former Boulder Daily Camera Editor Barrie Hartman (mustache added to avoid copyright infringement)
former Boulder Daily Camera Editor Barrie Hartman (mustache added to avoid copyright infringement)
"Dozens of people have nominated Evan "From Heaven" Ravitz for the biggest Sunday Morning Thorn we could find for his tasteles rebuke of Mayor Leslie Durgin at Tuesday night's City Council meeting. Evan, who likes to blame the council for every problem known to man and God pushed his luck this time around, going so far as to virtually suggest the mayor deserved the cancer she was fighting. These same nominators want to award a big bouquet of roses to the mayor for her poised and poignant response..." Hartman repeats his attack in his column on 6/18/95.
8/9/95 On this information, the Executive Committee of the Boulder County Democratic Party voted to reject Mr. Ravitz as Precinct Committeeperson.
10/11/95 On reading the actual transcript from the 6/6/95 Council Meeting, they reverse themselves and make Mr. Ravitz Precinct Committeeperson.
[Shortly after threat of lawsuit, Mr. Hartman's name and photo appeared on the previously anonymous column for the first time.]
Transcript of Evan Ravitz's remarks to Mayor Durgin at the 6/6/95 City Council meeting:
"Mayor, Durgin, when I first met you in the stairwell here six years ago, I was taken by your charm. I spent over an hour making you a map of all the hot springs between here and Santa Fe, and gave it to you at Pour la France.
"Over the years I've thought of asking for it back, as I've watched you abuse the power of your office, censoring myself and at least 3 others during this period of citizen participation, until the ACLU got involved and even threatening a friend of mine who then ran against you in the last election, but was too decent and too afraid of you to say anything. She lost narrowly.
"And I've watched you and your Council sell out the IPP and the citizen goals survey of the Municipal Finance Strategy Committee, and the TMP and I'm sure a lot of other alphabetized pseudo-democracy we paid a lot for. From North Boulder to South Boulder. From Safeway to the Flatirons Paving Company. Paving paradise, putting up parking lots.
"Well, you've still got my map. Mayor Durgin, if you want to save your life from cancer, or at least save your soul, I advise you to follow that map. Those are sacred places.
"Get away from the profane business of your political machine and try to understand what you're doing here on this planet. You can't take your money or your power with you. Your spell over this town is already vanishing.
"It doesn't have to be the hot springs, although raising your core temperature is supposed to be good for what ails you. For example, tonight instead of being the deciding vote to continue giving the shaft to North Boulder, you could go to the Unity Church and see and hear the Gyuto monks of Tibet. Tradition holds that the mere glimpse of a Gyuto monk is considered a blessing, and hearing their chanting is reputedly a transformative experience.
"It could be the first day of the rest of your life."
[Later, after Councilwoman Sally Martin spoke about not hurting ill people and the need for tolerance, Ravitz went back to the podium and said this:]
"Mayor Durgin, my remarks were not intended to hurt you. I made the map to aid you. I made my remarks to aid this town. Tolerance has to go both ways. The City's "Zero Tolerance" program towards us on the Mall [last summer] was not words. People were hit with nightsticks; they had their faces shoved into the paving stones."