Crested Butte News: It’s not easy participating in democracy. It can be messy, it can be controversial, it can lose you friends or help you find common ground. That’s the system. 

In a democracy you can complain and do nothing, or you can step up, stake out a position, suggest a solution to a problem and maybe succeed or fail with your effort. But democracy requires participation, conversation, debate and most likely compromise. Solutions are not discovered under a shroud of secrecy. In fact, anonymity encourages stridency, polarization and a lack of civility. With anonymity, there is no reason to remain polite and reasoned since you could be throwing rocks at your neighbor and they wouldn’t know. If you understand that you’ll be seeing the person who is on the other side of an issue at the post office or grocery, you are more likely to be respectful. Good democracy is a team sport that can at times be tense and uncomfortable.

The CB News, along with the Gunnison County Library District, has been in the Colorado court system arguing that anonymity is no friend of a functioning democracy. 

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