Because friends often ask how I’m voting and why, here’s my take on this year’s measures. Keen observers will see I am voting a straight-ticket “No,” and for good reasons.
Let's be the Backbone State
What’s a state? For starters, an expanse of territory, a resident population, and a sovereign government. But there’s a lot more, when you think about it as I’ve tried to do in my new book, Backbone Colorado USA. A way of life, a set of values, shared history and traditions, all play a part. As Colorado marks 140 years of statehood this year, it has actually come to reflect a special state of mind.
What if it's not possible to be both a good Muslim and a good American?
Can a good Muslim be a good American? Brian, a constitutional scholar, put the question to Michael, a national security expert, as we passed the Washington office of Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim to serve there. Ellison’s decision to be sworn in on the Quran still echoes controversially.
Michael Fields for HD-37
Colorado State House District 37 in Centennial, where I've lived for 40 years, has been ably represented by Rep. Spencer Swalm since 2006. Now that he is term-limited, the safely Republican district faces a spirited primary between Jack Tate, an engineer in his 50s, and Michael Fields, a young lawyer and schoolteacher who's not yet 30.
They are two good men, and the voters can't go wrong. But when balloting begins for the June 24 primary, Fields will get my vote.
Michael's thoughtful, well-researched position papers on conservative approaches to education reform and other issues impress me. His time as a staffer in both the US Senate and the Colorado General Assembly gives him a lot more experience with the legislative process than Jack.
I like it that Fields is youthful and that he has lived the black experience, being the son of an African-American professor whose own father was a distinguished pastor. Talking with Michael about race issues, though, as I've done and as Rep. Swalm did before endorsing him a month ago, you find he's crystal clear that equal opportunity doesn't mean equal outcomes and that past injustices to blacks don't justify an endless victim narrative.
Like former Sen. Bill Armstrong, himself elected to the State House in his mid-twenties, and who has also endorsed Fields, Michael has the potential to begin serving with distinction from the day he takes office--and to become part of the new face of the Republican Party in years to come.
To win in the 21st century, conservatives must forge an optimistic, forward-looking, right-minded coalition of all colors and all ages. Michael Fields, well prepared and solidly grounded on America's freedom principles, embodies that. I hope you will join me in supporting him for House District 37.
To compare the candidates, go to www.fieldsforcolorado.com and www.jacktate.org. I think you will come to the same conclusion that I have.
Bill would enshrine abortion in Colo. law
My wife and I sent this urgent email to all 100 members of the Colorado General Assembly today. The bill has cleared Senate committee and now awaits floor action. Please join Donna and me in raising your voice against Senate Bill 175. Dear Legislator:
We are gravely concerned about SB-175, "Concerning Freedom from Government Interference in an Individual's Reproductive Health Care Decisions."
Please oppose this unwise, unnecessary, ill-considered, extreme, and inhumane bill.
Persons of goodwill can disagree about how widely and easily available abortion should be under law. But a great many Americans would agree with the general approach taken by Bill and Hillary Clinton years ago - that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare." SB-175 does not meet that standard.
With its simplistic, far-reaching legislative declaration and policy pronouncement, it ignores the millions of us who believe that two lives, not one, are in the balance when a woman is pregnant. It rules out any kind of reasonable regulation, restriction, or compromise seeking to make abortions safe and rare.
While it's true that one legislature cannot bind the next, and that a repeal or modification of SB-175 (were it to become law) is entirely possible a year from now, it's also true that the law is a teacher and that your vote on such a law is an index of character. To vote for this bill is to go on record for an extreme, intolerant, inhumane, and indeed brutal posture of government in our state. To vote against it is an act of courage and conscience.
Please vote no on SB-175.