Re: “Cache or trash? GPS hobby packs issues,” Aug. 21 news story.
The Denver Post published an interesting article about the geocaching hobby on Monday. From the sources quoted, it appears that the issues are all in the minds of the various government agency officials queried.
The real issues are two behaviors that have become part of the psychological makeup of bureaucrats at all levels: First is the habit of bureaucrats in any custodial capacity to guard their territory from invasion by any citizen who wants to do anything other than look at it. This is evident particularly in most national parks, and apparently the attitude is seeping into the Forest Service as well.
The second mindset is the age- old, universal, instinctive impulse of bureaucrats to reject any new idea; to restrict, ban, deny anything that is outside their very narrow purview.
Geocaching is a phenomenon of the digital age, a completely new idea and activity that encourages individuals and families to get out and actually look at and explore their community and the world around them. The hobby affords people the opportunity to go to places they wouldn’t have thought to go and experience out-of-the- way sights. Because the pastime is something new and might require some additional thought and a little extra effort from them, government bureaucrats – those people who work for us – can be expected to be negative toward geocaching.
These officials should find ways to embrace the opportunities geocaching presents for new visitorship to parks and forests, for ways to encourage geocachers to use the hobby to help families explore the places of which those officials are the custodians.
– Dennis Chappell, Pueblo
President Bush’s defense of Iraq policy
Re: “No pullout from Iraq, Bush vows,” Aug. 22 news story.
President Bush still invokes Saddam Hussein to frame the Iraq war and the coming elections as a choice between completing the mission in Iraq his way or giving in to terrorism. In order to accept this view, a lot of facts have to be ignored.
First, the Bush course of action so far has been very good to Osama bin Laden and terrorists across the Middle East. Bin Laden’s very first goal was to get American soldiers off sacred Saudi soil: Mission accomplished in short order.
Since then, the terrorists have seen us become bogged down, overextended, divided at home and deeply indebted while suffering terrible casualties in an increasingly unsuccessful occupation of Iraq. In the chaos, Iraq has become the world’s best terrorist training ground. Sectarian violence is out of control. Moderate voices across the Muslim world have lost influence as Islamic extremist parties gain power in free elections. All of this serves our enemies well.
Democrats, including Sens. Joe Biden and Carl Levin and Rep. John Murtha, have offered sensible plans as alternatives. These plans are not about giving in to terrorism but about taking a smarter approach. A Democratic majority in Congress will support a new policy direction. Changing or staying the failed course is the choice.
– Felice Sage, Littleton
Letter-writer Stephen H. Cohn (Aug. 19 Open Forum) took issue with The Post’s coverage of the Aug. 12 peace demonstration in downtown Denver.
The demonstration was organized by the Front Range Coalition, a diverse group of peace and community activists that is affiliated with several well-respected metro-area organizations, including the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, Colorado Jews for a Just Peace, and Colorado Progressive Jewish News. As representatives of the coalition, we helped organize the demonstration and participated in it. We were proud to be joined by a religiously and ethnically diverse group of Front Range residents, including Jews, Muslims and Christians.
A growing number of Colorado residents are opposed to the military ventures of the governments of Israel and America. People are realizing there are no military solutions to the problems in the Middle East. And they are frustrated that so many innocent people must pay the price – in both lives and dollars – for our government’s folly.
– Steve Laudeman, Denver
This letter was also signed by Front Range Coalition members Mark Cohen, Barbara Levy Cohen, Rob Prince and Khadija Qadri.
Sex-offender recidivism
According to letter-writer Barbara N. Simmons (Aug. 22 Open Forum), pedophiles and sexual predators should be locked up for life because they have the highest recidivism rate of all felons. Unfortunately, this is not true. According to a study done by the Justice Department that looked at almost 10,000 men convicted of rape, sexual assault and child molestation released in 1994, only 5.3 percent were subsequently convicted of another sex crime. This is lower than other crimes, not higher. It is easy to say we should lock them up and throw away the key, but it is not logical, economical or moral.
– Kay Kerlin, Westminster
GOP individualism
Re: “Dems must learn to work as a party,” Aug. 16 E.J. Dionne column.
In what is otherwise a thoughtful and informative opinion piece, E.J. Dionne states that “Republicans defend individualism in theory, but act like communitarians where their party is concerned.” Thus, Dionne thereby seems to equate individualism with disorganization. On the contrary, it is the shared belief in the rights of the individual that is the organizing principle for action within the Republican Party. Members of the Republican Party are more than willing to organize and act on a voluntary basis. Thus, there is no need for the collectivist sanctions of communitarianism to get Republicans to put aside differences in order to achieve common goals, such as building a strong party and winning elections.
– Lee Fairman, Fort Collins
Why is it gay marriage?
I notice that some people are against “gay marriage.” This puzzles me because I thought marriages should be gay and happy affairs.
Any marriages I have attended have been gay and happy affairs. After all, one family gains a son- in-law and the other family gains a daughter-in-law.
Am I wrong?
Maybe those people mean same- sex marriages. If so, let’s call them same-sex, not gay. Could the word “gay,” as used in the media, be a substitute for the dreaded “h” word? I say dreaded because I never hear it on television, radio or see it in any publications.
Is there some rule that prevents the use of the “h” word?
– Joe Soper, Lakewood
Re: “Bus safety may ride on English,” Aug. 22 news story.
Thanks to Jeffrey Leib for his article on RTD private contractors. It has been known since the inception of privatization of bus service that private bus operators are poorly trained and often barely speak English. Private contractors pay lower wages and little or no benefits, and consequently, they hire those who are unable to be employed by RTD, since RTD has very high standards for employment as a bus operator.
The excellent training RTD provides its bus operators is expensive. If private contractors were required to provide equal training, wages and benefits, it would not be financially beneficial for RTD to continue privatization. After all, you get what you pay for. As long as privatization continues, substandard service will plague the Regional Transportation District.
– Gail Runkles, Nathrop
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