The Durango-based Western Leaders Network issued a press release on Monday standing with the Minnesota elected officials who were killed, the other lawmakers who were wounded in an attempted assassination, and condemning political violence.
The Herald’s editorial board stands with WLN, against political violence and all the elected officials and government employees who are increasingly in fear of going to work and just doing their job.
WLN represents over 1,000 local, tribal and state officials across 11 states in the Interior West and Ohio River valley who are committed to addressing climate change and threats to democracy. In 2024, the nonprofit dedicated its annual report to the county clerks and election officials nationwide, like Tiffany Lee, La Plata County Clerk. Lee, with other county clerks Democrat and Republican across the country, with a few exceptions, have long stood up for democracy and ensuring free, fair and secure elections.
Republican Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, far-right conspiracy theorist and 2020 election denier, convicted unanimously by a 12-member jury of her peers, is one exception. The irony is rich. Peters, a criminal and convicted felon, committed election fraud while alleging election fraud (Herald, May 9).
Why the WLN dedication? Because founder Gwen Lachelt, former La Plata County Commissioner, has first hand experience with death threats, as has incoming Executive Director Liane Jollon while serving as executive director of San Juan Basin Public Health. Increasingly political violence is being threatened if a person doesn’t like a policy position or their candidate doesn’t get elected. This behavior must not be normalized. Who will want to serve in the vital roles our elected officials and government staff play if it is?
WLN issued this dedication in support of the elected officials the organization represents, like Lee, a former lifelong Republican and newly registered as Unaffiliated, and the Republican Weld County Clerk, among others, who have withstood harassment, intimidation and death threats all while working to perform the difficult job of serving the public good.
Locally, in preparation for November’s general election, Lee remarked how much time she spent on planning and implementing security measures (Herald, Nov. 12). For the first time in her 28 year career, Lee worked with Homeland Security, law enforcement, an emergency management team and had to hire full-time security and undercover police officers to walk Lee and her staff safely to their cars at night. We support Lee’s sound judgment and the election went off without a hitch, but this is not right.
Nor is the fact that so many of our fellow citizens are living in fear, including the family of former State Senate candidate Vivian Smotherman who spoke at Durango’s June 14 No Kings Rally. She opened her remarks by stating that her daughter-in-law did not come to the rally with her children and husband because she was afraid.
Smotherman is a transsexual woman. Trump and his supporters are scapegoating immigrants and trans people, international students speaking up about Gaza, and anyone who doesn’t agree with him and his oppressive policies. This also cannot stand but the response must be peaceful, as it was at Durango’s No Kings Rally.
We were heartened to see almost 3,000 people turn out and peacefully exercise their first amendment right to freedom of speech and expression and against the harmful policies of this Republican administration and Congress (Herald, Jun. 14).
What more can be done? Republicans must begin to speak out and condemn these actions and policies, too. Local attorney Kim Perdue who also spoke at the Durango rally stating the importance of the rule of law and our constitutional protections said, “The Trump administration is creating emergencies to sow chaos and fear and then offering their increasingly authoritarian style of governance as an alternative to that fear. Don’t fall for it. If we let ourselves become afraid, or dismissive, of other people who aren’t like us – for example by accepting that undocumented people should not receive due process or writing off our neighbors based on their political or personal beliefs, we become a degree easier to manipulate and control.”
The crowd most appreciated her final comments about the need to resist that impulse, and instead “recognize that everyone (Texans in overpriced homes and the unhoused, Republicans and Democrats, citizens and noncitizens) are entitled to our respect and fair consideration. How can we expect anyone else to listen to and consider our ideas and beliefs, if we won’t listen to and consider theirs?”
Exactly.
