When Christi Zeller first heard about protesters picketing San Juan Basin Public Health Director Liane Jollon\u2019s house, she thought, \u201cI know what that feels like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zeller, executive director of the Energy Council, a regional trade organization representing the oil and gas industry struggled through a similarly difficult period of harassment in the mid-2010s.<\/p>\n
While her situation wasn\u2019t exactly like Jollon\u2019s \u2013 her home wasn\u2019t picketed, for example \u2013 she was regularly and personally threatened by people opposed to her professional positions.<\/p>\n
It was annoying, unnerving and frightening at times.<\/p>\n
On at least five occasions, when Zeller was testifying at governmental hearings, sheriff\u2019s deputies or others had to escort her to her car because people in the audience had been heard making threatening remarks; sometimes, when she reached her car, it was surrounded by angry people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels dangerous to be a target,\u201d she said. She began keeping a log of incidents and copies of threatening documents. She asked police to add patrols to her street.<\/p>\n
People wrote nasty letters to the editor; one even wrote a mean poem about her. A local cartoonist published numerous unflattering caricatures. Angry people called her names and wrote vicious posts on social media. Individuals wrote to her board of directors, trying to get her fired. (Her board was unwaveringly supportive.)<\/p>\n
Zeller understands that people have their disagreements with her organization\u2019s policy positions. But she was just doing her job. It felt like she\u2019d become the poster child for angry people looking for someone to blame.<\/p>\n
Zeller hopes speaking out now won\u2019t revive any of the animosity she experienced in the past. But she feels it\u2019s important to note that this kind of harassment isn\u2019t intrinsically Democratic or Republican, liberal or conservative; people just get angry and want to put a face on the \u201cenemy.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Zeller, even though the public harassment has died down, she remains ever alert to personal threats. And she realized she can never again be just \u201cChristi Zeller, ordinary person\u201d; instead, she will always be identified by her professional position.<\/p>\n
She loves her job, but \u201cwhatever I do as an individual is always seen as (representing) the Energy Council,\u201d she said. As a result, \u201cI\u2019ve lost my voice for anything else I care passionately about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of the threats and harassment of public health officials this year, a bill is making its way through the Colorado Assembly that would add public health workers to a statute that prevents \u201cdoxxing\u201d by allowing them to remove their personal information from public databases. The law already similarly protects social service workers.<\/p>\n
At least 20 public health directors across the state have left their jobs since the advent of COVID-19 because of public animosity, including threats and harassment similar to what Jollon has experienced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time the crowd showed up at my front door with signs, flags and bullhorns was extremely jarring,\u201d Jollon testified at an Assembly hearing. \u201cBut it\u2019s actually the steady creep as a result of doxxing, the constant worry about who else has my personal address and phone number, and what kind of ill intent they may harbor, that does the most damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
We support such statutory solutions as long as they do not unnecessarily curtail free speech. Protesting is appropriate to our democratic paradigm; threats of harm, inciting violence and intimidation are not. Whatever our politics, we must together oppose such behavior.<\/p>\n
Zeller loves Durango; the community is a supportive one, caring and compassionate, particularly when the chips are down, she says. After a big blizzard, neighbors always show up to help each other out, she pointed out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy can\u2019t we treat each other like every day is a snow day?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s bipartisan behavior<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48126","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=48126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48126"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}