Bill on distancing protesters from funerals
Re: House Bill 1382, the Right to Rest in Peace Act, introduced in the House Wednesday, preventing protesters from picketing within 500 feet of funerals.
The soldiers that fought and died for our country deserve the respect of everyone, regardless of whether or not you agree with the war. Protesters from a small, hate-filled church in Kansas should not be allowed to disrupt their funerals, causing more grief and hurt to their loved ones.
However, it is sad for me to see this bill being passed only because of the protests at military funerals. For years, this group [the Rev. Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church] has waved hateful signs outside of gay funerals. Shouldn’t gay Americans have been given consideration when this was happening to us? Didn’t the friends and families of gay people also have the right to mourn their loss in peace? Not many elected officials seemed too concerned when this was happening to us.
Too many times I hear of gays wanting “special” rights and many others saying that all Americans indeed are treated equal. I guess some things are OK when it happens to gay people but suddenly appalling when it happens to an American soldier. One more case of a double standard to me.
Again, many thanks to all the soldiers serving in our military (both gay and straight). May you all come home safely – and soon.
Sam Hnatiuk, Denver
CSAP and teaching to the test
I have a 20-month-old great-nephew. When we are together we play, we laugh, we read, we sing and we cheer. His curiosity, his willingness to try, to fall, to get up and try again, to look a situation over and to want to know more is fascinating. I am in awe as I sit and watch him. I feel unconditional love and he knows it.
I question when and why this risk-taking and excitement about learning stops. I suggest it is when a child goes to school. I suggest that it is when awesome teachers have to put what they know about learning and what is best for children on the shelf so they can prepare their students for the Colorado Student Assessment Program. Does this test tell us what the child is good at, whether a student is a good problem-solver, what a child does when there isn’t “one right answer”? Does a child learn about the gift of who he is and what he can do to make the world a better place? Does a child learn to love to read, to take risks, to always want to know more? Perhaps what a child learns when being prepared for the CSAP is that if he and his fellow students do not do well, their teacher may be gone. The principal may be gone. In fact, the school he goes to may be gone.
My great-nephew is so smart. I worry that when he goes to school it will make him stupid.
Jane A. Diamond, Denver
Bill on distancing protesters from funerals
Re: “Hotel to raise Denver’s stature; Ritz-Carlton to open in 2007,” March 16 business news story.
I was pleased to read about the plans for a Ritz-Carlton hotel on Curtis Street in Denver that would replace an older Embassy Suites hotel. My concern is that the dismal Greyhound bus terminal is just down the street at 19th and Curtis.
Recently, a longtime friend from England was in Vail skiing and decided to take the Greyhound bus to Boulder to visit us for the weekend. The snowstorm made the bus late into the Denver terminal and she missed the last bus to Boulder. My wife and I drove to Denver to pick her up, which was my first experience at that terminal. Yes, it was full of people because of the snow, but unlike DIA, the terminal smelled strongly of alcohol and the noise level was unbelievable. Our weekend guest was totally subdued and somewhat frightened to be stranded there. I saw one police officer in the building, guarding the men’s room because of flooding on the floor. There was no place for men to use the bathroom.
In Denver’s grand plan to make downtown a welcome place for all, something must be done for Greyhound bus visitors as well.
Ray Smith, Boulder
Illegal immigration
Two recent articles in The Denver Post strongly support the view that much stronger measures are needed to curb the influx of illegal aliens. The March 21 story “17 suspected Mexicans injured in SUV rollovers” focuses the spotlight on the porosity of our borders and the gross failures of police and immigration authorities and on the pressure felt by our medical facilities. The 17 Mexicans will be deported, but I predict they will be back within a year.
Al Knight’s March 22 column (“Deported but not departed”) illustrates how ineffective current deportation policies are. Unless there is a significant criminal penalty for those deportees who return again and again, they will keep coming. Illegal second offenders must be punished by internment for at least a year, then be fingerprinted, photographed and have their DNA recorded before they are deported without recourse and given a strict warning that the next time they are apprehended they will serve five years at hard labor.
Gordon J. Johnson, Broomfield
