Fighting forest fires
Re: “Pray for rain, and prepare for fires,” June 23 editorial.
I will pray for rain and then I will pray that the people of Colorado finally wake up and figure that Mother Nature starts all of these fires to get rid of old trees that need to be thinned to increase the runoff and the grasslands. Maybe I should pray that you stop fighting Mother Nature, too.
Malcolm Hutton, Sheridan, Wyo.
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I just returned from visiting several forests throughout this region and saw firsthand the dry conditions contributing to significant wildland fire activity. It is that time of year when thunderstorms pack a punch – an abundance of lightning with very little moisture. Our dry landscapes are incredibly vulnerable to the ignitions these storms bring.
Our wildland firefighters need your help to reduce the number of fires ignited during this critical time. So far this year, about 600 fires have burned more than 75,000 acres throughout Colorado, nearly half of which were caused by human activities. While I have confidence in our firefighters to continue their nearly 99 percent success rate of extinguishing fires early on, they are staying very busy with the naturally caused fires. We all need to take precautions to prevent our personal actions from igniting tinder-dry vegetation which may lead to a wildfire.
The next several weeks will no doubt be challenging to firefighters throughout the state. We are, however, doing the right things to reduce our risk now and into the future. I know there is much work yet to be done, but I am confident in the spirit of cooperation so strong that we will be able to do what it takes to help fire play its natural role without posing unnecessary risk to our homes and critical resources.
Rick Cables, Rocky Mountain Regional Forester, U.S. Forest Service, Golden
Guantanamo prisoners
Re: “Act of despair is not an act of war,” June 25 Perspective article.
John Holland and Anna Cayton-Holland write about the three Guantanamo prisoners who recently committed suicide in “despair.” I don’t know why anyone is in Guantanamo except that they apparently were taken prisoner on the battlefield in Afghanistan and are held as “enemy combatants,” not “prisoners of war” as legally defined. Despite what the Hollands say about “exhausted stereotypes” concerning those who fought for the Taliban, I am of the opinion that everyone held at Guantanamo is a dangerous fanatic. Whether or not they have regard for their own lives, they seem in the past to have had no regard for the lives of others and certainly had no regard for what we might regard as civil rights. In any event, as “enemy combatants” they have few civil rights either under our Constitution or under the Geneva Convention.
I do not feel the loss of any civil right when these men are held indefinitely. Even to grant them the highest status possible, that of prisoner of war, gives them no more rights than they enjoy now. Considering that it is my opinion that if any of them were abroad in this country they would gladly kill, I feel my rights are more secure with them in Guantanamo.
Jerry Huthoefer, Denver
The Dems and Iraq
Re: “The war and the election,” June 25 John Aloysius Farrell column.
It doesn’t surprise me Americans prefer the Democrats taking over the war on terror. The media have been hammering the Bush administration since Day One, up to the most recent revelations of secrets by The New York Times and others. It also makes sense that Bush didn’t carry the Albuquerque area. Republicans traditionally don’t do well in big cities and other areas where lots of people have their hands out.
The aforementioned media spread a lot of propaganda in those areas as well. The logical conclusion to this was Dan Rather’s use of forged documents in an attempt to sway the 2004 election. Fortunately, we don’t buy it.
We also don’t buy the Democrats’ message of retreat and defeat. The enemy has a four-point plan for us:
1) Get the Americans out of Iraq;
2) Spread terrorism throughout the Middle East;
3) Spread terrorism throughout Europe;
4) Bring terrorism to the United States and bring the paper tiger to its knees.
Is it any wonder the Democrats keep losing elections?
Pat Desrosiers, Denver
Free advertising?
Re: “For a price, bag the ultimate in wild West art,” June 25 Rocky Mountain Ranger story.
It is offensive that Rich Tosches, The Post’s Rocky Mountain Ranger columnist, would take advantage of the cover of Sunday’s Denver & the West section to advertise the services of a local business. This is a long, folksy column about a taxidermy business. I truly don’t care what the business is; it doesn’t belong in news.
It’s frustrating to see advertising disguised as news, and it is the responsibility of both writers and editors to safeguard the reputation of the newspaper.
Leslie Jorgensen-Fera, Morrison
Foreclosures in Colo.
Re: “State stays atop foreclosure list,” June 25 business news story.
The most obvious omission by “experts” talking about the foreclosure rate is the complete lack of living-wage jobs. Oh, there are jobs all right: part-time, low-paying dead-end jobs that don’t pay rent, let alone a mortgage. Many people are working two to three part-time positions just to attempt to make ends meet and failing. But then, political leaders wanted to make the economy a tourist-based one and completely forgot that the working class can’t live on low pay, particularly with the lack of affordable housing. Well, congratulations to them, one of the consequences of their economic policy is a high foreclosure rate because people can’t afford their homes, gas for their car, food for their table. Maybe next time the “experts” will get all the facts, not just the ones that blame anything but one of the main culprits, low-paying jobs.
Dana Bell, Littleton
TV towers in Golden
Re: “Golden should drop its land-grab plan,” June 18 editorial.
The Post’s editorial is another example of a desperate attempt to sway public opinion. Readers should be disturbed to learn The Post failed to disclose its partner-affiliation with KUSA-Channel 9, a member of Lake Cedar Group, while rubber-stamping the media conglomerate’s propaganda.
Chances are the only information you have received about the Lookout Mountain tower is from LCG members KCNC- Channel 4, KMGH-Channel 7, KUSA-Channel 9 and KTVD- Channel 20. You’ve probably seen their profusion of ads that use fear tactics, received calls from a company conducting misleading push-polls for them, or read biased editorial coverage.
What they haven’t told you is that LCG wants a 730-foot HDTV tower and 20,000 square-foot building on undeveloped mountain backdrop that has been identified for open-space purposes for 100 years.
With more than 70 percent support from its citizens and thousands of others who oppose the LCG proposal, Golden sought to protect the threatened Lookout Mountain property. The city offered LCG $1.7 million from funds citizens authorized in 2000 for open-space purchases. LCG refused Golden’s offer, leading to the city’s eminent-domain proceedings.
Golden never threatened to tear down LCG’s existing towers. And although LCG claims it will replace four towers with this supertower, those towers are on separate property and their current nonconforming status requires their removal. Nevertheless, LCG continues to pursue only the supertower, despite the fact that there are other sites for excellent HDTV signals, which other stations are already using successfully. Plus, most people with expensive HDTVs receive cable and satellite service.
The metro area will get over-the-air HDTV service. The question is whether this media conglomerate should be able to use its market monopoly to squelch public debate over health, economics and quality of life, and destroy open space in the process.
Charles J. Baroch, Mayor, Golden
Got ’em? Don’t smoke ’em
To have your comments printed in To the Point, please send letters of no more than 40 words to openforum@denverpost.com or 1560 Broadway, Denver, 80202. Writers are limited to one letter per month.
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In an effort to make next year’s PrideFest even more palatable to the general public, they should switch the letters from GLBT to GBLT and sell sandwiches.
J. Brandeis Sperandeo, Denver
I wonder if Pat Robertson believes the flooding in Washington, D.C., is God’s way of punishing the Bush administration for its policies and practices.
John Bright, Boulder
Since President Bush is so confident in the new Iraqi president and his administration, why not put the fate of our troops staying or leaving in the hands of the Iraqi people by calling for a vote?
Janet Colville, Denver
The New York Times claims it’s revealing our counterterrorist tactics in order to protect the national interest. Next, I’m hoping they’ll reveal which nation’s interests they’re protecting.
It certainly doesn’t seem to be the United States.
Bill Finley, Cortez
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The Colorado smoking ban went into effect this weekend. I have heard so many people and business owners voice a multitude of problems. People who smoke deserve the right to exercise their preferences. I know smoking sometimes causes illnesses, but so many people who have smoked for years are super healthy today.
Smoking in moderation with new mild cigarettes and pipes, and cigars too, plus not inhaling every drag, will reduce exposure to lung and heart problems.
Many bars and night clubs stand to suffer financial losses. Private business and should have the right to decide what smoking they want on their premises. Many of us feel smoking in moderation is the true answer, yet one needs to use self-discipline while using tobacco products, just as using all products in life.
Mike Anderson, Denver
I don’t drink alcohol, so the proposed bar and tavern smoking ban is no skin off my nose. But I am a smoker, and I am concerned about the prohibition-minded, Big Nanny trampling of those owners’ property rights. I firmly believe in a free marketplace and personal responsibility. I believe the most equitable solution to the smoking dilemma is to let the marketplace determine the creation, success or failure of any given enterprise, to allow the owner to set smoking policy. We all need to stop being so lazy about what is primarily a physical and mental health and common courtesy issue, and quit relying on draconian laws legislating the dilemma into yet another law enforcement problem.
Bob Keenan, Carbondale
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Re: “Bars brace for a big drag,” June 25 news story.
Only in America would the media write sentimentally about the bars that claim they’ll lose business because smokers may drive into another state so they can smoke while they satisfy another addiction: drinking. Studies in other states with smoking bans have overwhelmingly proved businesses don’t suffer from smoking bans. Remarkably, people adjust.
There has to be some irony in the “whine” that people have the right to impose their addiction on others. It’s not the appearance, it’s not really just the pollution, it’s the health of the issue. We have laws that protect what goes in our food, our water, but someone blowing second-hand smoke in your face is a “right”?
My dad died of a massive heart attack after years of smoking. I lost my mother, who smoked all her life, to cancer. I awake every morning to “smoker’s cough,” trying to hack up the fluid in my lungs, and I never smoked a day in my life. And these people want to whine that they have the right to infect others with second-hand cancer.
Keith Francis, Morrison
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When Dallas passed its ban on smoking in restaurants in 2001, restaurant owners made the same “sky-is-falling” argument that the Colorado bar owners are now making. But, six years later, restaurants in Dallas are flourishing and there was no mass exodus of restaurant patrons to the suburbs, nor did smokers stay at home rather than go out to eat. No restaurants failed as a result, and the sky has not fallen.
Similar arguments have been made to these smoking bans as they have been adopted by communities around the country (Austin, Texas; New York; Fayetteville, Ark.). So far, the courts are upholding the bans, the air is finally clearing, and we can all breathe a sigh of good health and relief.
Mike Northrup, Dallas
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Re: “Crush the habit,” June 26 Fitness story.
According to your article, the July 1 ban is expected to cause almost a third of Colorado smokers to attempt quitting. Chemical dependency upon smoking nicotine will claim more than 4,000 Colorado lives this year. As editor of WhyQuit, I write to make a critical correction to a false implication left by the article. The article, predominantly a nicotine-patch quitting recommendation, opens by sharing what is primarily historic cold-turkey quitting data, that “most smokers make several serious attempts to quit before finally succeeding.”
Although the odds of success do increase with each failed cold-turkey attempt, only two studies have examined success rates for repeat nicotine patch use. One found a second-time patch user smoking-relapse rate of 100 percent within six months and the other a 98.4 percent failure rate.
Also, Colorado quitters who plan on using replacement nicotine without counseling or support should be informed that in 2003, GlaxoSmithKline consultants combined and averaged all seven over-the-counter nicotine patch and gum studies. They found that 93 percent had relapsed to smoking within six months.
Clearly, there is no money to be made in “free” cold-turkey quitting. It understandably has few champions. But doesn’t journalism have both moral and professional obligations to paint a fair and accurate picture of what’s working for Colorado quitters and what isn’t?
John R. Polito, Mount Pleasant, S.C.
The writer is a nicotine cessation educator and editor of WhyQuit.com.
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How to quit smoking: Plan on eight days of pure misery – oh, and nights, too. The first night, I didn’t sleep, not a wink. I couldn’t breathe, I was in a constant sweat and I paced. I kept telling myself people don’t die from quitting; they die from smoking. The second night, I did manage to lie still on the bed for about an hour, still no sleep, more pacing. I slept a few hours the next day on the couch, still sweating and not breathing – I thought. This is worse than childbirth, I thought. (Actually it wasn’t, but I made myself believe it.) The third day was a slight improvement on all levels. I was making deals with myself: If I can get through this, I will never want to go through it again.
That was on Oct. 21, 1991, and I did make it. It took eight days, and it was the best present I have ever given myself. And if I can do it, anyone can.
Ginger Christensen, Broomfield
TO THE POINT
In an effort to make next year’s PrideFest even
more palatable to the general public, they should
switch the letters from GLBT to GBLT and sell
sandwiches.
J. Brandeis Sperandeo, Denver
I wonder if Pat Robertson believes the flooding in
Washington, D.C., is God’s way of punishing the
Bush administration for its policies and practices.
John Bright, Boulder
Since President Bush is so confident in the new Iraqi
president and his administration, why not put
the fate of our troops staying or leaving in the
hands of the Iraqi people by calling for a vote?
Janet Colville, Denver
The New York Times claims it’s revealing our
counterterrorist tactics in order to protect the national
interest. Next, I’m hoping they’ll reveal
which nation’s interests they’re protecting.
It certainly doesn’t seem to be the United
States.
Bill Finley, Cortez
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