If you have been reading my columns regularly, first, thank you. Secondly, you’ll note that I usually write about Denver and Colorado, with occasional side trips to issues outside the headwaters state. That’s us, by the way. Every river that flows through Colorado starts in Colorado. I learned that from then-Gov. Hickenlooper. So, there is your educational moment for today. Where was I? (Ed: good question)

Oh yeah, Denver. With your indulgence and kindness, I’d like to talk about the good people in another Denver, the one that is found in North Carolina. I’m hoping that my kindly and forgiving editor will be so busy he can only glance at this essay, and upon seeing the word DENVER so often, may not notice that I’m talking about a Denver in a different state, North Carolina, today. Nobody tell him, ok? (Ed: tell me what?)

As a 25-year career military officer, the concept of honor is very important to me. My first military assignment back in the early 1980s was as an ICBM missile launch officer, the “finger on the button” people. Later in my career, I taught at the AF Academy, served as a military adviser at the White House and at the State Department, and was a military cop. In each and every one of those assignments, a personal sense of honor was not only vital, it was assumed. One’s word was his or her bond – it must be that way in a military environment. So perhaps I’m a bit over the top on issues of honor.

Thus, I was very pleased to see the recall efforts against Gov. Polis and state Sen. Pete Lee fail, as those recalls were nothing more than an effort to undo the results of a free and fair election just months before. I’m pleased when honorable people do honorable things.

Which brings me to North Carolina…

You may have heard about the recent actions of the North Carolina state legislature. Simply put, they have a Democrat governor and a Republican-majority legislature. On Sept. 11, the Dems report that the GOP leadership told them there would be no vote taken that morning on budget issues, and as a result, most of the Dems went to a 9/11 memorial service. Stunningly, the GOP leadership then quietly called for a new vote to override the NC governor’s veto of their budget (which reduced education and health spending) while the Democrats were at the memorial service. The handful of Dems in attendance tried to stop the procedure, while the House speaker called for the expulsion of a Dem official trying to prevent the vote. Apparently, the Dems in attendance literally surrounded their fellow legislator to prevent her expulsion from the chamber.

Now, we can, as honorable and caring people, agree or disagree on things like state budgets. But I would hope that we could also agree that the actions of the GOP in NC were reprehensible, and truly without honor. 

I admit, I am particularly offended by this action because on 9/11 in 2001, I was inside the Pentagon when the aircraft struck. I had to see things and do things I never want to see or do again, and as a result, carry some emotional scars from that day with me constantly. 

I would bet that the majority of the people of Denver, be it Colorado or North Carolina, would agree that dishonesty is wrong, in politics and in life. But the NC GOP seems to be without honor. One need look no further than the NC GOP’s efforts to gerrymander congressional districts to see that dishonor is an ongoing problem for them.

It pleases me that the state with the real Denver generally operates with a higher personal standard of honor. The recall efforts mentioned above were brief and unsuccessful, and there was some bipartisanship in this year’s legislative session. I can personally attest to my old boss, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s high sense of honor and moral code, and I feel similarly toward the Republican mayor of Colorado Springs, John Suthers, with whom I disagree on policy issues, but about whom I do not worry in terms of behaving honorably.  Former Gov. Bill Owens is another good example of honorable leadership.

Some may say I am naïve to posit that honor is a vital component in leadership. To those cynics, I say nay, as I have seen such honorable behavior up close and personal. But the final arbiter of honorable behavior is now and will always be the electorate. When we elect people of good character to office, be it the Democrat Bennet or the Republicans Suthers or Owens, we find our values reflected in their behavior. When we elect dishonorable people to office, especially the highest office, we reap the results of their failure of character. The good people of Denver, North Carolina are now under the control of a dishonorable legislature, while the good people of Denver, Colorado and the rest of us here, have generally good people in office.

Honor is not an old and foolish notion; it is the core of good government, and we must demand it in our leaders and in ourselves. 

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.