Opinion Columns - The Journal

Wes Rowell cartoon

DATE: Dec 16, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Late Sen. Isgar would welcome clean energy on his land

I am shocked and disappointed to see a recent social media comment stating my brother, the late state Sen. Jim Isgar, must be rolling in his grave because of Primergy Solar’s proposal to bui...

DATE: Dec 14, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Wes Rowell cartoon

DATE: Dec 14, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Our View: Wacky world of jobs, strong economy, inflation

Are you the person who lives for the scraping sound of blade meeting ice? When someone must remove snow, is your first thought, “Let it be me?” Is your favorite tool your shovel or plow on y...

DATE: Dec 14, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Breaking the stigmas of dementia

Approximately 1,200 La Plata County residents have dementia (Alzheimer’s, Younger or Older Onset), Lewy Body Dementia, Posterior Cortical Atrophy, Primary Progressive Aphasia, Frontotemporal...

DATE: Dec 12, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Our View: Lawyer misusing sunshine laws

We champion the cause of open government. Yet, we’re questioning intentions in recent settlements with a “gotcha” quality that feel like a shakedown. Matt Roane, a Pagosa Springs attorney we...

DATE: Dec 11, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Red Flag guest column ‘most disturbing’

I found the guest column on Wednesday with the headline “Red Flag laws must be used to work,” most disturbing. This guest column was an attack on our county sheriffs in Colorado. The shootin...

DATE: Dec 11, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

STOP Hesperus Solar’s claims disputed

Recently, Primergy has offered to build a 155 MWac solar array project on unused land to the south of the community of Hesperus. A Stop Hesperus Solar group of local residents has initiated ...

DATE: Dec 11, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

We the People ‘says it all’

The Supreme Court is currently hearing a case where North Carolina legislators are asking the court to grant them unfettered power to set rules for voting and elections, without state consti...

DATE: Dec 11, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Wes Rowell cartoon

DATE: Dec 11, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Greatest gift of all: an organ

In this season of giving (and receiving), I invite everyone to consider one way that we can all help make America great. As we stand in lengthy lines at checkouts, let's reflect on the great...

DATE: Dec 11, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Wes Rowell cartoon

DATE: Dec 9, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Photos: Snowdown Light Parade 2026

Snowdown Light Parade offers a journey back in timeDinosaurs, prospectors and chain saws, oh my!

Main Avenue was transformed Friday into a menagerie of whimsy during this year’s Snowdown Light Parade.Dinosaurs, prospectors, yards of flannel, covered wagons, a yeti, humanoid trees, a healthy dose of Victorian garb, Jazzercise cowboys, chain saws, bubbles, bears, horses, rams, chickens and motorcycles all helped paradegoers get into a party mood and go back in time for this year’s Snowdown theme: Uniquely Colorado – Then and Wow!The parade, hosted once again by Purgatory Resort, gave participants the opportunity to time travel to celebrate Colorado’s 150th anniversary and all that makes the state special.Some floats leaned heavily into the theme of celebrating Colorado’s history and quirks – one with an intricately decorated Victorian room, another featuring a mega-sized miner working a steaming rock pile, and one sporting the infamous Denver International Airport mustang, Blucifer, among others.

Others – like a mobile boxing ring and pickleball court, a drivable airport luggage cart filled with suitcases and a vintage Barbie car – gained attention through their eye-catching presentations and quirky energy.Though many themed floats leaned into 19th and 20th century Durango and Colorado history, some – including the La Plata Electric Association float – brought paradegoers back millions of years to the age of the dinosaurs.Purgatory has hosted the light parade for more than eight years, said company spokesperson James Graven.Purgatory Marketing Director Matt Ericksen told The Durango Herald that hosting Snowdown is a way for the company to show its support for the festival and the community.“Hosting the Snowdown parade is a way for us to support a long-standing Durango tradition and the community that has supported Purgatory for so many years,” Ericksen said. “Especially as we mark our 60th season, it feels important to stay connected to the events that make this place special.”

Durango resident Emma Tomlinson has attended the parade for more than 30 years. Her 4-year-old son, Axel, has been coming to the parade since he was born.“People just love it – it’s a tradition,” Tomlinson said. “I think during the winter, we’re all at our low, you know? It’s a great pick-me-up. You get out and you see your friends and you invite your family, and people are just happy. It’s a great time to just celebrate and be with each other.”

Axel said his favorite part of the parade was the fire-breathing propane tanks released from hot air balloon baskets ferried on trucks.The parade concluded with a drone show depicting images from Colorado’s history – a new addition this year – and an impromptu appearance from anti-ICE protesters.

The protesters, a smaller cohort than one that filled Main Avenue only hours earlier, filed into the parade route just as the procession was coming to a close with homemade signs in tow, chanting, “stop deportation.” epond@durangoherald.com

Dinosaurs, prospectors and chain saws, oh my!

Durango High School students trade class for anti-ICE protest‘Skipping our lessons to teach you one,’ read one sign

About 200 Durango High School students and a smattering of supportive community members marched down Main Avenue on Friday during school hours to protest recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. Students intentionally missed two class periods to join the crowd, which made its way through DHS property, south to downtown Durango and back again. A handful of class absences can lead to disciplinary action – but many of the students marching on Main said they were more than willing to take an attendance strike to be at the protest.

“It’s our friends out there (being taken),” 11th grader Lila Scherer-Sickler said as she marched alongside her classmates. “It’s people we know in Durango, and we just felt like, as kids, we don’t often get an opportunity to have our voice out there, and we just took the chance. A bunch of us are missing AP classes right now, (but) I think that the opportunity to get your voice out there is more important.”

The crowd of high schoolers touted handmade signs and called out chants like, “We want justice, we want peace, we want ICE up off our streets.” Many passing cars and passersby honked, smiled and waved at the crowd. Some put up their middle fingers or shook their heads. One student said a classmate intentionally blew exhaust at protesters from his car as the crowd was leaving the school. Durango School District spokeswoman Karla Sluis told The Durango Herald in a written statement that the school was aware of the protest and “coordinated communication with local law enforcement and nearby facilities” before the march.

“We acknowledge students’ First Amendment right to express their views,” she wrote. “At the same time, we are responsible for students’ safety and education. Usual attendance policies apply, and we encourage respectful dialogue through planned, supervised events.” The protest comes after several months of rising tensions between ICE and U.S. citizens, in Durango and nationwide. A father and his two children were detained by ICE in October in Durango, despite having an open asylum case, and a man who had lived in Durango for 22 years was arrested in the city on New Year’s Eve. According to reporting by The Guardian, at least eight people have died in dealings with ICE less than a month into the new year – including Minneapolis residents Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot and killed by ICE agents weeks apart.

Other people killed in interactions with ICE this year include Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, Keith Porter Jr, Geraldo Lunas Campos, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Parady La and Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, according to The Guardian. Eleventh grader Finn Hughes said he participated in the walkout because using his privilege as a white U.S. citizen is important. “These are abhorrent kidnappings, and they’re happening not just in Durango, but around the nation,” he said.

Durango resident Barb Day was one of the community members who joined the protest in support of the students. She brought along a repurposed sign she used in 1968 to protest against the Vietnam War. “We have this brutal masked secret police that are just breaking all of our constitutional rights, and people are dying,” she said. “My parents were in World War II – my dad was in the Navy, and my mom was a combat nurse – and I know what my parents fought for. And this is just so wrong. We’re losing decency.” Liza Tregillus of the Apoyo Immigrant Partner Team also joined the protest in support of the students who marched. “I’m very proud of them, and I think (they’re out here) because they’re losing their own friends, and their own friends are terrified,” she said. “I feel we’ve lost our democracy after 250 years, (and) we need young voters.”

Tregillus has worked closely with many immigrants in her line of work, including the father and two children – Fernando Jaramillo-Solano and his 12-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son – who were detained by ICE in Durango late last year. The family opted to self-deport back to Colombia after a month in the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, but told the Herald in January through Tregillus that they feared for their safety back in Colombia. One student, ninth grader Owen Holland, said he had a connection to the Jaramillo-Solano family. “I have a friend who lived here, from Mexico, and he was friends with them,” he said. “And it was like, really bad for my friend. It was really bad. It’s so much different than people make it seem.”

Tregillus said the tone of a protest is important, and that leading with curiosity and solution-based efforts – rather than confrontation – can make a difference. She said chants and signs that put the focus on immigrants being neighbors and friends, versus those that are meant to demean ICE or its agents, is one way she feels protesters can use their voices with intention. Many of the immigrants she works with are fearful that protests with tones that attack ICE agents may make conditions worse for them, she said. “From the immigrants, they would appreciate that our protests not be negative,” she said. “Many of them come from cultures of respect toward authority, and they’re frightened. ... They would rather we stick to a different tone. I talked to an immigrant (who had been detained by ICE), and he said every time there were protests outside when they were in lockdown, they were punished.” ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Students returned to their classes after the protest, and the demonstration remained peaceful, with no pepper spray or rubber bullets deployed, nor any heavy police or ICE presence in sight – unlike some other recent protests in Durango. epond@durangoherald.com

‘Skipping our lessons to teach you one,’ read one sign

Mobile home residents north of Durango vote ‘yes’ to purchase property97.5% in approval of purchasing the mobile home property north of Durango

Residents of Hermosa Mobile Home Village, north of Durango, voted “yes” on Thursday to purchase the property on which their park sits and officially form a resident-owned community. It’s a major step toward ensuring long-term housing stability for the community. “Just the fact that we control our destiny is really the best thing about it,” said Brian Franks, who has lived in the park for six years. “An investment group is not going to come in and just start increasing our rent to where it's crazy now.” Residents mobilized this summer after learning the property owner planned to sell the park. Concerned about rent hikes and displacement, they moved quickly to form a cooperative and pursue a resident-owned community, or ROC – a model in which residents collectively own and manage the land beneath their homes.

Thursdays vote finalized that decision, with 97.5% of residents voting in favor. “It was basically our last out,” Franks said. The vote formally approved financing packages and loan terms, along with an engineering report outlining capital improvement needs and how those projects will be funded over the next decade. The final step is completing legal documents and closing on the sale, which Franks said is scheduled for March 3.Resident-owned communities allow manufactured housing residents to control rent increases and park management, rather than leaving those decisions to for-profit owners. The model – one solution to the affordable housing crisis – has gained more momentum in Colorado over the past several years, particularly in high-cost areas such as La Plata County, where housing prices have far outpaced wage growth.“There’s no place to live in Durango that anybody can afford,” said Olivia Burkhart, who has lived at Hermosa Village for all three decades she has lived in Durango.The process to form an ROC is complex and lengthy. Even with the help of Thistle ROC, the Colorado-based nonprofit that helps guide residents through the purchase and management of community-owned mobile home parks, there were still many parts to wrangle. “I’m pretty happy about it all and I’m glad it’s almost over,” Franks said. Securing financing was one of the biggest challenges, as residents worked to piece together multiple funding sources while keeping rents affordable.What worked in favor for Hermosa Village was the unusually supportive owner. “The previous owners’ willingness to sell it to us was really one of the more helpful things,” he said. “She turned down a higher bid, pretty much to make this happen for us. And I’m not sure a lot of people in America would do that.”While the purchase will stabilize rents long-term, it does require rent increases. Under the cooperative model, monthly rent will be set at $868, Franks said. That represents an increase for some longtime residents who were paying closer to $450 per month, while newer residents were already paying $700 or more.“It’s going to be hard to handle. Obviously, I won’t be able to retire for a while,” Burkhart said. “But if I want to stay in Durango and La Plata County, that’s what I’m going to have to pay – because there’s no place cheaper.”Initial rent projections were higher, driven in part by a remaining $800,000 loan balance carrying a 6.75% interest rate. In December, the cooperative’s five-member, resident-led board sought philanthropic assistance to reduce costs – and received support from several local organizations and lenders.“We got some really great local community support from HomesFund, Region 9 and First Southwest Bank,” Franks said. “We’re really happy about all that.”jbowman@durangoherald.com

97.5% in approval of purchasing the mobile home property north of Durango

Tina Peters involved in prison altercation, Department of Corrections saysFormer election appears to grab another inmate by the neck and shove her

Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was involved in an altercation with another incarcerated person over the weekend at the La Vista Correctional Facility, a state prison for female inmates, in Pueblo.According to a statement from the Colorado Department of Corrections, the incident occurred Jan. 18, and did not result in any injuries. Peters is currently serving a nine-year sentence for election fraud at the facility.In surveillance video footage obtained by CPR News, Peters is seen grabbing another inmate’s neck in a scuffle. The video shows Peters dragging a cart across the room toward a closet. Another inmate walks toward the closet and appears to begin to move the cart away from the closet door when Peters emerges from the closet and grabs the inmate by her neck and pushes her. The two appear to exchange words before Peters lets her go and leaves the room.

Peter Ticktin, Peters’ attorney, said in an interview Tuesday that Peters was attacked by the other inmate as Peters was moving a water cart, and that the video that captured the altercation is unclear. He insisted the other inmate struck Peters first.According to Ticktin, the other inmate said to Peters, “Let me go in there first,” before striking her. Peters allegedly responded with “I’ll just be a minute,” Ticktin said. Ticktin said those were the only words the two women exchanged.Ticktin said that Peters was later told that Peters herself was going to be charged with felony assault.It’s unclear if she will face any charges; a message left with 10th District Attorney Kala Beauvais was not immediately returned.The corrections department says it is conducting an “administrative investigation” following the incident. And as part of standard safety procedures, Peters was moved to a different housing area after the altercation. Corrections officials emphasized Peters was not placed in solitary confinement, noting that La Vista Correctional Facility does not utilize solitary confinement. Moving inmates involved in incidents while an investigation is underway is routine practice, the department said.No additional details about the cause of the altercation were released.To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org.

Former election appears to grab another inmate by the neck and shove her

Photos: An afternoon in 2004 with the late Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell as he works on Capitol HillDurango Herald Photo Editor Jerry McBride had the chance to spend an afternoon with the late Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell in 2004, photographing him during meetings and around the Capitol.

Durango Herald Photo Editor Jerry McBride had the chance to spend an afternoon with the late Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell in 2004, photographing him during meetings and around the Capitol.

Resident arrested by ICE on New Year’s Eve lived in Durango for 22 yearsMancos arrest sparks protest outside Bodo field office

New Year’s celebrations were supposed to be particularly memorable for Pedro Gutierrez and his family, his son, Daniel, said on Friday. They would be – but not in the way the family had imagined.Daniel, 20, married his wife in August and his mother’s sister had obtained a visa to visit Durango from Mexico. It would be the first time since Gutierrez left Mexico over 22 years ago that his whole family – his son’s new family included – would be together. Gutierrez turned 43 on Dec. 26.But his New Year’s plans were interrupted early Wednesday when U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents intercepted Gutierrez on his way home from the gym.Gutierrez was pulled over blocks from their home. He was pulled out of his vehicle by several federal agents and arrested, Daniel said. As of Friday, Gutierrez was in custody at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora.Gutierrez was not the only arrest made by ICE in the greater Durango area this week. The detention of a person in Mancos on Friday morning led to a protest outside the ICE field office in Durango’s Bodo Industrial Park on Friday.The protest led to agents using pepper spray and threatening to shock people with a Taser.

“My father has been in this country for 22 years, and in 22 years my father’s only crime is being in this country illegally,” Daniel said, adding Gutierrez has no criminal record and has received maybe three speeding tickets in the past two decades. The Durango Herald called the Denver ICE field office on Friday for comment. ICE spokesman Steve Kotecki said all questions must be submitted by email, saying, “That’s just our policy.”The Herald sent an email asking why Gutierrez had been arrested and detained, as well as information about his criminal history, but did not hear back as of 6 p.m. Friday. The arrestDaniel said he met his father and 16-year-old sister, Jazmin, at the Durango Community Recreation Center shortly after 5:45 a.m. for the family’s regular exercise routine. After a workout, the father and son would work a half day for Daniel’s painting company, Adonai Painting LLC, before going home around 1 p.m. to help prepare New Year’s dinner.Recounting what his father told him, Daniel said Gutierrez left the gym with Jazmin and stopped for gas at the Marathon station on Main Avenue. Gutierrez felt uneasy – like he was being watched. He got back into his vehicle and headed home.On the way, Gutierrez told Jazmin to call her mother, Minerva, Daniel said. Gutierrez suspected he was being followed by ICE agents. He was about three minutes from home near Needham Elementary School when he turned onto Arroyo Drive and police lights flashed in his rear-view mirror.Daniel said Gutierrez pulled over and hadn’t yet completely stopped when another vehicle pulled in front of him and stopped horizontally in the road, blocking him. Agents approached Gutierrez’s vehicle, calling him by name and ordering him to exit.“(Jazmin) said she could see the fear and the sadness in his face – of one of his biggest fears coming to life,” Daniel said.Daniel arrived at the scene in his vehicle shortly after the stop.As soon as Gutierrez partly rolled his window down, an ICE agent reached inside the vehicle and unlocked the door, Daniel said. The door wrenched open and three agents immediately seized Gutierrez, unlocking his seat belt and pulling him out of the vehicle.

Gutierrez told the officers he wouldn’t resist, but they didn’t listen, Daniel said.“He didn’t resist in any kind of way. They unbuckled him. They were yanking him out of the car while my 16-year-old sister was in the car watching all of this happen,” he said.An agent yelled at Daniel when he approached the scene, he said.“One of the officers insults me, tells me to ‘Go the f--- away,’ that I can’t be there, I can’t pull up like that on a traffic stop,” he said. “I asked him why they were stopping him, where the warrant was, and they said, ‘You have two options. Get the f--- out of here or we’re putting you under arrest.’”Daniel said he backed off – he couldn’t do anything for his father if he was in custody too.The agents told Jazmin, who was crying in Gutierrez’s car, to leave.“My sister doesn’t have a driver’s permit, doesn’t have a license, and my sister had to drive home,” Daniel said. “It’s not that far, but she had to drive home maybe two, three minutes away from my house, bawling her eyes out, not knowing what to do.”Hard worker, family man, church memberDaniel said Gutierrez is a hard worker and an avid churchgoer whose top priority is his family.A fundraiser for Gutierrez’s legal fees on Givebutter.com described him as “a devout Christian since birth” and “a beautiful singer” who has served as music director for a local church for the past 15 years and has volunteered for the community in other capacities.It said Gutierrez began work in Durango as a dishwasher, worked as a baker and now works as a painter.Daniel said his father met Minerva, his wife, after moving to Durango and fell in love with her and the city. Gutierrez was the breadwinner of the family. Now Daniel, he said, will have to step up to provide not only for his wife and himself, but his sister and mother too.“There’s nothing that we can’t overcome,” Daniel said. “My father did it when he came to this country. He worked his butt off.”He said people immigrate to the U.S. in search of a better life – if they didn’t need something better, they wouldn’t bother.“We didn’t have many luxuries growing up, and I still don’t, but I can’t complain – I know my father is not gone,” he said. “He’s still here, and we pray to lord that he will be back very soon, and this nightmare will be over very, very soon.”

Mancos arrest spurs protest in DurangoThree days after Gutierrez’s arrest, ICE detained a person in Mancos, which sparked a protest Friday outside the ICE field office in Durango’s Bodo Industrial Park.Beatriz Garcia, Western Slope regional organizer for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said she did not have details about the arrested individual.A board member of Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center who was present at the protest on Friday did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Colorado Rapid Response Network reported ICE activity and the detention of one person at a trailer park on Monte Street and Grand Avenue in Mancos, and likewise reported the ICE vehicles seen there had returned to the field office in Durango.“A Mancos community member was detained this morning and reportedly taken to Bodo facility,” an alert from the Southwest Colorado Rapid Response Network forwarded to the Herald said. “The detainee’s family is requesting folx gather in support at ICE BODO, but stay peaceful, level-headed. Let ICE create the violence.”

The alert emphasized the family of the person detained requested peaceful support.About a dozen protesters attempted to block federal officers from leaving the field office with the detained person. Curse words were exchanged by agents and protesters alike before agents pepper sprayed protesters and cleared the entrance for vehicles to leave the facility.ADDEDDurango Police Chief Brice Current said he contacted protesters and ICE, asking the former not to break the law while protesting and the latter to attempt to deescalate the situation.“Peaceful protest is one of the most powerful and courageous ways people speak for justice, and it is something this community deeply values,” he said.END ADDITIONThe incident marks the first physical confrontation between agents and protesters since October when federal agents deployed pepper spray and rubber bullets on a larger group attempting a similar strategy to block entrance gates.

That protest, which lasted over 24 hours and drew over 200 people, ignited after a father and his two children – seeking asylum from Colombia along with his wife – were arrested by federal officers on their way to school.cburney@durangoherald.com

Mancos arrest sparks protest outside Bodo field office

Photos and video: ICE protests return to DurangoAbout a dozen protesters tried to block federal agents from leaving with a detainee on Thursday

About a dozen protesters tried to block federal agents from leaving with a detainee on Thursday

La Plata County couple maintains optimism while adjusting to Alzheimer’s diagnosisAl Jason is journaling, recording music and planning family time while his mind is sharp

La Plata County resident Al Jason, 78, has spent a lifetime caring for others. After his Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis last year, he’s learning how to take care of himself with the support of his son, his wife and the Durango Dementia Coalition.Al said he was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War through the 1960s and early ’70s. He met his wife, Meme, in 1967 and they married two years later. Over the course of their marriage, they fostered 45 children – some for weeks at a time and others for several years.He retired from his 30-year career teaching high school special education in 2002 and traveled the world with Meme. They spent their summers roaming the countryside, parking their trailer beside rivers, lakes and creeks, Meme said. They spent winters traveling abroad, visiting China, Iceland, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and, most frequently, Indonesia.

In 2017, the couple moved to Benson, Arizona, a tiny town of about 5,000 residents outside Tucson.Al’s life changed one evening last year when he forgot how to put on his pajamas.Meme said he kept trying to put his shirt on head-first through the neckline, effectively putting the shirt on upside down, and he couldn’t figure out the proper way to wear it. They were baffled.

Then, Al said, he felt the inclination to play the guitar – a life-long hobby. But when he moved to strum the instrument’s strings, he couldn’t recall how to play any of the 100-some songs he’d learned over his lifetime.Something was wrong, the couple said, but they didn’t know what. They called their doctor, who initially ruled out dementia.

“Dementia doesn’t come on just like, ‘bang.’ This is delirium,” Meme said, recalling her doctor’s early assessment of Al’s health.Their doctor said Al should have an MRI to be sure, Meme said. He had one, and his neurologist determined he did indeed have dementia – Alzheimer’s to be precise.After Al’s diagnosis, the couple decided to move to La Plata County to be closer to their son, Ben, who had been trying to convince them to move for some time, she said.Adjusting to a new way of life

Peering across her living room, which was lit up by Christmas lights and colorful holiday decorations, Meme reminisced about her old home in Benson.“I had this enormous yard and the cutest little gingerbread house that I had covered with Christmas stuff. And now this is my space,” she said.Al said people would drive by their home in Benson and stop to admire their decorations.

Their home wasn’t large or extravagant, but its decorations were the most popular, he said.Lights and ornaments aren’t the only thing decorating the family’s kitchen and living room. Small notes are posted here and there reminding Al to make sure the freezer door is closed, stove burners are off, and how to reboot a laptop when it freezes or stops working.

“If TV won’t go to Hulu programs (says we’re working on it), first try unplugging both cords + turn back on,” one note written in red and yellow marker read. “If that doesn’t work, try putting in password.”A poster near a door lists items to remember when leaving the house: cane, book, phone, wallet, walker, glasses, grocery lists, hearing aid, shopping bags, handicap placard – among others.Meme said she posted the reminders for Al, but she occasionally benefits from them herself.“I’m in the mild stage as far as I know,” Al said of his Alzheimer’s. “To me, what it means is I forget stuff that’s pretty minor, usually, and current. My long-term memory is still sharp as a tack.”

Music and memoriesAl enjoys reading and word games, playing guitar and thinking about his children who he said he and Meme raised with love. He is forgetful sometimes, but he remembers his kids, recognizes his wife and hasn’t forgotten anything major, he said.In educating themselves about how his Alzheimer’s could progress, Al and Meme read a book written by a man with Alzheimer’s. The book was “very lucid,” Al said, and its author wrote about how he’d sometimes fail to remember who his wife was.He said he’s on medication, and from the research he’s done and the experts he’s spoken with, it could be years before his mind seriously deteriorates.“It could be years, longer – I mean, maybe a decade – before I start really going bonkers,” he said.

He said he hasn’t shied away from telling people about his diagnosis. He’s been met with disbelief, but he insists.“Somebody would say, ‘Oh, you don’t have this.’ And I said, ‘Oh, but I do,’” he said. “I’m the only one in my own head. The process that I’m going through, I share with everybody and let them know, ‘Hey, take my word for it. This happened.’”He said he has begun recording his guitar sessions to preserve his music and to remind himself how to play. Not trusting his memory, he has a notebook full of lyrics and tablatures he reads as he plays. Meme finds the songs online and handwrites them into his notebook.He has recorded about 50 songs out of 100 or more so far, Meme said.“I don’t attempt to remember the lyrics,” Al said.

He said he learned how to play the guitar by ear when he was young, and if he doesn’t like the way a song is going, it’s easy to transpose the melody into a different key. He’ll fiddle with it until he finds something he likes.Some of his favorite songs to play are “Abilene” by George Hamilton IV and “Angel From Montgomery” by John Prine, Meme said.She said she and Al also journal regularly. They enjoy going to the Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio, and as they’re eating lunch, they will jot down memories of their adventures together.She said if Al does forget something, she hopes reading his own recount of it – or Meme reading it to him – could trigger his memory.“Maybe I’m writing so I have something that verifies that I did all this crap,” Al said, adding he and Meme have journaled all their lives.A well-lived life with no regretsThe couple receives a $1,000 stipend from the Durango Dementia Coalition. They attend a Memory Cafe at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Durango and a support group for people recently diagnosed with dementia and their caregivers.Meme said the coalition is a great place to connect with resources, but transportation has been a consistent hurdle.For now, Al can still drive, although he has set his own boundaries – he won’t drive with kids or grandkids in the car.“Is somebody going to tell me when I can’t do it anymore? I hope so,” he said.On Sept. 22, he signed a statement committing not to drive when Meme and his son decide he is no longer fit to do so.“When Ben and Meme both decide it is no longer safe for me to drive, I agree to give up driving,” the note reads.

Al is optimistic despite his diagnosis. He said he could very well die of some other cause before his Alzheimer’s becomes a serious issue. Picking up a Bible, he said he is a believer.“My faith is firm, and I believe that everybody will get the same chance I did, whether it’s after they die or whatever, to make that commitment,” he said.

Al and Meme looked after Meme’s mother who was diagnosed with dementia in her 90s. They attended support groups back then, and Al said he remembers meeting couples whose family members had much more severe cases than Meme’s mother did.“I was aware this could have been a way lot worse,” Al said.He is planning a summer cruise to Norway with his children – what could be his last big family outing, he said.When Al received his diagnosis last year, he and some of his children spent Christmas at his former home in Benson. He said they talked about how most future family gatherings would require the children to come to him.“We’ve had a fantastic life, so we can’t have any regrets,” Meme said.Offhand, she bemoaned how busy her children’s busy lives have become.“I’d much rather (Al) have Alzheimer’s than lose him,” she said.The Durango Dementia Coalition was founded in 2022 by Pat Demarest. She said the organization started as a grassroots effort to improve care and services for dementia patients in La Plata County.Last year, the coalition merged with the nonprofit Southwest Colorado Respite Resource, whose mission was to provide respite resources, she said.“I lost my husband Oct. 5 to this dreaded disease,” Demarest said.She said she moved away from Durango in 2022 because of losing family support, but the Durango Dementia Coalition has continued and she remains involved from afar thanks to modern technology.There is a wealth of resources out there for people experiencing dementia, she said. The coalition just needs to get the word out.cburney@durangoherald.com

Al Jason is journaling, recording music and planning family time while his mind is sharp