Lawsuit over development of Wolf Creek area
Re: “Wolf Creek braces for battle,” May 2 business news story.
The Post’s article disregarded important information about the proposed Wolf Creek Village development and unfairly cast doubt on the character of one of Colorado’s great families. The Pitcher family navigates by principles of integrity, contribution and doing what’s right for the world. To ski at Wolf Creek is to be in the climate of their personal values. The place reeks of happy and well- cared-for employees, a ski area brimming with heart and love of the land, and stewardship beautifully in balance with serving folks who love to ski.
The article allows a bullying Texas billionaire to call into question the actions of Kingsbury Pitcher and his family, who own the Wolf Creek Ski area, without providing any response from the family. I feel compelled to write and defend their actions in filing suit to resolve issues around this ill-conceived development. The Pitchers were an essential part of the fabric of Colorado before Colorado was a state. And Kingsbury in particular helped to create much of the skiing enjoyed in this state.
The Pitcher family’s concerns with the development are simple and appropriate. It is wrong to build a poorly planned development slated to house 10,000 people without the proper environmental and engineering studies. The people who use the Wolf Creek ski hill and the individuals who reside around that ski hill will be negatively impacted by a development that is not supportable and that harms the quality of life in the county. Supporting this ever-ballooning proposal would damage one of Colorado’s snowiest peaks and crown jewels.
Contrary to the article’s assertion, the lawsuit brought by the Pitcher family is not about “how much money” is paid in damages. It is simply a matter of common sense and responsible stewardship in the face of one man’s attempts to circumvent the safeguards in place to protect the special beauty of this state.
Erica and Will Shafroth, Boulder
—————————————-
Reproduction laws and inequality of the sexes
Re: “Good news, guys: It’s back to those good ol’ sexist days,” May 6 Reggie Rivers column.
Reggie Rivers’ diatribe in response to Gov. Bill Owens’ veto of the emergency contraception bill disparages the male populace by suggesting that keeping women pregnant is their antidote to equality. But more importantly, the column fails to acknowledge the extent of anti-male discrimination that continues unabated today.
Despite Owens’ veto, women continue to enjoy numerous options for refusing parenthood – yet are also capable of depriving men of this same right should the woman choose to accept parenthood. Eighteen-plus years of child support obligations can be imposed on men even when the woman deliberately impregnated herself. Thanks to the legality of paternity fraud in Colorado, child support can also be imposed on a man even when the child is not his.
Other examples of anti-male discrimination include: male-only military-draft registration; the denial of funding to male victims of domestic violence; the underfunding of prostate cancer research relative to breast cancer research, despite nearly equal death rates for the two diseases; the frequent dispossession of men and fathers in divorce courts; the fact that “affirmative action” adversely affects black men and white men alike; etc.
These topics are far worthier of Rivers’ journalistic abilities.
Earl S. Fibish, Denver
…
Reggie Rivers went off the deep end with his anti-male rant of an essay. While the rejection of the emergency contraception bill was misguided, it is absurd to make the leap to saying that men want to keep women under control by keeping them pregnant.
In reality, women today have a great deal of reproductive choices relative to men. For example, a woman can abort her unborn child without any input from the father. Alternatively, she can give birth to a child and force the father to pay child support.
The “good old patriarchy” that Rivers alludes to seemed to mostly benefit the wealthy among men in the past. Meanwhile, most men continue to work relatively long hours in disproportionately hazardous conditions in order to support their wives and families. This is hardly the oppression of women.
Steven G. Van Valkenburg, Westminster
—————————————-
Use of tax dollars to treat illegals in the ER
Re: “U.S. to help ERs treat immigrants,” May 10 news story.
It seems incongruous that Americans who pay taxes are losing their homes to foreclosure because of high medical bills they cannot pay, while their tax dollars go to provide health care to illegal laborers taking the jobs that stay at impossibly low wages and no benefits.
It seems wrong that employers driven by profit motives should have any say over whether an injured worker gets medical care, but that is our worker’s compensation system.
Medical care should be allowed to all American taxpayers. This would remove the health care premiums from wages and help prevent American workers being evicted because their low wages will not pay the high costs of health care.
Certainly we cannot afford any shared health care system to provide unlimited care for extreme situations, particularly when easy prevention methods are ignored: cancer from smoking, HIV from unprotected sex, kidney replacement for lifelong alcoholics, elective surgeries like breast augmentation or cosmetic surgery.
But when our taxes are going to provide medical care for illegal workers while the poor Americans paying those taxes are refused health care, it is definitely totally wrong.
Paula Rhoads Hook, Denver
—————————————-
Sexuality and scent
Re: “Study finds brain difference between gay, straight men,” May 10 news story.
Researchers in Sweden have discovered differences in brain make- up between gay men and straight men. This is not news to those in the gay community who already know their orientation is not a choice. But when will Focus on the Family and other fundamentalist “Christians” accept this fact and stop viewing gay and lesbian individuals as sub-human? Is it too difficult for them to believe that there are statements in the Bible that just don’t make sense?
Perhaps someday they will be able to discard the biblical point of view regarding homosexuality along with some others that are preposterous – such as having slaves is OK, eating shellfish is an abomination, and people who work on the Sabbath should be put to death.
Sue Fraley, Castle Rock
—————————————-
Memo on Iraq invasion
Re: “Memo: Bush wanted Hussein out in ’02,” May 10 news story.
Flipping through Tuesday’s Denver Post, I was amazed to see a bombshell article disclosing official British knowledge of a plan to start a war in Iraq in the summer of 2002.
Thank you for locating and publishing such an important piece of news. My only question is: How did a story on traffic congestion in 2003 make the front page and push this far more important story to Page 14?
It would be nice to see the really shocking stories make the front page.
Alek Orloff, Denver
—————————————-
Catholic Church’s position on euthanasia
Pope Benedict XVI indicated last Saturday he will stick to Pope John Paul II’s unwavering stand against euthanasia. Apparently it the Vatican’s position that God wants us to suffer.
This mixed message is why I have no use for Christianity in any form. Out of one side of their collective mouths we hear that their God is a loving God. But then the message becomes one of His wrath if you don’t subject yourself to pain that morphine can’t touch, even when you have no chance of recovery.
Seems like every time someone claims to know what God wants, people suffer as a result.
Ralph W. Homan, Twin Lakes
TO REACH
OPINION EDITORS
Phone: 303-820-1331
Fax: 303-820-1502
E-mail: openforum@denverpost.com (only straight text, not attachments)
Mail: The Open Forum, The Denver Post, 1560 Broadway, Denver, 80202 or PO Box 1709, Denver, 80201
Letters guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 200 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.
