Alan Dumas..a Rocky Mountain Memory

Sometimes I think when a person comes to our minds who's no longer with us,it's that person's way of checking in with those of us left behind.

Alan Dumas checked in with me today.

For those of you who didn't live in Denver Colorado in the 1980's and 90's ,Alan Dumas was a writer and DJ who graced the Denver scene till his sudden and untimely death in 1999.

I first knew Alan as a voice as he was one of those who "Rocked the Rockies" on KBPI which then was on 105.9 FM.( It's since moved) but I got to know Alan through a couple of the more notable events in my life.

The first occurred in 1987 while Alan was a writer for Westword, a Denver Alternative Weekly.
After an evening of beer and pizza at Beaujos on Colfax Avenue with my buddy Doug Anderson..well to be honest,I drank all the beer,the campaigns for Mayor of Denver and Election Commissioner respectably were launched. Though it was a non-partisan race,Doug and I were endorsed by the Libertarian Party. Westword wrote one of the first comprehensive articles about the race for Mayor. In that piece,something to this effect was written..David Daniels,Libertarian is also in the race,he is the first of the "fringe" candidates to declare.. I wrote Westword thanking them for placing me in that category,noting all the ideas considered mainstream that had its start in the fringes.
Later I got a phone call from Alan. He didn't write the piece,but called to state he liked my response to it. He then asked me if I planned on attending the first major debate. He told me he'd be there. I don't know whether Alan said something to the other writers at Westword or what,but starting from that first debate,where Westword reported that I stirred the crowd up,I got more coverage than any of the other "fringe candidates" that entered the race.I think Westword led the way in my race getting daily coverage in both Denver newspapers as well as Denver's tv stations.

I do know that according to John Ashton,a Westword writer at the time stated to me that Dumas put him up to offering me a joint prior a debate. For that gesture,when my buddy Doug won his Election Commissioner's race,thus becoming the first Libertarian elected in a major city,Alan got the scoop as to Doug's first words when I and a group of friends marched into the noted(???) Denver bar Shotgun Willie's where he was tending bar that night. For the record,those words were "You're shitting me?"

The next came in 1994 when I returned to Denver from Minneapolis to present my play Malcolm X Meet Peter Tosh. Alan was now the theater writer for the now defunct Rocky Mountain News. He had me come to the Rocky's office for an interview prior to the play's premier. We talked a lot then about music and marijuana. Alan loved the Grateful Dead and connected to the play from the standpoint of the similarities between Deadhead and Reggae cultures. Dumas called Malcolm X Meet Peter Tosh the "top cultural event" in his best of the Arts of 1994 column. To me personally,he described it as "The Rocky Horror Picture Show of Theater" in that audiences would return night after night,cheer and boo the various characters,dance to the reggae music in the play,and share joints with the actors in the play. He also knew about those not too fond of the play..like the cops. I never told Alan that real marijuana would be used in the play,but he sensed from the beginning that attending the play would be more akin to attending a reggae show,thus he wasn't surprised when he learned about police surrounding the theater and questioning me about marijuana usage at a presentation of the play on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Though it was theater editor Jackie Campbell who was credited with the byline,it was Alan Dumas who reported to the Rocky Mountain News of the incident where police surrounded the Bug Theater in Denver and arrested 4 members of the audience.
There was also the night where due to a blizzard,a performance was cancelled. Alan called me to ask about the cancellation. "How many people did you have to turn away?" he asked. I told him "about 30". He then said to me,"You turned more people away than what the (downtown and major theater) Denver Center for Performing Arts had in attendance!" He seemed to be thrilled to tell me that.

The last time I saw Alan in person was at the coffeeshop at Alfalfa's (now Whole Foods) in Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood. It was shortly after Jerry Garcia's death,so we had to acknowledge that.

Thanks Alan for checking in today!

the Rose of Denver

 August 17, 2011
Spent four days in Colorado last week. Add four more days to the thirtysome years of personal history with that state.While it was great as always to see relatives and friends,and of course admire those Rocky Mountains,there was a more important reason to be there this time.

You see last year,my daughter Rose made a decision to join the U.S. Army. In January,she went away to basic training,and this was her first time back home since her enlistment.
I think there comes a time in every parent's life when a child does something just about opposite of what you would do. My parents ,while being politically liberal, socially had the conservative values of most middle class parents of the era and they had to endure seeing me take my 3.8 grade point average,and nearly full college scholarship off to a commune in Alaska's Matanuska Valley!

I refused to play Army as a kid. It set me apart from all the neighborhood kids. When I was in 7th grade,my parents suspected I might be a pot smoking hippie when I spent my weekends leafleting on behalf of that poet and anti war Senator from Minnesota Eugene McCarthy. It was still a few years from 7th grade before I saw marijuana for the first time,but if being a hippie meant having peace as a core value,they were absolutely right. The anti war themes in Richie Havens' "Handsome Johnny",Country Joe McDonald's "Feel Like I'm Fixin to Die",and Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant influenced my countercultural direction before marijuana did.

With that type of background,the LAST thing you would think a child of mine would do would be joining the Army. Rose is in the Army now.
That new reality was made quite clear when I first arrived..Due to Army related business she had to attend to,it was two days before finally getting to see her.
I can say this: both Rose and I both possess a strong independent streak,and a hard core determination once our minds are made up. She believes she has made the right choice for herself and is proud to be serving. I am proud that my daughter is her own person.


Rose's unit is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq. (If you've been led to believe we're winding down in Iraq,guess again..)
Since Rose's stint in the Army began, the question has been asked of me how do I manage when this decision of hers to enlist seemingly goes against the core of my being? Any parent worth their salt is going to love and care for their child..that goes without saying,and in supporting her,I don't have to go against my values at all because as a peace loving parent,now this stuff about war becomes personal and any parent worth their salt is going to do whatever they can to keep their child out of harm's way.

Now I have friends across the political spectrum,and I remember how some of you reacted four years ago when I chose to support Ron Paul for President. I'm just letting you know I'm doing it again,and this time it's even more personal than it was four years ago. You might disagree with me,but I ask those of you who do to respect it as a parent doing his best to protect his child from harm. Ron Paul,like myself does not want to see our troops engaged in an overseas conflict that has nothing to do with the security interests of the United States,in fact harms it. I might also add that while she serves,she shouldn't have to worry about her Dad back home possibly being criminalized for the use of a plant that has inspired the writing of his plays,poetry and spoken word material,is part of his spiritual practice,and has been an integral medicine in his ongoing fight against cancer. Electing Ron Paul as President would go a long way in addressing those concerns.
Don't know when the next visit to Colorado will be,I've long given up on predicting the future,but I sure do hope that in one of those visits Rose will be there,safe and sound.