Who are the specialists at DPS?
Re: “Denver Public Schools budget shortfall,’ April 10 Open Forum.
Letter-writer Christine Houseworth offered a “simple solution’ to the financial crisis that Denver Public Schools is experiencing: Cut the specialists. As a specialist with DPS, I do not feel the public is informed about who specialists are and what they do. The specialists in DPS include your child’s speech or physical therapist, nurse, psychologist and social worker, just to name a few. The specialists are based within the school, essentially as a wrap-around service, to reduce obstacles to help children learn and function in our society. They provide counseling, family resources, environmental assistance, assistance with health care, programming to ensure that your child is not being bullied, harassed or teased, assessments when your child is having difficulty learning, and much more.
There is a blatant hypocrisy in worrying about the overcrowding of Denver’s jails while we continue to overcrowd our classrooms, close down schools and ignore information that indicates that funding of education results in less need for funding of prisons. By continuing to find money to build jails, we are able to ignore the problems that are causing the need for larger facilities in the first place. It should be no surprise that we are being asked to vote on May 3 to authorize the construction of a new jail. Instead, let’s invest in our children so they don’t engage in criminal behavior, let’s continue to provide preventive services, let’s support what our public schools are trying to do for our children, and stand up for what is needed.
Paula Evans, Denver
Remembering activist Rodolfo “Corky’ Gonzales
Re: “Chicano activist paved the way,’ April 13 news story.
Reading of the death of Corky Gonzales brought back many memories of growing up in Denver’s East Side during the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. Many Hispanics, Mexicans or Chicanos and even blacks owe a debt of gratitude to this very brave person, and many are not even aware of who he was and what he did.
During those years, racism was prevalent and several Hispanic and black teenagers were shot and killed by the Denver Police Department. Like many youths growing up during that era, we were so suppressed, many of us were not even aware of having rights.
We were not allowed to go to certain movie theaters. Signs that read “Mexicans and dogs are not allowed’ were common. Even though none of my family comes from Mexico, all Hispanics were lumped together.
Then came Corky.
He used his fame as a boxer and started Crusade for Justice. The word “Chicano,’ for many, is negative, but he taught me that I’m someone, that I have rights, and he showed us how to stand up for ourselves.
Today I’m proud to consider myself a Chicano, and ashamed that I allowed myself to be treated so badly. We just didn’t know better. But not Corky. He stood up for himself and for us. Those who became involved in the Crusade for Justice movement deserve positive recognition for bringing to the forefront the plight of all those youngsters who were killed and the extreme racism that existed. He helped set the stage for some of the hate laws on the books today. He let us know that we were entitled to dignity. He was called a revolutionary, and indeed he was.
Joe Garcia, Denver
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My uncle, Corky Gonzales, married my mother’s younger sister, and through this marriage this giant of a man was brought into my life. His personal attributes speak for themselves, as he blazed trails in the strife-laden lives of minorities in the Rocky Mountain area. It was at a time when being a member of a minority race in an overpowering white society made life almost unbearable for those of us who were born, raised and attempted to deal with life in an unfriendly, unyielding world that had little use for any people of color.
Some of us were able to escape that constantly humiliating and degrading atmosphere only by pursuing life in the less threatening and somewhat less critical world outside our native birthplace. The escape was minimal and the relief only somewhat less painful.
The Crusade for Justice that started within Uncle Corky’s heart and soul – and grew into an “awakening awareness of self worth’ for all people of brown, red, yellow or black skin – shall go on in history to identify just how courageous and honorable he was. We honor him in death for his valiant stand in the face of personal danger, and we testify now to his integrity and leadership. He was a role model who gave me the strength and courage to attempt to show the rest of the world, as did he, that we of color are not sub-intelligent or savage, nor are we unable to live and perform alongside the white society that attempted, somewhat successfully, for years to keep us in our place.
Paul Joseph Apodaca, Champaign, Ill.
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Thank you for recognizing the importance of Rodolfo Gonzales. Your headline, however, makes it clear that he leaves plenty of work for us. To say that Gonzales “created the Crusade for Justice, a voice for Denver’s nascent Chicano community,’ demonstrates an ignorance of not only the history of the city but of the entire Western United States.
Locally, Spaniards settled the first town in Colorado – San Luis – in 1851. At least one historical theory credits Mexicans with the founding of the city of Denver. And native tribes have called Colorado home for centuries.
Gonzales founded the Crusade in 1966. He attempted to unite and give voice to a people perhaps forgotten during the western expansion of the U.S. but by no means “coming into existence’ in the late 20th century. His work did, however, bring into existence opportunities that had historically been denied Chicanos. Latinos in Colorado government, civil service, schools, etc., all owe Gonzales a great debt. For the rest of us, his tireless efforts to teach us about our culture, to give us back our pride, amount to a legacy nonpareil. Mil gracias, Corky.
Rowena Alegr a, Newport, Ore.
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Gender and the military
Re: “Coed Army training fails,’ April 12 Kathleen Parker column.
I entered the Women’s Army Corps in 1959 as a second lieutenant, when the emphasis was on both femininity and leadership. Therefore I was interested in Kathleen Parker’s column that indicated that coed Army training fails, and that the Marines separate the sexes in basic training.
When I was in the Army, enlisted women trained at the same post (Fort McClellan, Ala.) and most of the platoon leaders ultimately responsible for the enlisted women were recently graduated officers who went to the Officers’ Basic School just up the road.
I agree with Parker that the sexes should be kept separate during basic training. In fact, sexes should be kept separate in all basic training, in all services, period.
If the Army wasn’t so anxious to make their quotas, maybe more mature men and women who were physically, mentally and emotionally in better shape would be recruited and the military would be in somewhat better shape.
Eileen Razek Hawlk, Littleton
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Problems at CU
Re: “11 chosen for panel to pick CU president,’ April 8 news story.
Reporting on the travails of the University of Colorado, The Post writes that “University president Elizabeth Hoffman announced last month that she will resign by June 30 after nearly two years of controversies, including sex and alcohol in the football recruiting program and the firestorm over professor Ward Churchill.’
Whatever the fate of Hoffman, I hope that the staff at The Denver Post is capable of understanding the difference between (a) something that the university or its own staff actually does, and therefore ought to be held accountable for; and (b) something that someone else does to the university or its staff, and therefore no reasonable person would hold the university or its staff accountable for.
I mention this because The Post’s report conflates two radically separate and distinct issues: “sex and alcohol in the football recruiting program,’ on the one hand, and the “firestorm over professor Ward Churchill,’ on the other.
Overwhelmingly, the latter case – the “firestorm’ – has been imposed upon the university and Churchill from the outside. No reasonable person would hold Churchill or Hoffman accountable for this particular “firestorm.’ In its nearly three-month history, it remains what it was in its origins: a neo-McCarthyite witch hunt.
David Peterson, Evergreen Park, Ill.
