El Paso County Young Democrats

COMING SOON! Over the next few weeks we El Paso County Young Democrats - EPCYD have a lot good events happening, and you're encouraged to join us for any or all of them! • On Monday, June 11, from 6 to 8 pm in the office of the El Paso County Democratic Party (332 W. Bijou St., #101, Colorado Springs, CO, 80905), we'll be meeting and speaking with D-11 School Board member Nora Brown, learning about local school boards and how we Young Democrats can work with them to be useful to the community! • On Monday, June 18, from 9 to 11 am, we Young Dems will be returning to our adopted stretch of road for the next road cleaning! #OnTheRoadAgain Event details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/182034895961536/?ti=cl • Also on Monday, June 18, from 6 to 8 pm, in the County Dems office, we'll be meeting and speaking with State Representative Dave Young, one of the two Democratic candidates running for State Treasurer. We're going to ask questions and learn lots! https://www.facebook.com/DaveYoungForColorado/ • Tuesday, June 26 is the primary election day, so we'll be hosting an election night Watch Party! Details still TBD. Watch This Space. • Monday, July 9 -- Road Trip! In nearby Park County, Colorado, lies the ghost town ruins of old Trump, Colorado, and we want to go see it! And have a potluck picnic lunch there, too! Event details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1861542487479811/?ti=cl • Monday, July 30 -- Book Club! #HittingTheBooks Between now and July 30 we El Paso County Young Democrats will be reading Theodore Sorensen's book Why I Am A Democrat, so we can talk about it and discuss why we too are Democrats, liberals, and progressives. If you want to read the book too (which you are encouraged to do!) and join us for our discussion of it, definitely do so! Discussion will be in the County Dems office from 6 to 8 pm. With EPCYD Chair Ryan Macoubrie, Vice Chair Stephanie Iken, Secretary Jason Arnold, and Board Members Kelsey Brown, Caitlyn Libby, John Jarrell, and Keith Adamson.

SPYING ON THE OTHER SIDE. Tonight we El Paso County Young Democrats - EPCYD went up the mountains to Teller County, to audit the Teller County Republican Party's debate for CD5 Republican Party candidates. Incumbent Congressman Doug Lamborn did not attend. But all the other Republican candidates for Congress did attend: State Senator Owen Hill, County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, Green Mountain Falls former-mayor Tyler Stevens, and Judge Bill Rhea. This debate was hosted by the Woodland Park High School Forensics team, so the Speech & Debate students themselves wrote several of the questions and asked them in-person to the candidates. Because the students wrote the questions, they dealt with issues important to students and young voters! The students asked, "What's your plan to help solve school shootings?" Darryl Glenn said the federal government should empower States, local school boards, and parents to come up with their own solutions. Owen Hill said we have no time for dialogue, we have to act now, by arming teachers in schools. Other candidates mentioned increased funding for mental health services, and one candidate (Judge Bill Rhea) even said the Sencond Amendment was not under attack in America and he was fine with allowing more restrictions on gun manufacturing and gun sales. The students asked, "How do you plan to get more young people involved in politics?" Darryl Glenn pointed out he had 2 videos up on his YouTube channel about this issue, and kids need to work hard to pay off the debt created by the older generations of Americans. Owen Hill he plans to get young people excited about politics, and young people "are excited about robust American capitalism." Tyler Stevens gave a contradicting answer by saying we'll get young people active in politics by keeping older people in politics to lead and provide an example to emulate in politics. [But then young people can't get into politics because older people are still there in the available seats, so ... how does that work?] An audience member asked the candidates to describe their plan for how to control or even reduce the costs of higher education. Owen Hill said universities should be governed by a free market system, with universities competing for students. Darryl Glenn said directly "It's not my job to help you with that," and ended by saying the best thing a student could do was "get a job" to help pay for college and build character. Judge Bill Rhea joked we should ask Bernie Sanders how he was going to provide free college, then admitted seriously that if Senator Sanders did have a real plan to do it then we should listen to him. Yeah, that happened. With EPCYD Chair Ryan Macoubrie.

101 YEARS YOUNG. President John F. Kennedy was born on this day, May 29, in 1917. "One person can make a difference, and everyone should try."

#OnTheRoadAgain. We El Paso County Young Democrats - EPCYD returned to our adopted stretch of Fountain Mesa Road (between Fontaine Blvd. and Fortman Ave., at the north end of Fountain, Colorado), and we cleaned it! EPCYD Chair Ryan Macoubrie, Secretary Jason Arnold, and Board Members Kelsey Brown and John Jarrell were joined by special guest Tim Dolan to work hard on our road, keeping it clean! We filled 8 trash bags! We also survived the squirrel massacre, and played with some friendly goats and chickens! ("Here critter, critter, critter!") Although none of the many discarded scratch lottery tickets we found were winners, yet we did find $1 and a penny -- so we were winners there!

Today commemorates Mexico's famous victory over the French Army at the battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862; celebrated now as Cinco de Mayo!

HERE'S THE PLAN: Monday morning, from 8:30 am to 9, everyone should park in the farthest North part of the Lowe's parking lot. That's where we'll gather together to hand out the bright pink safety vests and bright orange trash bags. We also have a few pairs of gardening gloves to hand out, because good gloves are strongly recommended for when picking up trash on the side of the road. Then from 9 am to 11 we'll work our way up the wide grassy West side of Fountain Mesa Road, from Fortman Ave going North, as far as we can until we run out of time. Definitely do bring some water for yourself, to stay hydrated, and some ibuprofen -- because picking up trash is a lot more physical than it looks, what with all the bending down and grabbing and carrying the garbage bag which gets heavier as it fills and you get more tired as you go. Mild back aches, leg aches, arm aches are common during this kind of light work. At 11 am we'll stop where we are, gather together all the orange bags, put them in one spot for the County maintenance people to come pick up at a later time, and then head back to our cars in the Lowe's parking lot. Then we'll head up Fountain Mesa Road, to where it dead ends at Fontaine Blvd, turn left and head just a few blocks over to the Widefield Community Park, where we'll set up for our potluck picnic lunch! Please do bring a food item for everyone to share, and we should have a good time of it! And that's it! After lunch we'll clean up after ourselves, and go home -- a job well done! That's the plan.

This vision and these values support and inform the politics and policies we pursue – from investing in education to protecting and expanding voting rights, from growing broad economic prosperity to supporting marriage equality, from updating immigration laws to protesting injustice, trusting science, and embracing change.