Opinion

Opinion: Small actions can make a big difference in changing the future

RBC I It’s hard to know what to say, especially in a forum like this, about the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., a week and a half ago.
Because this is a newspaper, and though I by no means fancy myself a journalist, I’m tempted to try my hand at hurtling statistics and tearing apart numbers, jumping all-in to the political hoopla still raging more than a week later, in print and on Facebook and blogs.
It would all be an act. And it would be disingenuous to those who are gone.
So instead of analyzing causes and effects and coming to a range of logical solutions, I’ll do a very unjournalistic thing and just write it the way it looks to this, frankly, somewhat lost observer.
That isn’t to say I believe the political conversations shouldn’t be happening. To some extent, I’m glad they are. Because if all the toil and tumult results in fewer scenarios that drop my stomach to my toes the day there’s a lockdown, or lets everyday people attend a movie without glancing over their shoulders throughout the viewing, that’s a good thing. I wish there was a simple answer to what is ultimately a complex problem.
But I look at our communities, one of which I’ve been a part of off and on since I was 12, and I wonder if there aren’t simpler questions. Like the essential one: couldn’t the same thing happen here as happened in Newtown, and if it could—which it most certainly could—what can we do in the here, in the now, to prevent it?
After going to college and earning my degree, I never planned to return to Rangely. I was going to do bigger things in a bigger place and Rangely didn’t fit the bill. My husband Mike brought me back, and he brought me, figuratively at least, kicking and screaming. He returned because this was his home, and he loved the people, the area and the lifestyle. And after the three years I’d initially given him for staying had turned into 10, I no longer had to question his decision to return. Because I, too, had come back to northwest Colorado in the same ways he had.
I had returned to a job where teachers and staff cared enough about the students to call them up long after they’d been graduated from CNCC. I had returned to a village where raising three children was the embraced work not only of my husband and me, but of our old teachers and parents’ friends, who gave our kids the same advice they’d given us. I had come back to forgiveness of the past, when who I was and things I’d done weren’t held against me.
But now, just over a week after the shooting, I think about those for whom Rangely is not a sanctuary but a prison, an isolation booth, or a magnifying glass. I think about the hurt and pain beneath the facades of people I greet in the grocery store, or the hardware store, or the Loaf ‘N’ Jug. And I know that the stories they carry are the same ones we all endure, those of disappointment or failure or loss. And most of them, however painful, will not end in tragedy.
But some will: in the tragedy of a failed marriage, or a friendship severed, or a reputation lost. Or, God forbid, in a tragedy of deeper proportions, the kind that was unthinkable in Newtown or Littleton or Aurora until it happened.
And in my own lostness amid people raging at the media, or at guns, or at lawmakers, I can look to myself, my own actions, and ask: What am I missing? Who am I missing?
Who needs an invitation, a kind word, a gesture of respect? Who needs someone at the other end of the phone line listening to their stories, their frustrations, their successes?
Who has material needs I might help meet, even if in seemingly small ways?
What support am I giving local entities that help troubled people, either financially or with my time and effort?
How am I supporting our schools and their work to make safer spaces for our children?
How am I pushing beyond my comfort zone to reach out to someone nobody else is?
To most of these questions, I see troubling gaps in my own response. And I realize there’s a bigger picture than this, that some problems are larger than we can tackle across backyard fences or with a smile and a handshake.
But still I wonder whether the kind of change that has spread with movements like Random Acts of Kindness could make some small difference on our own turf, in the here and now. Whether small steps of proactive intervention have a place in preventing the next national tragedy.

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  • Jake Blazon at bat for the Meeker Cowboys. The MHS team brought home two wins against Olathe and lost two against the North Fork Miners. The location for this weekend’s games has not been announced due to weather and field conditions. Read the full story online at ht1885.com.
  • The 2024 Meeker High School boys basketball team held their awards banquet last week. Jace Mobley was named Player of the Western Slope League and all-conference, Ryan Sullivan all-conference, Jonathon Fitzgibbons all-conference, Ethan Quinn honorable mention all-conference, Jacob Simonsen honorable mention all conference. Mobley will play in All State games. Coach Klark Kindler was named Western Slope Coach of the Year. Left to right: Bryan Rosas, Simonsen, Quinn, Fitzgibbons, Mobley and Sullivan.
  • It's that time again! Another edition of great local news stories is 
🐰 Hopping 🐰 your way this morning! Catch up on everything thats 🐣 hatching 🐣 in Rio Blanco County this week.
Need a copy? Signing up is fast and easy! Visit our website at ht1885.com/subscribe to get a copy sent to your door every week! 
We appreciate all your continued support!
  • It’s getting late, do you know where your kids are? Read all the Rio Happenings for this week in print or online at ht1885.com.
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Rio Blanco County and the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts are still asking for your help to identify additional hatch-outs of crickets so that control efforts can be put in place. The success of the program will highly depend upon local landowners and the public helping to locate crickets as soon as they hatch.  See last week’s paper for a list of ways to help or contact the County Weed & Pest District at 970-878-9670 or the Conservation District office at 970-878-9838 with any questions. Website: www.WhiteRiverCD.com
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Jake Blazon at bat for the Meeker Cowboys. The MHS team brought home two wins against Olathe and lost two against the North Fork Miners. The location for this weekend’s games has not been announced due to weather and field conditions. Read the full story online at ht1885.com.
Jake Blazon at bat for the Meeker Cowboys. The MHS team brought home two wins against Olathe and lost two against the North Fork Miners. The location for this weekend’s games has not been announced due to weather and field conditions. Read the full story online at ht1885.com.
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The 2024 Meeker High School boys basketball team held their awards banquet last week. Jace Mobley was named Player of the Western Slope League and all-conference, Ryan Sullivan all-conference, Jonathon Fitzgibbons all-conference, Ethan Quinn honorable mention all-conference, Jacob Simonsen honorable mention all conference. Mobley will play in All State games. Coach Klark Kindler was named Western Slope Coach of the Year. Left to right: Bryan Rosas, Simonsen, Quinn, Fitzgibbons, Mobley and Sullivan.
The 2024 Meeker High School boys basketball team held their awards banquet last week. Jace Mobley was named Player of the Western Slope League and all-conference, Ryan Sullivan all-conference, Jonathon Fitzgibbons all-conference, Ethan Quinn honorable mention all-conference, Jacob Simonsen honorable mention all conference. Mobley will play in All State games. Coach Klark Kindler was named Western Slope Coach of the Year. Left to right: Bryan Rosas, Simonsen, Quinn, Fitzgibbons, Mobley and Sullivan.
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It's that time again! Another edition of great local news stories is 
🐰 Hopping 🐰 your way this morning! Catch up on everything thats 🐣 hatching 🐣 in Rio Blanco County this week.
Need a copy? Signing up is fast and easy! Visit our website at ht1885.com/subscribe to get a copy sent to your door every week! 
We appreciate all your continued support!
It's that time again! Another edition of great local news stories is 🐰 Hopping 🐰 your way this morning! Catch up on everything thats 🐣 hatching 🐣 in Rio Blanco County this week. Need a copy? Signing up is fast and easy! Visit our website at ht1885.com/subscribe to get a copy sent to your door every week! We appreciate all your continued support!
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Mormon crickets have hatched near Rangely. They were all sighted on BLM land north of Hwy. 64 near the junction of CR 96 and CR 1, down a dirt road near the Moffat County line.  The picture shown was taken yesterday by Mary Meinen from Rangely. She says the crickets are about the size of a ladybug (less than 1/2”). Some of them are actually yellow in color but most of them are darker. They are milling around and getting ready to start moving soon. Note: Photo is not to scale.
Rio Blanco County and the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts are still asking for your help to identify additional hatch-outs of crickets so that control efforts can be put in place. The success of the program will highly depend upon local landowners and the public helping to locate crickets as soon as they hatch.  See last week’s paper for a list of ways to help or contact the County Weed & Pest District at 970-878-9670 or the Conservation District office at 970-878-9838 with any questions. Website: www.WhiteRiverCD.com
Mormon crickets have hatched near Rangely. They were all sighted on BLM land north of Hwy. 64 near the junction of CR 96 and CR 1, down a dirt road near the Moffat County line. The picture shown was taken yesterday by Mary Meinen from Rangely. She says the crickets are about the size of a ladybug (less than 1/2”). Some of them are actually yellow in color but most of them are darker. They are milling around and getting ready to start moving soon. Note: Photo is not to scale. Rio Blanco County and the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts are still asking for your help to identify additional hatch-outs of crickets so that control efforts can be put in place. The success of the program will highly depend upon local landowners and the public helping to locate crickets as soon as they hatch. See last week’s paper for a list of ways to help or contact the County Weed & Pest District at 970-878-9670 or the Conservation District office at 970-878-9838 with any questions. Website: www.WhiteRiverCD.com
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Meeker FFA Chapter members competed at the District Leadership Development Event in Craig, Colorado, this month. Top row from left to right: Eva Scritchfield, Charlie Rogers, Alan Rivera, Trent Sanders, Koy Weber, Orion Musser, Said Rodriguez, Carlos Carrillo, Aidan Tapia, Hayden Garcia, Tristan Rollins, Mathew Willey, Quentin Simpson. Middle row: Sidney Keetch, Aurora Stallings, Sydnie Ross, Ava Nay, Lili Piper, Leah Wood. Bottom Row: Jaicee Simmons, Kailynn Watson, Cody Richardson, Kayla Castillo, Braydin Raley, Autumn Stallings, Aimee Shults, Emily Hamm. Read the full story online at ht1885.com.
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