In defense of Denver’s Colfax Avenue
Re: “Of vice and yen: Get real about Colfax,” Jan. 23 David Harsanyi column.
In response to David Harsanyi’s ongoing trashing of Colfax Avenue, I remember Louis Armstrong’s response to the question, “Can you define jazz?” He said, “If you have to ask that question, you’ll never enjoy jazz – it comes from the heart, not the head.”
Our family lived in Europe for three years and Asia for five years. Every time we came home, we were depressed with the nation’s look-alike main streets and malls bloated with chain stores.
Colfax is like jazz – to enjoy its refreshing pleasure of uniqueness, stay in your heart, not your head. We live two blocks from Colfax and enjoy its escape from dull sameness. We have never experienced the crime, drugs or sex that Harsanyi writes about. Colfax reform is not about eliminating unhealthy food – it’s about eliminating the dull and boring sameness that rejects local culture.
Harsanyi should respect Americans’ rights to strive for refreshing uniqueness with a healthy touch of local culture.
Dave Potak, Denver
The fight over a statewide smoking ban
Re: “Smoking-ban fight rekindled,” Jan. 31 news story.
The House health committee’s vote to ban smoking in all indoor public places statewide was a true disappointment in representative democracy. The author argued that the legislature must act or the ban would surely be approved by voters in the 2006 election.
Neither need nor health justifies a ban. Most indoor public places are already smoke-free. Under scientific standards, a 20 percent to 30 percent increased risk does not cause lung cancer or heart disease in nonsmokers. But these facts do not stop health zealots from pushing a total ban. These facts did not give legislators the backbone to stop health zealots. The threat of a public referendum overwhelmed them.
Nonsmokers benefit from living in a society that accommodates the choice of adults to smoke in a few public places. It’s about tolerance of other people’s judgments on how to live and defending the liberty of all, especially when it’s hard.
Tell your legislator that you’re for liberty and tolerance, even of despised smokers. That there’s a good balance now of nonsmoking and smoking public places, and no state law is needed. Take the threat of a public referendum away. Or, one day, it will be your liberty at stake.
Susan Drechsel, Superior
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I moved here three years ago from California thinking I was moving to a state that prided itself on its healthy atmosphere. The first dinner out proved me wrong. People were smoking at the bar right next to the tables in the “no smoking” restaurant. Reading that bar owners here are fighting a smoking ban because it will ruin their business troubles me. I lived in San Francisco when the ban went in and the bars had more patrons because all of us non-smokers could now go to them, and the smokers never left, except to go outside to smoke.
I summer in Cape Cod. There, the same argument of losing business or closing was used, and thankfully a smoking ban was put in anyway. Guess what – the bars didn’t close. Non-smokers (and smokers) can go and actually stay longer because their eyes don’t burn and their heads don’t ache. It’s time Colorado stopped this poison from being in any public establishment.
Barbara H. Gates, Denver
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Why does the state need to get involved in people’s personal lives? Where do we draw the line? Can the legislature pass a law that tells people to stop wearing perfume in a public place, because that perfume my offend my nasal passage, thus making me ill? Next we can pass a law restricting the use of cellphones in public places because the transmissions from that cellphone or a cellphone tower may cause me to grow a tumor. Cars pollute; do we ban them? Last time I looked, smoking is a legal activity. Unless the legislature passes a law making smoking illegal, it should be allowed and the state should stay out of it.
Don Marshall, Aurora
Black churches and homosexuality
Re: “The church and homosexuality,” Jan. 27 Roland Martin column.
Roland Martin’s condemnation of same-gender loving people gives clear evidence that his bias against homosexuality contradicts his expressed commitment to the Bible. The National Black Justice Coalition is the leading organization of African-American same-gender loving women and men. Their Atlanta Black Pastors Summit was called in an effort to open discussion among black pastors that reflected our historic commitment to civil rights for all persons rather than replicate the anti-gay biases of the white religious and political right. He writes of his wife being an ordained Baptist minister for 20 years. How does he explain those pastors and denominations that utilize biblical passages to support their unwillingness to ordain women?
A response to a literal reading of the Bible would mean there would be no divorce, our diets would be biblically based, the clothing we wear would be different in composition and we could no longer justify war because “Thou shall not kill.”
I seek to respond seriously rather than literally to the totality of the biblical message. Historically, too many persons have been abused by a narrow biblical literalism.
Rev. Gil Caldwell, Denver
Federal asbestos bill
Asbestos is everywhere. It’s in our attic insulation, our children’s schools and our communities. Hundreds of our Colorado neighbors have already died from asbestos poisoning. Here in Denver, one neighborhood on the west side alone has had more than 85,000 tons of waste containing asbestos dumped on it.
With the recent spotlight on corrupt lobbyists in Washington, D.C., you’d think that politicians wouldn’t make this the time to shovel a multibillion-dollar bailout to asbestos manufacturers. But you’d be wrong. This is exactly what some politicians are now trying to do. They call it the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act, but I call it the Asbestos Bailout Bill. The bill hurts Coloradans and forces current victims into an ineffective new fund run by the government and takes away the right to justice for future victims. This bailout requires taxpayers to pay the bills for negligent corporations looking for a free ride away from their responsibility and re-victimizes our Colorado neighbors already suffering from the devastating financial and health consequences of asbestos poisoning.
Sen. Wayne Allard has said he stands with the corporations. Hopefully Sen. Ken Salazar will be more thoughtful. I urge him to stand up for average Coloradans and to oppose this massive bailout.
Maclovio Lucero, Denver
State energy strategy
Despite temporary relief with unusually warm winter weather, this winter has still been the worst on record for heating bills. Long-term energy efficiency solutions must be implemented to keep heating costs affordable for ordinary Coloradans. We cannot rely on Mother Nature to supply us with a continuous swarm of warm weather, as we never know when it might take a turn for the worse.
What we need to do is apply a long-term energy strategy to lower natural gas costs. The Gas Utility Energy Efficiency Act provides an important first step toward a long-term energy strategy for Colorado. This bill would save households and businesses $560 million by 2020 and reduce natural gas use by 9 percent. Not only does this bill make sense for our pocketbooks, but by reducing our demand for natural gas we reduce our dependence on foreign imports and the pressures on our public lands like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
I hope our lawmakers and the governor do the right thing for business and consumers by supporting this important energy solution.
Lani Gedeon, Denver
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