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Letter: Incomprehensible connections

Pretty much since the day Hunter left this world, I’ve been reading statements by people who are sure they know what he would have said, or thought, about any given topic, and that’s how I can tell they never met the man.

Having lived less than a mile from Hunter for the last 10 years of his life, and having spent more time in his kitchen than my own living room during those years, I think I knew Hunter pretty well. Well enough to know better than to put words in his mouth or suggest who or what he might align himself with. So I can scarcely describe my amusement when I saw Hunter Thompson’s name somehow attached to a pro-development letter to the editor (“Shades of Hunter,” The Aspen Times, Oct. 22). It’s well-documented how much the man loathed development and developers. While Duncan Clauss really only says that Hunter got out the vote of the younger crowd, just seeing his name within the text of a pro-development letter did something to my gag reflex and made me nostalgic for the sound of gunfire in Woody Creek.

The Paepckes also were invoked in that same letter, I’m guessing with the thought being that if you stack a letter with enough names that are or were revered in the community, the letter will achieve some credibility even if the connection is nonsense.



Those of us who came to Aspen in the ’60s and ’70s did, in fact, revere the people who came before us and made Aspen what it was.

The folks who have come in recent years seem to revere the people who ruined the place.




Michael Cleverly

Hotchkiss