I thank God for my blessings and to be raised by people such as these. Warning: I cried the first three times I read this and many people couldn't get finish it without tears.

My Father, the most honorable man I know, grew up in South Texas with neither running water nor electricity. Bud & Sandy Mulcahy went to Africa on their 50th wedding anniversary and met a man from a village near Sotik, Kenya whose village had no running water or electricity. They returned with 7 of us volunteers to bring clean water in May 2012.

I come from good stock, honestly. I am sorry the feud between the Mulcahy's and the billionaires from Chicago has gone on over four years. Our community suffers from it. However, this article was published on the front page over Christmas this year. It sums our differences up.

10 Questions with Aspen situationist artist Lee Mulcahy

Public art

Sometimes you gotta deconstruct to create more community. Here's my story.

Artist interviews Aspen Sheriff Bob Braudis

Revival of Situationist International art: Haves vs. Have nots: Telling the elites to be fair or....

Aspen Art Museum forgets to laugh. Bans artist.

City of Aspen Public Relations Director surprised by Mulcahy's Untitled "Let them eat cake" Paula & James Crown sculpture

USA Pro Cycling Challenge Public Sculpture comment

We're guessing that the town was itching to erase the work of one Lee Mulcahy, an artist and former Aspen Ski employee who lives four blocks from the Crowns, and who, along with fellow members of Occupy Aspen, created a sculpture outside of his house — "public art in a public place," Mulcahy points out — with "lots of references to the Revolution, both American and French," he reports.

Mulcahy was a former golden boy in the ski school. He started teaching skiing in 1997-98 and became one of the top instructors. He was a member of the elite “Diamond Pro” club of high-performance instructors.

Mulcahy started criticizing Skico leadership and its owners, the Crown family of Chicago, in 2010 for some of their actions. He contended that rookie instructors and other entry-level employees weren't paid a living wage. He leveled stinging criticism on Skico managing partner Jim Crown and his wife, Paula, through a barrage of letters to the editors of local newspapers and with an unflattering sculpture erected as part of a public art display in Aspen in August. In one regard, Mulcahy was ahead of the Occupy movements that protest the actions of the wealthiest 1 percent of the world's population.

Mulcahy's sculpture brought attention to Aspen's dirty little secret: The ski lifts, like the Aspen Art Museum's art, is subsidized by war profits.

Critique of the City of Aspen sculpture for USA Pro Cycling Challenge

An open letter to my friend, former Dallas Cowboys cheerlearder, and fellow SMU grad, art blogger Amy Phelan - lee mulcahy

Elites go all "Skico" in company town to ban artistic dissent

The Crown family of Chicago tried to bully artist Lee Mulcahy out of the community of Aspen.

Bullying is ahistorical: our freedom of speech is being chilled by the elites in Aspen.

“Even in democracies, disparities in power play a large role in silencing dissent - sometimes by ensuring that dissenters keep quiet, but more insidiously by ensuring that dissenters are not really heard.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, of 1,273 complaints filed by employees who claimed they had been subjected to company retaliation for speaking out between 2002 and 2008, the government ruled in favor of whistleblowers 17 times. Another 841 complaints were dismissed unheard, sometimes thanks to minor technicalities.

Please sign my online petition to protect freedom of speech in Aspen, my little town of 6000+.

The billionaire owners of General Dynamics and the Aspen Skiing Company attempt to marginalize artist who speaks out against their bullying: Crowns' Skico obtains temporary restraining order on situationist Alamo trailer art.

First amendment applies: Judge denies restaining order on Mulcahy's art

Situationist artist loses to Aspen Institute & Aspen Music Festival: BANNED

Limousine liberals love to preach tolerance yet have none. Aspen Art Museum bans Mulcahy and senior citizen Richie Cohen, on oxygen for taking 1500 signatures to Aspen City Council protesting the museum's bullying.

Aspen Music Festival and Aspen Institute delete news stories posted by situationist artist and criminalize dissent

The only true benefit that I can see is that it gives maverick artist Lee Mulcahy one more place he can visit without fear of arrest.
Lee Mulcahy’s ongoing drama is exposing Aspen for what it is — a town with an amazing lack of balls. The idea that Aspen could sit back complacently and allow one person to be persecuted by the most powerful interests in town is reprehensible. Aspen used to rebel against the company town image, now it defines it.

May 18-20th, 2012: A celebration and tour of art