March 20, 2026: Choir taps music memory in the face of dementia; Spring allergies in full bloom

Summary

Podcast Summary: Colorado Matters — March 20, 2026

Episode Overview

This Colorado Matters episode, hosted by Ryan Warner and Chandra Thomas Whitfield of CPR News, explores the intersection of music and dementia through Denver’s "Second Verse" choir, dives into the turmoil within Colorado’s Republican Party ahead of the state assembly, addresses the community fallout from sexual abuse allegations against labor leader Cesar Chavez, covers Denver’s early and intense allergy season, and revisits the ongoing challenges and rhetoric of voter suppression in the U.S.

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1. Music, Memory, and Dementia: Second Verse Choir (00:02–12:21)

Main Topic

• The "Second Verse" choir in Denver is designed for people with dementia and their caregivers, breaking isolation and enhancing quality of life through singing.

Key Discussion Points

• Purpose: Created to counteract the isolation that often follows a dementia diagnosis.
• Inclusivity: Spouses, siblings, and health aides join together; emphasis on caregivers being part of the experience.
• Approach: No pressure to memorize; accessible materials like large print and highlighted sheet music provided.
• Therapeutic Power of Music: Music memory lasts longer than language in people with dementia.
• Community & Joy: Choir members speak of joy, laughter, and reconnection both to loved ones and lifelong passions.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "Once they have a diagnosis or even just have some memory loss, people start to isolate and stop doing the things that they love. And we're here to challenge that narrative." — Chris Boggs, 00:15
• "The song continues because music is a lifetime. Music is for old, young. It meets us everywhere, every culture, every age." — Ann Wrigley, 05:22
• "We want to meet everyone wherever they're at on their unique journey." — Chris Boggs, 08:25
• Personal Story: Paul and Al Oberbruckling, siblings and choir members, recall whistling to calm cows on their Iowa dairy farm, reinforcing the idea music brings joy and connection, even to animals (03:38–04:01).
• "People are able to recall that music memory, it's kind of held deeper in our brains than language. So people may not be able to speak and they may be able to sing." — Ann Wrigley, 06:46

Impactful Rehearsal Scene

• Carol Anderson (choir director): "Fill your mouth with a vowel. Go O. Good. One more time for that. Here we go." (01:09)

Future Hopes

• Expansion into memory care centers and senior centers, inspired by the Giving Voice Network (11:19).
• Inaugural Concert: April 18, Central Christian Church, Denver.

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2. Colorado GOP in Disarray Pre-State Assembly (12:21–18:48)

Main Topic

• The Colorado GOP faces leadership crises and deep divisions as the state assembly approaches.

Key Discussion Points

• Leadership Turnover: Chairwoman Britta Horne resigned after a vote of no confidence; controversy follows the tenure of previous chair Dave Williams.
• Infighting: The party is split between far-right grassroots members and establishment figures.
• Assembly logistics: Disagreement over using clickers vs. paper ballots for voting; concerns over party unity and election readiness.
• High Stakes Elections: Republicans must defend key seats, including the 8th congressional district.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "Colorado Republicans deserve better than internal sabotage. Our candidates deserve better than instability. Our voters deserve better than dysfunction...Let's address them directly and professionally, but do not hold the entire party hostage over personal dislike." — Britta Horne, 14:18
• "Watching people fight over the Republican Party right now is like watching buzzards fighting over a corpse. What is the point at that point?" — Kelly Maher, 18:29
• "It's going to be a madhouse the whole time." — Scott Bottoms, GOP gubernatorial candidate, 16:06

Insights

• Outside money will likely be crucial as party funding has collapsed.
• GOP needs to reconsider the kinds of candidates it nominates if it is to regain its footing.

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3. Denver Reassesses Cesar Chavez Legacy (21:47–27:22)

Main Topic

• Community reaction and actions following sexual abuse allegations against Cesar Chavez.

Key Discussion Points

• Swift Changes: Parks, holidays, and monuments named for Chavez rapidly renamed or reassigned (Si Se Puede day, Dolores Huerta as new honoree).
• Community Impact: Deep grief and reevaluation within Denver’s Chicano and labor communities.
• Rise of Dolores Huerta: Her voice and story, including her own tragic abuse by Chavez, are now at the forefront.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "Chavez may have been a figurehead, a symbol, but moving beyond him does not mean that the city, the country, is forgetting the work of these laborers." — Nathan Fernando Freskas, 24:47
• "Si Se Puede Day, which is yes, we can. It's a phrase that Dolores Huerta herself coined." — Kyle Harris, 25:28
• "There is a ton of grief in the community, but there's also a push to tell the story honestly and honor the people who actually did the work and did it in a way that didn't create harm." — Nathan Fernando Freskas, 26:53

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4. Colorado’s Early Allergy Season (27:50–31:39)

Main Topic

• Allergy season is unusually severe and early due to mild winter and environmental changes.

Key Discussion Points

• Allergen Sources: Trees, weeds, and grasses pollinated earlier because of insufficient winter frosts.
• Population at Risk: Affects all ages, especially those active outdoors; quality of life concerns.
• Exacerbating Factors: Wildfire smoke increases asthma/allergy incidence and severity.
• Medical Guidance: Start allergy sprays and inhalers weeks before the season for best results.
• Advanced Treatments: New injectable biologics offer hope but are expensive.

Notable Quotes

• "We have biologics that just treat allergic immunity broadly throughout the body. So sinus, lungs and skin in a single drug. So it is an exciting time." — Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford, 30:53

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5. Voter Suppression: History, Tactics, and Rhetoric (32:41–48:20)

Main Topic

• The U.S. faces a new wave of voter suppression, often justified by patriotic rhetoric but echoing Jim Crow-era tactics.

Key Discussion Points

• Historical Context: 15th Amendment, systemic disenfranchisement post-Reconstruction, poll taxes, and the gutted Voting Rights Act after Shelby County v. Holder (2013).
• Modern Methods: Voter ID laws crafted to disenfranchise minorities; manufactured voter fraud narratives justify restrictive laws.
• Impacts: Disparate rates of blocked voters by race; increasing obstacles for African Americans and other marginalized groups.
• Caucuses vs. Primaries: Caucuses seen as exclusionary; primaries better embrace broad democratic participation.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "Voter suppression always sounds reasonable. It always sounds like it's in service to protecting democracy, when in fact it's anything but." — Carol Anderson, 34:17
• "Watching people fight over the Republican Party right now is like watching buzzards fighting over a corpse." — Kelly Maher, 18:29 (links the party’s dysfunction to larger democratic challenges)
• "It's unreasonable to ask [for voter ID] because the foundation for asking for an ID is to stop all of this massive, rampant voter fraud. Except the proponents of voter ID cannot point to cases of massive, rampant voter fraud." — Carol Anderson, 45:28
• "There's incredible, heart wrenching evidence about this. And this is what led the 4th Circuit to look at North Carolina in a lawsuit and say, you have targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision." — Carol Anderson, 40:28

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Key Timestamps for Major Segments

• Second Verse choir and dementia: 00:02 – 12:21
• Colorado GOP turmoil: 12:21 – 18:48
• Cesar Chavez legacy reckoning: 21:47 – 27:22
• Spring allergies & medical updates: 27:50 – 31:39
• Voter suppression analysis with Carol Anderson: 32:41 – 48:20

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This episode weaves together heartening community stories, political upheaval, coping with environmental challenges, and an urgent reflection on the ongoing struggle for voting rights. Whether you’re interested in the healing power of music, Colorado politics, social justice, or just surviving springtime in the Rockies, this episode offers honest conversations and expert insights for all listeners.

Transcript

[Ryan Warner]

From CPR News, this is Colorado Matters.

[Ann Wrigley]

Tear of sleepy dream oh, what can

[Ryan Warner]

it be to us? Second verse is a new choir for people with dementia.

[Chris Boggs]

Once they have a diagnosis or even just have some memory loss, people start to isolate and stop doing the things that they love. And we're here to challenge that narrative.

[Ryan Warner]

The choir's also for caregivers, spouses sing together, and a brother and sister. Then the Colorado GOP heads into its state assembly in disarray. Watching people fight over the Republican Party

[Carol Anderson]

right now is like watching buzzards fighting over a corpse.

[Ryan Warner]

And on this first day of spring, allergies bloom early.

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

Trees, weeds, grasses perhaps snuck through the winter months this year because there just hasn't been significant enough frost ways to cope.

[Carol Anderson]

So we're going to sing through our vowels again, but I want you to think about filling your mouth with a vowel.

[Ryan Warner]

This is Colorado Matters from CPR News. I'm Ryan Warner.

[Carol Anderson]

Fill your mouth with a vowel. Go O. Good. One more time for that. Here we go.

[Ryan Warner]

Rehearsal is underway, and the choir director, Jacqueline McCurdy is a classically trained singer and a speech language pathologist.

[Carol Anderson]

If you imagine that you're singing from your xiphoid process, the xiphoid process is the bottom of your sternum. So you're gonna imagine that that sound is coming from here. Okay. Memory sings.

[Ryan Warner]

This is the second Verse choir, a new choir in Denver for people with dementia and memory loss. At Central Christian Church. They're getting ready for their first performance in April 18th. Feelin groovy songs of the 60s.

[Carol Anderson]

Let's just run through Daydream Believer, and let's see what happens. Here we go.

[Chris Boggs]

We absolutely want to have music that people remember. And for our next season around, we want them to choose the music.

[Ann Wrigley]

We've had participants say thank you for choosing music that we know. We all know and love these songs. So it's fun that they recognize the music, they enjoy the music, and that's what we're singing.

[Ryan Warner]

Ann Wrigley and Chris Boggs co founded Second Verse in January. You'll hear more from them shortly. They were sure to include caregivers and loved ones. Spouses sing together. A man and his health aide and brother and sister. Paul and Al and Oberbruckling.

[Carol Anderson]

I'm the youngest by three years.

[Ryan Warner]

How did you decide to join the choir together?

[Carol Anderson]

Paul's wife found out about the second verse group. Paul is quite musically inclined. Just naturally.

[Chris Boggs]

His talent is whistling, and I do

[Carol Anderson]

some singing in theater.

[Ryan Warner]

So here we are, whistling. Oh, the trills. You get those little you know how cows. What do you mean, cows?

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Cows. When I. We grew up on a farm in

[Carol Anderson]

Iowa and a dairy.

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

From the dairy farm. When you're there, you want to make the animals know something and just get happy. And they kind of get in a.

[Ryan Warner]

They get in a trance. Music is good for them, too.

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Yes, it is.

[Ryan Warner]

So you learn to do this essentially to calm cows.

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Well, yeah. Yeah, that's right.

[Ryan Warner]

What does being a part of this choir mean to you?

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Oh, gosh, I like to have anything that can start whistling or, you know, I just. And most of the time, my wife says, can you close down?

[Ryan Warner]

You sing a lot at home.

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Yeah.

[Ryan Warner]

It spills out. Yeah. What does it mean to be a part of it?

[Chris Boggs]

It's great fun to be here with Paul.

[Carol Anderson]

I think we both enjoy it a lot and laugh a lot, particularly when we, you know, do the wrong thing. But I love music, and I think our whole family has loved music for a long time, so.

[Chris Boggs]

And it's just great to be here.

[Carol Anderson]

And sometimes he just goes from the lyrics into whistling, and it makes me laugh. Hallelujah. Come on, get happy we're ready for the judgment day.

[Ryan Warner]

All right, let's spend a little more time with the co founders, Chris and Anne.

[Ann Wrigley]

Anne and I are both musicians. Second verse. Our tagline is the song continues. So in music, a second verse is a repeat back to do the same thing again, maybe with different words. And so we just liked that. And we love the song continues because music is a lifetime. Music is for old, young. It meets us everywhere, every culture, every age.

[Chris Boggs]

And it doesn't end at a diagnosis. No, the song continues.

[Ryan Warner]

It doesn't end at a diagnosis. Expound on that for me.

[Chris Boggs]

Well, I think a lot of people isolate once they have a diagnosis or even just have some memory loss. People start to isolate and stop doing the things that they love. And we're here to challenge that narrative that we can still live meaningful lives and be active and valued members in our community.

[Ryan Warner]

I think of performance in general as memorization. I still have nightmares about, like, high school theater and whether I studied the dialogue. So is there pressure like that around folks who are struggling with memory?

[Chris Boggs]

Absolutely not. And we wanna make this accessible to people. So we have the music. We not only have sheet music that we can help them highlight their parts if they'd like. We also have large print lyrics only for people who don't read music. They can have the binders with them the entire. So there's never a pressure to remember. And we just keep repeating. And I Think we're sounding fabulous.

[Ryan Warner]

Is this therapeutic?

[Ann Wrigley]

Absolutely. Absolutely. What we know about music in the brain, for all of us, music enhances mood. It cheers us up. For a person living with a dementia, they may be losing language skills, the ability to speak, and our music memory lasts longer. People are able to recall that music memory, it's kind of held deeper in our brains than language. So people may not be able to speak and they may be able to sing.

[Ryan Warner]

I mean, I can't remember the last time I heard Sleepy Jean. And yet when they began singing, the lyrics came back to me as if the song had just been released.

[Chris Boggs]

I love that.

[Ryan Warner]

Oh, what can it be to love, lady?

[Ann Wrigley]

You know, one of the things about having a dementia is more recent memories you lose first. You keep those old, old, old memories longer. So a person may not be oriented to where they are, but they may remember the bagel shop in New York City on 53rd and whatever, where they used to go with their grandmother in the 40s or whatever.

[Ryan Warner]

I am thinking that maybe participants. I know that this is still a new endeavor, but there may be a time when participants disease advances to a point where the choir no longer suits them. Are you prepared for that moment?

[Chris Boggs]

We're prepared to meet everyone wherever they're at, so hopefully they can still come if they don't want to, that's one thing. But we want to meet everyone wherever they're at on their unique journey.

[Ann Wrigley]

As dementia is a progressive disease, people are going to experience a decline, a decline in memory, a decline in language skills. It depends what kind of disease they have causing that dementia. And we are absolutely prepared and knowledgeable and have the skills and education to continue to meet people where they are as long as we can keep music in our lives.

[Ryan Warner]

Do you imagine going to them at some point if they don't feel they can get out anymore?

[Chris Boggs]

That's a good question. I mean, this is. We just started in January. I'm gonna be completely honest. Chris and I decided to do this in August, and here we are taking off. So each week we gather like, okay, what do we need to do next? What is the most important this week?

[Ann Wrigley]

I would love to continue to meet people where they are. Ann and I have been in the aging field. She's been in a lot longer than I have. I've been in about 11 years. But along the way, I have met people that I knew that played in the Denver Symphony Orchestra, that's way back, who had a dementia. Dementia diagnosis, were in a community, unable to go out of that community. I Would love to bring music to those people. I also worked with a woman who sang with the Metropolitan Opera who was no longer able, had a place to sing.

[Ryan Warner]

Can you each bring me to a moment maybe that's indelible now, when you witnessed a choir singer light up or have a particular connection with a piece of music or the experience? You know, being in the sanctuary, I just was reminded of how beautiful it is simply to sing in community. Are there instances that stand out?

[Chris Boggs]

One that I can think of is a particular gentleman that came in and the first couple times he came was more lethargic and slumping over a little bit. And now he sits up straighter. He's more alert, he has bright eyes and you can just tell he's engaged.

[Ryan Warner]

It's funny. As they were singing, I wanted to upright my posture. I'm thinking of those vocal lessons I took, you know, where posture and the charm chest is so important. Chris, anything that stands out for you.

[Ann Wrigley]

I was really encouraged. Our first rehearsal, we kind of had an administration day and it was a lot of paperwork and really boring. And then we took the last half hour to sing together for the very first time. And so I watched people do paperwork go into the sanctuary. We started warming up and people started smiling, sitting up straighter.

[Ryan Warner]

What are your hopes for this choir? And you know, this is not the first choir that has been tailored to folks with dementia. So I suppose you to some extent may have some mentors in this world.

[Chris Boggs]

Well, we're actually part of the Giving Voice Network. It's a nonprofit organization out of Minneapolis. And we got word of them and they've been just an amazing support. So they have a toolkit. We didn't have to recreate the wheel. They provide mentorship. We even have meetings once a quarter where you can meet people from all over the world who are running dementia friendly choirs. But where I see us going personally, we have big dreams. We would like to bring it out to the community. So we would like to do some interactive performances maybe in Memory Cares or in other senior centers. I'd love to see more of these choirs throughout the Denver metro area because I really think the need is there.

[Ryan Warner]

Are you currently the only one associated with that Minneapolis group in Colorado?

[Ann Wrigley]

There is a choir in Buena Vista and Lafayette.

[Ryan Warner]

Thank you so much for being with us. I appreciate meeting you.

[Ann Wrigley]

Thank you so much.

[Chris Boggs]

Thank you. It's so nice to meet you.

[Ryan Warner]

Ann Wrigley and Chris Boggs co founded second Verse choir for people with dementia and memory loss. We spoke for our series aging matters, the choir's inaugural concert, Feeling Groovy Songs of the 60s, takes place Saturday, April 18, at Central Christian Church in Denver. Still to come, state political parties in the hot seat. This is Colorado Matters from CPR News. Aging Matters is brought to you by the Denver Hospice. This is Colorado Matters from CPR News. I'm Ryan Warner. The state Republican Party is in disarray. Weeks before the planned state assembly, the GOP chair is resigning after votes of no confidence, inciting deep divides and vitriol. This obviously comes in a midterm election year as well. CPR public affairs reporter Benta Berkland is covering the story. Hi Benta.

[Benta Berkeland]

Hi Ryan.

[Ryan Warner]

The Colorado Republican Party has seen infighting in recent years between the grassroots, far right and more establishment folks. Chairwoman Britta Horne announced her resignation. Was that expected?

[Benta Berkeland]

Well, Horn was voted in last year and she built herself as this unity candidate. She replaced Dave Williams and he was a very controversial GOP chair. He endorsed Republican candidates in primary races and attacked Republicans as much as Democrats. So the party was still reeling from his tenure. But right off the bat, people said Horn had issues. They said she didn't communicate well. There was staff turnover, a lack of fundraising. And then earlier this month, several hundred Republicans gave Horn a vote of no confidence and said she just wasn't doing a good job. And there was this online meeting and Horn defended herself.

[Carol Anderson]

Colorado Republicans deserve better than in the internal sabotage. Our candidates deserve better than instability. Our voters deserve better than dysfunction. If these are your concerns, let's direct them. Address them directly and professionally, but do not hold the entire party hostage over personal dislike. We have one job to win.

[Ryan Warner]

But then she resigned a few weeks later.

[Benta Berkeland]

Yes, and she cited this division, legal attacks, just escalation among party members. And some people think she didn't have much of a chance starting out because of all the anger people already faced. And she just said remaining as chair just wasn't tenable. So she was halfway through her two year term. She did say she would help manage the State assembly, and this is in mid April in Pueblo, but there are a lot of questions on how that's going to be run.

[Ryan Warner]

The State assembly is where Republicans select candidates for the ballot and the party is legally required to hold one, right?

[Benta Berkeland]

Yes, that is right. And candidates can collect signatures and petition on the ballot or they can go through the assembly process. And I'm already hearing concerns about how voting will happen at this GOP Assembly. So in most state assemblies, especially in a year like this where we have a lot of races, Republicans vote using these clickers. But some Republicans really want paper ballots and that's logistically tough to do. Potentially multiple rounds of voting and plenty of races and candidates. I did reach out to Horn to ask about how things would be structured and about how, you know, Republicans would vote. I didn't hear back. I talked to candidate Scott Bottoms, though, about all of this. He's a Republican lawmaker. He's running for governor and he's trying to get on the ballot at the state Assembly.

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

I have no confidence in her ability to run the Assembly. This is what's bothering me is we're still going to have assembly, we're still going to do the votes, we're still going to do all that kind of stuff. But it's going to be. She tried to run a meeting a couple weeks ago and it was the craziest thing. You know, a freshman in high school that took Robert Scholz order could have run meeting better than that. So it's going to be rough. We know there's going to be a lot of problems and this is a few thousand people we're talking about. So it's going to be. It's going to be a madhouse the whole time.

[Benta Berkeland]

Now Bottoms is hoping it does all work out in the end. He's trying to get on the ballot this way, but he thinks it's going to be a real challenge. I talked to one Republican who said there needs to be a good parliamentarian to manage all of this, but it's not clear who that is going to be.

[Ryan Warner]

Well, fall brings the midterms. Republicans have to defend the 8th congressional district, which is held by Gabe Evans. A toss up north of Denver could be one of the closest races in the country. There are also all the statewide offices and gains to be made at the State House.

[Benta Berkeland]

I mean, it's definitely a high stakes election for both parties. Control of the US House is on the line. I think we'll see that congressional and statewide and local candidates are going to do their own thing. They will not count on the Republican Party for anything. You know, door knocking, phone calls. There's just not money, there's not fundraising. So it'll be outside money coming into the state. And we don't know exactly when Republicans will select a new chair. I talked to one person who thinks it'll be late spring, early summer. And then I also wanted to ask Kelly Maher what she thought about all of this. She's a longtime Republican. She works for a nonprofit that seeks to elevate people of character in politics. And she Told me it's just hard to believe the Colorado GOP is in this bad of a position right now.

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

Being able to just pull off convention is the question.

[Carol Anderson]

And the fact that it is a

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

question would have shocked the me of 20 years ago.

[Carol Anderson]

And it would have shocked the you

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

of 20 years ago that that's just

[Carol Anderson]

a question as to whether or not that's even possible.

[Benta Berkeland]

She said for the Republican Party to regain its footing in the state, she thinks the party needs to be a lot more thoughtful about the kinds of candidates it's nominating.

[Carol Anderson]

Watching people fight over the Republican Party right now is like. Is like watching buzzards fighting over a corpse. Right? Like what, what is the point at that point?

[Ryan Warner]

Oh, Ben. To say more about the top priorities for the GOP here, election wise. I mean, Democrats have controlled Colorado government for a while.

[Benta Berkeland]

Yeah, that's true. But Republicans did make some gains two years ago. Republicans flipped CD8. They also gained a few seats at the state House, so they avoided being in this super minority. And I talked to Michael Fields, the head of Advanced Colorado. This is a conservative group that's been successful with ballot measures, especially fiscal issues. He said he thinks Republicans need to focus on issues like crime and the economy, areas where he thinks Democrats are out of step with the electorate. And he said, look, a lot of Colorado voters may not like Republicans, but they don't like Democrats all that well. So he does see an opening there.

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

The electorate is still center right on several key issues in the state, including taxes, including crime. You know, you have half of the people in Colorado are unaffiliated, and they're unaffiliated for a reason. They're not really thrilled with either party and therefore want to make individual decisions based on the race, based on the issue that's before them. So, you know, it's a complicated electorate right now because of 50% of them are unaffiliated. But you know, if you look at polling, even the elected officials, Democratic elected officials statewide, it's like their polling numbers aren't great. They're not really good at all. It's just when a voter is looking at two options they don't really love right now, they have to pick one of them. And they've been picking Democrats the last few cycles.

[Ryan Warner]

Well, speaking of Democrats, they had some frustrations of their own recently with state party leadership over county assemblies.

[Benta Berkeland]

Yes, that's right. In the county assemblies earlier this month, Democrats rolled out a voting app for the first time. So normally Democrats vote by paper at these caucuses. They had tech issues the app essentially crashed and some Democrats said it was confusing, frustrating, took too long to vote. Some people left in person assemblies, but then weren't allowed to vote remotely. So a lot of Democrats were upset with how the party rolled this out. I will say, though, that none of that frustration comes close to the dysfunction we're seeing on the GOP side, at least right now.

[Ryan Warner]

Benta, thanks so much for the reporting.

[Benta Berkeland]

Thanks, Ryan.

[Ryan Warner]

She's on our public affairs team. Benta Berkeland, the state assembly for the Democrats is next Saturday, March 28. The Republican state assembly is Saturday, April 11. Denver will rename a park and city holiday that had honored Cesar Chavez. Disgrace descended on the late labor activist after sexual abuse allegations surfaced. Denverite's Kyle Harris is following the fallout and spoke with Nathan Fernando Freskas.

[Kyle Harris]

Kyle, when the New York Times investigation was released about Chavez, the reaction was swift and it was absolute, not just around the country. Right here in Denver, gone is the parade, gone is the holiday. Gone is the park. Gone is the bust of Chavez. Gone is the plaque. Give us some context here. How deep did the legacy of Chavez go in Denver and Colorado?

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Well, Denver is a city that has a very strong historic labor movement and also Chicano movement. And where those two things intersected, I think that the legacy of Cesar Chavez was there. Many community elders here collaborated with him. They boycotted grapes with the United Farm Workers. People remember all of that as part of their childhood, as part of the social movements they grew up with. And in some cases, people were marching with him. Chavez regularly visited the city. He was a presence here, an icon here, and incredibly important to the community.

[Kyle Harris]

Well, how have community activists reacted to the shocking investigation by the New York Times?

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Well, Council President Amanda Sandoval was devastated. She was shocked. She and Mayor Mike Johnston met really right after the news broke. And Johnston said they both wept together. They met on Wednesday night with Chicano labor movement leaders at Suteatro. People were shocked. They were in mourning. But some were also viewing this as a moment to, to really reevaluate the Chicano movement's history and recenter women and the work of girls, too, in their struggle.

[Kyle Harris]

Yeah. And speaking of that, tell us about Dolores Suerta. Her story has really become this rallying cry for supporting the women and girls abused by Chavez. Is that true here in Colorado?

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Oh, it's absolutely true. I mean, you had people when the mayor was making this announcement about all of these big changes with, with signs that were memorializing Dolores Huerta, who's still alive, she's in her 90s she is actually the co founder of United Farm Workers with Chavez. The two collaborated over decades. They were often seen together in pictures, and she has been a prominent voice for workers rights. She's someone that really has become a larger part of the cultural imagination around the United Farm Workers movement in the years since. She wrote a chilling statement about her experience with Chavez, saying that he coerced her into having sex on one occasion. Occasion. And raped her on another. After both encounters, she was pregnant and gave birth to a child. And in both cases, other families ended up raising the kids. Huerta, like Chavez, has spoken in Denver over the years and has become an increasingly iconic figure in the labor rights struggle among some community leaders. There is a push to actually rename the parade and the park after her.

[Kyle Harris]

Huerta originally held off on bringing this forward because she just didn't want her allegations to. To do greater harm to the movement. And so it seems to me that is something that is being lifted up.

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

That's part of what's so devastating is that for decades she held this close to her chest. She says she told nobody about this in an effort to protect the movement and realizing that disrupting his legacy could disrupt the legacy of the movement, which, to be real, is what people are saying has absolutely not happened. It's the community that created this. It's the people in the streets who work together to create this. Chavez may have been a figurehead, a symbol, but moving beyond him does not mean that the city, the country, is forgetting the work of these laborers.

[Kyle Harris]

Cesar Chavez Day was slated to be celebrated on March 31. So what happens to that day now?

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Well, Mayor Mike Johnston says this year they're going to be calling it Si Se Puede Day, which is yes, we Can. It's a phrase that Dolores Huerta herself coined. It's an incredible rallying cry in the Chicano community, in the immigrant rights community. And. And it is a phrase that I think the mayor and the city council leaders in social movements are very excited to be unifying around. And, hey, it means that Cesar Chavez's name is no longer tied to the event.

[Kyle Harris]

Yeah, well, and there is a park in Denver's Tennyson neighborhood that also bears the name Cesar Chavez. So what happens to that park?

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Well, apparently at Wednesday night's meeting at Soute Hatar, the elders got together and spoke with the officials, and they said, we don't want that name on the park. We don't want the sculpture there. We don't want the. The plaque there. And so they removed as much of that as possible.

[Kyle Harris]

Are there other monuments or buildings named for Chavez and Denver? I'm assuming renaming or removing those will take some time.

[Ryan Warner]

Sure.

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

I mean, they're private and public and whatever. They're buildings that have murals of Chavez throughout town. And I think the business owners or city itself will have to decide what to do with those. And then there's a federal building named after Cesar Chavez. And that one, Johnston says he's going to have a conversation with the federal government about what to do with that.

[Kyle Harris]

From speaking with movement leaders. Where do they go from here, specifically in Denver, given how important Chavez was to the movement and to his legacy across Colorado?

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Ramona Martinez, who was instrumental in creating Cesar Chavez Day in the city, said that the community has to take this opportunity to regroup, to decide how to tell the history and recognize the importance of this moment and also the importance of the work people have done together. There is a ton of grief in the community, but there's also a push to tell the story honestly and honor the people who actually did the work and did it in a way that didn't create harm.

[Kyle Harris]

Kyle, thanks so much.

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

Thank you.

[Ryan Warner]

Denverite's Kyle Harris speaking with Nathan Fernando Freskas. And Colorado Matters continues in this next half hour. With allergy season gone awry, I'm Ryan Warner, and you're with CPR News and krcc. You're back with Colorado Matters. From CPR News and krcc, I'm Ryan Warner. It may be the first day of spring, but a different season was already underway.

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

It's been a rough couple of months for patients with environmental allergies. Trees, weeds, grasses perhaps snuck through the winter months this year because there just hasn't been significant enough frost.

[Ryan Warner]

Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford is an allergist immunologist at National Jewish Health in Denver. She has two extra busy times of

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

year, mid August, that fall season, September, October is where a lot of patients, particularly those who are ragweed allergic, really struggle. And then in the springtime are the pollinating trees, cottonwood, aspens.

[Ryan Warner]

As for who gets hit hardest, we

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

have a lot of farmers in Colorado and young people who enjoy being in the outdoors. Hiking, climbing and environmental allergies are a plague on our young and, you know, older adults. Age doesn't matter in terms of hiking, everyone hikes here. We take our role very seriously because as allergists, we want people to have a good quality of life.

[Ryan Warner]

Now, there are some perks to living in an arid climate.

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

The drier environments do tend to have less dust mite burden and less mold burden. More people have issues with the pollens, and there are some outdoor molds that do not require moisture.

[Ryan Warner]

The larger forces exacerbating allergies also contribute to wildfires, which in turn trigger breathing issues.

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

There are some good studies that were done in California around some of those major wildfire events, and ER visits for kids went up and adults went up around these wildfires. So it can provoke asthma exacerbations, create the state of worsening inflammation that makes respiratory viruses more difficult to clear. So yeah, it's not good for folks with asthma.

[Ryan Warner]

And it's not just forest fires. The doctor's thinking of a burning tree

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

is different than a burning power line. There are different chemicals released by those that are not good for the sinus and airways and skin. So those are something that, you know, we may see worsen in the next few years. And so we need to have some structures in place to think about that.

[Ryan Warner]

A confession I wished we'd have reached the good doctor earlier because one of her tips ideally involves a head start.

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

So for next time, we recommended getting the nasal spray started daily, about four to six weeks prior to spraying time. Same thing for the fall so that your nose is prepared for the onslaught. The same is true for the inhalers as well, really keeping those on board every day rather than using them on an as needed basis. It's a little late now, but getting it started now is still oh good.

[Ryan Warner]

It's not entirely a lost cause. There are advancements in allergy relief, says Dr. Gallant Swofford, that can be injected at home.

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

We have biologics that just treat allergic immunity broadly throughout the body. So sinus, lungs and skin in a single drug. So it is an exciting time.

[Ryan Warner]

These are different from your run of the mill allergy shots. Biologics are made from living things like yeast or bacteria, Gallant Swafford says with a prescription, they're safe because they work in a targeted way.

[Dr. Jessica Gallant Swofford]

The concept is that they're engineered to bind to a particular molecular target, rather than like prednisone, for example, which broadly suppresses the immune system in many different domains. The trouble is, these medicines are expensive.

[Ryan Warner]

Dr. Jessica Gallat Swofford, assistant professor of medicine in the allergy and Immunology division at National Jewish Health. We'll be right back with how voter suppression often comes wrapped in the flag. This is Colorado Matters from CPR News. You're with Colorado Matters from CPR News. I'm Ryan Warner. President Trump's repeated lies about widespread voter fraud and stolen elections help Fuel the Save America act now before Congress. SAVE stands for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility. It brings me Back to a 2020 conversation I had with Professor Carol Anderson, author of One Person no Vote. You call voter suppression a huge problem for African Americans. You refer to what's happening today as Jim Crow 2.0. You know, with long standing constitutional and other legal protections in place. Help people understand what you mean.

[Carol Anderson]

And I'd like to say that it's not only just a problem for African Americans, it's a problem for American democracy. Because what's happening is that we are eliminating swaths, large swaths of American citizens from being able to choose their representatives. And so the way that this works is that, you know, we know that we have the 15th amendment of the Constitution. That was a Reconstruction amendment. It came out after the Civil War. And one of those pieces in there, and it says, the state shall not abridge the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. That almost seems rock solid, doesn't it?

[Ryan Warner]

Certainly sounds ironclad.

[Carol Anderson]

Not quite when you think about that. That amendment came through in 1870. Since that time, we had massive disfranchisement with the Mississippi Plan of 1890 that systematically figured out, how do you get around the 15th Amendment? By using the societally imposed conditions on African Americans, like poverty, illiteracy because of not funding public schools, like the good character clause where you had to have three whites approve your character before you could vote the white primary. All of these sorts of measures. By the time we got to 1940, only 3% of African Americans were registered to vote in the south. 3%.

[Ryan Warner]

This is also the same period of time in which we would have seen poll taxes, right?

[Carol Anderson]

Absolutely. So we're seeing the poll tax that was also part of the Mississippi plan. And the way the poll tax worked was remember that voter suppression always sounds reasonable. It always sounds like it's in service to protecting democracy, when in fact it's anything but interesting.

[Ryan Warner]

What messages are used.

[Carol Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, so it says. So what the Mississippi state legislature said was in 1890, we are here to end corruption in our elections, incorruption at the ballot box. And so we have a series of measures here that will guarantee the sanctity of the right to vote, guarantee the sanctity of the ballot box, guarantee the sanctity of democracy. I mean, it's got red, white and blue flag waving all over it. Who doesn't want to fight for the sanctity of democracy? Who doesn't want to ensure that our Elections are clean. And that when you vote and you cast that ballot, that it is counted. And your representative, if your representative gets the most, I mean, this is flag waving. Usa. Yay. Except what it actually was designed to do was to stop American citizens from voting.

[Ryan Warner]

And what was the justification, in particular of a poll tax?

[Carol Anderson]

And the justification for the poll tax is that it said democracy is expensive. You know, you're having all of these elections and so you got to have a place where people are casting their ballots. You got to have people who are taking the ballots, you got to have people who are counting the ballots. And if you really believed in democracy, you would be willing to pay a small fee, a small tax, in order to ensure that democracy ran smoothly. So you see how that language also puts the onus on the individual and not the state.

[Ryan Warner]

And you say these currents continue. Talk to me about the 2.0.

[Carol Anderson]

Absolutely. One of the significant breaches. So remember, we had the Voting Rights act of 1965, which finally put some heft behind the 15th Amendment of the Constitution. But the Supreme Court's decision in 2013, Shelby County v. Holder, is where the U.S. supreme Court, in a 5, 4 decision, gutted what is called the pre clearance provision of the Voting Rights Act. What the pre clearance provision did was it said that states that had had a history of discriminating against its citizens,

[Ryan Warner]

many of them Southern states, though not

[Carol Anderson]

all, not all, but many, because you had to have a demonstrated history of discrimination and you had to use one of those devices from the Mississippi plan, such as a poll tax, such as a literacy test. If you had those two things working together and you had fewer than 50% of your age, eligible adults registered to vote, it was like a canary in the mine. You knew something was really sick and twisted, toxic happening in that democracy.

[Ryan Warner]

And if you were going to make any changes to how people voted, you had to run that by the authorities. Essentially, the pre clearance right, you had

[Carol Anderson]

to run it by the U.S. department of justice or by the federal courts

[Ryan Warner]

in D.C. now, the high court ruled that section of the Voting Rights act unconstitutional because they said it was based on an old formula. Is this a partisan issue? That is to say, do you see more violations in your mind by one party than another?

[Carol Anderson]

I would say that there is absolute, rock solid evidence that it is, unfortunately, that the right to vote is a partisan issue. And it doesn't need to be, it shouldn't be. It is about American democracy, but what we're seeing. And so I'm getting ready to do some quick history here. Again is that after the passage of the Civil Rights act and the voting rights act of 65, you saw the Southern Democrats break away from the Democratic Party and they were wooed into and moved into the Republican Party. That group then basically the toxin that they brought of anti civil rights, anti blackness, anti anti, began to take over the moderates in the Republican Party and move the Republican Party so far to the right that as the demographics in America changed, that party's policies couldn't resonate. And so the response was to figure out how do we stop key segments of the voting population who cannot resonate with our policies, how do we stop them from voting? And so that's why you begin to see these kinds of targets that also then sound very reasonable until you pull it back and you see the targeting. I'll take my.

[Ryan Warner]

Yeah, give me an example. So you talked about the arguments early on to reduce the vote as being kind of wrapped in the flag and, you know, carried in the talons of a bald eagle. Where do you hear that today?

[Carol Anderson]

And so you hear it in terms of stopping voter fraud. You know, they're trying to steal our elections. We have all of these non citizens that are trying to vote. And so we must protect democracy. You heard that coming out of President Trump as he talked about voter fraud and people trying to steal the election. You hear that in that language. So let me give you some specifics because we're talking generality. In North Carolina, for instance, when the Republicans took over in North Carolina after the 2010 election, they began to implement a series of policies. What they did, though, was they asked for racialized data on a series of things. One of that dealt with who has what types of IDs by race, what do they have and what don't they have. And then the North Carolina legislature crafted the voter ID law to emphasize the kinds of IDs that whites have and de. Emphasize the kinds of IDs that African Americans have.

[Ryan Warner]

And there's evidence pointing to this.

[Carol Anderson]

There's incredible, heart wrenching evidence about this. And this is what led the 4th Circuit to look at North Carolina in a lawsuit and say, you have targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision. This law is racially discriminatory.

[Ryan Warner]

You know. In a piece for the Brookings Institution, sociologist Rashaun Ray and Pastor Mark Whitlock of an AME megachurch in Maryland wrote, black people not wanting to vote simply isn't empirically true relative to other racial groups. The reason I bring this up is that there's a longstanding kind of narrative in this country, like black folk, don't vote. And they go on to say, we must take into account the ways that blacks are systematically denied the ability to vote. With the rolling back of the Voting Rights act, we're seeing from North Carolina, as you mentioned, to Texas and the upper Midwest, the ways that black voters are targeted. So it goes on. Before we chastise black people, can we address voter disenfranchisement and gerrymandering and set the record straight on voter turnout?

[Carol Anderson]

Absolutely. I mean, one of the things that led me to in fact write one person, no vote, was after the 2016 election, the pundits are all talking, and one of the first things that comes out is that, well, you know, black people just didn't show up for Hillary. They just didn't show up. You know, that's because Hillary is Hillary, you know, so black people just stayed home. And in fact, black voter turnout went down by 7% in the 2016 presidential election from the 2012 election. But that was, the 2016 was the first presidential election in 50 years without the protection of the Voting Rights Act. And so having pundits not take into account that the law that had been in place, put in place to ensure that you had access to the ballot box, that that law had been gutted by the US Supreme Court. So you saw states doing things like these voter ID laws, where, for instance in Alabama, where your driver's license counts but your public housing ID doesn't count for a government issued photo id, and where the governor then shuts down the Department of Motor Vehicles in the Black Belt counties. So you create an obstacle based on the lie of voter fraud, and then you create an obstacle to the obstacle, the inability to be able to get access to getting that id.

[Ryan Warner]

I just want to say that there are more claims of voter fraud than there seem to be actual cases of them. It's not that they don't exist, but I think the reporting shows very clearly that they are often overstated.

[Carol Anderson]

Vastly overstated. Justin Levitt, a law professor out of California, he did a study from 2000 to 2014. He added up all of the votes in the elections in the United States, and there were 1 billion votes. He found 31 cases of voter impersonation fraud out of 1 billion votes over 15 years. So that's about two a year. That's not the massive, rampant voter fraud fraud that we hear being just extolled all the time. Instead, we already have the mechanisms in place to catch it. So if we have the mechanisms in place, if voter fraud Is not this massive, rampant thing. Then why do we have voter id? Because it becomes a mechanism by saying, like, in Texas, your student ID from the University of Texas doesn't count as a government issued photo ID id, but your gun registration card does. You can shape the electorate by figuring out which groups have what types of IDs and then making those the holy grail into access to the ballot box.

[Ryan Warner]

Texas argument there was that the gun permit was issued by the state and consistent across Texas, which is, you know, bigger than a lot of countries, and that university IDs were pretty specific to each school and, and so that that was susceptible to fraud.

[Carol Anderson]

Right.

[Ryan Warner]

You think I sound like the reasonable voice from back in the day now?

[Carol Anderson]

Yeah, that sounds, you know, and that's what you hear. But think about it. So Texas doesn't say, okay, is there a way that we can make those IDs from our public universities so that they're consistent? Consistent. I mean, so instead of going that route, Texas chooses not to go that route.

[Ryan Warner]

I mean, so this is fascinating because there's a nuance in the voter ID conversation I'm hearing here that I haven't heard elsewhere. It actually doesn't sound to me like you think it's unreasonable to ask for an id, but that there are ways to craft such a law that wind up being discriminatory.

[Carol Anderson]

Okay, but that's not what I'm saying. I do think it's unreasonable to ask, and I think it's unreasonable to ask.

[Ryan Warner]

There'll be any number of people who disagree with you on that.

[Carol Anderson]

I know that. Lord, do I know that. Because it's unreasonable to ask. Because the foundation for asking for an ID is to stop all of this massive, rampant voter fraud. Except the proponents of voter ID cannot point to cases of massive, rampant voter fraud. So Greg Abbott out of Texas, when he has to go before Judge Ramos to justify the voter ID law in Texas, and he says, we have massive, rampant voter fraud, she says, how many? He's like, massive, how many? And he has to point to two cases out of 20 million votes.

[Ryan Warner]

You think that this is a solution in search of a problem? It sounds like, absolutely. But it strikes me that our confidence in the voting system is also very important. If we perceive it as whole, if we perceive it as having integrity, perhaps we are more likely to vote, to participate.

[Carol Anderson]

And so part of what we have to understand are two things. One, the current impact of the voter ID law. So that in Wisconsin in the 2016 election, 8% of whites were blocked from voting because of the voter ID law and over 25% of African Americans were blocked because of the voter ID law. So we're seeing disparate impact. One, two, this issue of confidence in the electoral system. We have to understand that the unease was a manufactured problem creating almost like a McCarthyist Red Scare, the sphere of communism, Communism, communism. We get the same kind of PR about the fear of voter fraud. Voter fraud that then gets the public to say, protect us.

[Ryan Warner]

Colorado recently scrapped its presidential caucuses in favor of a Super Tuesday primary. There are still caucuses for down ballot races. I wonder what your assessment is of caucuses versus primaries.

[Carol Anderson]

I see caucuses as some of the least democratic methods of selecting candidates. And I think.

[Ryan Warner]

And yet it feels so grassroots. People gathering in a gymnasium, if you

[Carol Anderson]

get childcare, if you don't work that evening or, you know, you're working two jobs. I mean, so the caucuses and people gathering, it feels so grassroots, but it's actually quite exclusionary on so many different ways. Whereas the primaries, if done correctly, really begins a kind of full embrace of American democracy. So I like going the primary route.

[Ryan Warner]

Thank you for being with us.

[Carol Anderson]

Thank you.

[Ryan Warner]

Carol Anderson is a professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Formerly, she sat on the State Department's Historical Advisory Committee. During a visit to Denver in 2020, we discussed her book, One Person no, how Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy. And that is colorado matters for now, with thanks to our team. Sandy batulga, tyler bender, carl bay bulik,

[Paul or Al Oberbruckling]

anthony cotton, pete kramer, andrea dukakis, zan huckpechone, matt herz, tom house, michael hughes,

[Carol Anderson]

pedro lumbragno, shane rumsey, haley sanchez, chandra thomas whitfield.

[Ryan Warner]

And I'm ryan warner at cpr news and kr.