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 Declassed gentleman. Born
in Washington, DC, 1946 into family that is no stranger to public service:
Grandmother Martha Brookings, State Legislator, Massachusetts and GOP
candidate for US Congress in 1932; Robert Brookings founded the Brookings
Institute; Grandfather Walter Brookings served in the Hoover administration;
Mother Mary Imrie, long time Christian Science
practitioner, served on the Margaret Chase Smith for President Committee
during the 1964 GOP convention; Father Walter Imrie,
careers in aviation, small manufacturing, real estate; a town trustee in Oak
Brook, Illinois, saw to it that even though I may have been born on third
base I could never assume I hit a triple.
Reinventing
Democrats
Brothers, John Brookings and Gordon MacDonald, jock-scholar-gents at
Stanford and Harvard were as much an influence as my folks. Gordon and
Margaret are in real estate in Illinois
and raising another three renaissance Imrie
brothers. The family was gutted in 1969 when John drowned, tangled in a rope
in the hydraulic hell of the rapids of the upper Arkansas
River. Time, family and the river endure?
 
Colorado River, base of Lava Falls, God's Gulch, Golly Gully, Grand Canyon
Huckleberry
Curtis Imrie's politics were shaped in the stuffy, stodgy, solid
conservation halls of Washington,
DC's National Geographic and
the Smithsonian. Interest in drama, film and the underdog started at L'ecole Nouvelle de Paudex in
'57 watching my roommate's father, Charlie Chaplin, in his silent movies
doing battle as The Tramp versus Goliath in Lausanne, Switzerland's
movie palace.'59 to '64 Exeter and Westminster
Schools. Star BoyScout,
Troop Leader, N.R.A. Sharpshooter Award Recipient. Been keeping extensive
journals since 1963; helps powers of observation. Years of tedium and
melodrama. A helluva memoir in there somewhere. Fulton County {Atlanta}
Invitational Wrestling Champ 63-64 '68
Graduate Northwestern University; wrestled 4 years in the Big Ten & 4
years and for the San Francisco Olympic
Club. Last Lap running club (SF). In'67,
rode a Triumph single-carb across Europe to see the
cradle of theater, Stratford to Athens, Paris to Edinburgh. I've been on
the road ever since then to see for myself what kind of society we live in
and to experience things I don't know about. I found out that it's worth it
to say what you believe in and fight for what you say ... that change is
necessary and that change can occur. Military - 1968 tried to enlist,
classified 1Y medical; Married - Nope, tried 1988-Oregon City -End of the
Oregon Trail; Divorced 1989. Kids - not yet..
Senator-at-large Western
Colorado Congress.(A grassroots, democratic organization dedicated
to challenging injustice by organizing people to increase their power over
decisions that affect their lives.) 1995-2003. 1979-Ran the Colorado River
through the Grand Canyon in a Red Shank.
Scholarship Colorado Water Workshop, Western State College, '94.
Spine of the Nation
- Continental Divide - Monarch, Colorado
W.C.I. Sr. and Jr. -- Born 9/18/21 and 9/18/46
Cantankerous. Dad took his last "run" on 7/22/04.
Based at the end of a
dirt road in the Four Elk drainage surrounded by public (your!) land in the
upper Arkansas River watershed at the base of 14,073' Mt. Columbia, Colorado,
since 1967; subsistence rancher; 3-time World Champion Pack
Burro Racer (30-mile high altitude man and burro race); Bred,
raised and trained '97,'98 and '03 Champion, National Western Stock Show
(preserves the Western lifestyle by providing the agricultural industry
through its emphasis on education, genetic development, and offering the
world's largest marketing opportunities: the Super Bowl of stock shows), also
Champion '98 Yearling Mule & '98 National Mule/Donkey Show in Pueblo. A
corral-centered life. In the raw and wind-swept high country, I live as my
burros live often running free, beyond the boundary, the fences, and I work
outdoors most of the day. I'm active in a beautiful environment and at the
bottom rung of the stock market. The downside is being on call for loose
birthing stock and often harsh climate. My half wild pack started with one
jack-ass and one jenny-ass. It's partly about adrenalin. When my mammoth
burros win at the shows or the races, the exhilaration is unbelievable. It
takes an instinctive feel for what the animals are trying to tell me. If
there's a secret with donkeys and people, it's trying to make it easy for
them to do the right thing and difficult to screw up. I wouldn't trade the
process for anything.
Have run every Grand Slam Burro Race since 1973. Explorers Club, New York City 1978.
Jail Committee, Chaffee County Colorado
1997 - Charter Member, Action 22. Club 20. Board of Directors, Western Organization of
Resource Councils, Billings,
Montana 2000-03. (A network of grassroots organizations from seven states
that include 8,250 members and 46 local community groups: helps its member
groups succeed by providing training and coordinating regional issue
campaigns.) Will James Society, Billings,MT
Waymore
B. Democrat
Charter
member Film Arts Foundation, San
Francisco. Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks,
Leadville chapter; Founding male member of the Upper Arkansas Valley League
of Women Voters (Provides information on voter turnout, civic participation
and current public policy issues) Maverick
among mavericks Mediamaker/Actor - award winning
projects. Community Activist. Catalyst/host/sparkplug
on Democrat Hour on KVRH Radio Show (1994-2000) Vice Chairman, Chaffee
County Democrats 1994-2000; Board of Directors KHEN Radio '03 - present
(regular contributor to Tuesday, 5:00-6:00 pm 106.9 FM, Poetry and Stories
HourSpokesman, Friends of the
Arkansas River. Stakeholder, Colorado
Healthy Communities Initiative; Supplier, Angelview
Therapeutic Horsemanship program. Democratic
Nominee, Colorado
State Representative,
1994. Marathoner (2 hours 40
minutes best (Oakland, 1984) and Boston three times; have seen "America
first" on the run, in marathons in just about every major city,
including New York, Denver, Seattle, Pikes Peak, Chicago, Dallas, LA,
Atlanta, Tucson, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Pueblo, Omaha, Kiluea
Volcano Wilderness Marathon, Wild, Wild West-Lone Pine and San Francisco);
finished Leadville 100-mile trail run twice; vintage motorcycle buff.Tireless campaigner for
economic populist causes and independently made and financed movies (Within
the feature film lies the true heartbeat of American society. Movies have
been the shared cultural tradition of the people of this country, reflecting
our needs, interests, our values and hopes, as well as our fears and our
anxieties.)... and better global, sustainable,
renewable engines of work - Donkeys ... also the "preachment of
universal kindness."
Team-sters
2000 and 2002 Democratic Nominee US
Congress, Colorado
3rd and 5th Congressional Districts. Undemocratic gerrymandering keeps
moving my "home" district around. Why can't it just be by
bioregions or nonpartisan review boards? But No-ooo.
Undemocratic power grabs that simply ratify incumbents in essentially choiceless elections and little accountability are still
in the works in Colorado.
The voters lose and the incumbents almost always win. They are rigging
democracy. U.S. Senate, Governor and county commissioner seem to be the
"fairest" races. It hurt to lose the Rep runs, but it would have
hurt even more to not be good enough to get into the general election as the
Democratic nominee.
The races for Colorado State Representative and U.S. Representative were
largely symbolic. It's like the old Soviet Politburo; 99% of all multiterm incumbents win. These folks leave when they want
to leave. They have a better chance of dying in office than being driven out.
The Wall Street Journal says the incumbency protection racket has made only
11 out of 435 seats competitive. The campaign finance system is totally
corrupt. The legalized bribery campaign system that rigs elections is
basically a tar baby. We would probably have a more truly U.S.
representative Congress if we selected our Congressmen by lottery.
Big money has turned "the peoples' house" into a bawdyhouse.
Designer district 'redistricting' has made demographics become political
destiny and congressional elections mostly a matter of ratifying incumbents.
"Nothing is changed since Mark Twain reminded us that Congress is our
only truly criminal class of citizens. They have constructed their own game
of canasta in which earth herself is scarcely a dominant factor." Jim
Harrison. The House is now even more uncompetitive, sclerotic and a
collection of the spineless led by the cynical. Consciousness remains the
only aristocracy. Together perhaps we can improve things and empower and
inform workaday Coloradans. Still have a few "bullets" left for the
causes of vanishing democracy and good arts.
Plans for silver fox geezerhood:
# To be of use.
# Hermitage at Little Menokin Ranch with my donks.
# Quiet writing of old age - a memoir to expand on the partly
autobiographical, partly fictitious, all effectively true "Kid
Colorado"
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