God has given me the gift of ideas. Tens of thousands of ideas. I have spent a lifetime imagining what could be. Good ideas. Okay ideas. Horrible ideas. This podcast – Regular Folks Rising – was not one of them.
No, this podcast was my best friend’s idea. Regular Folks Rising belongs to Hugh McKean. Like me, Hugh was involved in the important task of self-governance. Like me, Hugh was a dedicated public servant. Or, as the world calls us, “politicians.” Hugh rose to the position of Minority Leader of the Colorado House of Representatives. I continue to serve as a Weld County Commissioner.
Frustrated with the direction of our state and nation, Hugh believed if we could just re-engage regular folks – not lawyers, activists, or consultants – but construction workers, factory workers, car sales people, farmers, ranchers, teachers, moms, dads – you know, regular folks – if we could just get regular folks involved in the political process, sanity might return to council chambers and the state and nation’s capitols.
We just need the regular folks to rise!
So, Hugh wanted to do this website and podcast. To share ideas in plain language to regular folks who we desperately need to re-engage in their role as true citizens and be involved in the process. Not necessarily as elected representatives, although if they are so motivated, outstanding! More importantly, we just need regular folks to be aware – aware of what is happening in council chambers and state capitols, in law and policy, in rules and regulations.
So we started this podcast with the intent of having common conversations and important stuff and equipping regular folks with the tools, resources, and motivation to rise – to become involved. Both of us were incredibly busy. SO like many ideas, we stumbled in being consistent and cranking out the content. But we did what we could, when we could, and we enjoyed the process.
Then, very suddenly, Hugh died.
That was 17-months ago and I still cry when I type it. I recorded my feelings on my personal website and podcast HERE. As you can see by what lives on in these pages, we wrote some and we recorded nine episodes. They’ll live on here as sort of a memorial to my buddy.
In this re-rising episode, I will describe why I am waking these pages back up and taking another run at my pal’s passion. I am finishing his work. Thanks for listening. I welcome your input and your comments below and here.
