January 2021
I enjoyed summarizing some of our local and national events in this editorial series, from the year 2020… which was indeed “One Hell of a Year”.
Unfortunately, the phrase, “One Hell of a Year”, appears to apply equally well to the year 2021, so far.
We ran a real estate article, yesterday, by regular contributor Lee Riley, one of the more successful — and I would say, optimistic — real estate agents in Archuleta County. In his article, Mr. Riley wrote:
Happy New Year from Pagosa Country!
This year, “Happy New Year” is an understatement. We have never been so ready for the new year than right now. Good riddance to 2020!
As I suggested, Mr. Riley has always struck me as your basic optimist. As we have learned over the past two weeks, 2020 did not in fact come to an end. It spilled over, in a particularly ugly fashion, into 2021. If anyone thought America was ‘divided’ in 2020, the new year has already provided an indication that the nation’s intellectual and political divisions might be even more evident in 2021… regardless of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Where is our vaccine for hatred? Seems like the new administration in Washington DC could focus some serious effort on that little project.
Currently in its clinical testing phase, I hope.
I was sorry to hear that the US House of Representatives voted on articles of impeachment this week. I don’t see how that particular action will aid the healing process, in a nation that has been split down the middle like an overripe melon.
But of course, I wasn’t forced into hiding, as our elected Congressional representatives were… wondering if they were about to be strung up by an angry mob. I can understand if our Congressional representatives feel like getting even with the person — Donald Trump — who appears to be largely responsible for the “violent insurrection” (as much of the media has labeled it.) Yes, five people reportedly died during the occupation of the US Capitol, but I see little chance that an impeachment process will start the Biden administration off on the right foot.
Maybe the Democratic Party feels it can ignore half the country — the half that voted for President Trump — and doesn’t need to compromise, doesn’t need to struggle to find a middle ground. Seems like a poor approach to repairing a broken nation.
Finding a middle ground. That strikes me as one of the hardest jobs anyone can tackle.
Our newly-elected US Senator, John Hickenlooper, issued the following press release following the impeachment vote:
“Today’s bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives was a testament to the sacred responsibility of the legislative branch to provide a critical check on grave and dangerous abuses of the executive. No person is above the law, and it is clear to me that the President committed impeachable offenses, violated his oath of office, and needs to be held accountable for inciting a violent and deadly assault on the symbolic heart of our government.
“Make no mistake, it should give us no pleasure to impeach a President. We have so much to do, and Coloradans sent me to Washington to deliver on important issues like the pandemic, jobs, health care, and climate change. Trump should have resigned and saved the country from this painful exercise.”
The sad fact remains, that Senator Hickenlooper’s Democratic Party colleagues in the US House (and ten Republican representatives, as well) were equally able to save the country from this painful exercise, but chose not to do so.
I am thinking, as I write this editorial, of some of my own personal struggles, and how difficult it can be to find an acceptable compromise.
I am thinking of my divorce from my wife, Clarissa, after 36 years together, and my decision that divorce was the only reasonable option going forward.
I wrote, earlier in this editorial series, about an effort last spring by myself and several downtown residents to collect enough petition signatures to compel a vote on a Town Home Rule Charter amendment — an election that gave the voters some measure of control over massive tax subsidies that might someday be offered to private developers by the new ‘Urban Renewal Authority’. We had been unable to obtain meaningful compromises from the Town Council, and we determined that a petition drive and special election was the only approach to a ‘middle ground’.
An example of a non-violent approach to governmental change?
I also wrote about my attempts last summer, as a volunteer member of the Town Planning Commission, to convince my fellow Commissioners, and the Town Planning Director, to follow the requirements I found written in the Town’s own Land Use and Development Code (LUDC) when considering the River Rock Estates subdivision application. Although no violence or armed insurrection took place, my efforts resulted in, essentially, my impeachment, and my removal from the Commission by the Town Council.
No middle ground was sought. The people elected to the Town Council made the decision that no compromise was worth seeking.
Sometimes, a division cannot be healed by mutual agreement. I understand that. But that fact doesn’t lessen the pain, and sadness.