David E. Steiner

Retired USAF, Teacher, Dad, Grandfather, Curmudgeon

Like what you see? Then be sure to visit the Allenspark Wind website here, and think about subscribing.

About Me:

Click on the links below to learn more...

You are here:

About Me/

Writing

Read My Latest Column

Can We All Get Along?

 

I have been here in this valley for more than 50 years, and I’ve always been puzzled by the people who live here, but recently I’ve been just plain bewildered.

Rodney King reminded me about it earlier this year when he asked, “Can’t we all get along?” because it’s apparent that in this place that’s impossible. Why should it be impossible, you ask? Well, I’ve come, somewhat reluctantly, to the conclusion that it’s simply because some of us don’t want to.

First of all, many of the people who live here do so largely because they’ve not been able to get along anywhere else. You would be hard pressed to find a bigger collection of misfits and malcontents. That’s probably why they hole up on the biggest piece of land they can find and then whine and complain about the government, which they resent, their neighbors, many of whom they despise, the tourists and summer people who make many livelihoods possible but who are nevertheless regarded as a lower form of life and, when all else fails the weather, which is either too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry. They also don’t want anyone else to move here, now that they have their own piece of turf. Mostly, though, they don’t like the other people who already live here, and they take every opportunity to make sure it stays that way.

We seem to delight in all this discontent. Satisfaction bores us. Why get along with someone when you can get years of pleasure from holding a grudge? I hear people say the most savage things about people who slighted them in some small way ten or even fifteen or twenty years ago.

Our recent travails with the fire department are a perfect illustration. This can, and no doubt will be, the source of animosities that will outlive the principals and will pit family against family for many years, in the finest tradition of American mountain ignorance, irrational and puerile behavior. It’s just another excellent opportunity for us to demonstrate that we’d rather fight than get along and that we belong here, isolated from ordinary society, where we can do only limited damage to ourselves and each other. As if we needed another illustration.

It took years to build a fire station and people are still complaining about how it was built.  And, although it was paid for with your taxes, the people who control it appear to be determined to turn it into their private domain and the “Community Room” now serves a community of about five people. They like it that way. It demonstrates their power and irritates people. That seems to be a much sought-after goal around here. It took more than a year just to put up a bulletin board outside the Post Office, just because people bickered about it, and as for the sewer system, well, it wouldn’t be wise to hold your breath while waiting for a decision on the hows and whats of that project.

Certainly there are a few of us who say, hardly aloud, that we should let bygones be bygones and that we should try to get along. This is said most often by retired people who have spent much of their lives in conciliation and compromise, but they are a distinct minority. Most of us seem to truly enjoy an atmosphere of antagonism, dissension and conflict. We seek it out. We enjoy creating it. We revel in the power, obviously denied us elsewhere, and derive pleasure from hurting others, getting even, and seeking revenge.

A good place to live is more than rocks and trees and a blue sky. It’s good people who make it a good place to live and at the moment this isn’t a good place to live because some of the people who live here have poisoned it with their own venom. If Rodney King is looking for a place where people can get along, he’s better off in Los Angeles.

 

 

Columns

© 1985 – 2003, David E. Steiner

Allenspark Wind Columns:

Introduction

Why Allenspark?

Going Riding [August, 1985]

Electricity

Used Cars

Peace and Quiet [1986]

Liberals & Conservatives

Going to the Movies

The Screened Porch

The Beginning of The Season

The Weather

The Hilltop Guild Bazaar

The End of The Season

The Gift of Time

The Beavers

Addresses [1987]

Hiking

Watching the Trees Grow

Postal Rates

Changes in Estes Park

Square Dancing at the Pow Wow

Back to the Hilltop Guild Bazaar

The Solstices

Bird Feeders

Elevators

The Estes Park Hardware Store [1988]

Visitors

Limousine Service

A Memorial Service

A Hummingbird

Garbage

A Hiking Trip

The Estes Park Public Library

Wild Life

Riparian Rights [1989]

Weather

Fences

Commuting

Mountain Friendliness

A Motorcycle Trip

Satellite Television

“Weaving Mountain Memories”

Hotel Rates in the Old Days

The Price of Propane [1990]

The Front Range Almanac

June

Modes of Transportation

Miller Moths

My 50th Column

Modern Conveniences

Rock Climbing

On the Death of Otto Walter, Postmaster

Otto’s Memorial Service

A Big Owl Pot-Luck Dinner

A Whine About Telephone Service [1991]

After the Persian Gulf War

Some Changes in the WIND

The Trip to the Mountains

The Mountains in the Summer

Visitors

Of Dogs, Music, and Children

Muhlenburg County

To My Grandson

The Sale of Longs Peak Inn

World War II  [1992]

Murphy’s Law and the Computer

The South St. Vrain Canyon

“Whiteout”

The Hazards of Volunteering

Crime in Our Valley

Infestations

On the Death of Charles Eagle Plume

Can We All Get Along?

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Lost Horizon [1993]

Walking

Rumors About a Visit by the Pope

Progress?

More About Fences

Woodpeckers

The Visit of Pope John Paul II

Forest Fires

The New Sewage System

The Snow Pool

The Good Old Days [1994]

The WIND’s 20th Anniversary

The Bunce School

The Shooting Gallery

The Estes Park Museum

Our Government

U.S. West Takes a Hit

The Year of the Hummingbirds

A New “Yield” Sign

Growth in Allenspark

Private Telephones?

The Salvation Army

Creation Science [1995]

Devolutionizing Big Government

Risks

Airports

Fort D.A. Russell

Domestic Terrorism

Old and New

Barney Graves

Life in the Wilderness

What’s In a Name?

Arthur C. Clarke

 

The Estes Park Trail-Gazette Columns:

July 1983

Carpentry

Estes Cone

Johnny Grant

Observations in Estes Park

The Bath House

Waving

The Sutherland’s Ice House

How Old is Charles Eagle Plume?

Dogs

Christmas Trees

Tree Murder

Mountain Driving

Garbage

Mail Boxes

More About Mail Boxes

“Are you related to ....?”

Spring

An Accident

The Wild Cat

A July Reunion

A Visit to Baldpate Inn

Opening Cabins

Summer

The Times, They Have Changed

Death and Transfiguration

The Population Explosion

The March of Time

Faith-Based Social Services

Looking for Pitch

Recent Writings I

Recent Writings II

Recent Writings III

Recent Writings IV

Recent Writings V

Recent Writings VI

 

 

Jump to these pages

Contact me

 

Did you find a factual error or a typo or want to voice an opinion? Drop me a note here

 

Copyright © AngryRobot Enterprises. All rights reserved.

Home

About Me

Contact