Immigration policy and ethnic cleansing
Re: “Is it time to turn off the U.S. melting pot?” Nov. 30 Open Forum.
What a concept: Letter-writer Gordon J. Johnson presents a seven-point plan to ethnically cleanse America, including ridding the country of “foreign athletes to take jobs that our little leaguers could otherwise aspire to.” It’s been tried before, including the work camps near major cities the letter- writer proposes, with names like Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and even right here in Colorado, where people whose only sins were their Asian parentage were removed from society and confined to humiliation and despair.
Johnson begins his letter by saying Reps. Marilyn Musgrave and Tom Tancredo, with their own immigration plans, are “on the right track.” As in the trains to the camps of Europe and here in America?
Arnold Grossman, Denver
President’s fundraising appearance in Denver
Re: “Cheers, jeers greet Bush,” Nov. 30 news story.
I am writing to express my outrage at the use of RTD buses to block off streets around the Brown Palace during President Bush’s visit on Tuesday. Use of these buses is a waste of taxpayer money. Consider the following points:
1) Concrete barriers were used to contain the protest on the corner of Broadway and 19th. Why weren’t these same barriers used in lieu of the buses on either side of the block in front of the Brown Palace? I can only assume that these buses were chosen over the concrete barricades for their ability to block out the majority of the protesters from Bush’s view.
2) The engines of these buses were left running during the entire duration of the protest. I see no justifiable reason to leave these buses running at the taxpayers’ expense other than the obvious assumption that this was done to drown out the shouts of the protesters and perhaps to make the area so noxious with engine exhaust that protesters would be forced to move away.
I respectfully demand an explanation from both the Regional Transportation District as well as the Denver Police Department as to why these buses were used in such a manner when there are many other ways to block off streets that do not a) block out protesters from view, b) waste taxpayer money on gas, and c) drown out the public’s right to free speech and assembly.
Ian Boersma, Denver
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The Post’s report on the anti-Bush protest on Tuesday included this striking revelation: “Some eyebrow-raising signs – like ‘Free Saddam He Did Nothing to You’ – were held by Republicans trying to undermine the protest, they admitted.”
Conor McGahey, a University of Denver student and executive director of the Colorado Federation of College Republicans, was quoted as saying, “It’s all part of the game.”
If McGahey is typical of young Republican leadership, then “the culture of corruption” is more than just a catchphrase. The message that young people receive in Republican student organizations would appear to be that winning by any means is all that matters. Moral and ethical considerations do not.
If deceit and dirty tricks are “all part of the game,” then talking up ethical, moral, religious and family values must be as well. People who really believe in those things behave accordingly. They know that the ends do not justify the means because the means are the way we choose to live our lives every day. The means make us who we are.
Felice Sage, Littleton
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President Bush praises Rep. Marilyn Musgrave as a strong supporter of the sanctity of marriage, as is he. Nothing could be further from the truth. They only support marriages made in their image and do not tolerate any diversity. As the proud honorary grandmother of children from both a married heterosexual couple and from a committed same-sex couple, I am disappointed that these two “upstanding” politicians could stoop so low as to denigrate the worth of any loving couple, especially those with children.
It was once impossible for blacks and whites to marry in certain states, and now we recognize the unnecessary hurt in that law. What will it take before the narrow-minded lawmakers recognize the injustice and inequality of a ban on same-sex marriage?
Barbara B. Bond, Dillon
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Re: “Teens’ protest rallies spirit of democracy,” Nov. 30 Jim Spencer column.
Leave it to Jim Spencer to lionize a Denver teacher for leading students in a protest of President Bush’s visit Tuesday. Instead of making efficient use of valuable class time by actually instructing his students like he is paid to do, this excuse for a teacher and role model instead gave nearly two dozen students an excuse to skip class in the name of liberal indoctrination. The last laugh, however, is on the teacher because, regardless of what may be reported by Spencer, we all know that these truants attended this storied event only to get out of class.
Anthony J. Fabian, Aurora
Thanks to those who helped in I-70 blizzard
During the Thanksgiving holiday, my family and I visited family in the Denver area. We ended up driving home to Wichita, Kan., on Interstate 70 Sunday morning. We stopped at Limon to top off with fuel just in case we hit bad weather. I’m so glad we did.
As we approached Burlington, the weather was getting really bad. High winds, blowing snow and the wind chills caused the interstate to ice up fast. Accidents were starting to scatter on both sides of the eastbound lanes of the interstate. Lucky for me, my military training (and my Toyota 4Runner 4×4) helped me make it home safely.
I’d like to thank everyone who worked to get us through the bad areas of I-70. I saw firemen, sheriffs, highway patrolmen, wrecker operators, and other Colorado Department of Transportation personnel working to get the areas cleared as fast and safely as possible. I would like to send a special thanks to the firemen who stood out in the cold holding a “SLOW” sign to warn us drivers of the dangers ahead.
These people, and others like them, are why Colorado is a great place to live and visit.
David L. Hastings, McConnell Air Force Base, Kan.
Talking and driving
I watched a driver on Interstate 70 recently weave through traffic while driving with one hand and talking on the phone with the other hand. I then wondered why, if that person had so much money to buy the big SUV, they had not purchased hands-free cellphone equipment. The roads would be safer for the other drivers. Maybe the use of this equipment is above their mental ability.
Steve Magorian, Frisco
Change to mining law
I believe that the back-room reworking of the 1872 Mining Act by Reps. Richard Pombo and Jim Gibbons within the House budget reconciliation is against all that is American. The budget reconciliation was defeated once in the House, and had brought some hope that some GOP congressmembers are not just “rubber stamps.” However, after some minor concessions by the GOP, this was eventually passed in the House by a slim margin in the wee hours of the morning on Nov. 19. I am hopeful that the Senate will bring some common sense and fairness to this insidious, short-sighted abuse of power and not set in motion a massive selloff of public lands for the benefit of rich developers. Please write your representatives to fight against this destructive abuse of GOP power.
Stephen Bielfeldt, Lakewood
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