¶ Open let LaPlata BoCC - re anonymous letter(s?) - February 28th, 2018

An open letter to the La Plata County Commissioners

Brad Blake

Julie Westendorff

Gwen Lachelt

February 28, 2018

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Hello County Commissioners,

I live in rural La Plata County and yesterday I was called by a neighbor about an unsettling anonymous letter received in their mail.  The letter isn't threatening per se but it does intimidate, 'we know who you are, where you live, and we don't like what you say in public!' sort of thing.  Besides the intimidation, its content is vague, inaccurate and directed at the wrong people. An angry myopic venting that deserves a response.

It’s not worth calling the sheriff, but on the other hand it is certainly worth reporting and making a big deal about since I believe it's another example of outside forces bringing high-powered ruthless political practices into our community.  It's pure poison.

Stoking hostility and misunderstanding and yes intimidation is not the American way to go, that’s the stuff of totalitarianism and hopeless conflict.

Our current land code planning controversies can only be resolved by recognizing that time does change our reality.  Our population has been exploding and population densities do matter a great deal, no matter how much our nostalgia wants to wish it away.  

Dreaming about the freedom of a bygone wild era, when the nearest neighbor was a mile or many miles away, are not going to help us deal with today’s down to Earth problems and moving into the future.  That past is gone.

¶ Breen LandUseCode Community Meeting - This Is What Democracy Looks Like !

The following column was written for the March issue of the FourCornersFreePress out of Cortez.  I usually try to wait until the column comes out before posting what I've written, but in light of a curious anonymous letter going around, I think Gail will understand me putting it up now.

This is an example of democracy in action, as opposed to anonymous letters meant to intimidate, which are nothing less than totalitarian tactics !

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Children of the Intellectual Enlightenment, liberals, progressives, seekers of objective facts and rational learning based on constructive debates, believers in our pluralistic society and our democratic way of government, please look around and take note. We are in deep trouble.

For decades while we’ve been distracted with our own concerns, the Koch brothers and friends have been busy spreading their tentacles ever deeper into USA’s election process and they are getting poised for a hostile take over bid this election season.

They are consolidating their forces and targeting liberal bastions for take down. Once targeted their strategy is to find a local issue that raises blood pressures. Then they feed anxious people their Libertarian Siren Song which is heavily dosed with contrived hostility and misinformation.

Here in Durango we have an example unfolding that I want to look at. First the set up. The Koch front group, Americans for Prosperity, opened a recruitment office, some would call it a brainwashing center, since they don’t listen. Like over the top evangelicals brimming with self-certainty, they tell you what to think, accept it or become a bad guy.

Then another outfit calling itself “SaveLaPlataCounty.com" pops up. Followed by yet another, this one calling itself the LaPlata Liberty Coalition which set up a blog and Facebook page boasting the wonderfully vague libertarian mission statement: “A Coalition of ‘We The People’ Working to Protect and Preserve the Historical and Constitutional Rights of the Citizens of La Plata County.”

What’s that even mean? Historically we had the Right to cruise local roads drinking beer and it wouldn’t bother anyone, but decades sneak by, landscapes that used to be wild and free, are full of homes and septic tanks and traffic and kids and all that jazz.

¶ Considering 1/29/18 Durango Herald report on Americans for Prosperity - Jonathan Romeo

On Monday Jonathan Romeo authored another Durango Herald article that looked at Americans for Prosperity’s campaign against the land-use code that La Plata County’s duly elected County Commissioners are drafting.  I’ve taken selected quotes from the article and annotated them with observations gleaned from my past few days researching Americans for Prosperity.

Americans for Prosperity launches campaign over La Plata County’s land-use code

Koch brothers-backed group says it will fight proposed rules

By Jonathan Romeo County & environment reporter

Monday, Jan. 29, 2018 | Durango Herald

https://durangoherald.com/articles/206085-americans-for-prosperity-launches-campaign-over-la-plata-countys-landuse-code

“This plan is harmful in many ways to farmers and ranchers and grossly infringes on individuals’ property rights.” 

{What about all the ways it’s helpful in dealing with serious growing pains?  We can’t simply ignore this reality.}

Americans for Prosperity was founded in 2004 as a political arm of the billionaire Koch brothers, who owns the second largest privately held company in the U.S. …

{Here we touch on the fundamental problem with AFP, it was created to serve Koch’s interests.}

In the last eight years, Americans for Prosperity has turned to homing in on smaller communities in an effort to oust progressive elected officials and undercut the left’s command in grass-roots organizing.… 

{Thus smother all opposition to Koch’s radical agenda for our government.}