Today's Opinions

Jefferson CountyInternational Women’s Day
Editor:

Women struggle for equality in a collective effort to secure basic human rights for themselves and for all. As we learned from Dr. Martin Luther King, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

A gender-balanced world means equal opportunity and fairness for women.  It also means a better world for all. Liberating the oppressed also liberates the oppressor. Fair and equal treatment for women will end the moral corrosion that results inevitably from injustice.

“Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.” -- Henry Clay.

I am the proud possessor of a master of public administration degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. I spent the first 12 years of my career as a public employee: first with the state of Colorado and later with the city and county of Denver.

In my last column, I issued a call for our local officials to work against the polarization we are witnessing at the national level, to maintain civility in our public life and to cooperate on solving problems. That’s asking a lot. We should ask no less of ourselves.  
Imagine you are a state legislator, and all the calls and letters you receive on an issue can easily be put in two stacks — vote for this bill, vote against this bill. Many of us encourage partisanship by being unwilling to compromise ourselves.