Local government and the many organizations that provide services in our community have governing boards. You know them as city council or your town board, the school board, hospital board, water district board, cemetery board or fire prevention district board. At the county level, it\u2019s the board of county commissioners. There are also more than 200 nonprofits in Montezuma County providing an impressive array of support services that local government can\u2019t offer, and they have governing boards.<\/p>\n
The Bridge Shelter, Pinon Project, Montezuma Housing Authority and Habitat for Humanity focus on housing. Two local churches provide noon meals six days a week, and The Good Samaritan Center helps address food insecurity along with a number of other local food banks.<\/p>\n
The Montezuma Heritage Museum, Cortez Cultural Center and Sunflower Theater provide cultural enrichment. The Pinon Project provides programming for parents and children, and organizations like the Montezuma Land Conservancy work to protect our county lands through easements, stewardship, and educational programs that provide residents with opportunities to connect with nature.<\/p>\n
While the governing boards of these entities often oversee the expenditure of tax dollars and make important decisions that impact the quality of life in our community, too many pay little or no attention to the business of these governing bodies. There are lots of excellent excuses for not getting involved: \u201cI\u2019m busy with work.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m raising a family.\u201d I\u2019m caring for elderly parents.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know anything about serving on a board.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m \u2026 \u201d Of course, when a crisis occurs, we make time to protest the closing of the hospital birthing center, or the lack of transparency around a school board decision, but when the crisis is over, it\u2019s back to business as usual.<\/p>\n
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was a French author, sociologist and political theorist who came to America in 1831 to study our prisons. He was also a keen observer of our democracy, saying that \u201clocal government brings liberty within reach and teaches people to use it.\u201d Running for office or serving on a local board is how we exercise the democratic process. A democracy survives and flourishes only if its citizens are engaged.<\/p>\n
That engagement can occur in many ways: volunteering for a specific community event; attending council, town board, or commissioner meetings to listen and ask questions; taking the initiative to learn about an organization and helping it move forward to the extent you are able. Educate yourself before voting so you know something about the candidates or ballot issues and can make an informed vote.<\/p>\n
Recently, the Montezuma County League of Women Voters hosted a candidate forum for RE-1 school board candidates. All candidates received invitations, and nine of the eleven participated. About 60 attended the event, putting a face with a name and learning where each candidate stood on important school board issues. On Monday, Oct. 20, the League held a ballot issues forum to explain Propositions LL and MM, as well as local revenue issues on the November ballot. On Nov. 8, the League is hosting state Sen. Cleave Simpson and Rep. Katie Stewart to discuss the recent Special Session.<\/p>\n
League meetings are free and open to the public. Join \u2013 or not \u2013 but learn about important issues in our community, and get engaged.<\/p>\n
Karen Sheek of Cortez is the chair of the Montezuma County League of Women Voters. She served two terms on the Cortez City Council and two terms as mayor. Contact the local league at lwvmzc@gmail.com<\/a> and on Facebook at bit.ly\/47nrl8t<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" national politics often garner the lion\u2019s share of media coverage, many will tell you that it\u2019s local government that most directly impacts citizens\u2019 day-to-day lives. Look at your roads, your schools. Is your water safe to drink? When there is a fire or a loved one suffers a heart attack, do emergency responders arrive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15930","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=15930"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19922,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15930\/revisions\/19922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15930"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}