{"id":49376,"date":"2021-01-11T16:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T23:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-protesters-decry-u-s-rep-lauren-boeberts-rhetoric\/"},"modified":"2021-01-11T23:14:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T23:14:00","slug":"durango-protesters-decry-u-s-rep-lauren-boeberts-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-protesters-decry-u-s-rep-lauren-boeberts-rhetoric\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango protesters decry U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert\u2019s rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:dae66ebc-9ce5-45aa-8d61-f340447e8a67 --><\/p>\n<p>Activists and residents rallied Friday in Durango\u2019s Buckley Park to protest Rep. Lauren Boebert\u2019s objection to the results of the presidential election and her comments prior to Wednesday\u2019s violence at the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n<p>They also began efforts to mobilize voters in the 3rd Congressional District ahead of the 2022 election.<\/p>\n<p>The rally, billed as \u201cStop the Sedition,\u201d was organized by Indivisible Durango. It is one of many loosely organized activist groups across the country formed in the aftermath of President Donald Trump\u2019s election to resist many of the messages Trump was advocating.<\/p>\n<p>Durango\u2019s was one of several protests held Friday across the sprawling 3rd Congressional District to oppose Boebert\u2019s comments, particularly a tweet she sent Wednesday morning that read \u201cToday is 1776,\u201d a reference to the American Revolutionary War that some interpreted as a call to violence.<\/p>\n<p>Boebert\u2019s office did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d-xdZXwwpOs\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The rally featured speakers from the community, including Benjamin James Waddell, a sociology professor at Fort Lewis College, and Finn Bridgham, a student at Animas High School. They spoke against Boebert\u2019s comments and outlined hopes for the coming years, particularly the goal of increasing enfranchisement and eventually seeing Boebert defeated in the 2022 race.<\/p>\n<p>Speakers and organizers of Friday\u2019s protest said a key to changing the 3rd Congressional District vote lies in persuading populations that historically do not turn out in high numbers to participate in elections, including Latinos, Native Americans and others.<\/p>\n<p>Bridgham, who plans to vote for the first time in 2022, spoke about how youth turnout could be increased.\u201cI feel like the best way for you to have a voice is to be more active in the political sphere,\u201d Bridgham said.. That can include running for office, campaigning, lobbying \u2013 any sort of form of activism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=182130c4-df63-4a41-966e-0a271f6d6b6b&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1050\" alt=\"Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Finn Bridgham speaks Friday in Buckley Park where about 80 people showed up to protest U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and the comments she made leading up to Wednesday&amp;#x2019;s violence at the U.S. Capitol.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Finn Bridgham speaks Friday in Buckley Park where about 80 people showed up to protest U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and the comments she made leading up to Wednesday&amp;#x2019;s violence at the U.S. Capitol.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Other protests occurred throughout the 3rd District on Friday, including in Pueblo and Grand Junction. The organizers called for Boebert\u2019s resignation or expressed interest in seeing her recalled, but Indivisible Durango did not advocate for those outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think she\u2019s going to resign,\u201d said Karen Pontius, an activist and organizer who is part of Indivisible Durango.<\/p>\n<p>She also acknowledged it was unlikely Boebert would be removed from office, because although controversial and seemingly inflammatory, the representative\u2019s statements had not explicitly violated her oath of office.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Indivisible Durango and other community activists hope to hold Boebert accountable for statements she makes and things she does during the next two years in Congress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that what one needs to do is convince voters that there are better options out there,\u201d Waddell said.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\">John Purcell is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican made headlines contesting election results<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1167,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-exclude-homepage-video","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49376","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=49376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49376"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}