Teaching cursive in the elementary schools
Re: “Cursive instruction more cursory than ever,” Sept. 12 news story.
Anti-cursive-ism is becoming rampant across our land! Have our educators forgotten our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution freehand, and that they learned many righteous principles from earlier “non-typists” like Moses, King David, Solomon and St. Paul?
God, as many know, is smarter than Bill Gates. He could have invented a computer or e-mail to communicate, but he chose to write his commandments by hand into stone tablets. Even in the future he will write, longhand, the name of believers in the “Book of Life,” not type them on some floppy disk, right?
Finally, don’t think that because I’m a grey-haired, girthy, old, grandfatherly geezer that I can’t type. I can! In fact, I don’t like to brag, but just before I retired (more than a decade ago), I caught my secretary typing with all 10 of her fingers, whereas I only needed two!
Please, school principals, don’t allow your teachers to be anti- cursive-ites.
John P. Cardie, Westminster
Muslim reaction to pope’s critical words
Re: “Pope ‘sorry’ talk inspired Muslim fury,” Sept. 18 news story.
Let me see if I have this straight: The pope gives a speech declaring that religious conversion cannot be coerced, and in the process reads a medieval quote that criticizes Islam. The Muslim world has its feelings hurt and demands an apology. Muslim mobs attack and burn Christian churches around the world. They kill a 70-year-old nun who is serving poor people in Somalia. Meanwhile, Muslim leaders continually refer to Jews and Christians as monkeys and infidels. Do they owe me an apology for what they call me or believe about me? Of course not. But they do owe an apology to everyone who has been victimized by their violent actions.
David LeSueur, Littleton
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I respect the Christian faith. That is why I cannot ignore the ignorant words stated by the most powerful individual in the Christian world, the leader of the Catholic Church. He claims to have quoted medieval texts; why in this enlightened world would he quote from a text that had serious flaws and ghoulish misconceptions of other faiths? It is unacceptable scholarship.
As a Muslim and member of a Jesuit institution, I feel that the advisers and speech writers of the Pope should have had more sensitivities in regard to the Muslim faith, even though there are overt and well-designed attacks against the Muslim people and their religion of Islam over large parts of the world today.
In the meantime, the interfaith dialogues and interreligious relations should continue to cultivate a better world for the next generations.
Wahab Baouchi, Louisville
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Though many religions do not get along well these days (even Christian denominations are not getting along with each other), the pope should have known that making a negative comment on Muslim faith was a bad idea, especially with tensions high enough already in the Middle East. Will the Muslims get an apology? Good luck! Not even those abused sexually by those who represent the pope received an apology. Joseph Ratzinger is not fit to be pope. Now he has to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. Hope he knows now how it feels to be the hunted, like many boys and girls were in his church.
Troy Gray, Vail
Voters should know about conflicts of interest
Re: “7th District candidates clash,” Sept. 7 news story.
There are way too many corrupt politicians in Washington already. Voters deserve to know if our next representative in the 7th Congressional District will be one more corrupt vote or a real voice for change in Congress. But to judge this, we need both candidates to be honest and open with the voters – both about their beliefs and their backgrounds.
If either Rick O’Donnell or Ed Perlmutter have conflicts of interest, the voters deserve to know about them.
Jennifer Niblo, Aurora
Fear and resolve
Re: “The Sept. 11 anniversary, terror and fear,” Sept. 15 Open Forum.
It is truly sad to contemplate just how many Americans like letter- writer Hal Jaeke of Fraser are living, sleeping and waking in fear and dreading an inevitable terrorist assault. Over these poor, frightened souls the terrorists have scored the victory they seek. I am forever grateful that most Americans’ recollections of Sept. 11 instill not fear, but rather a steeled resolve to stand together proudly and fearlessly to vanquish our enemies and preserve our freedom.
Anthony J. Fabian, Aurora
Union Station plans
Re: “Dueling developers; Two teams unveil contrasting plans for Union Station redevelopment,” Sept. 8 business news story.
I am on vacation visiting friends in the Denver area, and read with interest The Post’s article concerning the development of the Union Station area. I hope and trust that various proposals include restoring direct-access trackage for passenger trains arriving at Union Station. I arrived in Denver on the California Zephyr recently, and it took half an hour for our train to switch tracks several times before we could actually pull into Union Station. Such maneuvering is unnecessary and wasteful of time and energy. Since this is a publicly financed redevelopment project, direct-access trackage to the main rail lines ought to be included in any project involving the Union Station area.
Douglas P. Sibley, Martinez, Calif.
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The competing plans for the redevelopment of Union Station call for some of the rail, light rail and bus lines to be placed underground. This is completely irresponsible. The big flood of the mid-1960s put much of the old railyards along the South Platte under quite a bit of water. Low-lying areas were flooded and were filled with mud and debris, and small structures such as homes were washed away. Think what it would be like to have Denver’s underground light-rail tracks, heavy-rail tracks and bus facilities filled with mud and debris. It might take months and millions of dollars to restore these vital services.
Denver should reject any plan for the redevelopment of the Union Station area that calls for vital transportation facilities to be underground.
Albert Allen Bartlett, Boulder
BLM’s plan for drilling on the Roan Plateau
Re: “Drilling OK’d on Roan,” Sept. 8 Open Forum.
The Bureau of Land Management has made a giant leap of hyperbole. In describing its Roan Plateau extraction plan as “balanced,” the BLM employs literary fiction to justify the despoiling of a world-class recreational, scenic and ecological resource. To anyone who has lately driven along Interstate 70 near Parachute, the stampede to drill and its resulting grid of roads, derricks, pipeline cuts and truck traffic is painfully obvious. This is not balanced development; it is gold-rush greed. For those Coloradans who are fortunate enough to have visited the Roan Plateau, the BLM announcement is a despicable action that disregards the broad public consensus to protect this place. I urge enlightened members of Congress, the legislature, and all concerned Coloradans who care about our state to speak up so that we can overturn this deplorable decision.
Bob Crifasi, Boulder
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