It’s easy to feel safe here in our Valley.

The problems of the world seem to slide past us as we talk about rain, the approach of snowfall and benefits of Daylight Saving Time.

To a man and woman, we have our opinions.

Someone who says he or she doesn’t is either comatose or hiding from life.

I look out my window and it’s raining, yet the lawn sprinkler is going off as programmed.

Looking at the instructions inside the control box, I shudder and vow to call my 15-year-old grandson for help.

Life on this planet is sort of like that. Most of us know something is wrong, so we hold elections in an effort to find someone who will fix it.

Watching televised speeches and debates, it’s easy to say one individual or another has the best set of Allen wrenches, which will fit the loose gears of the nation.

I think I have, maybe, 25 of the odd little square implements in my junk drawers, yet I sort and dig when a repair is needed.

Partisan types attend meetings here at home, offering suggestions for the problems we have here, mostly due to the fact that what’s “always been done” isn’t right.

Colorado is a good place to conduct business with strong open meetings and freedom of information laws and they can be used, but persons in office seem to be working at creative ways of skirting them.

That seems to exist from top to bottom, from Washington, DC to the tiniest town on the planet.

Which brings me to wonder, as I watch the leaves struggle to turn, why we are told in our teens that rules are made to be broken and the best people question authority.

Had our nation’s founders not been so educated, we would still be recording our news on the sides of rock walls and in caves.

Today, the people who attend meetings and ask questions are often not necessarily disrespected, but often ignored.

They are looking for someone with tools to fix problems, but usually they find leaders who rely on glue guns and duct tape.

It’s easy to feel safe in our Valley, but do we have the proper tools in the right hands to maintain it?