Photo: The ribbon cutting at Pagosa Peak Open School on Friday, September 26, celebrating the opening of the new community playground.
The Daily Post received a chilling press release yesterday from none other than the Colorado Health Foundation.
Some Daily Post readers will recognize the name of this nonprofit organization. The Colorado Health Foundation provided nearly all the funding for Pagosa’s newest public playground located behind Pagosa Peak Open School, near Walmart. The playground opened its gates to the public on Friday, following a ribbon cutting celebration.
The “Playground for the People” was planned through a lengthy public process that, by design, included representatives from many segments of Pagosa’s diverse community. Two grants from the Colorado Health Foundation provided more than $700,000 towards planning, design, construction and equipment for the new playground.
The community project was spearheaded by two local moms, Cady Allione and Elly Osmera, with plenty of help from other volunteers and professionals.
The playground serves about 130 children attending PPOS during school hours, and is open to the public after school and on weekends.
From the CHF website:
The Colorado Health Foundation is a statewide philanthropic organization that champions the overall health and well-being of every Coloradan. We do this by advocating for and investing in solutions and policies that drive health equity and racial justice.
Our mission is to improve the health of Coloradans. We believe that health and well-being can be in reach for everyone. So, every day, we collaborate with organizations and communities across the state to break down the many systemic inequities that stand in the way of health. When every Coloradan has the power to be healthy, our entire state is stronger.
This excerpt reminds us that the health of Americans depends partly on politics. We know that, when certain people have access to shelter, heat, nutritious foods, affordable medical care, exercise, clean air and water — and others do not have that same access — this disparity is due partly to individual factors, but also to government policies and political actions by elected and appointed government leaders.
The Colorado Health Foundation seeks to use its energy, knowledge, and financial resources to drive “health equity” with a special focus on populations that have insufficient access to shelter, food, medical care and the many other factors that contribute to healthy people and healthy communities.
Our communities are stronger when we work together, share and respect one another’s stories and experiences, and reject divisive rhetoric.
CHF yesterday sent out a statement concerning a new federal memorandum posted on the White House website, titled, “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence”.
From the CHF email:
The Colorado Health Foundation is deeply concerned about a new federal memo directing government agencies to investigate and disrupt networks, organizations and funders under the false assertion that they support ‘political violence.’ The memo serves to purposefully provoke confusion and fear among nonprofits and the communities we serve across Colorado.
Political violence is unacceptable. Yet, this memo does not advance safety. It instead aims to silence voices the federal administration disagrees with.
The memo’s vague and sweeping language wrongly conflates constitutionally-protected community organizing, peaceful protest, nonprofit advocacy and philanthropic support with violence and extremism. This overreach risks destabilizing the very nonprofit ecosystem that Coloradans rely on to build healthier, more just communities. Policies that restrict civic participation and freedom of speech, silence nonprofits or stigmatize communities undermine the conditions required for all Coloradans to thrive.
I encourage our Daily Post readers to read the federal memorandum, “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” and determine for themselves whether this is the direction they want to see America heading in.
America is currently, and historically has been, plagued by many types of violence. Domestic violence, gang violence, random violence, racial violence, police violence, sexual violence, violence against children…
…and political violence. Historically, political violence has come from two directions: from the government in control, or from the people opposing the government in control. Most often, political violence — unlike many other forms of violence — is defined as ‘justifiable’ by the parties perpetrating it.
The United States of America were born out of political violence in its most dramatic form: a war of revolution, in reaction to political violence perpetrated upon American colonists by the British government — the government in control. The British government defined their political violence as justifiable — as did the colonists justify their own political violence.
Political violence does not necessarily result in death and destruction. Incarcerating a person in prison is a form of government violence, for example.
Much of the political violence taking place in America in 2025, involves the arrest and incarceration of Spanish-speaking workers who may be living here legally or illegally, or who are American citizens.
From investigative reporter Margy O’Herron, writing for JustSecurity.org on September 22, 2025:
The Trump administration is building a multi-billion dollar deportation industrial complex to meet its reported goal of arresting 3,000 immigrants a day — more than one million immigrants a year. Despite the administration’s claims that it is targeting “the worst of the worst,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data show the great majority of immigrants in detention — more than 70 percent in early September — have no criminal record. In its haste to hit the historically high target, ICE is even arresting and locking up U.S. citizens.
If not criminals, who exactly is the administration arresting and detaining?
According to the Cato Institute’s analysis of ICE data, between Oct.1, 2024 and June 16, 2025, ICE arrested approximately 204,000 people. Around 65 percent, or 133,000 individuals, had no criminal record at all but were being held in detention because the government claimed they do not have a lawful reason to stay in the United States. Compared to the first year of the first Trump administration, arrests of noncriminals have increased 500 percent.
This is political violence, although the Trump administration and its supporters will never call it that.
Locking up thousands of people behind bars with no apparent recourse to our system of justice — especially, persons with no criminal record, who may be U.S. citizens or who may be living here with legal immigration status — is political violence, plain and simple.
The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocates more than $170 billion over four years for border and interior enforcement, with a stated goal of deporting 1 million immigrants each year. That is more than the yearly budget for all local and state law enforcement agencies combined across the entire United States.
But this is not the form of organized political violence mentioned in the “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” memorandum published by the White House.