Coverage of deadly mining accident
I was appalled by the shoddy journalism in falsely reporting erroneous news concerning the gut-wrenching tragedy that snuffed out the lives of 12 miners working in the Sago coal mine in West Virginia.
The major television networks, cable outlets, newspapers and Internet bloggers ran with a story that reported 12 miners had miraculously survived a 40-hour imprisonment in the bowels of the mine following the aftermath of what proved to be a deadly explosion.
In the race to be first with breaking news, common sense is often thrown to the wind in the very competitive 24/7 news cycle.
My heart goes out to the families and friends of the miners who perished, and to everyone who rejoiced in what proved to be a false euphoria and who were crushed emotionally as the truth of this disaster became known. Hopefully this despicable news coverage will prick the conscience of the media to strive to not make comparable mistakes in the future.
Larry Sourbeer, Arvada
Teachers’ opposition to Montbello principal
Re: “Toeing the line at Montbello High; Principal takes tough tack,” Dec. 28 news story.
Kudos to Principal Antwan Wilson for his approach to student discipline at Montbello High School. We read constantly about how students want boundaries identified for them. Principal Wilson is doing that, setting standards and boundaries. But who does The Post identify as having a problem with that? Why, the teachers and their union, of course. Longtime teachers are “irked” because they feel they have no say in what is happening to the school. What were those teachers doing during those “longtime” periods when they had their say, as they watched the performance of the school fail to meet acceptable standards? And, of course, the “warning” by the president of the union, Kim Ursetta, is just as one could expect from an organization whose secondary objective is the education of our young people. I hope Principal Wilson will stay the course because those who count, the students, will eventually appreciate their association with him.
Daniel O’Shea, Evergreen
Mountain drinking fest
Re: “Town uncorks annual ode to Norse god,” Jan. 4 news story.
As second-home owners in Breckenridge, we’ll pass on this year’s Ullr Fest. Though our family spends most winter weekends skiing and enjoying Breckenridge’s mountain atmosphere, this weekend we’ll stay in Denver instead of dropping dollars for dinner on Main Street. The Ullr Fest is nothing more than a bush-league version of the binge-drinking culture that has killed too many at our state’s universities.
Perhaps when one or two drunken revelers die, duped into believing they’re celebrating a noble Norse ritual, the Town Council will wake up and bring this farce to a quick conclusion.
Stephen Catterall, Littleton
Campaign season
Re: “National Western stump show,” Jan. 3 Dan Haley column.
Dan Haley said Colorado Democrats’ shallow bench is beginning to show because they have no declared candidates for secretary of state or attorney general. Perhaps Democrats who are contemplating a run have decided that the campaigns need not be 12 months long, and they won’t announce until the spring.
The public has grown to dread the biennial campaign season – I do, and I vote every time. We hate the slinging of mud, the inflated rhetoric and the outrageous negative ads. Some tried to make hay of Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Holtzman’s anti-Referendum C ads this past fall, but it fell on deaf ears. For that, we can all be thankful.
Perhaps Colorado is way, way ahead and leading a new trend?
Howard M. Paul, Denver
Comparing cartoonists
I liked the editorial cartoons on the Dec. 30 opinion pages (by Joe Heller and Michael Ramirez). These cartoons took a positive look at the progress in Iraqi elections and showed terrorists as the target of National Security Agency communications intercepts.
This stands in sharp contrast with the sort of views we generally see from Post cartoonist Mike Keefe, which frequently cast the Bush administration and our military as the forces of evil. Keefe’s extreme views tarnish the efforts of The Denver Post to maintain its reputation as a credible source of reasonable political discourse.
Geoff Goodman, Centennial
Auto accident involving teen driver
Re: “Crash driver broke law on teen riders,” Dec. 29 news story.
This letter is not meant to be unsympathetic or ugly, but it is an angry letter, and for that I make no apologies.
I am the mother of three grown children – a son and two daughters. My oldest daughter’s boyfriend, his brother-in-law and a 3-year-old nephew were riding in a Ford Taurus in Aurora the afternoon of Dec. 27 when they were struck head-on by a Kia driven by a 16-year-old who had had his driver’s license only since September. Thankfully, my daughter’s friend and his relatives all had their seat belts on – including the 3-year-old, who was strapped in to his regulation car seat in the back seat. While the police report said they received “minor” injuries, I guess that depends on your definition of “minor,” as broken limbs were involved and both vehicles were totaled.
My three kids all graduated from Wheat Ridge High School and my husband and I worried for many years each and every time they got behind the wheel. At first we did not let them drive ever at night and never with any other teen in the car. Did we care if they were upset by this? Not at all. It was just “the rules” in our home and if they were unwilling to obey, they were on foot.
Where are the parents in all of these needless car accidents? I am so tired of hearing about grief counseling, candlelight vigils, teddy bears tossed at accident sites, half-dead flowers commemorating lives that need never have been lost. The driver who caused this accident was breaking the law – with very tragic consequences.
Virginia B. Johnston, Denver
The hope of embryonic stem-cell research
Re: “Transplant gives freedom to diabetics,” Jan. 3 news story.
As the parent of a child who suffers from Type I diabetes, I thank you for your article about Pam Blackburn and how receiving an islet-cell transplant has improved her life. The article does an excellent job of detailing the struggles that many diabetics face every day inmanaging their disease and the hope that islet-cell transplantation offers them.
Sadly, however, as your article points out, the availability of islet cells that can be used for transplants is extremely limited and, even then, recipients must take high doses of immunosuppressants to keep their bodies from rejecting the cells.
The real hope for addressing these limitations lies in embryonic stem-cell research. Not only could stem-cell research lead to substantial increases in the availability of islet cells, research on somatic cell nuclear transfer could also overcome the cell rejection problem by allowing islet cells to be produced that carry the prospective transplant recipient’s own DNA.
There is hope that this spring the U.S. Senate will take up the stem-cell legislation that passed the House last year and lift some of the restrictions the Bush administration has placed on federally funded stem-cell research. However, even if this occurs, the legislation faces a likely presidential veto. This makes it even more important for states like Colorado to take action to promote stem-cell research.
Rick Hale, Boulder
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