I was stepping out of my bindings at the base of Steamboat one sunny afternoon after a glorious day of spring skiing with my kids. It was the 1980s — a lifetime ago in the evolution of alpine skiing in Colorado. “We have to keep doing this before we get old,” I said to my […]
Diane Carman
Special to The Colorado Sun
Twitter: @dccarman
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Prying the leaf blowers from Coloradans’ cold, dead hands
I usually don’t pay much attention to the state legislature until the final week of the session. It’s like my dad used to say about basketball games, it’s just a lot of back and forth until the final two minutes. Why get your hopes up? This year I’m making an exception, though, for a bill […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Ranked-choice voting could make our political process a little less awful
Let’s begin by stipulating that there’s probably no way to escape the steaming pile of awfulness we’re in politically with a mere change in election ballots. Hateful rhetoric, lies, rampant voter suppression measures and the racist monstrosity known as the Electoral College are not going to be neutralized by anything as simple as a new […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Face it Colorado, no matter how wolves are reintroduced, there will be blood
The margin was only 1%, but the outcome was dramatic. Voters, mostly from the Front Range, endorsed Proposition 114 to reintroduce wolves in Colorado beginning in 2023. The campaigns on both sides were heated. Then, once the votes were tallied and the measure squeaked by, most city folk moved on to think about other things, […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Rebuilding from the Marshall fire should be a model of climate adaptation
The cost of the Marshall fire is eye-popping. With more than 1,000 homes destroyed, preliminary estimates put the insured losses at more than half a billion dollars. Meanwhile, Republican members of Colorado’s congressional delegation continue to oppose legislation to address climate change — the fundamental cause of this and 20 other billion-dollar disasters across the […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: As 2022 begins, vaccines, EVs and the allure of the cosmos give us much to celebrate
Like baseball’s opening day and that moment when you accept a jar of sourdough starter from a friend, the dawn of a new year is a time for hope and wide-eyed optimism. And despite the headlines, lots of encouraging news is out there if we just bother to look for it. So, as we look […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: This year, let’s shutter the Christmas dream factory, quit worrying about snow and just have fun
Christmas is still a few days away, and I’m already feeling anxious. It’s a family tradition. My mom used to spend weeks shopping for presents my parents couldn’t really afford for five kids. She would wrap them and hide them under her bed or in the trunk of my dad’s car. She would polish silver […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Crumbley family puts the lie to the myth of the ‘responsible gun owner’
When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold unleashed the firestorm that would forever be known as the Columbine Massacre, criticism of the parents from pundits and political leaders was savage. How could the boys assemble an arsenal of weapons and devise an elaborate plan for a rampage at school without the parents knowing about it? Couldn’t […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Nearly 2 years into COVID, the kids have gone feral and teachers are their prey
My friends who are teachers thought 2020 would be the nadir. Remote learning, hybrid classrooms, quarantines, working more than full time with no child care, angry parents, constantly changing instructional plans, pay cuts and fear for their own health left many questioning their career choice if not their sanity. This year is worse. A kind […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Hostility is all around us, but we don’t have to be addicted to outrage
Anger is our opioid. Violence our ecstasy. Lies are our phantasmagoric gaslighting hallucinogens. We are a bunch of addicts, always craving the next charged hit, stealing for more, hurting the ones we need the most and refusing to admit we’re hooked. And the rush is getting more and more dangerous. Secretaries of state and public […]