Posted: Saturday, 15 January 2011; Updated: Monday, 21 February 2011
It is ironic that Friday's front page headlines of the Monitor [of 14 Jan] carried two items of immense importance where the more important item received less attention.
In the more important headline, "Council drafts a new vision statement", reporter Kirsten Laskey listed the proposed vision statement along with ten new statement goals. Not addressed in either the vision statement or the County Council's ten goals was there any critical concern for the reasons behind the other headline item, "Weapons cache seized".
Laskey's article reminds me of a letter to the editor of December 26, 2010, where citizen John Diennes wrote about the council's "backwards" priorities, observing that it marginalizes local citizens in the process of making its decisions. It also reminded me of Geoff Rodgers' statement during the September 12, 2010 LAGRI (Los Alamos Government Review Initiative) forum for potential councilors, where he addressed this same question, stating that he was a citizen first and a councilor second. I think Geoff has become the solitary voice for the ordinary citizen and was recently elected by the majority of marginalized citizens who feel unheard these days.
At least that is why I voted for him.
Note: an amplified version of this letter was published by the Monitor on Tuesday, January 18.
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It is ironic that Friday's front page headlines of the Monitor [of 14 Jan] carried two items of immense importance where the more important item received less attention.
In the more important headline, "Council drafts a new vision statement", reporter Kirsten Laskey listed the proposed vision statement along with ten new statement goals. Not addressed in either the vision statement or the County Council's ten goals was there any critical concern for the reasons behind the other headline item, "Weapons cache seized".
Laskey's article reminds me of a letter to the editor of December 26, 2010, where citizen John Diennes wrote about the council's "backwards" priorities, observing that it marginalizes local citizens in the process of making its decisions. It also reminded me of Geoff Rodgers' statement during the September 12, 2010 LAGRI (Los Alamos Government Review Initiative) forum for potential councilors, where he addressed this same question, stating that he was a citizen first and a councilor second. I think Geoff has become the solitary voice for the ordinary citizen and was recently elected by the majority of marginalized citizens who feel unheard these days.
At least that is why I voted for him.
Note: an amplified version of this letter was published by the Monitor on Tuesday, January 18.
.