Fact or fiction and a visit to Gold Hill

A comment was made to my previous blog that I wish
to clarify. The comment was citing remarks made
by Jefferson and Madison about the Constitution.
I think Amendment X should answer the question.
It states, "The powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to
the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people." Also, Amendment IX states that,
"The enumeration in the Constitution of certain
rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage
others retained by the people."

Enough said...

Gold Hill has been celebrating its 150th anniversary.
Today was the last of the celebrations so we went
up to enjoy the celebrations. One of which was the
"firing" of an anvil. This consisted of laying
an anvil on the ground and adding black powder
to it and then laying another anvil on top. The
fuse leading to the black powder is lit...and
you wait. First, a little smoke and then the
most humongous boom you can imagine and the
anvil flies into the air 100 feet or so. We have
been prepared to run, but it didn't fly in our
direction enough to make us move. It was a most
impressive display, however.

Many of the cabins were open for touring, but we
had come to tour the Bluebird Lodge, which was
not open, sadly. In 1920 the Holiday House
Association of Chicago, Illinois purchased the 1873
Wentworth Hotel as a summer resort for working
women. It was renamed the Bluebird Lodge. This
gave Gold Hill a much-needed boost. And these
ladies were known as the "Bluebirds."

In 1939, Elizabeth A. Sullivan of Boulder donated
a 3200 square foot parcel on the southwest corner of Pine
and Prospect streets to the Most Reverend Urban J. Vehr,
Bishop of Denver. Over the next year and a half, the
Bluebirds saved their money and hired A.J. "Tim"
Walter, assisted by Wilbur D. Goudge, to build a
small frame structure with log siding at the cost
of $3000. The chapel was named St.James in
memory of a Chicago woman's husband who gave the
first donation, $500, and in honor of St. James
the Apostle.

As the years went by the Bluebirds gradually declined
and the chapel sat unused. By 1962 the chapel was
purchased by Daniel and Margaret Grupp for $10.00.
In 1997 the property was bought by Historic Gold
Hill, Inc., and was financed by a grant from the
State Historical Society to become the Gold Hill
Museum.

The museum is a gem. We spent most of our time at
the museum. They have a fantastic "school" map
of the early United States showing how Texas
owned a good section of western Colorado. I
also purchased a set of playing cards, each of
which has an historic photograph on the facing
side.

For lunch we stood in a brief line for homemade
ice cream served at the Gold Hill school. The
ice cream was delicious. We were told by one
of my Gold Hill friends that they had spent
a very busy morning making ice cream. The
ice cream had been made and stored in a freezer
in someone's garage and last night a bear
broke into the garage and into the freezer and
ate most of the ice cream!

The Gold Hill schoolhouse, unlike the Salina
schoolhouse is still functioning as a school.
The original school was built in 1873 and was
a log structure. It was razed in 1883 and
replaced by the current frame structure. In
1898 another room was added and two teachers
were employed. In 1894, the school bell woke
the residents in the early hours as a forest
fire swept down on the town. Fortunately,
a change in the wind and the a snowfall
saved Gold Hill and the schoolhouse.

On-going battle of fact vs fantasy regarding Health Care Reform

A busy summer, but it goes so fast I don't really know
what we have been doing.

I continue to politic. Just called Udall's office to
voice my opposition to indefinite detention. I don't
understand how that can even be an issue. It is so
patently against our Constitution.


The Health Care Reform is causing quite a stir. In
some areas of the country the radical right have
organized such that they disrupt the Town Meetings
being held by their Congress person to answer
questions about the bill in progress. They have
been shouted down in many places.

In Denver a man had his car vandalized to the tune
of about $3000. He had fliers in his car advocating
Universal Single-payer Health Care system. Someone
is really full of hate.

There are so many myths out there and people have
been scared by them. These are orchestrated by
the right-wing of the Republican Party and it is
a real shame. I think the Republican Party is
going to go down the tubes if it continues on
it's current path. I feel sorry for moderate
Republicans. Of course there are the Blue Dog
Democrats that I would just as see move on
to the Republican party. They don't vote with
the Democrats anyway and they make it look as
though the party is not behind health care
reform.

The following are a few of the myths being
bandied about and the facts:

MYTH: Grassroots Protesters are Disrupting Town
Hall Meetings.
FACT: Lobbyist-Run Groups are Orchestrating
Extremist Mobs
MYTH: Government-Encouraged Euthanasia
FACT: The claim is "nonsense."
MYTH: Private Plans are Outlawed
FACT: Private Health insurance not banned
MYTH: 120 Million Americans will be deprived
of health care
FACT: "False"
MYTH: There is a Republican Plan
FACT: Republicans have yet to coalesce around
a single plan

We had book club on Monday at Heather's and discussed
"Olive Kittredge." It is a strange book and she is
an even stranger person. But, it was an interesting
read. Out next book is "Sarah's Key." I'm three
quarters of the way through that. It has two
intertwined plots. One current and one in the 1940s
with the terrible atrocities against the Jews. The
current plot is of a journalist who is writing a
story of the anniversary of the round up of the Jews
in Paris by the Paris police. It is well written and
hard to put down.