The 18th Century Irish philosopher Edmund Burke was supposed to have said that evil triumphs when good men do nothing. The quote has been misattributed to him for decades if not centuries.
Mostly because the words ring truer than ever at any given moment but also because he did say something pretty close to it.
In his “Thoughts on the Cause of Present Day Discontents” in 1770, he wrote that “when bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one …”.
Even though the discontents of 1770 were quite different from those we see us before us in modern day Española, the words carry a sound harbinger of things to come. Unless you count yourselves among the good, and vote for change.
Ross Levine, economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, cheekily notes in his current essay “The Danger of Admiring the Wrong People” that not all the glitters is good. Worship of power is fatal to a free people. He argues that our current generation looks to fame, spectacle and status — and treats their visibility as proof of merit.
Levine poses the ultimate question should we wish to become a free, good and prosperous community: Are you admiring the right people? Are we electing leaders based on the correctness of their moral compass and aptitude?
Or will we continue to elect leaders not only of questionable ethical compass, but those who lack the moral rectitude required to lead?
We build communities to reflect our internal priorities. Society represents who we are as a people. We must move away from a mayor who wields a lofty sword in word only. The thirst for power will destroy our city.
But how did this happen? How did we get here?
Levine posits that appearances strike faster than we are able to judge. To discern takes time, and we’ve had four years to take a good hard look. Wealth looks like success; power looks like superiority. The respect we pay to wealth and greatness, when compared with the respect we pay to wisdom and virtue, is altogether disproportionate.
By “greatness,” I meant what you would now call power – the ability to command attention, rank, and influence. Meanwhile, the honest, the prudent, and the benevolent labor unnoticed, for virtue seldom advertises itself.
It is human nature to look positively at that which glitters. But our long-term survival demands that we look deeper.
There has never been more litigation directed toward the mayor as there has been over the last four years. It is unthinkable. Is this a lack of wisdom, lack of judgment, or pure incompetence? And guess who pays?
The taxpayer. There hasn’t been a larger show of decline in the city of Española than the look of our streets. The sheer number of people without a place to go or sleep has exploded.
We have seen them sleeping under our bridges and on our riverbanks for months on end with no plan other than to kick them out.
The current mayor has done nothing to help our reputation, has created a $2 million shortfall, and has left us wondering what’s next
Bad things happen when good people do nothing. You are the good people of Española who can vote to change the trajectory of our city.
Please do so on March 3, 2026. Let this be our revolution where we take back our community.
Javier Sanchez is an El Rito Media columnist, former Española mayor, and restaurant owner.