(These are the words Mike Flannery used to introduce Dave at his campaign announcement/kickoff on February 5.)

I welcome you to a remarkable moment in the future of Colorado Springs.  Now is the time.

Thomas Jefferson once said, “A politician looks forward to the next election, a statesman looks forward to the next generation.”  Dave Gardener looks forward to our next generation.

All my life I have been a student of leadership.  I was raised by a career Air Force officer and fighter pilot.  I was not only told, but shown, that anything worth doing is worth doing right. 
Dave is cut from the same cloth. 

Leadership isn’t always something we chose.  Sometimes it chooses us.  Dave was born and raised in Colorado Springs, and he came back home to make a difference.  Because of his commitment to our community, leadership has chosen him. 

A leader’s strength of character is revealed in their actions.  Dave’s actions have shown that he has the vision, the wisdom and the courage to lead Colorado Springs and to inspire us to dig down deep and find the courage that it will take to get back on track and once again become a “Real Community with True Prosperity.” 

Many years ago, Dave Gardner chose the name “Vision’s West” for his local production company.  I believe his personal mission statement speaks volumes, “We help companies, communities and non-profit groups bring their stories to life — to inform, inspire and motivate audiences to act.”  His vision is to help his customers promote authenticity and credibility.  His passion is for Colorado Springs to be a community of authenticity, credibility and sustainability.

It is indeed wise to take an honest accounting of where we are and what behaviors have brought us here.  Through exhaustive research and keen observation, Dave recognizes that the growth behaviors we’ve been practicing haven’t delivered the quality of life and prosperity we expected.  It is our responsibility to look for sustainable solutions, but we need wise leadership to guide us and help us shift our awareness towards quality not quantity.

Dave has worked tirelessly and selflessly to help our city leadership recognize the perilous path our community is on by taking away from our future and not honoring our past.  Community leaders have not the eyes to see, nor ears to hear.  So we’ve continued down a path of concession where we have conceded our quality of life and our sense of community.

Our city leadership has tried to silence him with ridicule, deter him with duplicity and burden his efforts with petty protocols.  In spite of this, Dave continues to seek out other people of character and create opportunities to develop sustainable solutions to the ever expanding list of problems we face together. 

Sometimes I don’t know how Dave sustains his energy and his focus.  However, when you love something as much as he loves our hometown, you find what you need to keep going.

Dave is exactly who Winston Churchill had in mind when he said, “This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

Great visionaries have claimed that we are in a new age of reason.  There is nothing reasonable about the current predictions for our future as a city, as a nation or even as members of the world community if we people of character and talent sit idly by and do nothing.

In the face of personal adversity and with tremendous risk and self sacrifice, Dave has chosen to do the right thing.  He has chosen to stand and be counted.  He is a voice of reason in an age of insanity, but he can’t do it alone.

Margaret Mead, a 20th century social anthropologist observed, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” 

• Now is the time to do the right thing.
• Now is the time for us to get off the sidelines and get involved. 
• Now is the time to shed our outdated notions that growth equals prosperity. 
• Now is the time to embrace the virtue of quality not quantity. 
• Now is the time to bring our city leadership behaviors back “into the daylight of truth.”
• Now is the time for us to redefine and recommit to who we are and where we are going.
• Now is the time to create a new vision for our community of true sustainable prosperity.
• Now is the time for us to pull together.
• Together, we can change our world – starting here – starting today.

In the April 2009, we have the opportunity to put our trust in someone who is trustworthy, to put our belief in someone who understands true prosperity and to give our support to someone who has demonstrated that he is a steward of positive change.

Times of change require people of vision, wisdom and courage.  Now is the time we elect a real leader for Colorado Springs.  Dave Gardner is my friend and a true man of character.  The next Colorado Springs City Council Representative for District 3 is Dave Gardner.

Mike Flannery