Mid-term ballots went out this week. If you are of voting age and didn’t get one you need to contact the county clerk and recorder or govotecolorado.com ASAP and find out what you need to do to get a ballot. Besides a race for our state’s governor, and our house representative, locally we’re voting for a county commissioner and a county clerk and recorder, as well as multiple amendments and ballot issues that are of critical importance to us here in Rio Blanco County.
Last week’s edition included a breakdown of all the ballot measures. This week includes the actual statewide ballot items in original language as well as a report on the highlights of a candidate forum held Monday. Please, take the time to read those articles before you cast your vote. We’ll continue to cover the races for the next few weeks, because not everyone votes right after getting their ballot. In fact, we’ve been told there were a number of folks who just carried their primary ballot across the street from the post office to the ballot box without even opening it. (Note: you have to open the envelope and fill in the dots for it to count. It’s much easier than standing in line at a ballot box, but it still takes a little effort.) That said, if you still have questions for the candidates in the contested races (clerk and recorder and county commissioner) please submit your questions to [email protected] and we’ll do our best to get those questions answered before the November election deadline so you can make an informed decision.
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Change is coming, whether we like it or not. Change is the nature of things that are alive. Stagnation is the nature of things that are obsolete.
When change comes, like the seasons, nature finds ways to adapt to meet those changes and make it through to the next season. You don’t see bears roaming around in January insisting it’s not winter.
Humans, on the other hand, tend to be alarmingly change-resistant. Not that change doesn’t happen to us, we just have a bad habit of choosing denial when faced with situations and circumstances that will force us to adapt our way of life, our way of thinking, or our belief systems. We’d rather kick and scream and insist that the change isn’t happening, and scramble for ways to preserve what we’re comfortable with.
But denial is a terrible place to live. There’s no peace there, no hope, no promise of finding comfort again. Only when we leave denial and move to acceptance can we start finding ways to adapt. I’m dealing with some of this personally, of course, but I’m also seeing it in the way we make decisions about the future of our county, our state, our nation, and even our planet.
Maybe we need to stop fearing change so much, and start pro-actively considering ways to adapt to meet the changes that are coming, because change is inexorable, and none of us are immune.
By Niki Turner | [email protected]
