Proposed art project over the Arkansas River
Re: “Artists float river project again,” Aug. 2 news story.
Residents of Chaffee and Fremont counties are deeply divided about Christo’s proposed draping of the Arkansas River. I have no interest in debating the merits of his art – some will like it and some won’t. For those who love Christo’s work and for those interested in anything that would cause an economic boon, please, Christo, come down and drape something other than the canyon, which is gorgeous just as it is. Many of us dread the untold harm this proposed project could cause:
It will cause a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam from hell, and the cars in the inside lane won’t even be able to see the project. Imagine the rear enders that would be caused by gawkers.
Residents commuting along the winding two-lane canyon road wouldn’t be able to reach their destinations without terrible delays and frustrations, and emergency vehicles would be rendered ineffective or greatly jeopardized.
Litter, port-a-potties, exhaust fumes and other accoutrements of Christo’s project would also be unwelcome to this pristine environment.
I recall some years ago how Gov. Dick Lamm and others were successful in keeping the Olympics out of Colorado. Gov. Lamm, we need you! I’m afraid those with the authority to deny this project won’t have the courage you did.
Nancy Markman, Nathrop
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At the meetings I have attended regarding Christo’s Arkansas River project, all of the officials glossed over the problem of traffic, saying that there will be detours. There is no detour, unless you want to add about 100 miles of extra driving. Many of the people who wait tables and work in the motels in Salida live between Texas Creek and Swissvale. The only “detour” would be to go east of Parkdale and take Colorado 9 to Cripple Creek west through Hartsel, South Park and Buena Vista, then U.S. 285 south to Salida. Doing that twice a day for two weeks would get rather expensive and quite annoying.
And if we have to go to Colorado Springs by the north route, it adds 30 minutes each way to our trip. We can, however, avoid going to the Springs until the fiasco is over with – unless we need to go to a doctor appointment.
I would like to see a story in your paper regarding the impacts to the working people. I won’t hold my breath.
Mary Grillot, Salida
That’s art? I’d call it enviro-vandalism and a tremendous waste of money. It makes toilet papering the dean’s house at a small college look trivial.
I wonder how many poverty-stricken Africans and tsunami victims the cloth used in Christo’s projects would clothe, and how many starving children in Niger and other places the money involved would feed.
Ralph Givens, Cedaredge
The heroes at Rocky Flats
Re: “The other cleanup at Rocky Flats; We’re burying its significance,” Aug. 7 Perspective article.
As a 30-year Air Force veteran of the Cold War, I believe Professor Len Ackland owes an apology to the workers at Rocky Flats. In his article, he demeaned their unique contributions to the Unites States during a critical period in our nation’s history. Professor Ackland insisted that workers at Rocky Flats were not heroes and needed to “share the blame for nuclear weapons.”
On the contrary. These men and women were among the unsung heroes of the Cold War.
During the first part of the 20th century, the world was engulfed in two world wars, with an estimated death toll of approximately 65 million people. There were no major wars in the last 50 years, and certainly it was not because the United States was weak. Peace was maintained because the United States had a nuclear deterrent. The massive Soviet nuclear arsenal was deterred; every president had the military strength to stand up to nuclear blackmail; the Berlin Wall and the Soviet empire collapsed without a shot being fired; and all of Eastern Europe was freed. Without the high-risk work of the men and women at Rocky Flats and elsewhere, we would not have been as capable or successful. It is Ackland’s right to be anti-nuclear, but it is cruel to attack innocent people who have devoted their lives to serving their country.
As someone who was on the front lines in Germany and elsewhere, let me publicly thank them for providing our military with the tools needed to protect our country and our way of life at great personal risk.
James P. DeLoughry, Colorado Springs
The writer is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel.
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Regarding Len Ackland’s denigration of the people who ran and worked at Rocky Flats to maintain our arsenal against the Soviet Union, I had failed to realize how terrible it is that some Americans are willing to sacrifice to keep our country free. I’m sure we would have all been better off under Stalin’s type of government.
I also failed to realize how horrendous we were for ending the worst war of the 20th century by dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
I personally am thankful that the heroes from Rocky Flats sacrificed to build the nuclear weapons that deterred Khrushchev from truly burying us.
John A. Mitchell, Aurora
Americans’ desire to save
Re: “Personal savings rate dismal,” Aug. 7 editorial.
I am surprised that The Post’s editorial board seems to be so disappointed in the individual American’s saving rate. American citizens have had their government, both Republican and Democrat, set the standard for lack of savings with record-setting budget deficits – borrowing from the future for today. Now, new laws are proposed to force such savings because we individual Americans can’t seem to do it ourselves.
The news regarding America’s savings rate came as no surprise to this reader. I just wish our government would enact similar laws for which it must abide when it comes to spending and saving money.
Cheryl Redmond Doyle, Littleton
The politics of world famine
Re: “Crisis in Niger,” Aug. 7 Open Forum.
Letter-writer John R. Bermingham, president of the Colorado Population Coalition, has it all wrong. He states that the problem with Niger is “population outgrowing food supplies.”
This is the exact opposite view that is needed to help these poor souls trapped in Niger.
For decades, we have heard that America, not to mention the Earth itself, cannot provide enough food to support our growing population. Then, as usual, it does.
Two hundred years ago, more than 80 percent of Americans worked in the farming industry to provide enough food to feed us. Today, less than 1 percent do. Our technology, coupled with our relative freedoms, have allowed us to not only provide enough food for ourselves with less than 1 percent of the workforce and a smaller percentage of land, but have millions of tons left to donate.
Niger’s problems are not overpopulation, locusts, droughts or any other type of natural disaster. Niger’s problems are purely political. Niger’s corrupt government as well as other corrupt governments controlling the pathways to the ocean for trade have prevented Niger’s people the freedoms needed to conduct commerce – the one and only thing that can prevent famine.
The problem is not population, it is lack of freedom.
Shane Sokol, Denver
The fringes of welfare
Re: “Welfare’s fringes; Wyoming’s drastic cuts have some living on razor-thin edge,” Aug. 7 news story.
Reading this article, I can’t help but wonder: Where are the fathers? I would hope that locating and forcing the fathers of these children to be wholly responsible for their financial support is being done to the fullest extent possible. I believe this should be the first choice in providing for these families, and only when this proves impossible should the state have to provide financial support. It appears the mothers are already providing the day-to-day care, so providing materially is the least the fathers should do.
Claudia Kinder, Westminster
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Your article discussed in detail the welfare problem. I appreciated seeing that someone is finally paying attention. However, the whole article focused on the problem of single-parent families in Wyoming.
What about those suffering here? I am living this nightmare myself here in Denver. I guess the difference is that I have a husband who is suffering right along with me. We have four children – twins who are 5 and twins who are 3 months old. We are currently living in an apartment through an agency called Family Homestead. This agency sponsors transitional housing for a six-month period. During this period, the hope is that you are able to get accepted into a permanent housing program. We truly appreciate all of the help that has been given to us.
Unfortunately, it’s not going to be enough. Four weeks ago, my husband got laid off from his job as a plumbing apprentice. In that time, we have both started searching for work again, as I have been home caring for our four small children since February. We have both had a couple of leads that haven’t worked out for reasons like the job is far away and we have no car of our own. In less than two months we are expected to be able to move out of where we are living; but without work, we have nowhere to go. The waiting lists for housing are months or even years long. We have applied for programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, but that provides little relief when you have nothing. We have been relying on our families, who cannot afford to support six more people. We are on the verge of being homeless with four children.
When is someone going to start paying attention to the problem that is right here in front of us? My family is not the only one in danger here; we are surrounded by others. We need to stop concentrating on other people’s problems and start looking in our own backyards.
Sarah Ausmus, Lakewood
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Reducing the number of families receiving assistance is a poor measure of the success of a state’s, or our nation’s, welfare program. Better measures of success are reducing the number of families living in poverty and increasing the number of families progressing toward long-term economic security.
To achieve these goals, welfare programs must invest in: preparation for and placement in family-supporting jobs with decent wages and health coverage; education and training; child care and other work supports; addressing barriers such as physical and mental disabilities, substance abuse, homelessness, domestic violence, and caregiving needs.
These investments should be among the priorities of lawmakers as they reauthorize the nation’s welfare program this year and as they legislate future changes in state welfare laws. Then we’ll be closer to having a welfare system that can be considered a success.
Linda Meric, Director, National Association of Working Women, Denver
Debating intelligent design: creationism and the theory of evolution
Re: “What intelligent design?” Aug. 7 Ed Quillen column.
In questioning President Bush’s support for teaching intelligent design to schoolchildren, Ed Quillen discounts intelligent design because he is balding and wears bifocals.
The theory of evolution and intelligent design look at how life begins, not how it ends.
According to scientists today, there is more evidence in the study of living things explained by an “intelligent cause” than an “undirected process” such as natural selection. The controversy then stems not from religion but from a growing number of scientists and scholars discovering through research that design is empirically detectable – and it is detectable in living things.
This isn’t about many ways to teach science and mathematics, this is about taking science and math into the 21st century. Scientific discoveries made in recent history simply cannot be discounted due to a fear of intelligent design, or the fear of the body’s decay. Let’s get on with real science and incorporate the findings of today’s scientists in our schools’ curriculum.
Sandy Daniel, Greenwood Village
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The project of intelligent design is simply to notice that we can look at some objects and know they were designed. An automobile is one example of intelligent design. But how do we know it was designed? That is the question the intelligent design movement seeks to answer. If that question can be answered, then perhaps we can turn that same analysis tool on biological organisms and draw some conclusions.
The evolution/design argument is rarely over science; rather, it is one of philosophy. Evolutionists wish to exclude a supernatural explanation, whereas those in the intelligent design camp wish to include the possibility. Those doing research into intelligent design are not pushing any particular designer (e.g., Buddha, Allah, Christian God), they are only seeking to determine whether the presence of an intelligent designer can be found in nature. Science, however it is defined, should follow the evidence, both observational and theoretical, to its logical conclusion and not simply exclude a class of answers based on philosophical presupposition and fear of implication. In this case, it appears that those supporting intelligent design are the more open-minded group.
Mike Brown, Arvada
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Re: “Bush making U.S. more ignorant,” Aug. 7 Eugene Robinson column.
Eugene Robinson wrote, “Evolution has proved to be one of the sturdiest and most unassailable scientific theories of all time.”
What an unbelievably false statement! Based on that comment, you may safely conclude that Robinson does not have a science degree.
I have taught high school physics, chemistry and mathematics for 10 years. And I have a master’s degree in science.
For 10 years, I researched this “theory.” And in conclusion, I am deeply ashamed at some of my fellow educators for forcing this hoax on our children and not allowing them to hear the truth. I found essentially no scientific support for this proposal, while scientific literature contains a huge amount of research that disputes the theory.
But will our children ever hear this truth? It is highly unlikely – because evolutionists are strongly motivated by their agenda (to indoctrinate our children that there is no God). The theory of evolution was designed and perpetuated by atheists. And when a person doesn’t believe in God, they have to create some explanation for how this unbelievable complex universe came into being. So they say it happened by an explosion, and random chance.
Hogwash. Order never comes about from random chance. The probability of evolution exceeds mathematical possibility.
But our children will probably never hear this truth, because the powerful minority of atheists will never allow truth to be taught in our schools.
Lawrence Bell, Greenwood Village
TO THE POINT: Short takes from readers
I read about the desperate plight of Niger. The New York Times Almanac states that the population of Niger is 80 percent Muslim. With oil prices at an all-time high, one would think that Saudi Arabia or Kuwait could spare several million to help their Muslim brothers in Niger.
Stephen Blecher, Littleton
Letter-writer H.A. Fadhli wrote (Aug. 6 Open Forum) about the causes of Arab terrorism against the United States. Instead of blaming the U.S. and Israel, he should have mentioned the most significant cause: the corruption, poverty and autocratic dictatorships found in almost the entire Arab world.
Gary Altman, Colorado Springs
Tom Tancredo has been fighting illegal immigration for years. Recently he’s suggested the possibility of nuking people in Mecca as punishment for terrorist activities around the world. Here in Colorado we’ve been bombarded with illegal aliens. In looking at a map, it’s obvious that many of them enter the country through Texas. Should we be looking at nuking Texas?
Tim Cochran, Highlands Ranch
If President Bush can stand behind his buddy Rafael Palmeiro, the steroid user, and craven political hacks like Karl Rove and John Bolton, why can’t he go to Brook Park, Ohio, and stand behind those Marine reservists who died backing his “war” on Iraq? Aren’t they worthy enough?
Bob Fiesser, Highlands Ranch
In a recent editorial, you called Ohio “the state that handed President Bush his re-election.” I watched TV into the wee hours of election night and am aware of the drama that unfolded with the counting of Ohio’s ballots. For the record, Ohio was one of 31 states that handed President Bush his re-election. It’s a bit melodramatic to give Ohio credit for doing so.
Jeff Kocsis, Littleton
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