The upside of drilling on private property
My neighbors and I have had eight gas wells drilled in our area. Having read all the negative press, we were expecting the worst. Guess what – they have made our lives a lot easier. They have improved and maintained roads beyond what was needed for their operations. They have graveled private driveways, maintained them and promptly plowed snow after each storm. At Christmas time they came by with hams and popcorn. When there has been a potential conflict between their needs and ours, they, and their employees, have gone out of their way to minimize these conflicts.
In my opinion, unless you own all of the mineral rights under your property, a drilling company probably has the right to be there and probably will be sooner or later. Work with them and they will go out of their way to work with you.
Bill Smith, Silt
Immigration and the Mexican border
Last week, my wife and I were volunteers on a U.S. Forest Service work project 4 miles from the Mexican border near Nogales, Ariz. While we were mending fence and picking up trash along a state highway, we witnessed 17 illegal aliens cross the highway 50 yards in front of us. The Forest Service personnel contacted the Border Patrol and they were soon apprehended. Less than an hour later, we saw Border Patrol on horseback round up nine more illegal aliens near the highway.
The district ranger says he has 30 miles of international border in his district and that 1,000 illegal aliens per day are crossing this small segment of the border.
We were astonished at the magnitude of illegal entry that we saw firsthand. The vast majority of our citizens have no idea of the scope of this problem. We now see the urgency of Congress enacting legislation to deal with this.
I feel strongly that any action must include the following components:
Only immigrants or workers who have employment in the U.S. and identify their employers should be allowed into our country.
A guest-worker program to allow non-citizens to enter the country for specified durations of employment should be established with the employer being identified.
No one who is in the United States illegally should be granted any kind of immunity. Those who are not criminals should be escorted out of our country and stand in line behind those trying to enter the U.S. legally. Criminals should be prosecuted and then deported after serving their sentences.
Businesses that employ illegal immigrants should be aggressively sought out, identified, prosecuted and heavily fined if found guilty.
Dick Scar, Buena Vista
. . .
I was born in America. My children were born in America. My grandchildren were born in America. My mother was born in America. But my father was not. He was born in what is now Belarus. He came to the United States with his parents and sister in 1926 and worked as an apprentice for a butcher until he could save enough money to open his own shop. He married and had two children. He paid taxes. He bought a house. His kids went to school. He finally became a U.S. citizen in 1946.
My father died in 1979, but I still have his papers. His passport shows a picture of a young boy with a shaved head on sepia paper stamped with German, British and then American immigration stamps – a long way to go for freedom. His naturalization papers show a much older man, balding, jowled, with tired eyes from long hours spent working to keep his family fed, clothed and educated.
I wish I could ask him why he waited until 1946 to become a U.S. citizen. I can only speculate that he didn’t have the time it took to apply, get all of his papers together, learn all that he had to learn, etc.
My father was a good man, a hard-working man. He always said America was good to him and refused to travel to foreign countries. “Why should I spend my money in other places when it’s America that I love?” he said.
This is the man who some of you would keep out of our country. This is the man that you would send back to his home. This is the man who would have died at the hands of the Nazis, as did more than half of his family, had he not come to America.
Please listen to today’s immigrants. Please hear their stories. Rather than looking for ways to rid America of immigrants, find ways to honor them – for they are you!
Anita Fricklas, Centennial
Parents can opt students out of recruiting
“Use your words, not your fists.”
In a preschooler’s class or home, you’ve no doubt heard these words. In junior and senior high schools, feuding adolescents are encouraged to “talk it out rather than duke it out.”
Conflict resolution has been encouraged in a generation of students. But within a year, many students raised to settle disputes diplomatically will find themselves in Iraq. These brave young men and women will have to defend themselves and their squadrons, using lethal weapons, in a conflict initiated by politicians.
Every April, high schools are legally bound to hand over information about all high school juniors to military recruiters.
For parents and students who seek a career in the military, this is not a problem.
But for students unsure about post-high school plans, parents can “opt out” of this release of information. Details are available from your student’s high school.
Make sure your student understands the ill-conceived war in Iraq had nothing to do with Sept. 11.
Valerie P. McCullough, Loveland
The new needy
Re: “Poverty grows in wealth’s shadow,” April 12 news story.
I could not help but take great interest in your feature article on the “needy” in Douglas County and how some of the people with homes worth hundreds of thousands are now going to thrift stores for their clothes and getting assistance from the county to make ends meet. If there ever was an indication that the new snake-oil and used-car salesmen of today are the mortgage brokers, the article should make this clear.
Of course they would not be successful if it weren’t for the new generation of people who want it all – now! This “Now Generation” wants a new home – much larger than they need and probably larger than the house they grew up in – and very large cars, the best and latest in recreation equipment, entertainment centers, the fastest high-speed Internet service, and most certainly the latest in cellular phones and service.
I feel for these people and certainly hope they don’t lose their homes, go bankrupt, or perhaps even have to work an extra job as we did to get ahead. However, every time I read another article like this, I am thankful that my generation was one that lived by the credo that you buy what you can afford without risking the future. I hope it doesn’t end up that our generation ends up paying for their generation.
L.W. Hunley, Grand Junction
Proxy protesting
Re: “Parents & protest,” April 12 news story.
Norm Provitzer, a political science professor, pointed out that “adult anger spilling into classrooms is part of a dramatic polarization taking place nationwide,” to quote The Post. Rather than discussions about school and teacher behavior, the two sides have become “polarized.” Discussion disappears and vituperation takes its place.
I wish your reporters had asked Jeff Allen, the father of Overland High School student, why he thought “it wouldn’t do any good” to report his concerns about Jay Bennish to the principal and so on up the line. Clearly that would be the proper procedure. Is it that Mr. Allen and son had been rebuffed in the past when expressing concerns? Do they have examples of the principal’s indifference to student and parental issues? Lacking such information, we are free to guess that this was a game of “gotcha,” and they have achieved more than their alloted 15 minutes of fame.
Bertram Rothschild, Aurora
