Illegal immigrants’ effect on public schools
Re: “Changes at Manual tough but necessary,” Feb. 15 editorial.
Denver Public Schools, and Manual High School in particular, could go a long way toward improving student achievement if city, county and state government focused on removing illegal aliens. The diversion of education funds and focus toward educating illegals is having a negative effect on student achievement. If these government entities want to continue educating illegal aliens, then let the funds come from increased business taxes, especially contractors and developers in the metro area.
John Brick, Englewood
Abortion and the Colo. governor’s race
Re: “Ritter walks tightrope with abortion stance,” Feb. 15 news story.
When the painful issue of abortion is discussed and debated, why is the health of the fetus completely ignored? In your front-page article outlining where Colorado’s gubernatorial candidates stand on abortion, Bill Ritter, Bob Beauprez and Marc Holtzman are all opposed to abortion “except in cases of rape or incest” (Ritter, Holtzman) “or when the life of the mother is at stake” (Ritter, Holtzman, Beauprez). How about when the life (or quality of life) of the fetus is at stake? Apparently no one wants to talk about this heartbreaking situation.
The fact is that the vast majority of second-trimester terminations are undertaken because fetal testing has determined that the fetus has life-altering abnormalities. The screening tests/results that determine this status are not available until well into the second trimester. Moreover, no one outside the medical community seems to understand that the so- called “partial birth abortion” is in fact only done in cases where the fetus is so hydrocephalic that the mother’s uterus risks rupture.
When politicians opposed to abortion think about their moral exceptions, I implore them to consider these other vulnerable souls. Only the parents, in consultation with their doctors and spiritual community, should make this heartbreaking decision; impersonal, uninformed public policy and constitutional law are in no position to dictate a life path of this magnitude.
Kathleen Kennedy, Denver
…
As The Post wrote, “A weakening or overturning of Roe vs. Wade could leave the issue up to the states to decide.” That means that a woman’s right to control her body and destiny must be a litmus test for the next governor of Colorado. How can I trust someone like Bill Ritter to be the next governor, if Ritter cannot trust me to decide whether I need an abortion? How can I vote for an individual who will not allow me to have a vote about my own future and financial obligations? Ritter, Bob Beauprez, Marc Holtzman and other pro-lifers believe that abortion destroys a human life. Pro-choice people understand that abortion destroys a potential human life and that giving birth has the potential to destroy the lives of several people. For example, I aborted my third pregnancy because I knew that the time I spent caring for the third child would be time that my two “wanted” children needed me. The third child had the potential to destroy my marriage, my family and me.
As E.J. Dionne suggested in his Feb. 15 column, perhaps we need a middle ground on abortion. What if we add “pro-child”? Perhaps this would help people realize that sometimes adding another life into your family is miraculous and other times it is disastrous. Pro-child supporters would teach the risks and responsibilities of sex, preach personal responsibility, explain the benefits of abstinence and the pros/cons of all contraceptive options. They would support easy legal access to contraception, emergency contraception, counseling and abortion without constraints for waiting periods, parental notification, or special circumstances (rape, incest, health of mother). A large number of pro-life and pro-choice people already consider themselves pro-child.
Lisa Patti, Littleton
Counting votes
Re: “Vote-machine laws trip counties,” Feb. 14 news story.
Another voting machine glitch, neighbors? We don’t need no stinking machines. We can have accurate, transparent elections with hand-counted paper ballots – at much less cost. It works just fine all over the world. Each eligible voter marks his or her choices on a paper ballot. The voter casts the ballot in a locked box and leaves. When the polls close, the boxes are opened in each precinct house and counted in full view of representatives of interested parties and election officials. No secret, unverifiable counting of votes by computers controlled by “election industry” corporations.
Hand counting would take no longer than four hours in any one precinct. The cost of hand-marked, hand-cast, hand-counted paper ballots is a small fraction of the cost of electronic voting machines, software, maintenance, etc.
Bruce McNaughton, Denver
Smokers’ responsibilities and Medicaid
I hope my bill to limit Medicaid spending for smokers’ ailments still can do a service to Colorado taxpayers – even though the proposal was defeated in committee with an editorial slap from your paper along the way (“Smokers and Medicaid,” Feb. 6).
Senate Bill 101 was about personal responsibility and the need to uphold it through public policy. That is why the bill proposed a sliding scale for treating tobacco-related illnesses, with those who took up this habit before 1976 getting full coverage and those who began after 1995 getting no Medicaid coverage for smoking ailments at all. The bill’s premise is that a lot of people who began smoking in recent years should have known better.
In 1604, King James I of England wrote a 4,400-word diatribe against the evils of tobacco use. He called it a “filthy novelty, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossly mistaken in the right use thereof.” If one of the most influential people in the English-speaking world was so wise to the perils of smoking four centuries ago – before he even had modern medical science on his side – I don’t think it’s unreasonable to demand that tobacco users account for themselves today.
In any event, we must grab the reins on runaway Medicaid spending. That became evident to me in my years on the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, which writes the state budget. Medicaid is devouring more and more of our state’s tax revenue.
The Post’s editorial raised some reasonable concerns about my bill, but to insist that a better response is “to promote cessation programs” misses my point altogether. Taxpayers cannot be endlessly called upon to subsidize the knowing and willful irresponsibility of others.
State Sen. Ron Teck, Grand Junction
Auto insurance laws
Re: “Insurance changes mulled,” Feb. 7 news story.
The Post’s article about a state House committee considering mandating medical coverage on auto insurance policies included testimony that I’m sure was intended to tug at our heartstrings. One innocent accident victim said she now receives “constant phone calls from bill collectors.” Legislator and bill sponsor Mark Cloer, R-Colorado Springs, is quoted as saying, “Should you have bill collectors because someone else hit you? Absolutely not.”
Sounds to me like Colorado needs a law to protect consumers from bill collectors, particularly consumers who are in debt due to the negligence of someone else. That’s the real problem, according to your story.
I hope the legislature rejects Cloer’s effort requiring the government to mandate insurance companies force me to buy a product I don’t need.
Eric Anderson, Greeley
Colorado Voices
If you have good ideas and a writer’s touch, we hope you’ll apply for Colorado Voices. It is a den for part-time columnists, a feature we created in 1999 as a forum for contributors from across the state.
Send us two sample columns, 600 to 700 words each, along with a cover letter describing your background, your interest in Voices and whatever else you think we need to know.
Deadline for entries is 5 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 20. E-mail them to us at voices@denverpost.com, or by mail to Mary Idler, Denver Post Editorial Page, 1560 Broadway, Denver CO 80202. Provide your address, phone numbers and e-mail address.
The Open Forum
E-mail: openforum@denverpost.com
Mail: The Open Forum, The Denver Post, 1560 Broadway, Denver, 80202
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