This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Theresa Stets, registered independent, is running for Colorado State House District 12. So far she has been endorsed by the Green Party of Colorado, and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7. Unfortunately I'm just outside of the district. If I was in HD12, then I would have 2 candidates on my ballot that I can actually feel good about voting for this year, Cliff Willmeng for Boulder County Commissioner, and Theresa.
Instead of being aligned with the two political entities of the most destructive socioeconomic system the world has ever seen, Theresa is aligned with the movement for Community Rights and Local Self Government. Community Rights include environmental rights, such as the right to clean air, pure water, and healthy soil; worker rights, such as the right to living wages and equal pay for equal work; rights of nature, such as the right of ecosystems to flourish and evolve; and democratic rights, such as the right of local community self-government, and the right to free and fair elections. These superior rights are almost always in a state of opposition to Corporate Rights, which our system is built to favor as "persons" and are being strengthened by the system every day. From oil and gas, to rent control, the interests of the "free market" prevail.
The Democrat and Republican Parties (not necessarily their voters) are firmly rooted in the politics that the "free market" is the ultimate delivery mechanism for democracy and well being for the planet and its people; but from what I see it delivers corporate destruction and greed over the will of the people and even over the necessity to have a livable environment, a livable planet. It's a mechanism for extracting and exploiting wealth and sending it to the top. Anyone who aligns with them can not stand in solidarity with the colonized, the 1st nations, the poor, the working class, the systematically oppressed, the climate, the Earth, the children, the war torn, the future, and the concept of democracy. Do I think we will elect our way out of our problems. No, but I do think the movement for community rights is such a necessary path forward. It is one that uses our own municipal governments to defy and break the grip in which corporations and centralized governments hold them. After working with Theresa in this movement, I'm sure she will hold the movement for Community Rights and Local Self Government integral with her decision making at the state level, and her work will be used to strengthen the independent grassroots movements that are most necessary in order for us to have a future. Get involved with her campaign at stetsforhd12.com.
