Left Face
Join Adam Gillard and Dick Wilkinson while they talk politics and community engagement in Pikes Peak region.
Left Face
Community Calendar and Support for Responsible Recreational Cannabis Legislation
Want to stay ahead in the Pikes Peak region's dynamic landscape? Tune in as we uncover the pivotal events shaping our community, from the election buzz to Veterans Day tributes. Join me, Adam Gillard, as I navigate through the next week's events. Starting with Rep Jason Crow's stopping by to GOTV! Tune in for more events!
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Hello everyone and welcome to Left Face. We are a veteran political podcast focusing on the Pikes Peak region. My name is Adam Gillard. I am one of your hosts. My other co-host is Dick Wilkinson. He is out of town this week, so we're just going to do a different episode, going to run through some things on the calendar that we have going on leading up to this election and then post-election, rolling straight into Veterans Day. So it's going to be a pretty busy week for us here. I hope I get to see everybody. We're going to be out around a lot, so I hope some of you guys can come out and see us and help us out wherever we're at, because, like I said, we're running up to this election.
Speaker 1:Man, it has been crazy busy. I know all the candidates and their campaigns are hitting the ground, knocking doors, sending text messages. There's just a ton of things still left to be done between now and Tuesday, mainly chasing ballots and getting ballots into the ballot box. For everybody out there that doesn't know, you can actually take 10 extra ballots to the ballot box, so if you have family members or neighbors who struggle getting to the box, you can take up to 10 additional ones plus your own. So 11 total to the ballot box. Make sure you take advantage of that, get every vote in, because everybody's voice matters and everybody needs to be a part of the solution that we kind of created with our own current political system. But anyways, we have a pretty big week leading up to the election day and then afterwards with Veterans Day, the following week Starting off with, you know, this Monday at about 3 o'clock at the IBEW Hall, jason Crowe is going to be down here helping us get out the vote.
Speaker 1:You know this is another huge thing for El Paso County Democrats down here helping us get out the vote. You know this is another a huge thing for El Paso County Democrats down here. You know, for a long time. You know we kind of get forgotten in the shuffle. You know, when they look at the bigger federal races and things like that, you know, just strategically, you know we're lost in the shuffle here because we're still a very red district. So to have, you know, somebody the caliber of Jason Crow come down here. It's pretty amazing For those of us in El Paso County that you don't realize this.
Speaker 1:Your representatives should be doing town halls for you and folks like Jason Hall. I've been to his town halls. He's engaging, he answers questions straight from the crowd. You know he has some, you know, pre ones that people write down too, but you know he was taking answer or questions straight from the crowd and talking to us like humans and actually representing the people that he represents. So, uh, real excited to uh get to hopefully hear him speak on Monday at three o'clock at the IBEW hall and then we're going to roll right into a Tuesday and the election day and that's going to be a busy one all day long.
Speaker 1:If you have some energy that you need to get rid of, come down to the IBEW hall and uh, we'll probably have some work for you to do down there. People are always trying to, you know, get need help getting to the ballot boxes, things like that, or getting to the polling station. So if you have that extra energy and you just want to come out and be a part of the process, come down, see us. And then, uh, they are having an after party after seven. But make sure you go RSVP for that through the uh Epco Dems website and if you're not getting the Epco Dems blast, make sure you sign up for that too, cause there's always a ton of information in there, uh stuff that we're doing, stuff that uh they're doing, all the candidates and everything else in the community. So make sure you're signing up for for that to stay in tune. But uh, yeah, we'll be at the ibw all day, all night. You know, have an election party.
Speaker 1:I think everybody needs to start uh kind of just wrapping our heads around. Not having any definitive answers tuesday night, I think the electoral college is going to take some time to shake out in the courts. Not having any definitive answers Tuesday night, I think the electoral college is going to take some time to shake out in the courts, just because we know that's their playbook. So people just need to remember to breathe and take Wednesday to decompress a little bit. Take some breaths, go for a hike, kind of relax, let the court systems do their jobs. We know that they're going to be, that they got the lawsuits already teed up. There's no such thing as a safe and secure enough election for them. They're going to fight it tooth and nail. And usually when they fight these things, it's not that they're fighting the votes themselves, it's like the technicalities behind the votes, like you know, dating an envelope or something like that. Uh, they really turn on their voter suppression machine, you know this time of year. So, uh, we're going to let the courts, you know, shake it out again.
Speaker 1:Uh, it's going to be interesting, um, but after that, you know, we have a still have to move on and still focus on other issues and we're actually going to roll right into our Veterans Day weekend, which is extremely busy for us. Thursday we'll have our lunch at noon at the Golden Corral, over on Powers. So come on out and join us, share a story with us, and then we're going to roll right into some other activities. On Friday, joe Reagan is going to be speaking at the Rotary Club. I'll push out the details through an email, but the story of his time in the service. He is a Purple Heart recipient. It'll be an interesting story. Definitely looking forward to hearing him speak.
Speaker 1:Whenever the veterans speak in front of crowds like this, it's very therapeutic for you know the veteran themselves, uh, and you know, and it gives a great insight for the crowd on, you know kind of what goes into. You know some of the, some of the stuff that that our folks are going through, uh, in this community is chocked full of them. Um, you know, when I was still serving here locally, we would always have some POWs from Vietnam come in and talk to us, and you know the stories that they would share are pretty harrowing. You know, my stepdad was a POW too, and you know hearing their stories about how the torture that they would go through, but then the camaraderie and the brotherhood that they would go back to at the end of the day and how they would communicate with each other, it's always just so very harrowing to hear their stories. So now you know, having some of our uh, more current heroes coming out and speaking, like Joe Reagan, uh, it's, it's going to be, uh, very good to hear his story. So I'm looking forward to that. That's going to be on Friday Again, I'll push the details out through an email, um, and then on Saturday, the city's going to still be going forward with their Veterans Day parade, and this is actually the first time that the progressive vets are allowed to walk in it.
Speaker 1:The previous few years that we would call it as to be in the parade, they would just hang up on us because the word progressive was too much for them. But this year, with the change in who's running the parade. Uh, we were actually able to walk in it. So I hope you come out. Uh, join us. Uh, we're going to be sending out some information through our our email distro. Uh, and if you're not signing up for our distro either, make sure you sign up for that. Epccpvorg. Um, go to the contact us and sign up for the newsletter so that you can stay up to date on all these things.
Speaker 1:Uh, after the parade on Saturday on Sunday so you know, when we stopped going to the parade two years ago, you know we still wanted to give back to our community and be a part of our community. So we started doing a breakfast up in Manitou Springs at Persephone Gray's. The first year, I think, we had like 11 people show up. Last year we had over 100 people. So we're doing it again this year, again up at Persephone Grays. We had to shift the date. We were initially planning on the Saturday, but since the parade folks shuffled their dates, we shifted our date to that Sunday. So now Sunday up at Persephone Grays was that November 10th. Sunday, the 10, the 10th persephone grays, manitou springs.
Speaker 1:Show up, eat breakfast on us. Uh, nothing else, you know. You just show up with your family members. Uh, their crunchy french toast is amazing. My kids rave about it. So come up. Uh, we'll provide breakfast for anybody that shows up there. Um, so come out and enjoy an event where we're not asking you for anything, we're just trying to give back to the community. So I hope you can make it out for that. And that's kind of our calendar for the next week. Like I said, it's busy Pretty much every day.
Speaker 1:We wake up, hit the ground running, get us through this election and then right into Veterans Day. So plenty of opportunities to continue to give back or to continue to be part of our community here. So make sure you come out. I think it's important that we keep bringing these big numbers to events so that you know when folks like Jason Crow, you know come down here to talk to us. We have people that are here with educated questions and ready to engage with them in the community, uh, and show that we have a large community of Democrats and left-leaning independents and just people that want to do better than what the uh, the Republican party is offering right now. So we need to make sure that we're showing up big for these events.
Speaker 1:You know, right now we don't get a whole lot of coverage in the media around here. I've been, you know, kind of fortunate to talk to a few folks when it comes to like the Gazette or the Indy. But getting published and actually printed is a whole nother story. You know, I've been working pretty closely with the cannabis industry and working for trying to get that recreational legalized here in the Springs. But we're constantly running against big money. On the other side we see their billboards all around town pushing their two narratives One they're trying to protect the kids and two they want well, two narratives One they're trying to protect the kids and two they want some of the money themselves. So even their messaging is kind of gross. On what? On how they hit uh, two like kind of grossly different sides of the argument there. Um, but they really don't have any shame or any real argument in what they're trying to say. Uh, at the end of the day they're just keeping money out of our communities and with no solution of their own. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to read the op-ed that I wrote towards the Gazette and the Indy that they just refused to publish, just so that we can kind of get it out here into the open and we can have a conversation about it. So this is called Common Senses.
Speaker 1:On the Ballot in Colorado Springs, we all know the age-old saying all politics is local. No truer words describe the ballot Colorado Springs voters will be faced with this upcoming election day. In addition to the presidential buzz, local voters will be faced with an important choice at the bottom of the ballot, via two competing ballot measures Measure 300 and Measure 2D. And now these break down to do we allow local politicians to permanently ban retail marijuana with 2D or, alternatively, do we responsibly regulate it with Question 300? And as a proud United States Air Force retiree, a husband, father of four and just one of the 90,000 Colorado Springs veterans who called this city home, I'm going to be voting yes on the regulation of retail marijuana. That's 300. I think it's worded in favor of question 300. And no on Measure 2D to ban marijuana forever.
Speaker 1:I have dedicated my career to serving El Paso County's veteran population and their families by pushing for policies that help solve systematic issues. You know, I serve my country and I should have the right to decide to purchase a completely legal product in the city that I call home. And this is exactly the kind of debate that deserves our full attention, because, whether or not you plan to purchase retail marijuana in Colorado Springs, it brings a lot of benefits to us. So let's break it down here the retail marijuana is already legal in Colorado and it's perfectly legal to consume in the city. So now city councils failure to regulate the market is only leading to a larger black market, and it's far better to regulate it and limit these black markets so that it's sold in a place that you have to show your ID in order to get it, versus the total ban, which just allows the black market to flourish and people have more options to get it illegally.
Speaker 1:Right now, other surrounding towns, like Manitou Springs and Palmer Lake, they're reaping these tax benefits of adult Colorado Springs residents and tourists driving to those towns after they land here to purchase these products. So the tax revenue from these sales is anywhere from $10 to $15 million a year that we could be using to fund mental health programs, public safety programs, ptsd treatment for veterans all of these things that need to be addressed within our city. We all know that they're problems. These are solutions, and when the other side says, no, we don't want this money, what is their solution. They do not provide them. We need this money now more than ever, and this money will be coming from people who are using cannabis, and that's it. So the tax burden on everybody else that's up in arms about this will not increase, but we'll get the revenue to address some of those problems.
Speaker 1:But local politicians, you know they believe that regulation is radical. They want to do an outright total ban on it because they don't trust us to make decisions ourselves as adults. But regulation is common sense. The radical idea is the politicians declining this tax revenue from cannabis users. Uh, that seeks to directly benefit our community. If a veteran or retired law enforcement officer or any of our fellow neighbors chooses, as a responsible adult, to purchase recreational marijuana, that choice should be up to them, not local politicians. It's just that simple. We don't regulate alcohol like this. It's just a gross overreach. And, what's more, measure 2D will establish a permanent man in the city's charter. And that gross overreach is just shocking. That city council is even spending the time and taxpayer monies to push this extreme agenda when the question's already on the ballot. And if they get their way, all the important and much needed benefits and money that comes with this regulation is going to vanish. It's going to travel to the cities around us. So when you cast your vote this November, think of the benefits our city is going to see from smart regulation as opposed to total prohibition. It's not a partisan issue, it's common sense. Vote yes on 300 to responsibly regulate retail marijuana in Colorado Springs and no on 2D to reject the local politician's permanent ban. So that's the op-ed that was submitted to the Indy and the Gazette.
Speaker 1:This town being this town, we don't get a whole lot of play on there. I was able to talk with reporters from each of those places at a Harris Walls event that we just had recently and again we have great conversations. It just seems we can't get things through the editor's board there. So hopefully we start getting a little bit more press and we can actually start getting our voices heard in this community a little bit more. But things are changing Again. We just got to keep coming out and keep showing up At that Harris Walls event. You know that was a pretty cool thing. Senator Bennett showed up and actually came down and talked to us. So we're getting our names out there and you know when I push out these things, I hope you guys are showing up because people are starting to come out and talk to us. So I hope you're there to ask your questions and share your stories with them, because that's where they're coming down to talk to us, because they want to hear your story. And one thing I've really been learning is that our community has so many incredible stories to tell Um we're going to have some more folks on the podcast later on that it's just inspiring to one hear their stories and how they're still persevering and their resiliency. So there's a lot of those stories in the community and we need to share them.
Speaker 1:Like I kind of briefly mentioned, I was able, or very fortunate, to be able to speak at a Harris-Walls event recently. It really is just a, you know, a call to action, a rally for veterans to get together in the community. We had it over at Atravita Brewing, which is owned by Rich Fierro, who many people know. A community hero here, subdued the Club Q shooter. Community hero here um, subdued the club Q shooter, so obviously incredibly brave Um.
Speaker 1:Just like I said, a hero here in the local community, kind of an inspiration for all of us, um, but it's over at his place, uh, and you know, when I spoke, it was just kind of a call to veterans to come out and, you know, keep giving back to our community. You know as we uh, you know as we serve around the country or around the world. You know, a lot of times we just focus on our service and you know how much we've sacrificed and we've given and all good and well and all very important, um, but we also need to remember that there's a ton, an absolute ton, of people that stay home and and continue to fight for democracy right here at home. There's so many volunteers that make both sides work. You know, republican side and Democrat side. It's all volunteers for everybody. And so, you know, once we get out of the service, we need to make sure that we're continuing to give back, because we have a unique perspective and that's kind of what you know. What I focused on at the rally was get people to come out and be willing to step back into that chaotic scene of operating outside of the government but trying to work with inside the bureaucracy to make some changes. It's kind of a weird spot, but there's a ton of things for us to do. So make sure we're always giving back to the community.
Speaker 1:One of the things I mentioned was you know, we're in a moment right now where it's like 1930s Germany, where people saw what was coming. You know, when Hitler took over, the writing was on the wall. When Hitler took over, the writing was on the wall, and we see a lot of things that are very, uh, parallel with that whole movement. And you know, former president Trump he, he's telling us exactly what he plans to do, uh, when he's threatening to use, you know, military force on the enemy within. Um, it's not hypothetical. He's done it before, uh, you know, june 20th or June 20th, june 2020. Uh, you know, he cleared peaceful protesters with tear gas just so he could stroll to a church for a photo op and hold a Bible upside down. Um, he's obviously never read the Bible, uh, but if he's used tear gas on Americans for a photo op, imagine what he'll do next when he's actually trying to hold on to power. He's not looking to de-escalate these situations. He's ready to authorize another Kent State, and that's terrifying.
Speaker 1:As veterans, you know we swore an oath to protect this country and defend the Constitution. And you know we swore an oath to protect this country and defend the Constitution and not enable the whims of this wannabe dictator. My aunt calls him a prictator, a president dictator, so if that catches on, aunt Cindy gets the credit for that one. But the DOD and the DHS and all these other departments, they're not his personal toys to flex whenever his fragile ego gets bruised and that's all he does. And the men and women who have served in our government understand what honor and service and sacrifice are, and that's something that Trump has proven time and time again. He doesn't. He is only out for himself.
Speaker 1:So Trump's gibberish has escalated to the point where his followers are, you know, hunting FEMA responders. They're fighting poll workers and meanwhile the people in charge, you know, they praise the FEMA workers. They praise these poll workers. They praise the FEMA workers. They praise these poll workers. But when Trump says they're evil, his folks react and it's getting worse. But it's more projection from a man who he just can't fathom serving anyone but himself. He's withheld funds from California during historic wildfires. He botched hurricane responses, multiple hurricane responses during his presidency. He expects the Biden administration to be just as callous and disorganized, but fortunately for most presidents and presidential candidates, they have empathy and organizational skills and compassion during these emergencies and during the administration in general and they know how to serve all Americans Now, veterans and active duty alike.
Speaker 1:We have to draw the line. We fought for democracy abroad and now it's under threat here at home. Former President Trump wants to turn our troops against our own people again, and these are his words. It's not left-wing propaganda. He's naming names. He's not looking at the immigrants or anything like that. He's naming American citizens. So whoever wins, like the other side is going to believe that it's the end of our democracy. You know, as we know it, because it basically does. You know like our elections are controlled revolution. That's the point of them.
Speaker 1:But the choices we have are clear here. Option one is an administration that fights for veterans through things like the PACT Act, supports unions through things like the PRO Act, and they're looking to hold billionaires accountable and pay their fair share. Our option two is a commander-in-chief ready to use military force against civilians for dissenting. That's disgusting. That's disgusting, and I have loved ones and friends on college campuses that take part in these peaceful protests and it terrifies me and it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that, after serving 20 years in the military, a couple deployments during the global war on terror, and now I have kids that are at more risk at home and on campuses than I was in the majority of my time in the Air Force, and it's all because of this dangerous rhetoric of somebody who's already proven to be a traitor.
Speaker 1:It's time for us all to stand up, not just for ourselves, but for the country we served and for our future generations. Um, the beautiful thing is, you know we have the power to do something about it. So we got to show up where it counts, and that's at the ballot box. Vote for a vision of America where we protect dissent, not crush it with force. So make sure you're getting out there voting for Harrison Walls. Volunteer to work the polls. Come down to the IBW Hall. Let's keep pushing forward. We're almost done with this election and then we can move forward with a more positive vision for America and our future. Thanks for joining me here on Left Face Missed having you here, dick. Hopefully next week we'll be talking about the harris walls win and we'll be moving forward in a brighter, better direction. Thanks again for joining me. We'll see you next week. Bye.
