New limit on size of state’s bicycle events
Re: “Bikers fight new cap on size of events,” Nov. 30 news story.
I would like to express my concern that limiting bicycle event participants to 2,500 is not in keeping with the interests of Colorado. It will harm the traditions established over the years by such events as the Elephant Rock Ride and the Triple By-Pass. It will tarnish the favorable image the state enjoys for outdoor activities.
The strength of America has always been the freedom that its citizens enjoy. Our president emphasizes that every day. The idea that activities which encourage people to exercise should be arbitrarily limited by official fiat is not in keeping with this tradition. It also runs counter to the admonitions of governmental health authorities at virtually every level.
In reaching a 2,500-participant limitation, the reasoning given was the safety of the participants. If these events were indeed unsafe, then that by itself would be a limiting factor to participation. Their attraction is that they are safe.
The role of the State Patrol should be to support the activities and interests of the community. The 2,500-rider limit should not be imposed.
Mike Shonstrom, Denver
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Denver Post readers should know that not all bicyclists are fighting the new cap on the size of bicycling events. I ride more than 8,000 miles per year (20 rides of 100 miles or longer in 2005) and do not participate in large events, including Ride the Rockies. These large events do nothing to promote goodwill between bicyclists and other road users. An event with 2,500 riders is about 2,475 more people than I want to ride with. The picture of the Elephant Rock Ride (on the cover of The Post) says it all – lanes completely blocked by cyclists with riders on the wrong side of the road.
Larry Augenstein, Colorado Springs
Reforming the U.S. health care system
Re: “Salazar proposes health panel,” Nov. 23 news story.
We applaud the recent announcement that Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are joining together to push for a high-level national commission to reform our broken health care system.
Far too many of our Colorado neighbors – 766,000, to be precise – lack access to health care insurance. These Coloradans are forced, by a largely profit-driven health care system, to live sicker and die younger. This is immoral and should not be the reality in such a wealthy nation.
Additional hundreds of thousands of Coloradans are underinsured and most of the rest of us live our lives as anxiously insured, worrying if the rising costs will force ourselves and our families to give up our health care coverage.
Salazar and McCain’s proposed new national commission will hopefully transcend the political paralysis and insurance-industry lobbying that continues to block health care reform. We thank them for taking this first step but challenge them to take a further, much bigger step to support a national health care system that would guarantee the right to health care for all who live in this nation.
Rationing health care – as with our present reality of the crisis of the uninsured and underinsured – is immoral. It’s time for health care for all.
Francoise Mbabazi, Health Care Organizing Coordinator, Colorado Progressive Coalition, Denver
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Re: “Time to talk about health care,” Nov. 27 editorial.
The Denver Post notes that America hasn’t had a serious conversation about health costs since the early 1990s. I would beg to differ.
For those impacted by the devastation of unaffordable and inaccessible health and mental health care, the conversation has never ended.
It hasn’t ended for those who experience the daily pain and suffering of medical conditions untreated in themselves or their family members.
Nor has it ended for those who have watched their life savings forfeited to the interests of the health care industry, an experience foreign to citizens of most other developed countries that provide comprehensive, universal care.
Before jumping on the bandwagon of Sens. Ken Salazar and John McCain and their proposal to form a bipartisan commission to recommend health care reforms, it would be helpful if the senators can identify whose interests they are most concerned with.
At some point in time, someone needs to stand up and unwaveringly support the right to health care for all people residing in the United States.
Polls show that Americans want universal, tax-supported health insurance. Are these the folks our honorable senators have in mind when it’s time for them to talk about health care?
John Valvano, Arvada
Bush’s visit to Denver
Re: “Cheers, jeers greet Bush,” Dec. 1 news story.
I must commend the Denver Police Department for how it handled all of the people who came to the Brown Palace Hotel to protest President Bush and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave on Tuesday. I was one of the protesters and I was pleased that the police did not overreact to the rowdiness of the group – even when several of us blocked the path of the charter buses transporting journalists to the event.
But at the same time, I must respectfully disagree with department estimates as to how many protesters were there. The estimate of 400 is very low. There was easily double that number, if not 1,000. There were protesters all along the west side of Broadway between 17th and 18th streets, as well as the corner of 18th and Tremont and even across the street from the Brown Palace in front of the businesses on the other side of Tremont.
Thomas J. Foster, Aurora
Growth and rural Colo.
Re: “The growth of ‘Exurbia,”‘ Nov. 25 news story.
How about some real visionaries stepping up to bat for Franktown? Someone who can see the path this chaotic growth is taking Colorado. How many more short-sighted, tunnel-vision types do we need, those who are ultimately looking for ways to make a buck? So businessman Russ Berget thinks Franktown needs better facilities? Franktown is useless and hopeless? And a “mini-metropolis” (Bergetville?) will be just what the doctor ordered for the good of all? Maybe for the good of Berget and a few greedy land-sellers. I envision a Franktown ruined by Berget’s type of involvement.
Because so many nouveau-country-but-still-want-the-city types have transplanted themselves to small, peaceful towns like Franktown, they could slowly become a majority with power to tear the very fabric of what bonds us (true Colorado pioneers/Colorado natives) to Colorado, like an unintentional coup. We’ve seen the growth that has popped up around us, we’re now seeing what years of economic and population growth have done to Denver and the Front Range, and many of us don’t especially like what we see. My Colorado is slowly being pilfered away from me. What Berget wants to do to Franktown tears at my very fabric and makes me sick to my heart.
C. Murphy, Aurora
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