Is Lakewood city manager bane or boon?
Re: “Lakewood manager in cross hairs,” June 20 news story.
Lakewood city manager Mike Rock has become an issue in the debate over a tax increase for those who don’t want a tax increase. The reasons for their opposition vary.
Some are adherents of the anti-tax cult. These are people who believe that the taxes they pay are always spent on “others” and they’re not willing to support those “others,” even if the lack of revenues results in a degradation of their own community.
Also, there are a number of Lakewood citizens who have been disappointed by past decisions of the city manager. For example, some people are still upset over the loss of Villa Italia, although they used the mall only for their walking exercises.
Both groups have chosen to make Mike Rock the reason to vote against a possible sales-tax increase. This, despite the fact that Rock has done an excellent job as city manager, and in view of the very real possibility that the city will sink into a serious decline without additional revenues.
Lakewood residents will note that both of these groups are concerned about satisfying their own perquisites and anger, not about the general welfare of the community.
Walt Heidenfelder, Lakewood
Coverage of the Downing Street memos
Re: “Downing Street memos on Iraq,” June 17 editorial.
I’ve been appalled at the way the newspapers and TV news programs have made scant, if any, mention of this story. I’ve been reading about it online in a number of British newspapers, including The Times of London, since early May. I would have preferred that you’d used more space to discuss the fixing of intelligence as well as the lack of post-war planning, but your editorial is a great start in acknowledging the importance of the issue, and I hope to see more pieces in the future.
Linda Drescher, Golden
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Rare, indeed, is the editorial writer without strong opinions, especially on the subject of war. However, this editorial not only fails to express a strong opinion, a casual reader would be hard-pressed to find any opinion at all. As best as I can tell, the only opinion you offer is “concern.”
Your opinion of the evidence that the U.S. was led into war based on lies and false evidence is “concern”? What about outrage? What about calling for an independent investigation? What about mentioning that the day prior, Rep. John Conyers delivered to the White House a petition with more than half a million citizens’ signatures that demand that the president directly answer this evidence of deception?
The press, like Congress, has the responsibility to be independent of the president and to evaluate the administration’s actions critically. When the press, like Congress, shirks this responsibility, it does harm to the country in the near term. But they do greater harm to themselves in the long term. Only 19 percent of people polled recently said that Congress shared their priorities. What percentage of people would think that The Denver Post shares their priorities?
Al Wirtes, Broomfield
Dealing with homelessness in Denver
Re: “Self-reliance is best bet for homeless,” June 16 David Harsanyi column.
David Harsanyi points out that “the majority of panhandlers and homeless are alcoholics and/or drug addicts.” Unfortunately, Harsanyi does not ask the obvious question: Why?
The sad truth is that more than 70 percent of chronically homeless adults have a mental illness. They’re sick and want to feel better, so they self-medicate with alcohol and drugs. They did not choose to get sick any more than my aunt chooses to have heart disease. They will not recover by getting a job and taking antabuse any more than my aunt will recover by just avoiding cheeseburgers and fries.
At the Mental Health Center of Denver, we provide homeless people the mental health treatment they need. We help them learn new skills in order to get jobs or return to jobs they once had; we help them reconnect with families they lost years ago. We do not keep stray pets. We help people recover.
MHCD applauds the work of “hand-up” organizations like Step 13. And we support Denver’s plan to provide shelter for homeless people because it can be the first step toward regaining a productive life.
We encourage Post readers to look a little deeper into the issue of homelessness and acknowledge that while there are solutions to many of the problems that contribute to homelessness, one size does not fit all and the solutions are not always easy.
Carl Clark, CEO, Mental Health Center of Denver
Marijo Rymer, Associate Director of Development, MHCD
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David Harsanyi misleads readers who have not carefully studied Denver’s 10-year plan to end homelessness. He oversimplifies the range of options available for dealing with the problem by reducing them to two, in which only one is acceptable: “Coddling drunks and junkies … or demanding self-reliance and accountability.” He recommends one small program and dismisses all other approaches.
What about the mentally ill, the physically handicapped and the innocent children who have found themselves without housing and don’t qualify for Step 13 because they are neither drunks nor junkies? If Harsanyi has carefully read the plan, he should know that it does not recommend “giving away houses in Denver,” that it instead proposes a variety of solutions backed and influenced by the businesspeople in the Downtown Denver Partnership because they and the other authors have calculated that the manifold proposals in the plan will save money for Denver in the future.
Phillip K. Tompkins, Denver
Senate energy bill
Re: “Senate energy bill escapes House trap,” June 21 editorial.
We applaud Sen. Ken Salazar for supporting an increase in the nation’s use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, to 10 percent by 2020. Investing in alternative fuels and clean energy technologies will create tens of thousands of new jobs, help curb global warming, strengthen our national security and save consumers money. With Salazar’s support, this measure, part of the national energy bill, was passed by a bipartisan majority of 52 senators.
Unfortunately, Sen. Wayne Allard opposed this measure. It is puzzling that he would vote this way, considering his constituents had already shown their strong desire for expanded use of renewable energy in last year’s election. In 2004, a solid majority of Coloradans supported Amendment 37, which calls on the state’s utilities to increase the use of renewable energy sources from 2 percent to at least 10 percent by 2015.
Instead of rewarding the polluting industries of the past, Allard ought to represent the interests of Coloradans through forward-thinking, clean energy sources that protect the environment and move us toward a sustainable energy future.
Andy Schultheiss, Western Field Director, League of Conservation Voters, Denver
Republican mission
The Post has done a good job detailing the basic surface facts about Gov. Bill Owens’ actions against higher education – his slashing the University of Colorado’s budget and then blocking its attempts to raise tuition to make up for the shortfall. The Post has also dutifully covered the National Park Service’s proposal to sell property to make up for its budget’s suffering at the hands of the Bush administration.
But The Post has failed to connect these actions with the overriding Republican mission. The GOP seeks to attack, weaken and marginalize those institutions that are both publicly funded and associated with progressive philosophies. If such institutions still survive, it will only be by selling out to private corporations and funders, compromising their mission.
By de-funding public education, Owens and his friends seek to undermine creativity and innovation at institutions such as CU, forcing a retreat from non-core programs and activities, and pushing schools further into the hands of the private sector. Likewise, our cash- strapped national parks will be forced to make deals with private donors and corporate sponsors, in addition to selling off valuable land to wealthy individuals, in a short- sighted effort to maintain budgets. The privatization and selling of the American dream continues.
Harv Teitelbaum, Evergreen
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