Colorado’s Future Project provides analysis and commentary on issues that impact Colorado. CFP isn’t about women’s issues; it’s about important issues like the economy, health care, energy, government debt, and education from an independent woman’s perspective. CFP is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and educational outreach project supported by the Independent Women’s Forum.
Krista Kafer, Executive Director of the Colorado’s Future Project
Who I am has a lot to do with where I come from. My dad’s grandparents came to this country in the early 20th Century from Russia. They were fortunate; all of their kin were exiled to Siberia under Stalin. My grandparents, Fred and Erna, were tenant farmers. When the land owner kicked them off the land, they moved to Commerce City, CO to work in the factories. My dad grew up in Commerce City and became a salesman.
My mother’s parents, Joe and Shirley, had to go to work at a young age and both left high school before they could graduate. Joe, Pop Pop to me, went to work for the Martin Company in Baltimore, MD and the family moved to Colorado when the company relocated. My mom was the first in her family to graduate from high school. Both of my parents stressed the importance of hard work and perseverance. I was the first in my family to graduate from college.
Going from immigrant to college graduate and share cropper to independent businesswoman in four generations is something that happens frequently in the United States and infrequently in the rest of the world. I’ve visited some thirty countries and have seen how ambition and entrepreneurship are often discouraged. Most people live as their fathers lived and their fathers lived and their fathers lived. Cradle-to-grave government care is nothing but a gilded cage that keeps people from determining the course of their own lives.
My family has lived the American Dream because we’ve had the freedom to do so. I worry that well-meaning but misguided government policies will mean my young niece Avery will not have the same opportunities. She is growing up in a country with a $16 trillion national debt, a stagnant economy, and less freedom to make her own way. If something doesn’t change, a stranger in a government office will make choices for Avery about her health care, her education, her work, and her life.
That’s why I started the Colorado’s Future Project with the support of the Independent Women’s Forum, an organization that has long been the voice of independent women like me. Drawing from my experience as a Colorado native and from the years I spent in Washington, D.C. analyzing government policy, my goal is to provide other women information and resources about issues that impact their lives. Politicians and special interest groups are spending millions to convince women that more government control is in their best interest. I am here to tell the other side of the story.
Contact
Krista Kafer
[email protected]