Citizen involvement should be celebrated

Dear Editor:

I have been a public servant for more than 25 years. Throughout my career in state and local government, I and my colleagues have spent hours upon hours trying to foster public engagement by encouraging the involvement of local citizens with the political process. Up until recently, I was nearly convinced that those caring, intelligent and thoughtful citizens who are willing to put in long hours of unpaid work didn’t exist. Here in Aspen, they do!

We should celebrate the many citizens who take an active role in their government and its actions and decisions. Instead we call them names, say they are criminals, verbally abuse them in private and in public, accuse them of undermining the “good” work of government and, because of our well-developed delusions of grandeur, call the entire process a “conspiracy.”

What is the matter here?

Rebecca Doane

Brush Creek Village