During a recent trip to Winter Park, my kiddos treated me to a visit to the Headwaters River Journey museum. It's a non-stop interactive journey through how water goes from a (not so faraway) river to your water tap. The basic takeaways: Colorado is predicted to run short of water in 2030.About 60% of the …
Continue reading A Confluence (notes on water conservation resources in Colorado)
Let’s talk about the Supremely stupid decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and ways to lean in (in addition to protests, demonstrations, donations, and volunteer work) to avoid fleeing the country that seems to be leaning more and more into the Handmaid’s Tale timeline. I’m talking specifically to my friends and the younger voters who, …
Continue reading The Supreme stupidity of overturning Roe v. Wade (a story of externalities)
You're gonna see some big changes on your ballot in November regarding Fort Collins elections. I went to City Hall on Tuesday night to speak in favor of RCV for Fort Collins, and was tremendously proud of our City of Fort Collins staff and City Council for being willing to hear from 60+ residents on …
Continue reading The future of Democracy in Fort Collins is bright!
“It's a safe assumption that voters in Fort Collins are smart, passionate, able to articulate their choices and will fill out the ballot to the degree that they wish to,” Armstrong said.a quote from the RCV explainer article in The Coloradoan on 5/4/2022: https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2022/05/04/ranked-choice-voters-may-decide-if-system-right-fort-collins-election/7338020001/ There’s a lot of stuff coming down the pipeline for you …
Continue reading A note about Ranked Choice Voting in Fort Collins
I grew up in Douglas County schools, supported and educated by amazing teachers. I've watched my earliest friends and former classmates go on to become teachers in the district. It's a powerful legacy for a school district to foster its own succession plan - for students to become teachers in the same district because they …
As a country, we need to take a breath and deeply study what's occurred leading up to the events at the Capitol today to identify which leaders, systems, actions, and words have enabled this unprecedented, divisive, and irresponsible act of chaos and violence against democracy. Accountability is the first step, prevention is the next. Whataboutism …
Continue reading Schadenfreude Isn’t A Sustainable Way of Life
If you believe in the merit of personal responsibility, at some point, it's important to behave responsibly. Everybody is on the same team about the survival of small businesses. Everybody, even if the words coming out of their mouth or the policies implemented sound anti-business. There's literally no one who benefits from the death of …
The US election system consists of a robust system of checks and balances. There are career professionals whose job it is to ensure every American's voice is heard fairly, both Republican and Democrat, swearing up and down that there was no wrongdoing. There's no evidence of fraud. None: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/10/donald-trump-longshot-election-lawsuits and https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/us/politics/voting-fraud.html Almost every court case …
Star Trek has traditionally had a stuffy-shirt problem, especially via fans of The Next Generation (think Picard/Riker/Data era). The ethics of the 24th-century Federation were so lofty as to seem unachievable and unrealistically idealistic to many. I grew up as one of those insufferably idealistic kids, espousing the virtues of Trek wherever I went (usually …
Listen: things are not normal right now. It is OK to not be OK. A global pandemic, catastrophic fires exacerbated by climate change, a divisive election, ongoing political bickering amidst diminishing civility, human rights violations, and racial/caste injustice… In the face of unprecedented, unimaginable, unrelenting heartbreak it is OK to not be OK. Focus on …
Nick Armstrong 