My regular reader (Hi Jeff!) will recall that I had the great honor of spending more than 25 years on active duty as an Air Force officer. I started off as a nuclear missile launch officer and ended up spending most of my career teaching political science at the AF Academy here in Colorado.

And as with any somewhat cloistered culture, military members often communicated with “inside” terms and language shortcuts. Some of them are fit for public consumption and some are not. If you say “check air” to any normal person, they will look at you rather puzzled and perhaps even concerned for your mental health. But if you say “check air” to a missileer, he or she will likely respond, with a smile, “air is cool and adequate.” Similarly, “push stick forward, trees get bigger” is oft heard in initial flight training for future pilots. You know, military talk.

One term that most military folks will understand is a “one mistake military.” That means that there are certain things, that if done, will essentially end your military career on the spot. An officer getting a DUI, for example, is nearly always a career killer. The list of that type of offenses gets longer for those with security clearances and weapon systems, as you might imagine. Not surprisingly, military folks try very hard not to commit a “one mistake” type of error.

I was reminded of that military culture norm as I was reading a story in the Gazette which examined the American Civil Liberties Union’s recent set of letters sent to various Colorado governmental organizations, demanding that these local governments stop barring people with felony convictions from running for public office. This, at least in large part, stems from a city charter provision in Aurora that barred those with felonies on their record from running for, in this case, city council. A local woman wanted to run but she had a 23-year-old felony conviction (for assault when she herself was 22) on her record. The ACLU was successful, and a court ordered a permanent injunction against that portion of the charter. The charter was later modified to now only exclude candidates who had been found guilty of such offenses as embezzlement of public funds, taking bribes, committing perjury and similar government-related stuff. That seems a reasonable adjustment to me.

So, the question is, shall Colorado and the many local governments therein, take the position that if you have ever committed a felony, you are forever banned from public service? No, says I.

Thomas Jefferson was once asked, in his old age, if he would like to relive his long life. He replied that he would, but only if he did not have to live the first 25 again. When we are young we can be a tad fiery and emotions can dominate in youth. Most of us mellow with age and often look back on our passionate youth with at least some degree of chagrin. As a 13th century philosopher once said: “The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them.” I posit that sentiment could have easily been penned in any era, including our own.

Which, of course, brings me to the national embarrassment that is Florida.

A few years ago, the good people of Florida, in a vote that shocked the state’s Republican leadership, voted to allow felons that had served their sentences and were again responsible members of society, to vote again. Prior to that state-wide referendum felons had forever lost their right to vote.

And what did the GOP-led state legislature do? Did they pass enabling legislation to allow the will of the voters to be fulfilled? Of course not. The GOP feared that the Florida former felons would tend to vote for Democrats, and so they started passing twisted state laws that effectively undo the will of the people and keep the former felons voteless. So much for majority rule, eh?

The simple truth is that in Florida, like much of the nation, the GOP can only compete when they are able to suppress the vote of certain groups and gerrymander the heck out of electoral districts. Hence the willful and arrogant rejection of an actual vote by the people statewide, by means of petty and politically offensive new laws to keep the downtrodden, well, downtrodden.

Once again, I’m happy to live in Colorado. Here, we have leaders who champion voting rights, but we also are at least looking at – on a city-by-city basis – how former felons can again be public servants.

We are a state that believes in second chances, and that’s something to be proud of. We are not a “one mistake” Colorado.

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.