Ugandan born, east Asian, democratic socialist Zohran Momdani. He’s the new face of the Democrat party as Cheney was a reflection of the past for Republicans.
Camelot, if you don’t know, was a legendary bright shining moment in Britain that the Kennedys attached themselves to. Jack Kennedy’s clearly King Arthur, Jackie fancied herself Guinevere, and Bobby was Lancelot.
I see Colorado in these terms. Many of us came here and came of age in what was once the bright shining spot, Colorado in the 1970s. It was a place for everyone whether Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or anything else.
In Boulder you would find 1960s like hippies and Soldier of Fortune magazine. We had John Denver making music in the mountains with Coors beer as the real champagne of beers. Ski tickets were affordable. Plenty of young men and women came here seeking their fortunes like the young knights came to Camelot. We were all sitting at the Round Table.
Today, Colorado is little more than a progressive hell hole which will eventually sink into a primordial quagmire. In the British legend Camelot was ruined by the deception of Lancelot and Arthur’s wife, and the devious actions of Arthur’s illegitimate child Mordred, out of wedlock, with his half-sister.
If anyone was our Arthur in the 1970s in Colorado it was Democratic Governor Dick Lamb. Just like Arthur who fought off the invading Angles and Saxons, Lamb fought off the real estate developers who hoped to overrun the state with hordes of yuppies using the lure of the Winter Olympics. But the Democrat voting masses from New York, Illinois, and California still seeped in even though Lamb had slayed the Winter Olympics dragon.
The final death knell for Colorado Camelot was Republican Governor Bill Owens who, in 2005, supported Referendums C and D to give billions to the government rather than the citizens of Colorado. Referendum C passed and fueled the population boom and the growth of government. This in turn propelled Ted Trimpa’s Blueprint for Colorado and the eventual total Democrat takeover of the state with the crushing of any and all dissent.
Now the darkness has taken over the state. If you remember the Colorado Camelot that was Hal Moore in afternoon drive screaming, I love you Denver, the Phipps, and the Broncos. The Mile High Miracle Broncos season of ’76-’77.
I know we’re speaking in allegories and symbols about a Camelot that we all loved turning into a place where now we rank in some of the lowest economic measurements, highest crime, and horrible traffic. We seem to be the epicenter of shootings. The ridiculousness of the Denver Mayor’s policies on homelessness. The historians who study the Arthurian legend call it the Matter of Britain. Now we have the Matter of Colorado.
When Arthur throws the sword, it was caught by the Lady of the Lake symbolizing a waiting for the return of the king. Who are we waiting for? Do you see anyone on the horizon? Barbara Kirchmeyer? Victor Marx? Michael Bennet? If we’re waiting for Michael Bennet we’re waiting for Godot.
So, like the Britons in their darkness we wait now for the next king to pull the sword from the stone.
— Peter Boyles
