As fireworks are going off throughout Colorado, our studio lights are shining brightly for this 4th of July edition of Colorado Inside Out.

This holiday week was hardly a slow news week, so our insiders have a lot of ground to cover this next half hour as well as their thoughts about the core ideals of independence as expressed by our founding Fathers.

Hi, everyone.

I am Kyle Dyer.

Let me get right to introduce you to this week's insider panel for this 4th of July edition of Colorado Inside Out.

We have Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword.

Also, Alton Dillard, principal consultant at The Diller Group and senior advisor to the firm of Rockford Gray.

Albina Vasquez, an advocacy leader in Denver and member of the PBS 12 Community Advisory Board.

And Christy Burton Brown, executive vice president at Advanced Colorado and former chair of the Colorado Republican Party.

On this day in 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, with the 13 American colonies declaring their independence from the rule of Great Britain's King George the Third.

Now, we are one year short of the country's 250th birthday.

And what does independence look like now?

Are we truly independent, or are we interdependent, or are we codependent?

And do the way things operate these days line up with the ideals of our Founding Fathers, that being liberty, equality, and democracy?

I will start with you, Patty.

We are certainly at a crossroads.

And I let's remember we also have the 100th anniversary, 150th anniversary of Colorado coming up next year, too, which is exciting.

And last week I was on a road trip through the West.

And as we talk about things with independence, let's be grateful for whatever happens with the big beautiful Bill.

And as we tape this, we still don't know what's happening, that the sale of public lands is out.

As you drive through the west and through Colorado and you remember what open lands.

Let's also remember they weren't completely open.

There were people here who were displaced horribly.

But now the open lands in Colorado and in the rest of the West that everyone can go and enjoy and use and remember what a remarkable country it is, and the promise of open space and open minds.

That's something that continues celebrating during this Independence Day.

Okay.

Okay.

And my take on it is slightly different.

I'm looking around the table here, and I don't think any of us would have had rights in 1776.

So to your question, of course, we're living up to the ideals because we're making sure the 1% stays in the 1%.

Those were our founding fathers, the men of property, the well-heeled.

And we are on that exact same path.

Now, there's a line in the movie 1776 where they talk about branding John Adams and his followers as traitors and so on, pipes up traitors to what?

The British crown or the British half crown.

And that's where we are as a country right now.

So I know a lot of people always still want to think in terms of the tribalism and discuss it in terms of Democrats versus Republicans.

This has nothing to do with Democrats and Republicans.

This is essentially class warfare.

And so I'm really waiting to see that as the things roll down from the white House and starts affecting people in the mayonnaise sandwich belt.

What kind of blowback there's going to be in the midterms?

Okay.

All right.

Just to add to my colleagues here, I think it's complicated for a lot of communities right now.

I want to, Patty talked about displacement, and our history is a history of displacement, displacing somebody for the rights of others.

So we're not there yet.

It's an unfinished process.

A lot of people are scared right now, fearful of detainment, families being separated.

This is not a celebratory moment for a lot of folks who came here proudly to build an American dream.

And now are being punished for it, whether they're citizens or with papers.

Their papers are being taken away.

This is a complete rejection of liberty and freedom for many Latino, black, brown families in our country and in our state.

Okay.

And Christy, your thoughts?

I think we have to ask ourselves, why do so many people around the world want to experience the American dream?

It's because America is an ideal.

We are a good a nation.

We're not a perfect nation.

Our founders weren't perfect men, but they established ideal principles in our declaration.

Independence in our Constitution.

And that is freedom and equality for all people.

Have we always been true to that as a nation?

Have we always included all human beings?

Do we, even today, include all human beings, for example, the unborn in that definition?

We don't.

But can we?

Can we strive to continue to make ourselves a better, a more free and a more equal nation?

The answer to that is always yes, and I think it takes work from everyone.

We need to encourage our younger generations that our nation is a good nation, and we can all do our part to make it better.

And then I think it's contrast that with other nations in the world in it, very few other nations in the world.

Can you freely protest?

Can you freely oppose and disagree with the so-called ruling party or person in charge?

You can do that in America and not go to jail for it.

You are free to express your opinions and that's something to celebrate.

And let's hope people are not going to jail for it right now.

Their protest all day and the 4th of July culminating with marches downtown.

Let's celebrate that we still have free speech.

Let's celebrate it in a way that we remain free.

And let's not pay attention to the CBS settlement that was just made.

We have got to prevent.

We have got to protect the right to protest and to really speak freely in this country.

All right.

Also do you want to add something to.

Yeah.

I just was going to also remind people that abolitionist language nearly sunk the Declaration of Independence.

So again we're a young country I love my country.

Don't get me wrong.

And to Kristy's point there's still some other words.

Okay.

Last year on the 4th of July, the town of Vail imposed a curfew of 1030 for everyone that's unsupervised and under 18 because for years there was a growing trend of teenagers gathering.

There was underage drinking and drug use.

The curfew last year work.

So that's happening again this year.

This has happened again this year.

However, crowd problems are not going away in other parts of our state.

In Denver, there are takeovers planned.

And police are trying to squash them.

Following one that happened at the Shops of Northfield a couple of weeks ago when it turned pretty violent.

And then just this last Sunday night in Greeley, while the Stampede was going on, a 30 person brawl broke out.

And Alton, a police officer in Greeley, said he had never seen anything like this in his ten years patrolling at the Stampede.

And people here in Denver are at wit's end.

The adults are about what is going on.

Yeah, it is the strangest thing because usually when these kinds of things occur, it can be pointed back to one particular thing.

So these takeovers I'm hearing are like is sort of a TikTok phenomena that are starting to sort of spread around the country.

But the other thing that's so fascinating about this is the other ism that I heard in the room at the community meeting.

There's an obvious generation gap, but the generation gap has gotten so bad that even a 24 year old who identifies as an ex-con and an ex gang member was put over and thought he was like the fogies with us.

The kids just kept saying, you all don't understand what it's like to be young these days, because we're asking why did you all think that was a good idea?

How are you able to talk to your friends who participated in the Northfield takeover?

What is causing the trauma?

What is causing the angst in the few kids that spoke up?

Said A, they really can't have any major peer to peer discussions because of the problems that that would cause.

And then secondarily, back to the social media part.

Why do people, kids are not paying for these parents are paying for these.

They need to start looking in terms of maybe some parental controls or something, to be able to know what's going on with your kid, what is in your kid's phone.

I think what we're seeing is the reality of the mob mentality that happens on social media come to real life.

So to Alison's point, yes, parents should manage that.

But parents are also getting wrapped up in the mob mentality of social media.

They're going down these dark holes and in a place that is separating our country on various issues, because folks are not able to talk to each other, no matter the generation.

And I think the extra pressures of social media, the pressures of being afraid of getting shot at at school with mass casualty events, the fear of being in the community goes across all communities, not just low income communities.

Jefferson County, Douglas County, all of our communities have expressed or, experienced a mass casualty event.

And what are the pressures of social media and these other elements that are bubbling up because of the mob mentality of social media?

That's where I think it's coming from, is this angst?

I'd also add that young men are being left behind in a lot of these conversations, and we have to find ways to reach them because they're lost.

They're looking in dark places for support and for information and for education.

And that's a dangerous place for our young men to go.

Yeah.

Okay.

Christy.

Yeah.

I mean, I actually agree with a lot of the things that Elvina and Alton have both said.

I think there's a lot of philosophical answers to this.

I think you can look at the lack of meaning that a lot of young people are finding in life today.

They don't know who they are.

They don't know where they came from, they don't know where they're going.

And that is a there's a lot of broken families.

There's so much to work on, I think person to person.

And when you run away to social media, it can be a place to hide.

It can be a place that distract you from what's going on in the real world, and how that applies to adults and young people, too.

And so I am a big believer in parental controls on social media, like my teenage daughter is not on any social media website, and I don't see her being on it in the near future at all until she's old enough to decide for herself.

But I think, you know, we need to also go back to how do we give meaning to young people and help them understand that they are valuable individuals with a purpose in life?

Colorado is the second least church state in the nation.

There's a lot of just lack of meaning that people are experiencing, and every person has a drive in them to want to know who they are and what they were made for.

So somewhat of a philosophical answer, but I think if we can really get to the heart of what young people are crying out for, and we have mental health issues, we have suicide issues, we have issues.

We've got to go into the community, person to person and change this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Patty, it's interesting that the same devices that have disconnected kids and adults so much from the world around them and put them in this fantasy world or a world where they can connect with other people who maybe think like them, or that can influence them to think about it.

They're also the ways these kids find out about these events.

So you suddenly can pull.

It's not like it's old beer bong parties when you 50 years ago, when you just happened to have a game of telephone tag to say parents were out of town.

This is you can let people know within a minute that there is this gathering.

And so you have people coming who have no connection at all except this one announcement that was put on the web.

It's interesting to bring up they all last year because that was definitely a party of the haves.

Now at Northfield, it was a it was a gathering of the have nots and how upset those kids are and how desperate those kids are.

I wonder a lot.

How much of the disconnect is not just the devices, but the fact that literally during the pandemic, kids were left to their own devices when they didn't really have the social connections in reality with other people.

And we have to work on this.

Having the 4th of July on a Friday allows for a nice, long weekend for most people, but for a city employees in Denver, it may not be so carefree and work may still be on their minds.

Specifically, whether or not their jobs are secure.

Denver is planning to start a series of layoffs next month.

And this week, Denver's Career Service Board approved new rules for laying off city workers.

Who stays and who goes depends on performance over seniority and Elvina.

This has a lot of people rattled.

Yeah, well, layoffs are not good that nobody feels good about it.

Like, let's not pretend that people are smoking cigars and excited to have to do this, especially to long, you know, long serving community members that we forget that folks that are at work in our government are public servants of our city and of our state.

And they and it's really hurtful to, like, toss them aside when there's such a large budget gap.

I think transparency is key.

This is also an opportunity to see why labor unions need to exist to raise the voice of working people.

Without labor unions, there to protect people and give them the power to say this is the way that it needs to go.

A lot of people would be run over and lost in the system.

But it's it's an interesting balance because young people working in the city is also good for the city.

So seniority isn't always a good thing when you're trying to progress and move forward on projects, and how to be more advanced in how we think and how we do our work.

So it's not good for anybody.

Nobody's happy to do it.

It's a reality.

And I think we just have to be patient, see how it comes out.

And hopefully the folks that are let go have services in place to fill the economic gap.

And Denver is not the only one in financial problems, but Denver does have to shrink its workforce to close a $200 million gap in next year's budget, Kristie.

Well, I think if you can separate the people from the principal, because I agree, whenever you're talking about anyone losing a job like that's sad.

But if you look at the principle of it, should we elevate people who are performing well or people or who have been there for a long time, and whether we were talking about Denver, whether they're talking about higher education, wherever you're talking in any workplace, usually who will perform better if you keep people who are who are doing a good job at their job, rather than just saying, oh, you've been here forever, you have a right to stay.

So I think it's somewhat a common sense principle to say that if you're doing a good job, you will have first choice at keeping your job versus what you've been here for a long time.

And I say this kind of with the perspective of someone who a lot of my family members actually work for the government, be it the federal government, state government or local government.

And so they have a lot of stories that they've come home and told us about people who have been there a long time.

No, their job is safe and therefore don't really get their job done.

And that's not what everyone does.

But there's people like that and it shouldn't be where if you're not doing your job, you get to stay just because you've been there for a long time.

We need performance, and especially when you have to downsize.

If you have to choose the people who are doing well, okay.

That's one of the challenges, of course, is if you're looking for who's doing well, who's making the determination, can you put it on a chart?

And I think that's one of the things that has so worried city employees, because they see you can still play games of favorites.

They see all the different ways you could game the system.

So plenty of people make doing a job efficiently look easy, but that doesn't mean it is.

So if indeed they're going to use merit as.

And I think it's right that merit should be a qualification, but you need to be sure it is really handled in a fair and honest and accurate manner.

I also feel very bad for the people who took a job, have been doing their job in the city, are getting close to retirement, but all of a sudden may not make that promised retirement and the benefits they assumed they would be getting for doing their job.

All this time, I hear it's going to be very ugly.

The number of cuts, it is going to affect all of us with services, so we just have to be prepared to make sure it's as fair as possible.

You know well as a former city employee a couple of things, I find the timing a little suspect because a lot of people forget that the voters of the city and County of Denver passed the ability for city workers to collectively bargain.

And so because that kicks in a little further down the road, now we're having this layoff discussion.

And Christie makes a good point.

There are you know, some people who get sort of entrenched are what we call it in my old office get Denver ized where they just, you know, have been doing the same thing for so long, not interested in growing, not interested in any kind of growth, just want to do what they do there.

But my concern this also echoes Patty, is it may push out a lot of, you know, senior workers and people who are high earners and keep trust me, you do not go into government to get rich.

But to that point about getting rich.

The thing with the city that's also so interesting is they're always talking about, well, we have trouble retaining top talent because the private sector pays 25, 30, 40% more.

And then we go down this road where we're looking at layoffs.

And don't forget, you know, that's what I love about our collective societal amnesia.

We were just at this table, what, three months ago talking about the possibility of appointees getting larger raises.

So I just think the city's got to circling the drain right now.

And I just hope that whatever happens causes a reset to get it back on some kind of a track.

Okay.

after hearing everybody, I do want to emphasize, like there is a value in historical knowledge and people like Altman and others who have been in the city for so long, so that the city doesn't make the same mistakes they've done before.

And I think that when you talk about how we treat, elders and our seniors in the workforce, we have to remember that that historical knowledge and wisdom shouldn't be tossed aside.

It should be valued.

You don't have to hop in on that real quick, myself, because a lot of people are saying that's what's wrong with the city now is because institutional knowledge is not being listened to.

Denver is a unique beast as a home rule, city and county.

And so there is something to be gleaned from the wisdom of the elders, even when it comes to running a large bureaucracy.

Okay.

This week, new laws took effect throughout Colorado, all of which were passed by the state legislature.

If we go back to and look at history, the Founding Fathers wanted laws that, to create a, you know, a safe and stable society, protect our well-being and also protect our freedoms.

Yet some of these new Colorado laws kind of stir up some debate, like the one, regarding the new, process you have to go to to get a concealed, carry permit.

So, Chris, if you want to start with that, but you can talk about any of the new laws.

Sure.

I'll definitely hit on that one.

The concealed carry permit law would now make people increase the education time, and the shooting time that they actually have to demonstrate that they know how to use a handgun to get a concealed carry permit.

And so I think we can always encourage people to be educated more on any right they want to exercise.

But do we have a law that says before you can pull a permit to protest, you have to get education on how to protest peacefully.

Do we say before you can exercise your right to be a parent, you have to go through parenting classes?

Mean we don't.

There's no law saying to exercise almost any other right?

You have to get education first and especially not increased education.

So there is a targeting by this legislature.

We know there is on the second Amendment right.

I think the problem with them focusing in on concealed carry permit holders.

These are some of the most law abiding citizens.

Data shows this, 58% of gun deaths are suicides.

Over 60% of mass shootings are domestic violence incidents.

And over a 15 year period, they studied how many concealed carry permit holders are committing homicides with guns.

Less than 1% of the homicides committed with firearms were committed with people who carry concealed carry.

So I think the legislature's targeting completely the wrong people with this law, and they are impeding their exercise of the Second Amendment.

Okay.

Well, it wasn't this law, but we have to look at the fact that unlike protests, where presumably you are not going to be killing people, or if you have a gun, you can possibly kill not one, but many people.

And to look at past successes with gun legislation in Colorado, we didn't have mass mass casualties in Boulder because that man was not able to buy a gun.

So is it a greater good to have to have a little more education to get a gun and prevent things like that?

I would argue it is.

I want to look at some of the other laws that were passed.

The CBI, for example, when we talk about employees, what harm one bad employee will do.

What happens when you don't have systems in place to say this person isn't doing their job?

This person is falsifying records.

You think about it in these bureaucracies, it is really easy for bad characters to create very bad outcomes.

And we now have hundreds of women waiting for responses on their sexual assault cases.

Maybe legislation passed will move that along.

But I think people have a responsibility in government to make sure their colleagues are doing their job, too.

And I don't know how you do that without feeling like a tattletale, but still it's important.

Ultan well, I'm no conspiracy theorist, but Big Brother is watching, so the one that I really paid close attention to was the one where now you have to delete biometric data after a couple of years and think about, you know, when you go, when you travel and you step up to the TSA machine and it says right there that once your picture was taken, it goes away.

But just back to even the social media discussion that we were having earlier on all the technology out there.

And then think in terms of like on, for instance, with me, my iTunes, it's like, well, wait a minute, I did not download an acoustic version of that song.

Why did that just appear on my playlist?

Or when you're talking about somebody, there's a couple of people who are very known on the live music scene because they show up in costume and dance everywhere at all the outdoor music venues.

We're talking about them.

Next thing you know, they pop up on my Facebook is someone I may know.

These things are listening.

It is what it is.

And that's one of reasons I always tell my clients and younger students never hit send on anything you don't want to see on the front page.

Yeah.

Good advice.

Well, I, I think what is stands out to me about the legislative session in law is going to place are the missed opportunities for session.

I worked on the, rewriting or the reconfiguring of the AI bill that has a huge fiscal note and is going to stymie the progress of our business community and our state.

And it will be the first one in the country to do an AI bill that would be so restrictive.

So I think unfortunate that did not get, finished in the final hours of session.

I also, was really disappointed to see the extreme weather.

Bill didn't make it through, which is a huge concern for our workforce in Colorado as we have extreme temperatures.

There are not protections for workers in the ice cold in the in the super hot.

And so those are some failures of our legislature.

We know that there might be a special session coming up.

I bill will probably be there, but, we should keep an eye out for what's happening in the fall.

As we said, laws are passed to keep us safe and protected.

Exactly.

All right.

Now let's go down the line and talk about some of the highs and the lows of this week.

We'll start with you, Patty.

With the low the sad announcement this week that underground music showcase after 25 years is after this.

July's event is going to cancel maybe come back in different forms.

But it shows a lot of things.

One, that's a place kids can go and connect.

And that youth on record is a wonderful program.

They need the fact that they can't keep this going.

Youth on record will go, but the showcase is gone and that's a real loss to the city is a huge loss.

I'm so sad about this.

Okay.

Milo is CBS news and any other outlet that just started bending the knee to our current environment.

Part of the reason that you have journalism and a free press is the ability to speak truth to power.

And if we lose that, back to our discussion about independence, we're going to lose one of our core foundations of this country.

Amen.

I think the low is the complicated feelings that a lot of people have this week.

With the 4th of July and all the economic hardships that we're facing, possible loss of Medicare, mental health, you know, health care.

It's just a scary time for a lot of low income families that may are probably not following the news, but in the next couple of months, they're going to start to see what's really happening in their paychecks and their bank accounts.

Okay, so my family and I went camping with some of our best friends last few days in a wolf reintroduction area in Colorado.

So I'll pick actually the rollout of the wolf reintroduction, as although it is currently costing the state of Colorado three times the amount of money that was promised to voters when they passed that.

So government's constant overspending on everything is a definite low.

You didn't see any wolves?

My son thinks he heard them, but I he heard them.

Okay.

All right.

Is something good?

There are still events you can go to in Denver.

So this weekend, get out.

See art at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival.

Events all over town.

And remember what art can do to bring people together and get outside.

And remember how inspirational the beautiful Colorado outdoors can be.

And there is music at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival.

There is, oh, there's everything, including crowds.

There is.

Yes, yes, Alton.

My high is the Denver Nuggets making moves to get Nikola Jokic some help.

A lot of people were hating when they announced that they were going to go to almost the coach.

General manager kind of set up those two gentlemen made big moves really sure for the team.

And I'm really excited to see what they look like this upcoming season.

It is so exciting.

Yes, Alvina, I want to echo what Patty said.

This is such a good time to be out in Colorado, in the community, connecting with people in person, picking up your Westword to find out where the latest events are is the best place to find out.

So I encourage everybody to get out.

Hang out with folks that you don't agree with on the political spectrum, but maybe agree on the music, right?

And have fun.

Good plug for Westword though.

That's nice.

Albina and Christy, you know, I think as we're celebrating the 4th of July, just the advancement of, of freedoms and rights that we continue to see in the US.

This morning, the Supreme Court announced they're going to hear two more cases next term that involve the right of women to play with women in women's sports.

I think those two cases will be pivotal for real women's rights, and I love seeing our nation continue to advance in all the right ways.

Okay.

Thank you.

And my high is all about harmony.

And don't we all welcome more harmony in our lives?

I love that the streets of downtown Denver are filled with song this week.

Yes.

We had Metallica earlier in the week for two nights, but then the barbershop Harmony society chimed in for their annual conference.

There are 4000 acapella singers in town, and this is a big deal.

Denver.

I refers to it as kind of the, World Series for acapella singers.

And I don't know if you've been downtown.

Go downtown to see this.

The clock tower is, has red, white and blue lights kind of looking like a barbershop pole, so that's great.

Hopefully this is a great opening act for a very fun weekend in Colorado.

Thank you, insiders, for joining us.

We appreciate it.

Very good work.

Thanks, everybody.

Behind the scenes as well.

And you either watching or listening to our podcast.

And I also have to give a thanks out to the workers outside this building that are working to get our AC up and running.

So that's a good thing.

Thank you all for watching.

Have a happy 4th of July.

I'm Kyle Dyer, I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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