Dear Editor:
A 2020 candidate for U.S. Congress, I’ve lived in Durango 26 years. After driving 5,000 miles over this winter, through mountain pass blizzards, I’ve twice visited all 29 of our 3rd Congressional District counties; meeting, greeting and speaking.
I appreciate the wonderful folks I’ve met on this trip; many of whom helped me in various ways. Your presence, your questions and your suggestions have helped me learn about each county, your concerns and needs.
I am leading on our climate crisis, while addressing four strategic threat areas: healthy democracy; healthy population; healthy economy; and healthy environment. We are now beset with a highly contagious and rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic emergency; please be safe and come out of it whole.
We are in the midst of a “war for the future.” These crises expose the fragility of our societal systems. We are ill prepared to deal with these cascading crises and the collapsing of our two-tiered economy. It not only involves technical systemic issues; it is a profoundly moral challenge of justice and fairness.
There are economic impacts transitioning from fossil fuel energy to renewables. A just transition through both of these crises can be eased with two major systemic policies: Medicare For All and Green New Deal. Having worked with system problems all my life as an industrial consultant and systems engineer, I’m the candidate best prepared to address the challenges of the job as your representative.
America faces an ongoing stream of “shock events” due to pandemics, the collapse of ecosystems, and climate emergencies. Everything interacts, which challenges effective policy legislation to address all the tradeoffs involved. That is a systems challenge, requiring systems expertise. My website, RootForCitizenCongressman.org, demonstrates that.
Please vote for Root. I’ve already confronted policies of Republican incumbent, Scott Tipton, with guest columns in public media.
Root Routledge
CD3 Congressional Candidate
Durango, Colorado
