The Colorado State Open Thread is designed to entertain and enlighten Coloradoans and people interested in our state. I do sometimes have topics designed to provoke thought and I always seek to engage the readership, but I know there are far more readers in Colorado who come to Daily Kos and don’t always check out my column. I sometimes poll readers about what interests you have, and I do try and give the readers what they want. If anyone has a different interest, they are welcome to express it either in the comments or by writing one (or more) of these columns. I’m certainly happy to take a break and give others a guest host opportunity. This August we will have guest hosts and I’ll work out the exact schedule over the next few weeks. The last time I went away for a few weeks, I was really happy to read the stories of singers and different areas of the state. I don’t pretend to know every corner and it’s nice to learn new things.
One thing my polling has consistently turned up is that people don’t seem to want this column to be just in-depth analysis of Colorado News. Some seems to be welcomed, but people have also wanted pictures of mine, some offbeat stories I’ve turned up from around Colorado, photo quizzes and yes, some humorous digs at Republican politicians like Lauren Boebert. I mention this, because there were a couple of stories written by someone new to DailyKos who was bemoaning the lack of in-depth articles on local politics, and they were grousing about how DailyKos could be so much more. Well, I write for you, and apparently I don’t write for him (not even sure if it is a him or her, not that it matters). I’ve always been clear in my invitations to write what you want in a guest column occasionally.
One thing that some of us share in common is a love for the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, out on the plains of Colorado a bit farther out than DIA. It was proposed a few months ago that we should have a group meetup of Kosacks out at the Sanctuary this summer (summer includes, in my mind, September and early October). It was generally agreed that we would have fun meeting in meatspace to look at all the pretty kitties, the lions, tigers and bears (oh, my!) as well as leopards, jaguars, wolves and whatever else they may have out there. Summer has now arrived, and I’d like to hear when people would like to go. I have some trips planned: June 11-15, July 1-6th, and July 29th — August 30th. I don’t know when others may have trips or other plans, but please leave any suggestions for an outing date in the comments. I’ll collect them into a poll and then we’ll try settling on a date in a week or two for an outing later this summer. My goal will be to also make an opportunity for car-pooling so that we save on carbon output and we have some opportunities for people to meet each other before we all meet at the Sanctuary. In your comments, please share if you’ll need or be able to offer a ride to someone and what general area (e.g. Boulder) you would be coming from.
Those of you in the Denver area are probably happy that your long nightmare of a mayoral campaign is finally coming to an end. I say “Denver Area” because that’s where we get the local news from, so we’ve had news, commercials, attack ads, debates and interviews for months leading up to tomorrow’s election. My poll below is my in-depth reporting on the state of Kosack opinions just before the whole race is settled. Please indicate your preference (or your lack thereof).
In another in-depth journalistic endeavor, I’m interested to hear whether you ever get together with your friends, or a club or some sort of organization to discuss political issues. For example, my regular gathering has recently become a quasi-church that I attend on Sunday mornings. I can’t call it a “church” because we meet in an unconsecrated bank meeting room and the people who attend are called “Quakers, Unitarians and Others”. We have a very Christian minister member, but we have people like me who are atheists or agnostics or still trying to find our way in the world. Lately I’ve picked up a couple of books on Buddhism to try and understand the church my friend attends. This last Sunday, there was no formal presentation but everyone shared things about various environmental topics that we had lately read or heard about. We talked quite a bit about how the town council is and is not paying attention to environmental issues when allowing development to go on (for example, why are they not requiring solar panels on new workforce housing projects?), how can we get the council and mayor to pay attention to the desires of environmentalists in this town so dependent upon a beautiful natural environment, etc. I think some of the attendees were pleased to learn what can be more effective in trying to sway members of the council than speaking at the town meetings for three minutes every other week (one-on-one contact with council members, like inviting them for coffee or inviting them to meetings of an organization seemed to be the recommendation to have a longer interaction with them). Do you know your local representatives, and have you made any effort to share your interests and concerns with them? I haven’t reached out since I don’t live inside the town limits, but I was pleased to learn that they still can listen to those of us who live in the area so I now will make more of an effort to speak with them. What have you done, or tried to do? Were you successful?
Please let us know your thoughts down below. I just had one of my own pretty kitties come up on my keyboard, start nuzzling my hands for petting and start pressing keys (all are signs she wants me to stop typing and pay attention to her (never mind I’ve been throwing dog toys all through my diary creation to keep my large dog entertained). The floor is yours...