Where we are

From February until May 30, this is the only significant recording of Estes Park's history for the year 2020, reduced to a few anonymous numbers.  Not local elections, not state supreme court decisions, not grants received or rejected.  This table, and how it is interpreted, and what predictive value it possesses, has a stranglehold on our future. 

Three individuals on this list have been identified (well, two, the third just by profession) by newspaper accounts or press releases, and one Estes Park resident not on this list, whose case was grouped with Boulder County, self-identified.

Some people know the names of all eight individuals, most people do not.  Some people in Estes Park have access to this information, most do not.  This is also Estes Park's history in a nutshell, where status and pecking order is conferred by information - Who has access to it, who is left in the dark.

How can the Jane Doe public, provided with this table, make in informed decision about whether to go outside or hunker down for six more weeks of bleak mid-winter?  She can't.  We can't.  Only our "leaders", elected and appointed, who have access to names and situations and context, can do this for us.  Transparency in the age of COVID-19?  Doesn't exist.  And if it doesn't exist in the land of 100K, where people's very lives depend on knowing which of their neighbors is riding dirty, it may never exist.

Feast on these giblets, Estes Park.  One of our local newspapers is struggling to stay out of the red, and is beholden to an investment group that has no qualms about axing jobs or titles.  Suppose the worst happens, who ya gonna call?  The loons on social media, who would argue you should go out and lick poles and be done with it?  The opposing loons on social media, who would argue you should buy a hazmat suit or book flight on the next Space-X?

Stare at this table.  Can you discern anything more from it than what it says and doesn't say?