A Message from Open Boulder:

As an organization dedicated to good governance, we believe that words and actions matter. We believe that our public officials — each of whom receives a fractional stipend for their public service — should model the behavior that we expect at every level of national discourse. Indeed, Boulder’s City Council has affirmed these values on numerous occasions.

After each member of the Boulder City Council received an offensive postcard equating the city’s prairie dog policy to the Holocaust, we should expect nothing less than the strongest possible condemnation from our elected officials. Instead, Councilmember Nagle chose to agree with the comparison, on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day no less, and continue to equate one of the worst genocides in the history of the world with Boulder’s approach to prairie dog management. This clearly sends the worst kind of message on a number of levels.

Let us be clear: This hurtful language — by both the anonymous sender of the postcards and Councilmember Nagle — does not reflect who we are or aspire to be, and deserves to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Already, the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations have properly denounced both the sentiment and the act that preceded the conversation.