The Denver 420 Rally of 2014; A Celebration of Democracy

In the first days after the American Revolution, there was much confusion of what this new freedom and new Nation would be made of.  There was much disagreement on the formation of the new nation and it’s powers.

We The People
According to Digital History, How revolutionary was the American  Revolution; “Above all, the Revolution popularized certain radical ideals--especially a commitment to liberty,  equality, government  of the people, and rule of law. However compromised in practice, these egalitarian ideals inspired a spirit of reform. Slavery, the subordination of women, and religious intolerance--all became problems in a way that they had never been before”.   The Americans were facing the reality of the victory they had just won.  It would be some time, years even, before the start of a consensus would begin to form among what many of us would now call the Founding Fathers.   A consensus of just how to administer this thing they are calling a “Democracy”.  It started a little rough.

The Will of the People
Fast forward to today, for the first time in the modern history of the Nation, an entire celebration of something that has been prohibited ever since, occurred without a hitch, and made a modest, but loud statement; “we’re here, and we’re OK”.  One may consider the smooth transition to a legal Marijuana market shocking by historical standards.  Usually throughout history, when such huge changes are made, there are always several bad starts and notorious incidents that tend to cause at least limited consternation among many.  There will always be growing pains. 
As the will of the people of the State of Colorado have endorsed, and all things being equal, the means shall be and has been instituted that the now legal marijuana of Colorado must be manufactured, managed, sold and consumed in accordance with regulations governing their safe and proper use.  One of those is the ban on public consumption.  Long a tradition of the 420 Festival for all of it’s history, but also the foundation of the core of the statement of the assembly of Americans that state clearly “I will not stand for it, and I will exercise my rights regardless”.  Now that a victory of those rights has been won, with that also comes a responsibility.  That being said, as anyone who walked the festival can tell you, the traditional statement was made this year as well.  It’s like the smell of victory was in the air. 

This is the City
As it should be, the safety official’s first concern was just that, safety.  Although a small statement was made by officials in the fact that the number of citations issued greatly increased, when compared to the overall numbers in attendance, the percentage is miniscule.  It was obvious to anyone with a trained eye for trained personnel, the first mission was to maintain a safe environment and prevent a repeat of the violence of last year.  The first mission was to maintain an environment for these Americans to safely exercise their rights.  With record numbers from all over the country, it all went off without a hitch thanks to the organizers and safety officials.  

The Final Toke
Most corporate media is going to tell the American people and the world that this Denver 420 Festival was just about a bunch of stoners, celebrating getting stoned, while getting stoned.   It was way more than that.  It was a celebration of and by the potential and real profits that can and are being made off a bunch of stoners, celebrating getting stoned, while getting stoned.
On the serious side though, what the Festival did show, was that compared to the equivalent gathering in which alcohol would be consumed, it was a peaceful and trouble free affair. 
All and all, as almost everyone involved this year have shown, such an event can not only occur, and be a peaceful, profitable, and safe event, but also be good for the community as a whole.  Apparently, the people were right.

Denver 420 Festival, Day One

Under Larimer Street there are tunnel’s that were used once for patrons to move from building to building in order to avoid being arrested for consuming alcohol, then an outlawed substance. Eventually reality settled into the thinking of the National Leadership and the prohibition was repealed. 
In Denver, a Celebration that has occurred for years in an “illegal” environment, has for the first time started in a “Legal” environment.  Sort of. 
Now that the recreational use and possession of Marijuana is legal, and in the system with rules in place (such as the  banning of the consumption of Marijuana public), things are a little more complicated.  The fact that last years Festival was marred with a shooting, is also cause for local authorities and Safety Officials to have a greater presence.  Statistically I am not sure of more arrests were made this year that in the past, but we didn’t really see anyone in the main festival area have any trouble at all.  We did see the arrest of a person on a warrant.  
This is the fist day, I included only a raw video clip from earlier today.  I will have a full video out tomorrow or early Monday with a full run down.

Gophers Hold Worldwide Conference in Denver

The Languages of the future will bring our species onto the next stage of human evolution.  Many of those future languages will not only facilitate the communication of human to human, but from human to machine, and from machine to human. 
One of those languages now being deployed worldwide is The Go programming language.  With Google, Bit.ly, Heroku, Iron.io, SoundCloud, dotCloud and Canonical deploying to varying extent the programming language throughout the planet’s servers, the programming language’s  use is growing. 
On April 24-26, 2014, the GopherCon 2014  event is being held in Denver at the Marriott Denver City Center.  A full list of upcoming activities can be found  at http://www.gophercon.com/activities/. 
We will be covering the event and I will try to get some interview time with the organizers and interview some of those who are currently deploying the language.
If you would like to assist or contribute, you can here.

 

 

Nancy Roble Hortman receives "Service to Mankind Award"

On April  17 2014, the  Arapahoe Sertoma Club presented Nancy Roble Hortman, Founder and CEO at ACTS Resource Center, with their "Service to Mankind Award".  As stated on their website, S E R T O M A is an international service organization of business, professional and civic-minded persons dedicated to the betterment of the human community, locally, nationally and abroad. Sertoma is a terrific way to connect with your community. The three syllables (Ser-to-ma) are an acronym for SERvice TO MAnkind..

For more information about Sertoma and its community clubs, visit www.sertoma.org or call (877) 737-8662.

 

ACTS of Denver starts the Official ACTS Resource Center Blog

The ACTS Rescource Center of Denver is a community resource center in Denver, Colorado.  It runs a local Food Bank, and a Veterans Assistance Program who’s  mission it is to support homeless Veterans in their reintegration back into society by providing transitional housing, basic needs, and resources.

The new ACTS blog page will be the place to go do get news and updates for the ACTS Resource Center.  With new changes, an  updated website, and a new introduction video (below), remember to always check here to see what’s new  and what’s going on. 
Events and outside news that affect the Center will also be featured here.

Below, in cooperation with Marcel Kuemmet Photography, and Colorado Confidential, is a new Introduction video.

Reports on Denver Veterans, The ACTS Resource Center, & the upcoming GopherCon 2014

As a Veteran, I have been tasked with providing Tech and website support, Media, Promotional Art, Photography and Videography for the A.C.T.S. Resource Center and Veteran's Reintegration Program.   I am looking forward to contributing to the center and using my skills and experience to ensure a quality, modern and straight to the point online presence.  I’ll also be doing my next report on the Center.  There is a lot that is benefiting the community being done there.

As a result though, I have had little time to research and or create any reports or content for this blog.  I will have three interesting hard stories in the next month. 

I have been tasked to cover the GopherCon 2014 event.  The event is a conference of sort for and by coders that use the go programming language (www.golang.org).  One can go to http://blog.golang.org/4years.  The page will show a bit of it’s history, some of the places using it, and it’s growth.  Look for more soon.

Riding the D Line & Globeville Landing Park

As I begin to settle in and get adjusted to my new surroundings, I have been trying to capture at least some of it as I experience it.  Incorporating the limited documenting  of my experience of being new to Denver and Colorado alike, is a continuous judgment call.  There have been a few items of limited significance though. 

 

The D Line

One of my first long range excursions, although by greater Denver scale, rather short actually, was to get to Littleton, CO., sort of a suburb of greater Denver.  Without driving, it was a simple ride on the D Line to Littleton (about 50 min) the a bus ride to destination (about 20 minutes).  Littleton, my destination, is a rather clean upscale middleclass community, with an interesting Historic District that I didn’t get a chance yet to experience, but hope to in the near future.   The D Line is among many of a light rail line the is run by the RTD.  The lines are expanding and offer a great alternative to driving.  It was $8.00 round trip, a little pricey by any standard.  But the Light Rail does ride much better than a standard city bus, and the seating and view is somewhat better as well.  Most of the countryside is rail line and standard train yard stuff, but some of it, including going through central downtown Denver is interesting.  Especially at night or at the end of the day.  There are a few special sights and locations, but that will be another story.  Overall, the trip was trouble free and lent to getting a few shots, even if from a moving train.  It can be a bit tricky sometimes to capture the moment with the base of the camera is moving.  Remember , click on any photo in this story, and it will open in a new tab or window full size. 

I will have more on some of the more extensive lines with interesting destinations offered by the RTD in the future as I begin to explore more outside of Denver.  Accordingly, the video below focus’s on the park.

Globeville Landing Park

In by quest to find suitable photo sights, and places of interest that also have a closeness with Nature, my location scout to me to the closest park I could find to my current location. The Globeville Landing Park is located on the South Platte River Greenway.  As a leading contributor to the Greenway,  The Greenway Foundation is a big reason for this exists for bikers, hikers and urban nature lovers can enjoy a bit of time away from the hustle of

the city for a short time, within a short distance.  I embedded a short video from The Greenway Foundation about the Greenway at the left. 
I did like the way the walkways were well maintained, and really liked the paved steps to the waters edge. 

One thing that did concern m was the condition of the water coming out of the main that was feeding into the River.  As I mention in the video, it didn’t look very clean, and didn’t smell very good either.  I am tempted to take a sample and have it tested, just to see what is in this water, and who is polluting it mostly.  Other than that, the overall experience visiting the park was a interesting and enjoyable. 

As I mention in the video below, the park is on an extensive trail system.  Along the trail are access points to the river like this one.  To the extent of the construction and how much this trail is built up, I have yet to see.  The cement steps and paved bike trail lead me to think much of it is quite built up.  Some of the buildings and picnic and seating areas had quite rotten wood,  and needs some work.  The primary infrastructure of the park is quite sturdy, and one with the skills could make quick work of fixing the cement framed picnic tables and seats.  Other than some of the framing and roofing on the building looking like it could use some paint, the park seemed pretty well maintained.  I haven’t been here long enough to research the budget’s and  or any constraints of the Denver Parks and Recreation Dept.   I was impressed with being able to find a place to connect to nature within a 20 minute walk.  If you like what you see here,  please contribute to Colorado Confidential by making a donation. please, Donate here.   I am really looking forward to getting on a bike, and exploring the entire trail.  Hopefully before I re-locate to a location closer to my work.  Wish me luck.

I hope you enjoy the video.