From Eric:

We made it to the state capital in Denver and walked to the 14 step of the building, which is officially a mile high. We sat down for a conversation with a member of the Colorado Environment organization. He discussed the importance of preserving our environment and what we can do to help. After a quick dinner at the Market Place, we headed for the majestic mountains of Red Rock canon in Denver, Colorado. We were treated to a phenomenal performance by the Denver city orchestra and the Colorado dancing kids. After a few hours of music and dancing, we all watched Braveheart on the enormous screen. We all enjoyed the breath taking views of the mountains, as we sat in the roman like arena. We all enjoyed he wonders of nature…

Life on the road can be destructive for a healthy sleeping schedule! While it feels like the time we’ve spent together has been an eternity, it also feels like it has passed quickly. This morning, an absolutely exhausted Etgar 36 was treated to a late wakeup at 9:00 AM.

We were originally scheduled for a tour of the US mint in Denver; however, heightened precautions from the Department of Homeland Security had closed the mint to the public. This will also affect our schedule in New York where we will not be allowed in the stock exchange on Wall Street. Instead we boarded Big Blue for Boulder, Colorado – home of the University of Colorado. I personally fell in love with what I saw of this large college town. Josh said it reminded him of Asheville; however, most were disappointed with the lack of diversity in people.

Our first stop was the Wild Oats organic grocery store where we met with the supervisor of organic standards and director of corporate communications to discuss the organic food industry, conventional farming’s effects on our health and environment, and everything you could ever care to know about organic food itself. Some found this topic uninteresting; whereas, others of us were fascinated. We (being Josh and I) had a separate conversation with the standards director about everything from why buy organic to the socioeconomic level of organic farmers as compared to conventional farmers. In the end, both women we met with were overly impressed with the knowledge and curiosity of the group as a whole and have already asked Billy to meet with next year’s group. After our meeting, we had lunch in the store where most of us had our first experiences with organic food. It is indeed an experience.

From Wild Oats we went on to the Naropa University – the first Buddhist affiliated collegiate institution in the United States. Before the tour, the group had what was without a doubt its best group conversation yet on the lawn. We were briefed on the issue of gun control, which was to be our focus for tomorrow. This brought out a whole debate on interpretations of the Second Amendment. Some members of the group who had never spoken up before voiced their opinions and emotions for the first time. Shortly afterwards, we had a scheduled tour of the university. I was personally disappointed with the tour as I had hoped to learn more of the principles of Buddhism but was impressed to learn of the Dalai Lama’s associations with Naropa. Jon, Josh, and Jason had an amazing side conversation with Donna MacIntyre – dean of admissions – about the relationships between Reconstruction Judaism and Buddhism.

Afterwards, we went to listen to our most celebrated speaker of the day, Anne Waldman. Anne was a beatnik groupie that traveled and wrote with Alan Ginsberg. Some on Etgar 36 had trouble focusing on her unorganized thought process but found her fascinating nonetheless. I was in awe of this woman who was at the forefront of such an important literary movement. She generously agreed to meet with the group afterwards to answer questions and briefly talk of life on the road as well as the history of the beatniks, Jack Kerouac, and the beginnings of the counterculture. Our time was cut short with her as the auditorium was scheduled for use. She was, however, very taken with our program and was reluctant to leave us.

Our highly active day continued onto Pearl Street – the main shopping area in Boulder. Pearl Street was packed with unique restaurants, city landmarks, and some great tourist stores. Many of us found the street performers that lined Pearl Street. My personal favorite was a juggler named Evan. Jordan volunteered to play an important part in the “juggling a bowling ball, machete, and fire while on a skateboard trick.”

After the 7:30 meet up time, Billy brought us to Left Hand Books – a volunteer-run “liberal” bookstore where we met with a self-proclaimed anarchist. He talked with us about the stereotypes of anarchists and about his visions of the ideal world. While I personally found him to be a little radical and overly idealistic, his peaceful thoughts were beautiful. We spent a while looking around the store and buying its stock of stickers and buttons before dinner at BJ’s – a local deep dish pizzeria. It was incredible, but will be nothing once we eat in Chicago.

I told Billy that this was one of our most active days so far, and he laughed at me. I take that as an indication of what is to come in the next twenty-eight days. Until then, it’s another day in Denver tomorrow. Everything has been very worthwhile so far and our experiences have been very positive

From Jon (16 year old from Atlanta):

Yesterday, in Boulder, we discovered that a local movie theater would soon be opening the critically acclaimed documentary Bowling For Columbine, and since we were in town and had an emotional day at Columbine High School ahead of us, we asked if they would be so kind as to give us a sneak preview. They wouldn’t. Billy, understandably upset, was talking to Steven Tyler, not the Aerosmith front man but a professor at the Naropa Institute, about our plight when Mr. Tyler informed him that he in fact had a cassette copy of the film. As karmic retribution deprived the offending movie theater of the sale of 16 tickets, we returned to the Naropa Institute this morning to watch our own private viewing of Bowling For Columbine.

We couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to our day. This film caused us all to examine our society and the endless violence that plagues America with a special emphasis on gun violence. Appropriately, we went straight from Bowling For Columbine to Columbine itself. This seemingly unremarkable high school in Littleton, Colorado was the site of an event that rocked our generation, and it was a somber and moving experience to see it for ourselves.

After seeing the school, we were supposed to have a debate with members of the Million Mom March and the NRA. However, the NRA member decided not to wait just a few minutes for us to arrive and he left without warning. We sat down with the two members of the Million Mom of the efforts of their organization and those of other groups working for stricter gun control laws. In the end, it may have been better to have been presented with only this side of the argument, because we are much more prepared to enter into debate with members of the NRA later in the trip. Going to Columbine and discussing gun control in that context wore us out emotionally. It was time to have some fun. We went from Littleton to Six Flags in Denver. It was great relief from the emotionally taxing day, but Jordan did have a bit of an unfortunate bout with altitude sickness and dehydration. However, that was nothing a little oxygen and saline couldn’t fix, and soon he was back to his old self. We thoroughly wore ourselves out at Six Flags, and then we hit the road for our first overnight ride to Salt Lake City. What a day!