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By Benjamin Sachs

After a well rested night sleep, we went to the Food Bank of the Rockies – American Harvest food bank and met with Jane, who gave us a tour on the facilities and showed us that a quarter could provide an entire meal.  It was amazing to see the amount of food there was and how much of a contribution we were making by saving our change.  Jane discussed the percentage of who is food insecure in America by state and region. We were able to understand the politics behind why some regions have higher percentage than others.

We then went to Columbine High School, where we saw the memorial of the shooting on April 20, 1999. It was very powerful because, like Billy would tell us to see ourselves to have a greater impact, we saw ourselves as those kids and couldn’t imagine if that happened to our schools. It was very scary that Columbine High School looks like many of our schools. We were also able to reflect on the wall of quotes, Dan Mauser’s plaque, but also see on Rachel Joy Scotts, the inspiration to the Rachels Challenge foundation.

We then drove to Naropa University, where, before entering we said farewell to our dear friend Sarah Petrak.  Once we entered the Buddhist college, we met with Steven Taylor, a professor at the university, who taught us everything about the history of “Beatnicks” and how he had met the founder of the movement.  It was very interesting to learn a new subject at a college level and was really cool to see how we were connected to this history through music, poetry, writing, and the performing arts.  At the end of our visit we were visited by Anne Waldman a very important female in the Beatnik history. She spoke to us for a few minutes and then performed one of her poems. It was not like the usual poetry we read.  It was street performance.

Afterward, we walked to Pearl Street and enjoyed some shopping time in the heart of Boulder.  After going out to dinner at BJ’s, enjoying delicious sandwiches and deep dish pizzas, we went to the movie theater and could choose any movie we wanted to go see.  Finally, we washed up in the bathrooms and quickly loaded the bus for our overnight drive to Salt Lake City, Utah.

The day started off heavily with a visit to Columbine High School and the memorial for the massacre that occurred there 11 years ago. Immediately after driving into the high school parking lot we could feel our moods dampen. It was a humbling experience to be on the property where a tragedy took place. We then walked to the memorial and each of us realized how much we could relate to the victims and the normal lives they had led. The story at the memorial of Daniel Mauser was especially striking because we had spoken with his father about gun control the day before. One of the quotes at the memorial really struck us. It said, “A kid my age should not be going to this many funerals.” It made the tragedy so much more real, showing that a shooting like this could happen at any school.

We then drove to the JCC in Boulder to hear about climate control. Our speaker worked for the Alliance for Climate Education and informed us about how each of us can make a difference in the effort to reduce the carbon footprint. This discussion counter balanced the discussion Jim Pfaff had with us about how global warming is not manmade and should not be controlled by man.

After lunch we went to Naropa University, which is a Buddhist-inspired college. It was interesting to see a different take on education. We also met with Steven Taylor who teaches in the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poets, which is the summer writing program at Naropa. He spoke to us about the beginnings of the Beatnik culture and the various writers and poets that inspired that generation. We heard about such people as Jack Kerouac, Allan Ginsburg, and William Burroughs. This talk prepared us for our visit to San Francisco.

From Naropa, we walked to Pearl Street for some free time to walk around and shop. We had dinner and then went to the movies where people had a choice of seeing “Eclipse,” “Grown Ups,” or “Knight and Day.” After the movies we went on our overnight bus ride to Salt Lake City.

We started off the day by waking up early. We did a lot of things today: we met with a pro universal health care doctor, visited Columbine High School and the memorial to the shootings, went to lunch, saw Naropa University, explored Pearl Street, saw the movie “Food Inc.” and last and least importantly, slept on the bus.

The talk with Dr. Irene Aguilar, MD, was very interesting. She gave some great points supporting Universal Health Care and disputed some of points Kaiser Permanente made. She spoke about ways it may be more cost effective for America to have universal health care than what we have today. The one thing I wonder is, if we can universalize health care insurance, why not all types of insurance like car, house or life?

talking with Dr. Aguilar

Columbine High School and the memorial were very meaningful and deep. It was eery to see how similar my high school is to Columbine. The memorial was beautiful and it makes sure that the lives of the students will never be forgotten.  They had quotes from students, families and others involved in the day’s events. One that really caught my attention was “I hope people come here to this place to think about how they themselves can be better people rather than come here to reflect on death”. This was very meaningful to me because this is very true. Instead of crying about the past, you remember the past, while focusing on how you can be a better person and stop something this terrible from happening again.

memorial at Columbine High School
leaving the memorial

After lunch, we went to Naropa University. The first thing we did was talk with Steven Taylor, the former Director of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poets writing program, about the history of the Beat Generation. While I am not that interested in poetry, I did get from our talk that while we have freedom of speech, it was the Beatnik writers who helped define these laws by their way of writing. These writers and poets were brought to life for us by Mr. Taylor.

Steven Taylor, a friend of Allen Ginsburg, teaches us about the Beatniks

Once we were finished talking about the Beatniks, we met with one of the admission directors of Naropa. We learned about the school and how it is the only Buddhist inspired college in America. It is a very spiritual place but isn’t overly religious. Their classes are different than the average college in that they focus on the spiritual hearts and souls of the students.

	learning to meditate at Naropa	getting "healing" at Naropa
frisbee at Naropa

The next thing we did that day was have free time to explore Pearl Street. It was a lot like the 16th Street Mall we explored in Denver, but better. I was lucky enough to see friends of the family that I hadn’t seen in years. We went to a few of the stores which sold random knick knacks as well as the Left Hand Books which I, being a liberal Republican, found amusing.

After dinner, in which I ate mozzarella sticks, we hopped on a city bus and went to the movie theater. We saw the movie “Food Inc.” The movie is about exposing corruption and deceit in the food business. Many of the major food companies declined to be interviewed for this film. I found a couple of things interesting. One being that we grow chickens to twice their normal size in half the time it would normally take. We need to think about the true cost we pay for changing nature. Another thing I found interesting was how much stuff corn is used in. We eat it, use it in sugars, feed it to cows, and have it pop up in so many different foods. It was a great documentary that really made me think about food, eating and the story behind how it makes its way to my table.

The very last thing we did was wash up and get on the bus for our overnight ride. While many people did not find it the most comfortable way to sleep, I actually got more hours than I thought I would. All in all, it was a great day.

This morning we woke up and went to Columbine High School. When we arrived we went up a hill that overlooked the school to see the newly dedicated memorial to the horrible tragedy at Columbine. The memorial was extremely powerful, beautiful and, of course, very sad. The memorial was really set up, and we were really there, to commemorate the lives of those who were killed and not how they died. I saw a quote on one of the walls that was said by a student. It said, “The hardest part to understand was kids killing kids.” This is something that went through my mind when I was walking through the memorial. It is totally not comprehensible how two people could be so hateful that they want to kill other teenagers. The memorial was very personal to the 13 people who were killed. Under each name was a description of his or her life written by members of their families.

We then went to Boulder, Colorado where our first stop was Naropa University. We met with Steven Taylor who told us about the history of the Beatnik writers. He brought the lives of the writers and poets of the beatnik era to life for us. Our time with him got us ready for our time in San Francisco.

After the discussion we got a tour of the Naropa campus. The school is based in Buddhist principals. We saw the class and meeting rooms including a meditation room . Our tour guide taught us the basics of meditation and we got to practice for a few minutes.

Once our tour was done we walked to Pearl Street which is a shopping district for some free time and then dinner. After dinner we went to see a movie and then got ready for our overnight drive to Salt Lake City.

We started our celebration of our nation’s birthday by being able to sleep in late. We then went to Littleton, Colorado where we stopped at Columbine High School. This is the location of the major school shooting in 1999. It was a very powerful experience for us to see the actual high school, because it resembles many of our schools. When we pulled into the parking lot, Billy discussed with us the tension of visiting Columbine High School between making it a tourist attraction and using it as a learning tool to help make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. He said we could go take pictures of the outside of the school, but out of respect to the students and residents who are still trying to have a normal life in Littleton, we would not go into the school.

Once we got off the bus we were approached by a man who asked us what we were doing. Once he heard about our journey, he told us he was a social studies teacher at the school and a lifelong resident of Littleton. He wanted to tell us his story. He took us on a tour of the school and showed us where the tragic events occurred and tried to impress on us that Columbine is just like any other school and that it is safe and that the students and parents are good people.

After Columbine we had a beautiful drive to Boulder, which included some fun dancing on the bus to some great music. Our first stop in Boulder was Naropa Institute – a liberal arts college started and influenced by Buddhists. They place a strong emphasis on meditation. After a tour of the small school,we met with Steven Taylor who teaches in the Jack Kerouac School for Disembodied Poets. He took us on a historical journey through the Beat generation and explained the importance of the writings that came from Kerouac, Ginsburg, Burroughs and other writers and poets from the 50s and 60s. Many of us really enjoyed the school and took applications to look over.

Then we walked to Pearl Street, a very hip and granola-ish strip of shops, street performers and food.

We ended our day by seeing the new Michael Moore movie, “Sicko”. The movie exposes some of the issues concerning the health insurance industry. He does this by telling healthcare stories of Americans and comparing them with stories from such countries as Cuba, France and England. The movie was both funny and educational and a great thing to learn about as the 2008 election grows closer.

We then boarded the bus for our overnight ride to Salt Lake City.

After a late wake up we boarded the bus to go to Boulder, which is about 40 minutes from Denver. After stopping for lunch, we arrived on the tiny campus of Naropa University, America’s only accredited Buddhist college. Having some time before our first meeting, we went to a park next door to have a group discussion about gun control in order to organize our thoughts for the meetings about this issue in the next two days. The main argument we brought up amongst ourselves was of the slippery slope of changing the Constitution versus the atrocities of gun violence. The general consensus was that a form of gun control is needed in our country.

We then moved onto the campus of Naropa where we met with Rabbi Miles Krassen. He “enlightened” us as to the role of Judaism in his life as well as the nature of Buddaism in the University. He emphasized contemplative education, which means that one should not just learn about something but must experience it and meditate on it. He left us with some words of wisdom: “There can be no enlightenment without enlightening others”. We toured the University and then sat down for our next meeting. We spoke with Steven Taylor, head of the Jack Kerouac School for Disembodied Poetics. He took us on a history lesson tracing the lineage from the beatniks to the hippies and how music from jazz to punk have all shaped who we are as a country. We also learned about the oral poetry movements as art that were occurring in the East Village of New York and in San Francisco. He showed us how such different groups as the Black Panthers, WW I pacifists, and Anarchists were all rubbing shoulders at the St. Marks Project in the East Village of New York and how each group influenced the other.

We then went to Pearl Street where we spent some time shopping and just watching the local scene before we met at BDs Grill for Mongolian BBQ. The skies opened up and there was a big storm which we waited out in a local Target. Once the rain stopped we went to Folsom Field (famous for a Dave Matthews Live CD that was recorded there) for an American Sing along, a concert and some amazing fireworks to celebrate our nation’s 230th birthday. Once the amazing day ended, we returned to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Today we drove from Dodge City to Denver. When we first got to town, we walked around the Lo-Do area and do some shopping and get a feel for downtown Denver. That night, we went to Folsom Field at the University of Colorado in Boulder to celebrate the 4th of July and see fireworks.

On July 5th, we spoke with Tom Mauser, whose son was shot and killed at Columbine High School.

He told us about his journey toward being an activist on the issue of gun control and how he copes with the tragedy that happened to his son. After that meeting, we went to Columbine High School and took a look around. It was a shock to many on our trip that Columbine High School looks a lot like their own school. We wondered how people could still go back after such a horrific experience. Is it better to remember it and grieve the past or move on and try to put the past behind you? Where’s the balance?

While at Columbine, we spoke with Scott Fried. He is an AIDS educator and motivational speaker for teens.

He reminded us that the boys responsible for the shooting could have been anybody and that we all have our pain but that we must learn to deal with it and not hurt ourselves or others.

That evening we went to Colorado Springs and hiked up the Garden of the Gods, where we were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery and each others thoughts about the day. The day was full of emotions and realization. We were reassured that we can always find help in each other and the true meaning of Etgar 36.

Boulder Colorado is possibly the crunchiest town on earth. Our journey continued with a tour of Wild Oats Supermarket, which was actually really enjoyable. We learned all about fair trade and tried some free sample of organic foods. Our discussion leaders explained how food can be made environmentally friendly and what the differences are between their selection and other supermarkets. We enjoyed a healthy lunch at Wild Oats and used recyclable corn containers to carry our food around.

After we ate, we traveled down the road to Naropa University, the only Buddhist University in the country. Our tour leader Jessie May, showed us around the school and explained how the school uses traditional teaching methods along with inner-thinking, to have peace within ones mind.

While at the school, a teacher, Steven Taylor, who writes about the punk movement, gave us a lesson about Beat Poetry. He discussed the 1950’s and people like Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg, and Ann Waldman, and how they changed societal beliefs by helping to end segregation and being the frontrunners for Rock and Roll. Steven had been a guitar player for Ginsberg for 20 years, before becoming a teacher.

We went to downtown Boulder and walked along Pearl Street and did some window-shopping. We sat down for dinner at a cool pub and had some of the best burgers ever. After dinner, Billy surprised us, with tickets to Fahrenheit 9/11. We were thrilled to be able to watch a bit of history, but we critically analyzed the movie and had a great discussion. We got back on the bus, and got ready for our drive to Utah. See you tomorrow.

Etgar 36 girls at the Wild Oats market

Learning about organic farming at Wild Oats

Etgar 36 at Naropa University

Steven Taylor, Director of Writing Program at Naropa, speaking about the history of the beatniks, literature, jazz and punk music

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!