Aspen newspapers bury Aspen Skiing Company’s hateful diatribe against Trump
Right after the election, the CEO of Aspen Skiing Company, which runs Aspen and Snowmass resorts (known as “SkiCo” locally), was grieving. And he wanted everyone to know.
He sent a memo to all 1,500-some employees instructing them on “the gravity of what just occurred.” (This is all he knows about gravity, believe me – I’ve seen this guy ski.)
The memo CEO-splained that the election decision made by over half the nation was “openly at odds” with SkiCo’s values of:
“Equality, democracy, civility, compassion, tolerance, sustainability, open-mindedness, gratitude, freedom, integrity, and justice.”
When the biggest company in Aspen and the surrounding area, serving the public on public lands under favorable Forest Service leases, condemns over half of America – including many of its own employees and customers – for their purportedly undemocratic, uncivil, intolerant, unsustainable, close-minded, ungrateful, tyrannical and unjust election decision, that seems like news.
But the local newspapers didn’t report it. So I wrote a piece about it. My piece received significant attention.
I also sent a letter to the editor of one of those local newspapers that allegedly reports the news (in those few pages that are not devoted to real estate ads). It’s called the Aspen Daily News. My letter strictly observed their word limit and other rules.
They’ve been brimming with Trump-is-Hitler letters ever since the election, and before then too. I figured they might strike a bit of balance by publishing my letter calling out SkiCo for condemning as fascists half of America along with many of its own employees and customers.
I was wrong. The Aspen Daily News utterly ignored my letter.
In their defense, their refusal might have been for reasons of money – it might have been because they’re whores to SkiCo as one if their biggest advertisers (apart from the ubiquitous real estate ads).
But it’s more likely that they’re just whores to the political left. Pitkin County went 71% for the Democrat, which is approximately 28% less than the political composition of the Aspen Daily News.
If it’s any consolation to me, and it is, the circulation of my piece far exceeded the circulation of the Aspen Daily News. But still, it rubs me wrong that a so-called newspaper is so blatantly biased in burying news.
And so, I’ll publish my letter here, where it will get substantially more readers than in the Aspen Daily News. (Now if I can just figure out how to accept real estate ads.) Here it is:
In the wake of last week’s election, the CEO of the SkiCo companies circulated a “For Internal Distribution Only” memo to all 1,500-some of its employees bemoaning “the gravity of what just occurred.” He went on to complain that the election result was “openly at odds with some of the values [SkiCo] stands for.”
Those SkiCo values with which last week’s free and democratic election is at odds, the CEO said, are “equality, democracy, civility, compassion, tolerance, sustainability, open-mindedness, gratitude, freedom, integrity, and justice.”
SkiCo easily employs the largest number of people in the Roaring Fork Valley, its payroll is the largest in the Valley, and its customers are the Valley’s biggest source of revenue. Moreover, SkiCo enjoys leases of public lands at very favorable rates for the purpose of serving the public – all of them, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, or political beliefs.
Like anyone else, the CEO is entitled to his opinion that a majority of the country does not share his vaunted “values.” But foisting that opinion onto 1,500 employees that he has the power to fire, and onto hundreds of thousands of customers to whom he can deny lift tickets, is a tad heavy-handed. To use his own terminology, it’s not particularly tolerant.
I should mention that an esteemed friend who is prominent in the Aspen area also sent in a letter to the editor – to the other Aspen newspaper, the Aspen Times – objecting to the CEO’s coercive memo to his employees. (No, there’s not enough news in Aspen to support two daily newspapers, but there’s certainly enough real estate to advertise.) Her letter was similarly civil, and similarly unpublished.
Next time you drop $20k for a week in Aspen, consider where that money is going.
To SkiCo: I was disappointed to read that the management at SkiCo believed that as a Trump voter, I have “a vision that can be viewed as openly at odds with some of the values [SkiCo] stands for.” and those values include “Equality, democracy, civility, compassion, tolerance, sustainability, open-mindedness, gratitude, freedom, integrity, and justice.” Despite your opinion, I believe I hold most of those values.
We have lived in the Valley for 3 years, and I feel like I have made a positive contribution to our community. We are very involved with our church, through which I got involved with the Kind Neighbor Project which hosts a weekly dinner for mainly SkiCo employees. I hosted and cooked for this dinner almost every week throughout the season. Additionally, my husband coaches for AVSC, and I am also a member of DAC (the District Accountability Board).
Most importantly, we helped a very needy student in our community. There was a student in 7th grade who our son brought home for a sleepover. To make a very long story short, we found out pretty quickly that this boy had been living in a car/truck with his mother and sister most of his life. When we became aware of this, we got him settled in his own bedroom in our home, got clothes for him with some help from some other families including another conservative, (as he had nothing but what he was wearing), contacted the school to get him a bus pass from our home, made sure the school provided him special services (Amy Kendziorski was wonderful) and contacted Pitkin County Health and Human Services Department. Everyone including Pitkin County HHS and our church told us to send him back to his mother (in the back of a truck). It was early February and freezing, and we just could not do that.
While he was staying with us, our son—of course—had a ski pass and snowboard, and we didn’t think it was right for this student to not have this same opportunity. So we contacted SkiCo, explained the situation and asked to see if they would help us out with a ski pass. They said No. I then went to Four Mountain Sports in Snowmass (also owned by SkiCo!), explained the situation, and asked the manager if he could give us a discounted snowboard or a used snowboard for this student. Another No. So we bought this student a pass, another family donated a snowboard and we provided him with lunch money every ski day. This student lived with us for a couple of months and was doing really well…doing homework (he was at a 3rd grade level), eating regularly (which he had not prior), sleeping well, etc.
Unfortunately, Pitkin HHS held a hearing and required us to send the child back to his mother. Almost immediately after returning, we heard this student was making “bad choices”.
I rarely speak of helping this student and I am not looking for acknowledgement. I am just trying to show you an example of the values of one conservative voter in Pitkin County.
Invest in Kleenex. Four years is a lot of sniveling and crying.