This week, Peter Groff became the first black president of Colorado’s Senate. I don’t know him personally (though I’ve met him), yet everything I know about him suggests that he’s a first-rate gentleman. Mark Hillman, who worked with Groff, speaks highly of him. Even though Hillman lost his last political race, he has kept up his political involvement through regular commentary. Hillman has this to say about Groff:
For three years, Groff and I served together in the Colorado Senate. We stand on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but his integrity, his well-considered principles and his unapologetic advocacy of those principles set him apart from even many of the most respected legislators.
Hillman recalls some of Groff’s words:
“We’ve created cultures that run counter to the legacy of Dr. [Martin Luther] King,” he said. “Cultures of death, disrespect, division and materialism; cultures resulting in a self-imposed genocide, where we are killing each other at an alarming rate, where you receive street credit for being shot and no credit for graduating from the finest universities in this country; a culture that embraces and glorifies mediocrity and anti-intellectualism.”
Instead, he champions “a culture of hope and hard work” and “a culture of excellence,” knowing that without these so many of his constituents will be enslaved in cycles of poverty, crime and dependency.
A culture of hope, hard work, and excellence. For all of us. Amen. I would add that, to maintain those values, we need also a culture of liberty, in which the rights of every individual are consistently protected.