Newmann: Differing agendas
We popped into the Avon library the other night to attend the Eagle County post-session town hall meeting.
The meeting (which, happily, was not a session about posts) featured State Sen. Dylan Roberts and Rep. Meghan Lukens, who each gave summations of their work in the recently concluded Colorado legislative session. After each spoke, they took questions from the audience and, when the meeting ended, stuck around to talk with anyone who had additional queries.
All in all, an informative and very low-key meeting.
But one aspect really stuck out.
Roberts, at the end of the presentation, thanked the attendees for coming … especially in light of the tragic series of events in Minnesota the previous weekend.
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Our first reaction to his comment was, “Why wouldn’t we be here?” The second was, “Shame that we’d even have to worry about attending a town hall — especially in Avon.”
And then, turning to look toward the back of the room, we noticed an armed law enforcement officer.
So maybe this is the new reality, that you can’t be too sure about possible consequences, no matter where you are. Even in areas where most folks just go about their own business and are generally peaceful and respectful in the process.
Would be sad — and discouraging — if that’s true.
The longshoreman/philosopher Eric Hoffer was asked in the immediate aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 if the shooting was a sign of a sick society. No, he replied, it’s the sign of a sick individual. Seemed, at the time, like a logical answer.
But times change.
That’s not to say that we live in a sick society. But perhaps the number of sick individuals within that society has significantly increased.
The suspect in Minnesota who Roberts referred to is allegedly a religious zealot and an ardent proponent of the right to life … and yet seemed to have no qualms about shooting four people. Numerous times. Nothing remotely balanced about that.
And, when asked about the incident and whether he would call the governor of Minnesota to offer support, the president first disparaged the governor and then said, “I could be nice and call, but why waste the time?” Nothing remotely balanced about that, either.
So perhaps, in some instances, there’s just a disconnect, a separate reality that folks wander into where they have their own set of rules, their own measures of conduct. And a very different outlook on decency.
By contrast, the measures of conduct at the meeting in Avon were … well, they were normal. And decent. The representatives were articulate and respectful, and the audience likewise was articulate and respectful.
One can only hope that the standards of the meeting set the norms for future meetings.
And that the same set of standards can also be maintained outside the meeting halls.
Tom Newmann splits his time between Edwards and Queenstown, New Zealand. He has been going winter-to-winter since 1986. He was also a journalist in Missoula, Montana, at the Missoulian for quite a few years. Email him at tsnnz12@gmail.com.
