Joe Garcia, the Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, has been engaged in academic oversight and guidance for quite some time, having served as President of Pikes Peak Community College and Colorado State University-Pueblo. He is also dedicated to ensuring that high school students bridge the gap between high school academic performance and college entrance requirements. …
Sunrises matter. They smooth the edges and let us know that the previous day should be continued or forgotten. They tell us to take care of ourselves and those around us, especially those around us. How many consider their blind spots in order to make some sense of their lives, then hope …
“Is this Heaven?” “No, it’s Iowa.” Most any baseball fan will immediately recognize the quote above from the iconic movie Field of Dreams. Remember when a reanimated Shoeless Joe Jackson looks back across a beautiful baseball field in Iowa farm country and asks Ray Kinsella that loaded question? No doubt, …
Over 300 billion stars populate our galaxy, and our galaxy is just one of another 100 or more billion galaxies, so the universe must be teeming with intelligent life. Given that we live in a middle-aged galaxy, other life forms are surely far more advanced than we are. This means …
I’ll probably have to kill my dog soon. There is no philosophical treatise to talk or think about at this point beyond the task itself. I am here to witness her pain and take care of business. This is my job for having her as a domesticated pet. This is …
As an extension of postmodernism, the antihero has taken hold in storytelling with disastrous consequences. More often than not, this is a character who achieves greatness by violating social norms. In fact, the antihero often presents more of an obstacle to him- or herself than any outside antagonist — think …
I held back my breath for a time, but you didn’t. You had been to the very edge of the world. You knew the sound of the wind, low and constant, thrumming against the land, the ice, the sea. You’d seen how the pale gray-green earth disappeared beneath ice and …
I sat in English class trying to write a paragraph, drawing a blank. I started writing on a topic. Then I realized that what I had written didn’t make any sense. My sentences weren’t clear. I didn’t have the vocabulary I wanted to use right away, and I couldn’t use …
The inexplicable loneliness we sometimes feel might be due to the fact that verbal discourse fails to capture the complexity of our actual neurological states. Paul Churchland, for example, suggests that the two hemispheres of our brains communicate with a much more intricate and intimate “language” than we do with …
I told my girlfriend she needed to move out, and to my surprise, she did so that very day. I figured she’d get lonely and fearful of having to be by herself and wouldn’t be able to live without me. But instead, she actually just got stronger and happier with every passing second, …
I caught Colorado Springs Councilwoman Jill Gaebler rushing from a television interview. Her eyes glinted with excitement and a bit of mischief as she described a few techniques the makeup artist had used, but after a few moments, we sat down and moved to the business at hand. As a community …
One thing all the founding fathers have in common is that they are dead. We are the ones who are alive, we are the ones who must make the laws and constitution work, juggling many variables the founders could never have foreseen. They created an America in which black people …
In 2012, Colorado Springs, Colorado leaders combined two local organizations, the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Corporation, into one entity, the Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance (RBA). Many are hoping this change will end cronyism and usher in a new era of meritocracy. Joe Raso, President and CEO of the RBA, …
At the Deerfield Community meeting on August 14, 2013, Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach and city employees attempted to explain his upcoming budget and proposed Economic Revitalization Plan (if you’d like to read a brief summary of the budget, click here). The city’s efforts to simplify the message certainly showed some inspiration. For instance, …
Colorado Springs, Colorado is in the throes of a severe and under-reported budget crisis that needs economic triage as soon as possible. Mayor Steve Bach’s recent Town Hall Meeting on August 14, 2013 addressed this looming disaster, but how many people really listened? Although the Springs is a mere two to four years away from utter insolvency, …
City Councilwoman Jan Martin has been a pivotal figure during recent debates in Colorado Springs regarding cannabis retail regulation and sales. Currently, she is well into her second term as an at-large city representative. Martin has also served on several boards and commissions, to include the Citizens Project, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum Foundation (Vice President), and Ronald McDonald House Charities Board (President). …
Lindsay Deen continues her discussion regarding the retail cannabis ban in Colorado Springs, CO. She deftly exposes Mayor Bach’s deceptive reasoning. He pushed City Council to opt out of retail cultivation, manufacturing, sales, and testing, and his policies go against the will of the majority. Unable to display content. Adobe …
“[T]he people are the rightful masters of both Congresses, and courts–not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it. . . .” –Abraham Lincoln, from the Lincoln Papers, Notes for Speech in Kansas and Ohio, p2. In July of 2013, Colorado Springs City Council decided to …
In this video about Marijuana Reform, USR contributor and columnist Lindsay Deen explores government officials’ reactions to Amendment 64 and their attempts to ignore the people’s will. She offers compelling commentary and detailed sources to back up each claim. Check it out today! Click here to access the interactive flash …
As a ten or eleven-year old kid, I went on a trip to Colorado’s State Capitol with our school’s PTA to help lobby for education funding. All the kids who went signed up to speak with one of our senators. Nervous, I approached a hard-eyed man who looked down at …