Did You Know...(2018)
Articles from the monthly Heather 'N Yon magazine.
Did You Know? July 2018
Our July 12 monthly meeting (3:30 in the Aspen Room) will focus on immigration — past and present. Feelings run strong on this subject. Most of us have little factual information about historic immigration patterns, causes, and impacts on our economy and culture. We ope you will join us for a factual discussion of the issue.
Did You Know? June 2018
Our June 12 monthly meeting (3:30 in the Aspen Room) will focus on two initiatives on the November ballot dealing with drawing of new maps for state assembly and congressional districts. Colorado’s legislature, in a bi-partisan effort, put these issues on the ballot during the closing days of this year’s legislative session. Join us to learn more how these initiatives propose to make the redistricting process less partisan.
Did You Know? May 2018
HG Indivisible is an informal network of citizens, whose goals are to:
1) become informed about current issues and
2) ensure that government serves all of the people.
Our monthly meetings focus on providing information that individual citizens can use to communicate with elected officials in order to bring about needed change. We urge you to join us.
Monthly meetings are held in the Aspen Room on the second Tuesday of the month, 3:30 pm. An informal discussion and planning meeting is held each Friday at 12:15 pm in Rendezvous. Our web site is: https://sites. google.com/view/hg-indivisible. The May 8 meeting will focus on the recent massive tax bill’s impact on ordinary citizens, particularly seniors. Our speaker will be Doug Dixon, CPA.
-Al Lindeman
Did You Know? April 2018
Electoral districts for the Colorado House of Representatives, Colorado Senate and U.S. Congressional districts have been deliberately drawn to be uncompetitive? Both Democrats and Republicans are responsible. According to the non-partisan Fair Districts Colorado (www.fairdistrictscolorado.org) in 2016 the average Congressional race in Colorado was won by 23 percentage points, or an average vote margin of almost 90,000 voters.
When one party is firmly in control of a district, hardline activists in that party essentially control who gets nominated and elected. This only fuels the bitter partisanship that promotes legislative gridlock. Competitive districts would force parties to nominate moderate candidates more reflective of the majority of voters.
The topic of how districts are mapped out and a proposal to make the process less partisan will be the topic of the April 10 meeting of the Heather Gardens Indivisible club at 3:30 in the Aspen Room.
– Al Lindeman
Did You Know? March 2018
The contest to elect a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from District 6 is expected to be one of the most competitive in the nation this fall. Pundits predict massive flows of out-of-state money will be spent to support the Republican and Democratic candidates.
The speaker for our March 13 meeting (3:30 in the Aspen Room) will be Tyler McDermott, chair of the District 6 (our district) Democratic Party. He will focus on the changing demographic characteristics of the district. Those changing demographics may play a major role in the election. They will also shape the nature of the wave of TV ads and mailers we can expect to receive this fall.
– Al Lindeman
Did You Know? February 2018
Of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Colorado ranks 8th from the top in median family income, but 13th from the bottom (38th from the top) in per pupil spending on K-12 education?
During the past decade, average teacher salaries (adjusted for inflation) have decreased 7.7 percent in Colorado. Sources: Governing.com, Kaiser Family Foundation, and National Education Association. OECD studies have shown that education is the key to social mobility. The U.S. has one of the lowest social mobility rates of all the OECD countries.
{Editor’s Note: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a group of 34 member countries that discuss and develop economic and social policy. OECD members are democratic countries that support free market economies. www.investopedia.com} • • •
Ilana Spiegel will be our speaker at the Feb. 12 Indivisible meeting (3:30 in the Aspen Room). She will discuss current issues and challenges in Colorado K-12 education. Ilana has 20 years of experience working with educators in our state. In 2014, she was appointed to Colorado Standards and Assessment Task Force by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. She currently serves on the board of Taxpayers for Public Education. She was a founder of Coloradans for Public Education Policy.
– Al Lindeman
Did You Know? January 2018
A recent web search for the world’s 15 best hospitals revealed that 13 of the 15 best were located in the U.S. Yet a study by the World Health Organization ranked the U.S. as 37th in the world in terms of general health outcomes.
This is in spite of our spending more per capita on health care than any other nation. Unequal access to health care is a major contributor and that unequal access is tied directly to economic inequality.
If you believe issues like this deserve our attention, please join us for our Indivisible meeting at 3:30 pm in the Aspen Room on the second Tuesday of each month. During the January 9th meeting we will discuss this and other impacts of inequality on our nation.
– Al Lindeman