4/20: A day that will really live in infamy

Does any other day carry as heavy a load as April 20? The day's fate was sealed in 1889, when Adolf Hitler was born in a small village in Austria. In the early '70s, April 20 also became an underground stoner holiday, now so aboveground that it's celebrated across the...

By Patricia Calhoun

April 20, 2011

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Does any other day carry as heavy a load as April 20? The day's fate was sealed in 1889, when Adolf Hitler was born in a small village in Austria. In the early '70s, April 20 also became an underground stoner holiday, now so aboveground that it's celebrated across the country, with a huge 4/20 bash planned for Civic Center Park today. And that's just the beginning.

Twelve years ago, Colorado put its own stamp on April 20, when two Columbine High School students killed twelve other students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves. And last year on April 20? The Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed eleven workers.

States along the Gulf Coast are still mopping up British Petroleum's mess, with former Colorado senator Ken Salazar, now head of the Department of the Interior, responsible for much of the cleanup -- both of the environment, and federal oversight of drilling operations.

A dozen years later, the Columbine community is still mourning, and there will be no classes at the school today.

But down at Civic Center, quite a party is shaping up, with tens of thousands of people expected to show up and celebrate.

Happy April 20... whatever you choose to remember today.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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