Proposal to sell excess federal land
Re: “Selling the right fed land,” Nov. 8 Ed Quillen column.
I was both surprised and delighted to learn that Ed Quillen supports the sale of excess federal land. While he did criticize my proposal, he agreed there is indeed some land that the government ought not own.
Quillen points out that he “found rural parcels being offered at about $18,000 an acre” in Pitkin County, and that similar values should hold in other mountain resort towns. He goes on to tell us that “swank ski resorts have their lifts and runs on federal land,” and asks, “Don’t you think those corporations would bid big bucks to own that land?” Perhaps they would – which is precisely why my legislation grants broad discretion to the Forest Service and Interior Department to identify the parcels suitable for sale. In all likelihood, the kinds of lands Quillen mentioned would appear on those lists.
Why not allow the sale of a tiny fraction of the federal estate? If a few parcels sell, we will have increased the local tax base, generated money for the treasury, saved taxpayers a few bucks in reduced management costs and allowed federal land managers to focus their limited resources on more sensitive lands. On the other hand, if no bids come we will be no worse off than we were before.
The federal government owns nearly 700 million acres today – an area around 10 times the size of Colorado. Despite its inability to manage the vast amounts of land it already owns (90 percent of it in the Western states), the government continues to acquire even more, spending billions in recent decades to buy additional land.
Why does the government need so much land? The answer to that question, I suspect, would be a tough sell with most Westerners.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, Littleton
Helping in Mississippi – and at home, too
I have just returned from a six-day trip to Biloxi, Miss., to assist in recovery efforts post-Hurricane Katrina. The vastness of the devastation is mind-numbing – the visual images of the hurricane’s wrath is beyond what I could absorb and respond to. Where all the debris is going to go is my biggest question – complete households reduced to splinters, big piles of gutted, moldy drywall, cabinets, furnishings, beds, furnaces, chemicals all going somewhere. And this goes on for street after street, neighborhood after neighborhood, mile after mile. Tears now fill my eyes.
I was fortunate to link up with a Lutheran church that offered me lodging and meals and people to show me how I could help. I worked with men and women who have given up weeks of their time (months, in some cases) to erect tent cities on church grounds. It is the faith community that stands in the gap after larger first-response agencies move to other needs.
Your help is still desperately needed!
Jane Scherlis, Littleton
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Re: “Rescue Mission finds its cupboards are bare,” Nov. 10 news story.
We, the American people, are an incredibly giving, caring population. Since the tsunami in December 2004, through the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, and the earthquake in Pakistan and India, Americans have donated millions and millions of dollars to help alleviate the incredible suffering. However, your story about the bare cupboards at the Denver Rescue Mission really struck a chord with me. Although Pueblo does not have the extent of the homeless problem as is found in Denver, they’re here, too, and their needs are just as dire. As we approach the annual holiday giving season, may I respectfully request that all of us remember this cliché: Charity begins at home.
Joyce J. Smith, Pueblo
Nomination of Samuel Alito to Supreme Court
Re: “Alito smoothing his path in the Senate,” Nov. 12 editorial.
Your editorial contained the phrase “an important appellate dissent in which Alito wrote that women should be required to tell their husbands when seeking abortions.” Nothing I had yet read said that Alito had expressed this opinion, only that he thought Pennsylvania could make that a law.
Your claim got me to look up the actual dissent, since I never know what to believe in the news anymore. His dissent certainly contains a lot of legalese and elaborate prose, but his argument is whether requiring spousal notice is an “undue burden.” He never expresses his opinion on whether a “woman should be required … .”
You may take a cynical view of his motives and infer that he thinks women should be required to tell their husband, but you lose credibility when you make this claim in your editorial.
Stephen Petrie, Aurora
Competence should not determine the outcome of a Supreme Court nominee’s confirmation hearing. Thousands of people grasp court proceedings and constitutional law enough to be “competent,” but only a few will make decisions that match a particular legislator’s ideology. If Republican senators vote to confirm Judge Samuel Alito, they should do so because he holds the same values that they themselves do; they should place competence second. Likewise, Democrats who vote to confirm Alito simply because he is “competent,” ignoring his stance on important issues, betray their constituencies. The people want representatives who will confirm the justice with whom they agree, not pro-choice representatives who will allow the confirmation of an anti-choice justice because he’s “competent.”
There are plenty of moderates and liberals who are competent, and the Democrats should settle for no less.
Sean Dormer, Centennial
Racial profiling?
Re: “Is knee-jerk racial fear the real suspect?” Nov. 10 Cindy Rodriguez column.
What would we do without Cindy Rodriguez’s singularly focused voice to expose racism in America? Her article about Michael Ambers providing DNA samples because he fit the profile of a serial rapist reminded me of something similar that happened to my son when he was a teenager.
Instead of being approached by polite police officers, such as Ambers was, my 6-foot-4-inch son was forcefully handcuffed, pushed into the back seat of a patrol car, then taken to the police station where he was processed. He was told he fit the description of a man who had committed armed robbery.
That same night, the real criminal was apprehended. He was a 5-foot-10-inch adult Hispanic male. My son had dark hair, hazel eyes and the white skin of someone with Norwegian, German and English ancestry.
My son was terrified, the entire family was in upheaval, and I was angry. Nobody at The Denver Post wrote about this incident. No segment of society was galvanized to rail against the injustice.
It’s a good thing we have Rodriguez to tell us when mistaken identity is racism; otherwise, we might just get over it. My son did. This year, he went on a church mission to Cambodia to build an orphanage.
Barbara A. Johnson, Centennial
Bush and the economy
Letter-writer Ed Van Keuren (Nov. 11 Open Forum) writes that the Bush administration is doing “an awesome job handling the economic and security affairs of this nation since Sept. 11.” I guess it depends on your priorities.
Believe it or not, many people do not judge the economy on the stock market or interest rates. Many people judge the economy on whether they have a job, can pay their bills, have access to health care, and have enough food to feed their children. These are the people who will not agree with Van Keuren. Our government is leaving them and the middle class behind. Right now, the House of Representatives is trying to drum up the votes to cut Medicaid, food stamps, child care, school lunch, and many other programs, and at the same time preparing another round of tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.
Jean Robinson, Denver
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