Integrating Denver schools
Re: “Integrated schools can excel; Race, income need not determine success,” March 5 Perspective article.
I’m encouraged about the progress, cited by Bill Kurtz and Alan Gottlieb, in the Denver School of Science and Technlogy (DSST). They cite a rigorous academic program, a single college-bound track, and a focus on community and core values as the main reasons that students at this multi-ethnic, socio-economically diverse institution are thriving.
I’d like to suggest that they’re overlooking (at least underemphasizing) a key factor in the analysis: Students and parents are choosing to attend DSST. They want to be there. And out of choice comes a unique set of behaviors.
The model of mandatory education at the neighborhood school can create some very different behaviors. When one is compelled to do something by law, a sense of entitlement can ensue. And out of entitlement can develop a mindset that one is entitled to attend an institution, regardless of behavior or academic performance. When parents and students choose to attend an institution, when it becomes a privilege rather than a right, an opportunity instead of a requirement, the incentive to aspire toward higher academic achievement and more responsible behavior are likely to ensue.
Hats off to those who are spearheading the educational reforms cited in the article. May all educational institutions take note of their achievements. May they not overlook some of the most powerful forces at work in these experiments and the different incentives choice creates.
Marc Johnson, Denver
…
I wholeheartedly agree with Bill Kurtz and Alan Gottlieb. But why stop at skin color? I believe that English-speaking students whose parents are here legally and call themselves “American” should have the same right to a quality public education as their cohorts whose parents are quite often here illegally, voice proud allegiance to another nation and insist that their kids be taught in American public schools in the language of that other nation.
Separate but equal is no longer good enough. No longer should we permit kids, regardless of the handicap placed on them by parents who were born here but have nonetheless stubbornly refused to learn Spanish, to deal with prejudice in the schools. It’s not these kids’ fault their grandparents’ grandparents were born here. I know these kids are very different from most of the other kids in our public schools, but still, they deserve equal respect, equal education and equal funding in our taxpayer-funded public schools.
JM Schell, Arvada
Rights of landowners vs. oil and gas drillers
Re: “Landowners may tap ballot for drilling compensation,” March 2 news story.
To witness what happened to House Bill 1185 in the Colorado House of Representatives is to appreciate the frustration of the group called Colorado Landowners for Fairness, as described in The Post’s article. That bill sought to address the widely acknowledged need to afford greater protection to Colorado landowners from damages associated with oil and gas drilling activities. Currently, Colorado has one of the nation’s weakest set of legal protections for surface owners. Acknowledging the legitimate interests of both surface landowners and owners of mineral rights, HB 1185 as introduced would have redressed the imbalance that favored oil and gas drillers and provided fair and reasonable protections to surface owners. Those protections were eliminated or emasculated in the version of the bill passed by the House, in no small measure by the application of the sheer raw power and influence of the oil and gas industry.
Landowner and environmental groups will seek to introduce amendments to HB 1185 as it is considered by the Colorado Senate to restore some of the landowner protections of the original bill. I urge Colorado senators to support those amendments in the interests of fundamental fairness. A failure of political will in the General Assembly will force frustrated Coloradans to once again seek redress by taking the matter directly to the voters.
Jim Roberts, Denver
…
Re: “Drilling buffers revisited at Capitol,” March 6 news story.
I find it funny how The Post reduced oil and gas drilling on private land to putting up with “odors, the noise, and the derricks that light up the night sky.”
These things seem to be just a part of the large number of problems for landowners with drilling on their property.
This week, I sat and listened to the story of Chris Mobaldi, Rifle resident and landowner. As a result of poisonous toxins from gas drilling less than 1,000 feet from her home, she says, she has irreversible brain damage.
Who would think that the U.S. would be a country where the government allows oil and gas companies to enter onto someone’s land, poison them in their own homes, strip their land of its value, take away their livelihoods – and then refuse to pass a law fixing the problem?
Odors, noise and the derricks are a huge problem, and they are just the beginning. There won’t be an end until people like Chris Mobaldi receive justice and fair compensation from oil and gas drilling on their private property.
Tracy Hern, Denver
Red Cross CEO buyout
Re: “Red Cross recounts recent woes,” March 5 news story.
Several years ago I concluded, for a variety of reasons, that there were better places to make my charitable contributions than the Red Cross. The article in last Sunday’s paper certainly validated that position.
I was appalled to read that the Red Cross paid a CEO with four years’ tenure more than $800,000 to resign. That represents a huge number of small donations made by “the little people” who believed that they were contributing their money to help victims of various disasters.
The 50-person Red Cross Board of Governors betrayed a sacred trust and should be ashamed of themselves. I hope the ongoing investigation by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee results in some sort of constraints on how the Red Cross is permitted to spend the money it collects.
Ted Neiswanger, Longmont
S. Dakota abortion law
Re: “Abortion? Never was much choice in S.D.,” March 5 news story.
Choice. What choice does the unborn in the womb have? Now in South Dakota, that baby will have a chance to live.
In its front-page story, The Post tells of 20-year old-Courtney, a South Dakota woman who was already struggling with a 1-year-old when she got pregnant again. The real questions is, why did she have sex if she did not want a baby? Isn’t that where the real choice should be?
Courtney may have been struggling with a 1-year-old, but does that make it right to kill the baby in the womb? Raising the child or giving him/her to someone who will care for the child are better choices than death.
J.D. Moyers, Centennial
Changes to Civic Center?
Re: “New plan for Civic Center?” Feb. 26 Joanne Ditmer column.
Please say it is not so! Must we have to pander to the vanities and obsessions of prominent architects?
Have people not noticed that one can walk (or drive) westward on 13th Avenue through several blocks immediately east of Broadway to find that the treasured mountain view has disappeared, obstructed by the expansion of the Denver Art Museum? A building appears to have toppled athwart 13th Avenue. It is distressingly reminiscent of Sept. 11 and the stricken World Trade Center buildings in New York City. It is an abomination.
Every year, Americans in their thousands cross the Atlantic and marvel at the relics of the buildings of past centuries, then return to stand mutely by while their own heritage is repeatedly bulldozed out of existence. If embellishment is needed, let it be to the enhancement of that which has long graced the Civic Center, not sacrificed to the glorification of a new spiky monstrosity.
Henry Miles, Denver
Not with my cornflakes
Can’t The Denver Post find more appropriate, positive articles and photos to use for the front page? Your readers are sick and tired of waking up refreshed on Sunday morning, only to pick up their newspaper and an article and photo headlined “Thriving school molds future morticians” (March 5 news story). Really, couldn’t that be printed on Page 2?
Sunday is a day when there is time for the entire family to read the paper at leisure. We’re talking seniors, boomers, teens and children as your Sunday readers. Surely there are positive, exciting, happy and interesting subjects in Denver. Really, news can be positive.
Kate Barker, Littleton
Death of Dennis Weaver
The Post’s obituary for actor Dennis Weaver (Feb. 28) was a gross injustice because it failed to mention Weaver’s best work. In the mini-series “Centennial,” Weaver played the part of trail boss R.J. Poteet. Good ol’ R.J. drove a herd of Texas longhorns to a fictional town called Centennial.
As an environmentalist, Poteet told a young Jim Lloyd that “once someone shows the way to where a town can be built, then others will build that town, but you won’t, Jim. You will take care of what you’re responsible for. Your horse. Your herd. … I guess those of us that have inherited the earth are a little too restless to be tied down by a town. … It’s a big, wide open world out there. I hope it lasts a little longer.”
Actor David Janssen said in that same movie: “… the day is coming, when if you want to see the beauty and majesty of Colorado, you will have to go to Wyoming.”
James Michener wrote this novel 30 years ago about a fictional town of Centennial. Now we have built enough houses on the land with no water that we can have a real town called Centennial.
A eulogy to a man who lived in a house built of recycled tires should say that he co-starred in one of the greatest ecological warnings to ever hit the television.
Jim Bauer, Aurora
Denver’s plan to deal with jail overcrowding
Re: “Dealing with jail crowding,” March 5 editorial.
Kudos to the Denver Sheriff’s Department and county judges for proposing the home detention program for non-violent offenders to lessen overcrowding and improve the safety of those who work in the currently overcrowded and understaffed Denver County jails. However, as we have seen time and time again, large-scale bureaucratic oversight can prove detrimental towards an overall positive impact. Criminals go to jail for a reason; should we abuse this home detention system and use it merely as an ambivalent overflow measure, we increase the chance of re-offenses by these so called “non-violent criminals.” From a distance, the home detention program looks like a win-win situation. However, we must ensure the program is implemented and managed correctly to ensure the safety of all who reside in the community.
Nicholas Graff, Fort Collins
Dangerous professors?
Re: “Dangerous professors,” March 5 John Andrews column.
It was just a matter of time before John Andrews joined the smear fest that has been provoked by David Horowitz’s shoddily researched, error-filled and irredeemably awful book. Readers interested in the other side of the story can independently evaluate Andrews’ claims about me at www.portfolio.du.edu/dsaitta (click on the “Discovery” tab). They will find a response to Horowitz that puts my statements about Ward Churchill and Dick Lamm in context, and shows Horowitz’s accusations to be groundless. Readers might also be surprised to discover that my warning about “thought police” holds for both liberals and conservatives.
Andrews himself is clueless about my scholarship and the quality of my classroom teaching. He was just as clueless back in 2003 when his legislative hearings into alleged liberal bias in Colorado universities impugned the character and reputation of professors without giving the accused an opportunity to defend themselves. In the wake of that inquiry I sent Sen. Andrews a long and respectful letter (also accessible in my DU portfolio) informing him about how those of us who actually work in the university approach teaching, hiring and promotion. I received no response.
Horowitz and Andrews carp about propagandizing professors, but fail to see that theirs is the pedagogy of disempowerment and control. If my rejection of this pedagogy and my personal commitment to the values of academic freedom and open debate make me “dangerous” to ideologues like Horowitz and Andrews, then I accept their characterization with honor and pride.
Dean J. Saitta, Denver
The writer is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Denver.
Plan to drape fabric across Arkansas River
Re: “Christo’s Arkansas River dream already a success,” Feb. 26 Writers on the Range column.
Christo’s Arkansas River project is causing great concern and anxiety for many of us who live along the canyon and foresee major disruption and possible life-threatening events that could occur with 12,000 more vehicles a day and an estimated 250,000 people coming to view the sheets. We have no alternative routes out of the canyon to get to work, the store, the doctor, or to escape in case of a wildfire.
Rock slides and highway work are beyond our control, as are truckers who drive too fast and roll their trucks on curves, blocking traffic for hours. The Christo project is not. The Bureau of Land Management can say “no,” with dozens of reasons to substantiate the decision.
It is easy for people who live in Salida, Cañon City and places beyond to endorse this ridiculous plan, but it is also selfish not to consider the lives and safety of those of us who will endure the upheaval for three years, not just the two weeks the project is in existence.
Janet Mallow, Howard
Creative sentencing for HOV scofflaws
Letter-writer Cathleen Cooper (March 8) suggested that the punishment for the gentleman caught driving in the HOV lane with a dummy was “ludicrous.” Maybe he should have just been made to pay a fine like when you’re caught speeding or other “simple traffic violations”? In that case, I bet I know at least 20 people who would just pay their fine for the convenience of driving in the HOV lane during rush hour. Out of those same 20 people, I bet not one would want to stand on the side of the road holding a sign. More judges need to be creative with their sentencing. Maybe an answer to overcrowded jails is to hand down punishments that make criminals wish they had received jail time.
Brian Callahan, Aurora
TO THE POINT: Short takes from readers
Almost weekly there is a news story about a company laying off workers; rarely is there a story about a company hiring workers. Eventually, who is going to be able to buy the products or services of the first companies?
Elizabeth Rave, Denver
In regards to the proposed seat-belt law: Unlike racial profiling, this is intellectual profiling. If you are too stupid to use a seat belt, especially on your children, then you need to be pulled over and ticketed.
Kristin Thompson, Lakewood
The whole issue of gay marriage is a smoke screen. Right-wing politicians need a way to distract their political base from observing their incompetence and disingenuousness on the issues that really matter. Unfortunately, they may have found such a distracting issue.
Rudy Bellinger, Westminster
Hitler was a strong leader who enslaved free people. President Bush is a strong leader who frees enslaved people.
Mike Bragg, Aurora
To have your comments printed in To the Point, please send letters of no more than 40 words to openforum@denverpost.com (no attachments, please) or 1560 Broadway, Denver, 80202. Writers are limited to one letter per month.
TO REACH OPINION EDITORS
Phone: 303-820-1331
Fax: 303-820-1502
E-mail: openforum@denverpost.com
Mail: The Open Forum, The Denver Post, 1560 Broadway, Denver, 80202
Letters guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 200 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.
