mammothabovetownA lot of people around town have been criticizing the Mammoth Times for endorsing only male candidates for Mammoth’s town council election, when the field is comprised of fifty percent women. While I can’t rule out sexism or ignorance as playing a role, I suggest the motivation is less insidious, yet possibly harder to fix. I believe the real problem runs deep in our town and is described better by a single word — fear.

This is an odd description for such a rugged place comprised of such hardy souls, yet I believe the term fits. However, our fear is of a non-traditional type — our fear is based on economics. We constantly live in fear of “missing out” on some real or imagined economic opportunity. It is the same fear that drove our town to give Terry Ballas the keys to the airport, and is the same fear that drove us to illegally rip those keys away (lest we lose out on bringing in Rusty’s always-to-be-full 757 jetliners). This fear is why we didn’t demand that Intrawest build a parking garage at the Village (“if we push them too hard, they might just leave”) and is why some candidates want to turn our residential homes into home rental businesses (“if we don’t let guests rent out our neighbors’ homes, they will go to Vail!”)

I believe it is this same fear that is driving the Mammoth Times and others in town to support the “establishment” candidates for town council. There is a strange obsession in town with being “development ready” and the establishment candidates have the superficial look of being able to get us to the Promised Land. Of course, the whole idea of being “development ready” is also fear driven — “if we don’t allow developers to do what they want, they will go somewhere else!” Well, it is that mentality that has gotten us into the majority of our jams.

Instead, let’s be “community ready.” Remember, by definition if you are a voter, you are a local member of our community. Let’s pick candidates who will do what’s best for our town and community, and I promise you, the developers and their checkbooks will follow. We live in one of the most spectacular places on earth. Let’s be great at what we are, rather than failing at being something we are not.

For that reason, I am supporting the three women in this election who will put our community first — Karen Sibert, Cleland Hoff and Elena Blomgren. Trust me, if we do this, we will flourish beyond our wildest dreams.

Debbie Thompson
Mammoth Lakes

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