Dismissal of CIA agent Mary McCarthy
Re: “Cleaning house at the CIA: McCarthy just the beginning,” April 27 Linda Chavez column.
Linda Chavez has been a Republican toadie for so long that she apparently mistakes the old sleight-of- hand scam for logic.
She bemoans the lack of accountability for intelligence failures at the CIA. She then uses Mary O. McCarthy, recently fired from the CIA for supposedly revealing the existence of U.S.-sponsored secret prisons, as the poster child for destructive partisanship in the agency. She conveniently ignores all those political appointees who buried the real intelligence about terrorists and WMDs in helping President Bush justify a war in Iraq. She then uses the Bushites’ standard deflection, “If this had happened under Clinton … .”
Face it, if Bill Clinton had authorized a secret prison system, domestic wiretapping and a war for which all the justifications had been proven wrong, he would have been impeached over something substantial.
Just like President Bush should be today.
Paul Aldretti, Denver
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Reasons for and acceptance of gender wage gap
Re: “24 cents not a lot to lose for liberation,” May 2 Colorado Voices column.
I recognize that newspapers intend their editorial pages to be thought-provoking, educational and to incite a reaction. However, I was greatly disappointed to read Jessica Peck Corry’s deluded perspective on the gender wage gap.
Staying home with a child is not necessarily “every mother’s dream,” let alone every woman’s dream. How dare Corry justify the wage gap by implying that women should be content to be caregivers and let their husbands earn a decent wage? Does this mean that men who choose to stay at home part-time with their children should receive 24 cents on every dollar less than their counterparts as well? I believe my worth as an employee to be equal to any male counterpart in my chosen career field, and should I one day choose to become a working mother, I suspect I will feel no less strongly that I am worth every penny that a man is.
While I will trust that Corry did her research and that men do, in fact, predominantly take on more dangerous and time-consuming jobs (though I would guess that the genders are more equally represented than she hypothesizes), her argument does not extend to the wage gap among women and men in the same profession. While under federal law an employer cannot pay the genders differently for the same job, the statistical inequities in pay between men and women in the same profession do still exist.
Skye Stuart, Denver
…
Jessica Peck Corry doesn’t mind her husband earning an extra 24 cents to her dollar because he works harder than she does and enjoys his job less. I’m glad for her that her family situation is secure. Many women are single and don’t have a husband bringing in a paycheck with an extra 24 cents for every one of their dollars. A portion of these women are supporting a family on their reduced wages. If Corry finds herself divorced and trying to raise her child on her reduced paycheck (even if she commits to working full-time), she might find the concept of equal pay for equal or similar work more compelling.
Wanda Venters, Aurora
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Use of marijuana by Colorado workers
Re: “7 pot ‘hot spots’ light up state,” May 2 news story.
In this article, federal drug czar John Walters reports that Colorado has seven areas where marijuana detection in the workplace exceeds that of the national average, and he explains that these stats reveal a general rise in overall usage in these places. “This data shows us where to put resources for treatment,” Walters says.
Unfortunately, he fails to justify why these “hot spots” need resources (i.e., tax dollars) for treatment in the first place. Do these areas have higher crime rates? Are there increased incidences of work-related injuries or absentees in these zones? What about above-average health problems? Or how about average test scores among college and high school students residing in these “hot spots”?
Couldn’t Walters find any data to correlate increased marijuana usage to increased societal woes – or would showing that data have been a pie in his own face?
George Archambault, Lakewood
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Moussaoui sentencing
Having just listened to the verdict for Zacarias Moussaoui, life without parole, I find myself sickened by the thought of supporting a convicted terrorist. The terrorist nation is laughing at our weakness and enjoying the thought that a comrade can now function, politically, from a cell paid for and provided by the American tax dollar. We could not wait to put Timothy McVeigh to death, but that was probably because he had more to say. Moussaoui, even though he is Muslim, received a Christmas gift.
As a combat veteran of Vietnam, a former law enforcement officer and generally a compassionate person, I am sickened.
John Baker, Aurora
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British and U.S. health
Re: ” Britons’ health rosier than American peers’,” May 3 news story.
An Associated Press article notes that the health of British citizens is a great deal better than that of their American counterparts, even though they spend about half of what we do on health care. The article says that this is a continuing mystery. At the risk of stating the obvious, mightn’t it be “socialized health care”?
Steven Chostler, Denver
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Parents and children
Three observations of today’s family disturb me:
I’m seeing too much of parents obeying their children and too little of children obeying their parents. This role reversal in the family is unfortunate.
I’m seeing children, and parents as well, overusing and misusing the apology. Parents still trying to have some control insist that the child says “I’m sorry” after every misbehavior. The child complies, but learns early and easily that she has a tool that will appease after every undesirable act. She uses it when she does not actually regret.
I’m seeing children not being taught the act of reciprocity of the positive in the family. These days giving is for parents only. The one exception is gifts under the Christmas tree, but it is only tradition and habit. True compassion is pale or non-existent. Beyond the tree ritual, the rule expressed by the child is, “It’s your duty to give me whatever I want. I don’t care what you have to do to get it.”
Is there any surprise that our society seems uncomfortably near insanity?
Electa C. Wiley, Longmont
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Remembering Jane Jacobs’ urban ideas
Re: “Reflecting on new ways of urban living,” April 27 column.
David Harsanyi’s column on Jane Jacobs was hard to stomach. Has he ever read her wonderful book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”? I doubt it.
If he had, he certainly would not be quoting that itinerant transit naysayer, Randal O’Toole, in the same article with Jacobs. Don’t you remember him? He’s the man who was imported from Oregon by the libertarian Independence Institute to spearhead the opposition to FasTracks. Nothing these folks say leads me to believe that they are interested in livable urban places.
Jane Jacobs loved healthy, livable cities. She is only dead for a few days and these ideologues are already spewing their distortions about her thinking. That is really shameful.
Patricia Cronenberger, Littleton
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