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Pitkin perniciously penalizing permanent persons

The summer influx, foreigners, travelers, visitors from areas unknown, the vaxxed and the unvaxxed, from May to mid-September filled hotels, Airbnbs, parks, bike paths, bars, restaurants, performance venues, theaters, tents, gondolas and Aspen malls.

A fun summer for everyone, indoors and out, also productive and profitable. As schools reopened many visitors left. More permanent residents, the voters, remain to enjoy the beauty of our surrounds, a reservation as desired, or no reservation. Colorado declared no pandemic emergency. Stadiums are filled for football. Music concerts are happening. Freedom is wonderful. Breathing maskless is grand.

Then the valley overlords decide, for what good reason I know not, masks are required anew. There were a few deaths, always a cause for sadness, but COVID or co-morbidities? Why are the peons being punished by the Pitkin power panderers?



Is the county board of health exercising control, letting us know they can do whatever they want to do? That is dodo. Authoritarian but no emergency. What’s wrong with freedom? People die from flu, cancer, hiking, etc., but do we shut down? More gun shot deaths than COVID in some areas. After the large money crowds have gone, the taskmasters, become the mask-ka-teers. Hypocrisy?

The elite pay to play without limits, but curb the regulars, the ones that actually vote. C’mon man, give us some credit as responsible citizens; let us be free. Does Pitkin County consider locals unsafe and cavalier? Taxpayers are still here. It’s less crowded everywhere, easier to maintain 6-feet distances. Restaurants are less full. Get rid of the mask mandate. Let those that choose to mask, mask. Yes, choice, a much used, abused and forgotten term when it does not fits the agenda of the politicians.




Thomas Balderston

Snowmass Village