Christopher Columbus and cultural symbols
In trying to understand the issues of cross-culture conflicts, I became more sensitive to the issues of Native Americans and others. In regard to the Columbus Day parade, it is time to change the symbols and correct historical accounts of the European conquest of America. History traditionally is recorded by the victors, and their account is far from being objective and accurate.
Christopher Columbus is one who is known for both good and evil. We must acknowledge the immoral side and incorporate a fair and balanced approach in historical accounts.
Symbols are powerful messages for people. Depending upon the symbol, various emotions are invoked. For example, “apple pie” and “motherhood” as symbols evoke emotions of love, attachment, comfort and peace. The Columbus symbol, among other facets, focuses upon slavery and genocide. This is not appropriate for our society, and needs to be corrected.
Colorado was early in adopting Columbus Day and can be early in correcting the heart of this holiday. It is time to change the symbol and eliminate the “Columbus” reference.
Dan S. Whittemore, Denver
…
Two years ago I went to the Denver March Powwow at the Denver Coliseum with my family and friends. We attended the event, which was heavily advertised as open to the public, to learn more about Native American culture and history.
As we walked around the grounds we saw countless posters and T-shirts all bearing the same slogan: “My Heroes Have Always Killed Cowboys.” The slogan is supposed to be a tribute to the great native warriors of the past. That is all fine and good, and understandable, but my father was a cowboy and my grandfather was a Texas Ranger. I personally found this ubiquitous slogan to be highly offensive, intimidating and racist.
Yet, I understand that what is offensive to one person is freedom of speech to another. I would not lobby to have those T-shirts and posters removed from the Coliseum grounds; in fact, I would argue in support of the merchants selling them, because they are exercising their constitutional right to freedom of speech.
If the American Indian Movement and other native people are offended by Columbus Day and the parade, they should do what my family is doing. We simply refuse to attend events or spend money at businesses that offend us.
You cannot force your will on others simply because you don’t like what they have to say.
Kim Packer, Denver
…
This is in response to the protests that have been made against the rights of Italian-Americans to peacefully march in recognition of our heritage. My mom and dad came to the United States in 1947 and settled in New York. They worked hard all of their lives and sacrificed for my brother and me so that we would have a good life here in a free America. They never thought of Christopher Columbus as a racist; they just thought of the old country and the pride they had as the only people in our large family in Italy who made it to the U.S. They thought of the U.S. as the great country it is, and my dad served in the U.S. Army and received a Purple Heart for his service.
The protests that have been directed at Italian-Americans such as myself and my parents deny our right to peacefully celebrate what it is to be an Italian and an American. I understand the protests and how Columbus may have been a racist, but what does that have to do with a day to celebrate our Italian pride and all that the Italians have done for this great country of ours? I think there may be another way to protest Columbus, but don’t do it on the day Italian people of all ages in our country are celebrating what it means to be an Italian-American. Let’s work together and find a solution to this problem, and honor our respective heritages without protest.
Joseph Coscia, Highlands Ranch
Minimizing fire danger in forests
Re: “As forests, homes grow nearer, risk to people expands,” Oct. 4 news story.
I have lived at Crystal Lakes for about 30 years and have a different view of the forest thinning project. If you want to learn about forest evolution, ask the advice of oldtimers who live in them, not timber harvesters.
Just thinning is not the answer. Removing trees opens up the space between pines, which allows the branches to grow laterally, and in a few years a Ponderosa will fill a 30-foot-diameter circle, negating the original purpose.
During the years after thinning, the bare forest floor will become covered with grass, sage and buckbrush. In the late summer, they become dry quickly and are a greater hazard than the trees they replaced. Grass and brush do not provide the shade and permit the floor to dry out more readily than if tree-covered. Removing the pine needles, as is often suggested, exposes the ground to the sun, allowing it to dry, and increases fire hazard. Grubbing out the sage and buckbrush will do more to prevent fires than thinning.
No mention was made of the most effective fire preventive measure: Remove all the lower branches up to 8 feet from the ground. If done, a fire on the forest floor can burn without igniting the trees.
Our greatest hazards are ignorant people who leave untended campfires and throw away lighted cigarettes.
Each proponent of this project should spend 25 years studying the evolution of a specific piece of forest; a year or two of walking through the trees is not enough.
A.L. Schafer, Red Feather Lake
…
State fiscal measure
Re: “Cuts are easy when people don’t count,” Oct. 5 Jim Spencer column.
Jim Spencer evidently assumes that government is our only charity, as he itemizes dire consequences if Referendum C fails. Not so, although certainly modern Americans are accustomed to looking to government when they’re in need, rather than family, church or private charity. Some of us, however, consider that reliance to be inappropriate, inefficient and ineffective. In addition, Spencer ridicules those who “figure” they’re better stewards of their own refunded earnings than politicians. The sense of entitlement that personal property provokes in owners seems to rub him the wrong way.
Nevertheless, it is well to remember the critical importance of guaranteed private property ownership in Western history. Centuries ago, British private property law ended the convention that anyone more privileged than you was more entitled to your earnings than you were. Spencer evidently favors the opposite extreme: anyone less privileged than you is more entitled to your earnings than you are. I would remind Spencer that neither extreme is just or durable.
Christine Dice, Broomfield
…
Right to abortion
Recently, I passed some abortion protesters as I drove home. Reading their signs, I saw some even included full names of doctors. This made me very passionate in my already steadfast beliefs on women’s choice. These closed-minded protesters are trying to make women already at a difficult point in their lives feel even more pain. These protesters yell and display their provincial message, condemning women for doing something that is their decision alone.
These protesters have no idea the situations that led women to these clinics in the first place. The young girl walking in to the abortion clinic may have been brutally raped by her father. She has lived a horrendous trauma, and these people are making her out to be monstrous. They show her to the world as being a cold-hearted murderer.
Even if it’s a woman who made a mistake, it is still her body, her choice, and her private decision to make. Abortion is still a very difficult and painful moment for her that she doesn’t need to be beleaguered about.
Kelly Slagel, Lakewood
