The Sept. 11 anniversary, terror and fear
Several recent Denver Post articles ask whether Americans feel safer now than before Sept. 11, 2001. According to a new CBS News/New York Times poll, many more (46 percent) feel less safe today. After giving up civil liberties, spending billions of dollars on war, antiterrorism and homeland security, suffering more than 2,500 military deaths and 20,000 casualties in Iraq and sacrificing much respect and support internationally, why don’t we feel more secure?
One answer is that the Bush administration and the mainstream media work to keep us frightened. A fearful public is easy to manipulate politically, and sensational terrorism stories improve ratings and sell publications. New Scientist magazine reports that the more people watch TV coverage of terrorist attacks and Sept. 11-focused programs, the more vulnerable and insecure they feel. Their perception of the threat becomes very distorted; in reality, the number of Americans killed by terrorists since the late 1960s is roughly the same as those killed by lightning.
If we want to feel safe and strong, we need to see through the manipulation and put the risk in perspective. To be “the land of the free,” we must be the “home of the brave,” not the terrified.
Gary Wederspahn, Littleton
…
Like most Americans, I understand the need to “never forget” the pain and loss we collectively suffered five years ago. Sept. 11, 2006, brought us non-stop newspaper, television and radio coverage in the form of personal experiences, “docudramas” and reports on how safe we are, or aren’t, today. In the midst of all this “remembering,” we get to hear George W. Bush try to tell us again what attacking Iraq has to do with what happened in 2001.
I went to sleep Monday night still unconvinced that our occupation in Iraq is anything but ill-advised, divisive and has most likely made us even more of a target for terrorists. I slept fitfully and had nightmares of being trapped in rubble like the firefighters I watched earlier that evening. As I crawled to safety, a creature that was half-fox and half-weasel came out of nowhere and attacked me.
I awoke in a start before I could determine whether it was Dick Cheney or Osama bin Laden.
Hal Jaeke, Fraser
City’s plan to shelter homeless near museums
Re: “Shelter plan, museums at odds,” Sept. 14 news story.
Perhaps a shelter at West 14th Avenue and Bannock Street would expose Denver’s chronic homeless situation to people visiting the Denver Art Museum. However, this might just be what is needed to help ordinary citizens who don’t regularly visit downtown understand this the scope of the problem. As the saying goes: Out of sight, out of mind.
Brian Braa, Boulder
…
The Post writes, “Bringing more homeless into the Civic Center area is ‘disgusting’ and ‘such an embarrassment,’ said Kevin Gramer, director of the Byers-Evans House Museum … .” What is disgusting and embarrassing is that we spend millions of dollars on an expansion to the art museum when we have homeless and hungry people struggling to survive in its shadow.
I’m all for the arts, but basic human necessities must come first. Gramer and Riddle Lima, who owns the Native American Trading Co., should both be ashamed of themselves for caring so little about the community they purport to serve. We will never solve the problem of homelessness if we continue to try to sweep it out of sight.
Matthew E. Walworth, Centennial
BLM memo on Wyoming gas drilling site
Re: “BLM lets down its Wyo. guard,” Sept. 10 editorial.
The criticism leveled by The Post at the Bureau of Land Management and industry is unjustified and biased. The “leaked” tracking document is much like a list of household chores, always a work in progress and never completed. Having thoroughly reviewed the BLM document at EnCana Oil & Gas USA, Inc., more than 90 percent of the items at the Jonah Field in southwest Wyoming have been completed and the remainder of the monitoring reports are not due to be completed until November.
The BLM has a difficult, often conflicting dual mission – to protect public lands while developing resources on those lands to feed the nation’s appetite for energy. To be fair, what should be recognized is the unprecedented collaboration and leadership the BLM and industry have displayed when developing the nation’s resources while protecting wildlife, air, agriculture and recreation.
Criticism is just when the facts prove it’s warranted. The Post’s editorial bias in favor of an inflammatory quote from the Wyoming Outdoor Council, however, does not recognize the 10 fit-for-purpose natural gas rigs that are being deployed in Jonah to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent. Nor does it acknowledge the dozens of other science-based efforts industry is implementing and the BLM is monitoring that will help secure America’s energy independence.
The environment is important to industry too. Please use facts and fairness to guide the debate about energy development; it’s the best course for charting the future.
Randy Teeuwen, Denver
The writer is community relations adviser for EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc.
Beauprez’s tax proposal
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez proposes to dump the gasoline tax and replace it with an increase in the general sales tax. As industry spokesmen have reminded us after recent gasoline price spikes, the price fluctuates to balance supply and demand in the free market. If the gasoline tax is dumped, then the oil companies will need to increase their price for gasoline to maintain that balance of supply and demand. As taxpayers, we will end up paying the same price for gasoline as we do now and we will also have to pay the additional sales tax. The extra cost to us taxpayers will end up as more oil company profits. If I were an oil company executive, I would consider this a very generous gift from the taxpayers of Colorado.
Ron Rickert, Arvada
Public workers’ benefits
Re: Sept. 12-14 Mallard Fillmore cartoons.
I definitely agree with the concept behind these cartoons. The benefits received by all public employees overshadow anything that we in the private sector can ever receive. Also, they will still get their “sweet” retirement even if Social Security goes bust. And we, the private-sector taxpayers, will pay for it.
There is definitely income and retirement inequity between the public and private sector.
B.A. Dennis, Franktown
Questions of credibility
Re: “Rumsfeld lecture out of line,” Sept. 12 editorial.
I can’t help but remember that this paper endorsed this current administration during the last election, stating you felt better about the way they were handling the war in Iraq and homeland security than a new administration might handle it. So you think Donald Rumsfeld’s lectures are neither welcome nor credible? You also thought Dick Cheney’s comments on last Sunday’s “Meet The Press” were self-serving; you call this pre-election rhetoric. All of us who voted for John Kerry kept raising the questions of how we were misled and have been lied to throughout the Bush administration’s tenure. Who are you going to endorse next? Your last one was a poor choice; at least we radical Democrats can say we told you so.
Greg Engel, Parker
TO REACH OPINION EDITORS
Phone: 303-820-1331; Fax: 303-820-1502; E-mail: openforum@denverpost.com (only straight text, not attachments)
Mail: The Open Forum, The Denver Post, 1560 Broadway, Denver, 80202 or PO Box 1709, Denver, 80201
Letters guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 200 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.
Archives: Missed your favorite columnist or the latest Mike Keefe cartoon? Archives available at The Denver Post Online (www.denverpost.com)
