European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 11, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday january 12, 19s6 the stars and stripes Page 17 associated press i am consumed by the message that i think i am carrying. We re leaving a terrible world for our children in the past few months naw books by Colorado gov Richard Lamm have bean appearing in books Loras faster than it lakes to Settle some America by the year 2000. 19sb a novel of politics. The immigration time bomb the fragmenting of America. An assay by Lamm wins a Christian science Monitor contest. A Short Story captures a Syndicate s prize. The Colorado historical society brings out a collection of his poems written while he waited on the television stage set for a historical series he wrote Lor a Denver television station. What on Earth is this Man writing about and when does to have time to do it All i really do open myself up to the question when do you have Lime to govern " Lamm laughs sitting one afternoon in his third floor study at the governor s mansion. The fact is i can spend so or 60 hours a weak governing and still do in the end getting everything done depends on what Lamm Calls the Corners of my the alarm goes olt each morning at 4 30. Coffee the morning papers and then up the wide staircase to this cluttered aerie. Here Here Are worn leather chairs and Couch bookshelves of All sizes mementos of. 3 years in Colorado politics. Plies of papers and books threaten to spill Oil each Hal surface i m playing around trying to put some Western history to a symphony like Aaron he Points at a Box by his chair. This pile is a sort of a Book someday will be a Book of often thai two hour Corner of the Day up Here in the study is spent writing speeches. In Large part Lamm s speeches Are responsible Tor his National reputation. Lamm has gained a lot of attention during the past two years with his pronouncements about medical technology care of the handicapped immigration and treatment of aids victims. In a March 27, 1964, speech Lamm Seld people who were terminally Iii have a duty to die instead of prolonging their lives by artificial Means. Those who die without having their lives artificially extended Are like leaves tailing off a tree and or Ming humus for the other plants to grow up he said. We Vegol a duly to die and get out of the Way with allot our machines and artificial hearts and everything else like that and let the other society our kids build a reasonable a angered the handicapped two years ago when he said it was futile to continue spending Money on the severely ral Ardad. Public transportation he said should be limited to special buses for the handicapped instead of re Aqula plug Public buses with special lifts for wheelchairs. Lamm also has slated thera should be limits to Legal immigration and said illegal immigration is becoming too much of an economic Burden for the nation. Lamm made his most recent controversial statement in september of this year Whan he said ii is mile to spend unlimited amounts of Money on aids victims who have no Chance of recovery. There Are two types of aids patterns the governor said. Either you re dying or you re dead Lamm says he averages one to two speeches a week these Days and is trying to give a lot of thought to them. Much of another room on the third boor of the mansion has been commandeered to hold still Otner sheaves of material that might someday lend itself to one of his talks. I am consumed by the message that t think i m carrying he says. And Itiat a you know we re leaving a terrible world for our to change thai Lamm believes takes people willing to make hard choices. In Mega traumas Lamm uses a fictional future president s Story to describe the horrors thai will coma True if current policies in a number of areas economics health care immigration and education among them Are not changed. In the immigration time bomb. Lamm forecasts a crumbling american society unless there Are limits on the number of new people allowed to Cross our Borders. "1 really think the same thing that led me into politics is leading me into writing in a lot of ways he says. I want to affect the world around me. I really do enjoy expressing myself. It s a lot of Lun very cathartic to coma up Here in the hearing the end of an unprecedented third term As governor of Colorado Lamm already has said he won t run next year for the . Senate seat that fellow Democrat Gary Hart is expected to vacate. Lamm Calls the tast 11 years in the governor s mansion the most exciting Job in this he asks with a smile what do you do after that but he keeps some doors open. Asked whether once 15-year-old Heather and 17 year old Scott Are grown a would consider another office he shrugs. I Don t he a Fidfl again to snout the Dormer window by his desk and adds there s nothing Deade than yesterday s anyway he ins Lyls most social change does t come from politicians. I think of the revolutions of our time Rosa Parks not moving to the Back of the bus Gloria Steinem saying women Aren t Molher machines Paul Ehrlich saying there s an environmental crisis the big revolutions of my Lima have not been led Richard Lamm statement. By to Filiciano. I think you can affect the by slim in lots of ways and not get into before eight years in the Colorado legislature Lamm was an accountant then a lawyer. His i isl foray into Colorado politics also gave him a National audience when he helped Lead a Light that ended with Colorado not being Host of the 1972 olympics people Are saying god you re Lucky you can speak your mind they forget that i was speaking my mind 20 years Yel despite All the words he s Pul on paper he says i Don t see myself As a writer. I wish i was. I d love the governor s love affair with literature started in a Sophomore Shakespeare class taught by Helen Black at the University of Wisconsin. I was an accounting he notes with a Grimace. He enrolled in that English course because a Girlfriend had it on her schedule. I was in there really not Lor literary but for romantic and then professor Black started teaching. She was just terrific he recalls. She sort of opened up for me that whole world of really great As a child Richard Douglas Lamm read the Hardy boys. Today dozens of books crowd of his nightstand Onlo a nearby desk and the door below four or five books Are always in his suitcase. Shakespeare. William Manchester and naturalist Farley Mowat head his list of favorite authors. He loves to ask others who they read and laughs loudly recalling that just the other Day a Young woman responded nothing but Jena Austen and in recent Dayn ,10 Vaya he has finished a Young author s Glrst novel read More of another by Salvador Allende s daughter gotten into a Book about world War ii and still another on Gen. George ouster the talking Book that is eve present in the Oll Iclal limousine and with him in hotels Tor whenever i m too tired to read is the third volume of Bruce cation s civil War epic. "1 have Lime for three he says being governor exercising an hour or More a Day and being a husband and father. To Lead a very compartmentalized he says. It re airy in t that bad Dottle and i slip away for a lot of movies More than anything though what i really love to do is come up Here in my study. This is my definition most of Lamm s books have had a co author. Gary Imholt collaborated on immigration time bomb. Denver Public relations executive Arnold Grossman was part of 1988. Collaboration is Ilka a marriage you have to work Alii Lamm says. Having his name All alone next to the title is better in pan. Because anytime a politician writes with somebody else there s a suspicion thai he or she did t write it i write passionately he says. I know what Good writing is but i know 1 will never be a great writer. I Don t have that pretension. But you know in a Way write because i have to i want to grab everybody can end say this is important " there Are parts of writing though that will Lake some More gelling used to. Like critics. A dal As morning news reviewer wrote of 1988 one is Temple. To suggest that gov. Richard Lamm should concentrate on being governor of being judged on creative Stull is something t feel very personally he says shaking his head. I mean. If i give a slate of the stale speech and someone says there s nothing creative nothing new in that he Sticks his hands in his pinstriped pockets and shakes his head again. With reviews i m being judged on another
