{"id":101747,"date":"2018-01-22T17:03:19","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T00:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mb-mcafee-its-time-to-listen-to-other-voices\/"},"modified":"2018-01-22T17:03:19","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T00:03:19","slug":"mb-mcafee-its-time-to-listen-to-other-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mb-mcafee-its-time-to-listen-to-other-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"MB McAfee: It\u2019s time to listen to other voices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"MB
MB McAfee<br><br>(Barbara Grist photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mary Beth \u201cMB\u201d McAfee is a welcome addition to the District 1 race for the Montezuma County Board of Commissioners.<\/p>\n

She will raise awareness of issues that affect a substantial number of the county\u2019s underrepresented citizens.<\/p>\n

McAfee is also brave to tackle that challenge, because she, along with other progressives in Montezuma County, remembers the vitriol heaped upon her husband, Chuck McAfee, during his own campaign. One of the loudest criticisms was that he\u2019d lived in Boulder.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County is not Boulder. No one \u2013 certainly not Chuck or MB \u2013 imagines that it is. But it is also not monolithically white, male and staunchly conservative.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, partisanship in Montezuma County has grown more pronounced, as it has across the country. At the same time, political diversity has increased here. Simply put, the population includes a growing number of people who not only have no voice and no vote on the county commission, they don\u2019t even have an ear there.<\/p>\n

McAfee ticks several discussion-broadening boxes. Besides being a Democrat and a woman, she has broad and valuable experience in, simply put, making things work. She is both visionary and practical. She has been an active volunteer for many years in an area where funds and helpers often are in short supply. She grew up here and came back after a successful career elsewhere. Those are all good qualities.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s far too early to endorse anyone for the commission seat. In the Republican primary, incumbent James Lambert will face two challengers who also will contribute unique topics and viewpoints, and other candidates may yet step up.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s long past time, though, to stop dismissing anyone who doesn\u2019t match up well with the local majority and any idea that isn\u2019t part of a national platform.<\/p>\n

Many, many of the issues relevant to local governance don\u2019t fit neatly into partisan classifications, and the county benefits when the full range of ideas can be debated openly and honestly. We need everyone to bring their best to the table and to be respectful of others who are doing the same.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take some time to listen and think carefully. MB McAfee potentially speaks for a whole lot of the county\u2019s constituents who may not be part of the partisan majority,w but who definitely have a right to be part of the conversation about the future direction of this county.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s time to listen to other voices, the county\u2019s unrepresented residents<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5821,5819],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-101747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-opinion","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101747"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=101747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}