An open letter to the Chaffee County Board of County Commissioners

If it is asked what is it that interfered with the rulers' attending to government ... ? it must be answered, music.

- Mozi, Book 8

Esteemed gentlemen, you are asking the wrong questions of these men and women who debate whether concerts should be held at the Meadows.

The majority of us can afford neither the luxury homes near the venue nor the price of admission and time off work for the events.

Our sleep is interrupted by our own neighbors through thin walls and ceilings that double as floors.

Our wages remain static whether five or fifty visit the shop.

What care we about the squabbles of petty versus big capitalists?

We only want to know what will help us, whose stake is regularly ignored—whose stake is our labor against the regular threat of hunger and homelessness.

Let them who complain of the noise and nuisance be reminded of their own transgressions. In the excavations for and constructions of their domiciles. In the combustion-engine maintenance of their properties, in pursuance of medieval aesthetics.

“Exceptions for me but not for thee!” they cry. Bend not your ears to these hypocrites.

Let them who claim exemption from statute for reason of community benefit prove that the majority of profits shall be remitted to the community’s neediest.

The men of former times in the matters of ceremonies and music were rustics, it is said, while the men of these latter times, in ceremonies and music, are accomplished gentlemen. If I have occasion to use those things, I follow the men of former times.

- Confucius, Analects, Book 11

Music and festivals which do not serve the community as a whole are wasteful and immoral. Hypocrites whose petty concerns are purely selfish are worse.

You have heard the loudest voices but can you hear the silent majority, commissioners? I endeavor you to try.

-D.P. Marsh, BV working-class