Letter from Ed & Mary Rogers
Partisanship – April 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Martha,
We were very taken with your article “We’re All Partisan … and We Should Admit it” in the March 2001 issue of Colorado Central. We were part of the group that worked hard to get a change in the County Commissioner structure, and we’ve also been working hard to save the Cochetopa School Section (640 acres of land owned by the State Land Board) from being traded to a developer.
We immediately realized how afraid everyone was to endorse or complain, even though in private conversations they felt the way we did. Does “Partisan” mean that if you use integrity and speak out about how you feel you will be destroyed by THEM? Does this mean that the people with the money, power and position are indeed Partisan and will not hesitate to use the blade of destruction against dissension in the status quo?
Whenever a discussion of local politics comes up, we have an older woman rancher neighbor who says “This is the way it has always been….” Another long-term resident said “we tried to keep a road open into the National Forest but we were mowed over … so we don’t even try anything any more.”
Maybe it was easier for us to help initiate some change because we make our living off the internet. We feel that if you leave the work of change to others, they may either do nothing or simply replicate the problem in another form.
But if each of us adopts the attitude “Change begins with me,” we will be able to create the consciousness, the compassion and the actions for fundamental needed change. All this requires a certain amount of courage. Start somewhere. If you feel you will lose a contract or a job because of active endorsement, then provide support quietly.
With each small movement we regain our integrity, power, and democracy. Money and power will no longer bow us over. With each success, we in turn regain our integrity. That is something we can give to the next generation to make them strong.
In the final analysis, we do not feel “Partisan” applies to us for we do not seek destruction of anything. We seek the joy of expansion and free expression for everyone. As history always reveals, if people are denied their free will a revolution will occur. And what we saw in the last commissioner election was a revolution!
Ed Rogers
Mary Kunard Rogers
Poncha Springs