Politics above all

The Douglas County School District recently settled a yearlong battle with former superintendent Corey Wise. e district agreed to pay more than $800,000 to settle the legal dispute Wise led shortly after being red without cause in early 2022.

I am not going to rehash how and why he was red. I think those discussions have been extensive. However, I will talk about a statement Wise made in concluding the battle. Wise told reporters he hoped the settlement would push more school districts and boards to stop putting politics ahead of students.

I doubt if the message he is pushing can even be considered in today’s political world. I would bet I’m not alone in thinking that political views have invaded every aspect of our lives — the toxic problem is not just about our students.

I will start with students and schools. No one can say politics are not in our schools. One could argue that school boards are more about politics than ever.

Look at the Elizabeth School District. Board members resigned even though all of them had conservative political views. However, fear and rumors brought the makeup of the elected board down.

In Douglas County, several of the current board members received voter support because they promised to be against mask mandates during the COVID-19 shutdowns.

Gone are the days where school boards are looking at test scores and seeing what measures need to be taken to improve reading and math scores. Instead, it’s the trigger words that lead to battles over critical race theory, social-emotional learning and masks.

As a parent, I want an emphasis placed on reading, writing, math and good student-to-teacher ratios. All the shouting, bickering and politics has me agreeing with the parents who pull their kids out of public schools for home schooling or other options.

Wise’s point goes far beyond schools. Political bickering from our two major parties has gone to extremes that most Americans are sick of.

Political ghting prevents this country’s lawmakers from compromising to produce sensible legislation in key areas. Homelessness, a ordable housing, in ation, crime — all of these need focus and attention.

However, one side will introduce legislation only to have the other vehemently hate it. Compromise may happen in some areas — but it’s rare.

Our lawmakers are threatened by party leaders from voting for bills introduced by the other side. Sensible gun control should be discussed and debated. What is good for this country? What might stop some of these mass shootings?

However, it won’t happen because every time a tragedy takes place the left screams gun control while the right barks about the Second Amendment. What if they came together, talked and discussed true solutions?

In the end, “politics” is like slime, spreading all over, leaving residue, stains and permanent marks that will never be resolved without true e ort.

elma Grimes is the south metro editor for Colorado Community Media.

LINDA SHAPLEY Publisher lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com

MICHAEL DE YOANNA Editor-in-Chief michael@coloradocommunitymedia.com

THELMA GRIMES South Metro Editor tgrimes@coloradocommunitymedia.com

TAYLER SHAW Community Editor tshaw@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Bring your own ...

We all know what BYOB means right? It’s a restaurant that doesn’t serve alcohol, so the BYOB means bring your own booze. We love those establishments that have a full bar, great wines, and specialty cocktails. And when the food is as good or better than the booze, all the better. But we also love those restaurants that require us to bring our own booze. Maybe it’s because they couldn’t get a liquor license, or maybe they prefer to focus on their passion for the food they cook, and either way, they are still a BYOB.

What if we thought about this in other areas of life? Even if we aren’t a restauranteur, or even if we are, we face other situations and opportunities in life that require us to bring something else to the game in order to achieve success. What if we thought about changing BYOB to BYOK, bring your own kindness? Or BYOS, bring your own strength. Perhaps it’s BYOP, bring your own peace. As you read this you could probably ll in the blank with, bring your own compassion, grace, awesomeness, courage, hope, or any other positive, encouraging, and a rming word.

So, let’s tackle a few, shall we?

BYOK, bring your own kindness. As I did some research for this column, asking people what they wished the world would bring if they had to bring their own anything, kindness was the number one word. ose I spoke with and others who responded to a survey shared that the ugliness and negativity of the world had them wishing that the world could be a little kinder, well actually, a lot kinder. One respondent was

ERIN ADDENBROOKE Marketing Consultant eaddenbrooke@coloradocommunitymedia.com

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LINDSAY NICOLETTI Operations/ Circulation Manager lnicoletti@coloradocommunitymedia.com so convicted of this that she felt that, “If we could all just show up with kindness every day, we could actually have a greater impact on the world than climate change e orts, economic shifts, and voting in the right candidate for president.”

BYOS, bring your own strength. Sometimes life deals us a bad or di cult hand. Sometimes we nd ourselves in a season of life where we succumb to our weaknesses, or we see the situation as too much for us to handle; Illness, divorce, addiction, or death in our circle of family and friends, and so many other horrible life events that can cause us to cave. BYOS means that we nd our inner strength, and if we don’t have that strength or can’t nd that strength, we need to BYOS, bring the strength of others who come alongside us, just when we need them the most. BYOP, bring your own peace. Wow, could this be the most proli c of all BYO’s? In the agitated world that nds us reading news about road rage, random violence, wars, school or community shootings, or any other topic that drives a wedge between humanity, peace is the most desired of human emotions right now. We live in a world of violence on TV, in the movies, in video games, and it’s all tolerated or worse, accepted as the norm of the world in which we live. BYOP, bring your own peace, this means we can own how we react or respond to each and every news feed or situation we nd ourselves in with peace. You get the point, right? BYO isn’t restricted to restauranteurs, BYO means we can bring our own anything to each and every situation we face. We all face seasons of life that bring us heartache and anguish, seasons of joy and celebration, and well, just seasons of life. No

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Letters To The Editor

Cartoon was over line

As news spreads across the country exposing Republican racist roots, we have our local GOP crawling out from under those same rocks. GOP posted an insensitive, tone-deaf cartoon on the DougCo GOP Facebook page. e cartoon depicts the former president in a courtroom next to an angry, loud caricature of New York DA Alvin Bragg. Mr. Bragg, who is Black, holds open his briefcase containing a banana as his “evidence.”

Not only is the cartoon blatantly racist, its publication calls into question the maturity and historical understanding by some Republicans. America is supposed to be better than this. e GOP are no patriots and lack insight into the ideals of our Constitution.

Katie Barrett, Castle Rock

Short on common sense

A few days ago we received our 2023 Water Wise Guide Guide from Centennial Water. is guide was an excellent instruction guide for the novice homeowner to conserve water. It targeted an audience that is high on technical ability and low on common sense. It also advised the homeowner to spend a lot of money up front to conserve water for the future.

I am a veteran homeowner and my faithful companion, Anna, is a few years my junior Our house is an average Highlands Ranch property