White House vs. Senate over torture policies
I am very concerned about the debate in the Senate over President Bush’s plan to reinterpret the Geneva Conventions to allow treatment of detainees that could amount to torture. I have read that Republican Lindsey Graham, who opposes Bush’s pro-torture stance, says he may be willing to “compromise.” But Bush and his defenders don’t want any compromises. They seem to only want torture. How has torture become a debatable issue, let alone an issue which can be compromised on? It should be considered to be absolutely wrong by everybody, whatever their politics. It shouldn’t even be mentioned as a possibility, let alone a legitimate possibility.
Leroy Quet, Denver
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Letter-writer Jim Muhm (Sept. 18 Open Forum) writes about the U.S. being a signatory to the Geneva Conventions and hints that our soldiers could be treated inhumanely and tortured if we use the “alternative set of procedures” being argued in Congress.
Perhaps he is forgetful or too young to remember torture and inhumane treatment rendered to our soldiers in the more conventional warfare of World War II, then later in Vietnam (Sen. John McCain was a victim). Did the Geneva Conventions matter to them? Does it matter to the insurgents and al-Qaeda? History says no. We are not at a tea party, but in a conflict with cowardly, hit-and-run enemy that has no respect for human life, the rules of war or the Geneva Conventions. Seeking out and bringing this kind of enemy to justice will always require extraordinary means.
Robert Bamford, Aurora
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Regarding the current administration’s position that certain provisions of the Geneva Conventions need to be revised or re-interpreted on account of being “too vague”:
It seems to me that the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, prohibiting the inhumane treatment of detainees, was intended to be deliberately vague, as it is assumed that people are generally taught the particulars of acceptable versus unacceptable behavior as part of the kindergarten curriculum in all cultures and religions. Children who fail to understand this concept are generally considered to be left behind.
If anyone has to ask, a good non-vague example of unacceptable behavior is in the personal account of Binyam Mohamed, a 23-year-old Ethiopian, as heard on the Sept. 15 Democracy Now radio program. I feel deeply ashamed that my own leaders and public employees had anything to do with the “extraordinary rendition” resulting in his unlawful detention and torture (which included genital mutilation), and ashamed that anyone in public service or elected office would attempt to pose a legal argument providing any exemptions from the rules of common human decency. I thought we learned this in kindergarten.
Edward Brussel, Denver
Addressing bias in city contract hiring
Re: “Denver aims to eliminate bias in city’s contracting,” Sept. 14 news story.
Thanks are in order to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper for taking steps to confront discrimination against women and people of color in the city’s business contracting programs.
The right-wing political attacks on affirmative action in recent years, with flames fanned by anti- civil rights politicians like Gov. Bill Owens and state Sen. Ed Jones, have led to the denial of broad- scale educational and economic opportunities for women and people of color in Colorado.
The city of Denver’s study of its contracting program revealed that despite the city’s growing diversity, opportunities for businesses owned by women and people of color were shrinking dramatically. To his credit, Hickenlooper’s administration has taken a bold step in introducing a new initiative to aggressively confront this.
We thank the mayor for his work to confront discrimination and encourage the City Council to approve this plan. After all, women are a majority of the city’s population, as are people of color. Both pay their fair share of taxes. Shouldn’t they – and their businesses – share in the city’s prosperity?
Bill Vandenberg, Co-Executive Director, Colorado Progressive Coalition, Denver
E. coli illnesses related to fresh spinach
Recent news reports about E. coli H0157 in organic spinach have omitted some key information about how the bacteria gets into our food supply and why it’s so dangerous. We all have E. coli in our guts, without getting sick from it, but not this particular dangerous strain. E. coli H0157 lives in cow guts. It doesn’t make cows sick, but it does make people sick. Our stomachs are acidic and cow stomachs are neutral pH. But when you feed cows corn to make fat, marbled beef, their stomachs get acidic also. Then cow bacteria adapt to surviving in stomachs like ours.
Cows that are fed corn live in big feedlots. They are fed lots of antibiotics to make them grow better and not get sick. These antibiotics make cow bacteria resistant to the antibiotics we also use.
Organic spinach farmers don’t use chemical fertilizers, which is a good thing. But industrial beef raising makes organic fertilizer (manure) dangerous. So industrial organic food in sealed bags from California becomes a dangerous food. It also makes industrial beef dangerous.
It seems safest to try to eat only locally raised organic, non-industrial meat and produce. Best of luck finding it, whether you shop at King Soopers or Whole Foods.
Jeremiah Kaplan, M.D., Boulder
Gomez-Garcia murder
Raul Gomez-Garcia killed Denver Detective Donald Young and should be punished for it. But I question how the officers chose to handle the situation that night. My brother-in-law spent 20 years training young cadets at the police academy in California. He always stressed that a cop’s most powerful tool wasn’t his gun but the ability to communicate. I believe if more communication and self-control had been used that night, things may not have ended so tragically for so many people.
Jose Luis Regalado, Lakewood
Tancredo defended
Re: “Tancredo sings Dixie with bigots,” Sept. 18 Jim Spencer column.
Rep. Tom Tancredo merely gave a public speech in South Carolina about the problem of illegal immigration. He has already said he had no control of who attended the public speech (or who claim they attended on a website).
If one of these “bigots,” using Jim Spencer’s word, attended a Broncos game, would that mean that the Broncos are supporting racism? Of course not. But according to Spencer, people are defined by the people they attract.
If Spencer really cared about illegal immigrants more than taking a cheap shot against Tom Tancredo, he should have focused his column on the people who hire illegal aliens for slave wages.
Dale Schmidt, Littleton
Breakfast at school
Re: “115 schools serving all students breakfast,” Sept. 8 news brief.
We often hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but our youth who are still growing and developing often miss the message. The Post’s news brief downplayed the significant shift of more than 100 Denver schools to universal school breakfast for their students. While many students across the state must still wait until the lunch bell before their first meal because of no school breakfast program, this is a positive step to reducing barriers for hungry students in the morning. Nationally, Colorado ranks 44th for providing this government-subsidized program. The Colorado Anti-hunger Network is working with the Colorado Department of Education and the Food Research and Action Center to identify ways to continue improving feeding programs for Colorado’s children.
Tori Ford, Secretary, Colorado Anti-hunger Network, Denver
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