The name game: Pronouncing “Saguache”
Re: “Say where?” Aug. 20 Colorado Sunday story.
Years ago, while driving around Colorado (“Colo-RAD-oh”) with our young children, now all grown, we drove into Saguache. One of the younger kids said, “Look, Dad, we’re in Sah-Goochie,” and in our family, that’s what it’s been ever since.
Dick Stacy, MON-trose
Donation to CU for stem-cell research
Re: “CU leaps ahead on stem cells; $6 million donation helps attract noted researcher,” Aug. 24 news story.
Economic promise and human hope – these are what medical research brings to our community. Congratulations to the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine for its recruiting of the personnel and its securing of the gift on stem- cell research and the newly endowed chair for Dennis Roop.
Colorado’s research enterprise is nearly $10 million richer thanks to the $6 million Gates Family gift and the $3.8 million taxpayer-supported National Institutes of Health grants of Dr. Roop. The $3.8 million in public funds should be underscored. After all, according to Stanford University’s Andrew Toole and his study for the State Science and Technology Institute, a $1 increase in public basic science funding stimulates $3.15 in pharmaceutical investment.
Public/private partnerships in Colorado will be all the more healthy thanks to this Gates Family gift and the gift science has to offer. According to Research!America, cancer and diabetes cost the U.S. $322 billion in health care and economic loss – nearly equal to the total NIH investment since its founding more than a century ago. For our own health and for our economy’s, the greatest gift of all will be the cures that tomorrow’s science has to offer.
Ray Merenstein, Denver
Conserving energy
I am writing this letter to appeal to every conscientious Coloradan to make it a personal goal to reduce household and transportation energy consumption. Reading columns like Rob Shaul’s “Gas boom ruining my town” (Aug. 13) and Rosemary Bilchak’s “How we lost our ranch to drilling” (Aug. 19) should remind us that others are paying for our energy-intensive lifestyles.
Let’s not destroy our backyards and those of our neighbors by ever-more drilling and mining in the West. Let us not destroy our precious life support system, Earth, with more carbon dioxide emissions from combusted fossil fuels.
Every time we turn on an appliance, a light, air conditioning, or start our cars, let us remember that the true cost of that energy goes way beyond what we pay on our utility bill or at the gas pump. Let us use less and find renewable sources for the energy we do use. Finally, as consumers and citizens, we must all insist at every opportunity that our government and businesses help us make the transition to renewables and efficiency as rapidly as possible.
Patricia Roberts, Golden
Poor blacks in America
Re: “Many blacks caught in
failure, degradation,” Aug. 25 Bob
Herbert column.
The timing of Bob Herbert’s essay
could not have been better. On
the anniversary of Katrina, we are
reminded, if we needed reminding,
that poor blacks are a disposable
community in the United States. Is
it any wonder, then, that some of
them resort to lifestyles of “failure
and degradation”? Generations of
disregard, so cruelly illustrated in
the pathetic official response to
Katrina, are not an excuse for selfdestructive
behavior, but they may
provide a reason.
Catherine Wiley, Associate
Professor, Department of English,
University of Colorado at
Denver-Health Sciences Center
Pete Coors and drunken driving charges
Re: “Refreshing Coors,” Aug. 26
editorial.
In your editorial, you commended
Pete Coors for pleading guilty to
a drunken driving charge brought
against him last May, rather than
fight the charge in court. You wrote
that Coors “admitted his guilt,” but
his own words say otherwise.
Speaking of the state patrol officers
that arrested him, Coors said,
they “could have been looking for
somebody who was a little bit more
of a danger to the community, but
they found me.” Further, when Coors
stood before Judge Demlow on
Friday, he stated, “I have a strong
temptation to explore my legal options.”
These are not statements
from someone who feels he is
guilty, but rather the words of
someone who feels put out by the
incident and is simply looking for
an expedient way to end it. Like a
child caught with his hand in a cookie
jar, he seems to feel no guilt, just
embarrassment at being caught.
There is nothing refreshing in
this Coors at all.
David Burgesser, Denver
Broncos on TV
It’s only the preseason and already
the Broncos are the No. 1
news story every day on every Denver
TV station. I am enough of a
sports fan to watch the game on
TV, but I am sickened every time
that the Broncos are the lead story
on the so-called news reports. It is
very clear that TV news coverage
is all about entertainment. This is a
sad comentary on our society.
Ed Johnson, Niwot
Manual alumni laments school’s fate
Re: “Grads of 1930s regret Manual’s fate,” Aug. 27 Denver & The West
story.
What a wonderful surprise to open the paper and see the story about
Manual High School’s “Swinging ’30s” alumni group.
I was a 1993 recipient of the group’s Sam R. Hill Memorial Scholarship.
As an emancipated student preparing to put myself through Northwestern
University, the Swinging 30s not only helped me financially, but also
emotionally because suddenly I had hundreds of cheerleaders supporting
me.
After every quarter, it was an honor for me to request a transcript from
Northwestern’s registrar to send to the group that I included with a long
letter. Whenever I was back in Denver, I joined them for their monthly
luncheons and was able to thank them in person. The Swinging 30s truly
captures the essence of being Manual alumni an experience like none
other. And I, like them, hope Manual will reopen for the 2007-08 school
year.
Vanessa Martin, Manual High School Class of 1993, Denver
Caring for trails in Highlands Ranch, Ken Caryl
Re: “Private trail sparks public
dispute,” Aug. 22 news story.
The Highlands Ranch and Ken
Caryl homeowners are misdirecting
their energy by insisting that
only residents hike on their “private”
trails. They should be using
their volunteers to patrol for people
who are damaging the trail, littering,
or disturbing wildlife.
When it comes to large acreage of
natural beauty, it doesn’t matter
where hikers live, but rather how
gently they use the land. The commongood
is better served when responsible
hikers work together to
protect beautiful natural areas.
Some quiet, responsible, seniorcitizen
friends of mine were
chased off the Ken Caryl Trail by
overzealous volunteers demanding
proof of residency. No purpose
was served, except promoting ill
will. The kind of negativity that is
being created by Highlands Ranch
and Ken Caryl could backfire.
Scofflaws and kids looking for a
place to party can easily find their
way onto those trails.
Responsible people who are
good stewards of the land are needed
to keep an eye on precious places.
Don’t chase them off because
they live in the wrong neighborhood.
Patricia Werner, Castle Rock
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