Dear, dear Nederland Neighbors,

Two related things, three really, happened today, that made me so happy to live in Nederland and in Boulder County. Four, really.  

What a glorious sunny, just tart and chilly enough day, for a lovely peace and justice vigil, 10 a.m. - noon, flags fluttering in a breeze, horns honking in agreement, at the gathering at the Mountain Forum for Peace Sculpture Garden.  Lots of old-timers from the 1980s and 1990s with home-made NO KINGS signs, some embracing Monarch Butterflies not KINGS or presidents.  

A news constituent newsletter from Commissioner Claire Levy explaining her choices on the Boulder Ballot in clear, rational language.  

And then news of our favorite local centenarian's birthday, CO State Senator Dorothy Rupert, with whom I had the honor of working against corporal punishment in Colorado Schools in the 1980s, and Capital Punishment for decades, successfully abolished a few years ago, and teaching government/civics classes at CU-Boulder on the same evening each week in 2008.

The vigil was held as a call to vote in this Midterm Election because many things have gone wrong for many of us: Mountain Forum for Peace (MFP) has been appalled by USA wars and armament sales, the cost of living has risen much faster and higher than our salaries and Social Security checks, and some dear friends who are longtime green card holding immigrants like Otoniel de la Roca, a brave dad who I met in my Amnesty International human rights education work, blew the whistle on police torture in Guatemala, and he is now inexplicably held in the Aurora ICE detention facility after almost 30 years lawfully raising his extended family in Lakewood.

Let's all vote as if our lives depend on it.

Ellen V. Moore

Nederland