Life Transplanet

We have all been witness to history. No matter what your political leanings, it is a moment to stop and reflect on where we have been and where we are now. Every so often we get moments like this where it makes you realize that this is a special time, an instance, a turning point in history, like the flash of a camera.

We are just floating along out there in a big, black sky making Human Earth History

Unfortunately, usually these types of events occur after huge tragedies. In my lifetime the world news events that have stood out in my mind have been: 1)The Challenger Explosion when I was about 6 years old. 2) >Berlin Wall coming down when I was about 9 years old. 3) Witnessing the US declare war in the Middle East the first time when I was about 11. 4) 9/11 when I was 21 and another war in the Middle East. (Others include the news of AIDS, South Africa Apartheid, the Asian Tsunami and various hurricanes, tornados and other natural disasters.) Of those, only the Berlin Wall and Nelson Mandela represented progress. I am happy to say that I have witnessed another great moment in time in both senses of the word on Tuesday and that Colorado was a part of it.
For a breakdown of how the country voted, I found this link really useful:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27339545
It even breaks it down by county data.

Also, I heard that Puerto Rico had a pretty historic gubernatorial race as well, electing Fortuno to office. I really don’t know what that means to us, but we’ll have to call Awilda and see what she thinks of it.

In the end, we are all just floating around out there on this lonely little planet trying to make sense of it all for the short while that we are here on it. Let’s enjoy it while we can and try to make it a better place for those who come after us. That’s what we’re trying to do anyway: In peace, a Life TransPlanet.

This is a sort of convoluted story that without the background is difficult to explain, but I’ll try my best.

As you probably know, Colorado has been in the limelight as far as national politics go. We had the Democratic National Convention here and Barack Obama made his acceptance speech. In the past couple of years we have had “W” himself visit Greeley, twice. And just this week we had Palin in Loveland (Monday) and Biden in Greeley (Tuesday). We are a hotbed for politics because we are a fairly “purple” state, especially Northern Colorado. (All this talk about red, white, black and blue makes me certain that politics is just one big brawl with a huge bruise in the end!)

This picture has not been edited in any way- It’s hilarious!

Anyway, while Greeley is generally pretty conservative, it has (surprisingly?) been one of the more progressive cities when it comes to tobacco policies (which is part of my job). Greeley passed the strongest smokefree policy of the state, led the way for Tobacco Free Schools and prohibited cigarette vending machines. Last year, around this same time of year, we took on US Smokeless Tobacco and along with huge community support and Tobacco Free Weld County Coalition, the City Council passed the ‘No Free Tobacco Giveaway Ordinance’ which prohibits giving away free tobacco to anyone in Greeley. One city councilwoman, Debbie Pilch, led the charge to help move this ordinance to the point where it would be voted on. In the end, this was a huge victory for the health of the public, and while this explanation gives it no justice, suffice it to say that it was not without controversy (and very stressful).

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=79148
This is a link to the article when I was on the news, I’ll put the video up once I can find it

Fast forward to this year. We decided to support Debbie Pilch in her run for County Commissioner and placed one of her signs saying as much in our yard. This weekend we went to get our mail and noticed a ticket from our Home Owner’s Association’s management company that basically said, “Please remove your political sign from public view”. This is incredible! Whatever happened to freedom of speech? Well, it turns out that this ticket is completely illegal and the Colorado state congress even passed Senate Bill 100 (SB 100) for just this reason; that is, to protect homeowner’s rights that HOA’s were systematically ignoring. Now we have to contact our Management Company and explain this to them. And THIS is after we had to kick out the last management company (a neighborhood coup d’etat) for essentially stealing from our neighborhood (collecting unauthorized fees, fines, and much more).

The Sign in Question, Can you Even See it?

The Ticket

The moral of the story: I don’t think you can ever get away from Politics -especially without a fight!

Update: Still swinging away, Britton’s conversation with the management company went a little something like this:

So I called.

Me: “I live in clover creek and got a notice to take down my political sign”
her: “yep”

Me: “well….I don’t think you can do that. Its part of SB 100 that protects me”
her: “well its in your covenants”

Me: “well that’s not how it works (aka SB 100 trumps our covenants and bylaws) ”
her: “its in there”

Me: “that isn’t what I meant….tell ya what. Why don’t you send me the part in the covenants, we’ll start there

We MAY be going forward a little with the deal in PR. I searched for the Dept of Natural Resources on the Internet and found their main site, but I could not find a way to locate anyone (the ‘contact us’ form has a broken link), so I searched a little more and found a blog by a man who actually works there! I left him a comment on his blog that we were in need of help and a signature to get going on the process and he set about helping us! That is a start! 

Apparently we need to send a letter to the San Juan office with the details and copies of deed, survey, blue prints, etc. All of which…we have none of.  So I emailed the request to Carlos, the lawyer, and then called Awilda, the current owner, to let her know the plan. She said she would call Carlos, and Britton will as well.

Awilda also said she talked with another lawyer and that lawyer will try and contact the Dept as well to see what is going on. I don’t even know what type of document it is that we are waiting on. Awilda seems to think the delay has to do with this being an election year, and therefore there is anxiety in who will be the new leader (governor, I assume?) Things work so differently there.  Hopefully this is a little nudge forward. We’ll see.