Mental health and overcrowding of prisons
Re: “Building prisons at a rate of one a year,” Nov. 20 editorial.
Recently, I attended an arraignment at the El Paso County justice complex. Seven inmates appeared before the judge while I was there. Six of these were bipolar patients, and the last was a drug addict. Of the six bipolar patients, one was a recently returned soldier from Iraq who also suffered post-traumatic stress disorder. Upon leaving the complex, I ran into a mother whose 19-year-old son was incarcerated. He hadn’t been at the arraignment. She was there to deliver his medication. He was also bipolar.
Bipolar disorder is a treatable mental health problem. Revolutionary new medications keep bipolar patients working and living productive lives. Lack of affordable treatment within the community denies most bipolar patients this opportunity. Overcrowding and costs within the criminal justice system could be reduced significantly if a mental health clinic which provided medications and treatment on a sliding scale based on income was opened. Not only would it improve the crime rate, and increase public safety, but it would return these people back to their jobs and families.
Let’s stop warehousing the mentally ill. That would significantly reduce the overcrowding.
Diane D. Whitley, Calhan
Season of giving or commercialization?
Re: “Ignore do-gooders; buy plenty,” Nov. 27 David Harsanyi column.
David Harsanyi writes that we ought to ignore those “do-gooders” who are seeking to de-commercialize the Christmas season by limiting or cutting out altogether the expected seasonal shopping binge. He appeals to the “economy as movement of money” model, and that’s fine. He goes too far, though, when he casually references the “What would Jesus do?” phrase and says, “He’d probably be shopping.” In point of fact, we know exactly what Jesus had to say on the subject, and it isn’t what Harsanyi suggests.
New Testament writers, including Paul, James and John, echo Jesus’ teachings about acquiring worldly treasures, equating covetousness with idolatry, warning the rich to “weep and howl,” and stating flatly that we should “love not the world, neither the things in the world.”
Now, I understand that the origins of the giving of gifts may be said to lie with the gifts of the Magi as much as with the chambers of commerce. Indeed, we are told that “it is more blessed to give than to receive,” and we are to labor so that we “may have to give to him that needeth.” My objection is to the appropriation of the name of Jesus in defence of arguments that are in opposition to what he actually taught (and was recognized clearly by his followers in the early church).
Steven Chostler, Denver
…
David Harsanyi is either woefully ignorant or a Madison Avenue shill. There is no other explanation for the sort of egregious bunkum he recently peddled in his column.
Harsanyi claims, for example, that consumers “are for the most part cautious with their dollars.” However, economic statistics flat-out contradict this. In particular, the negative savings rate of minus-0.6 percent recorded for the past year shows Americans are spending more than they earn. This is not being cautious; it’s the path to debt. Add to that the currently estimated $1.8 trillion in consumer credit debt, and you have a sorry picture indeed, one at odds with the rose-colored one painted by Harsanyi.
He also argues that we “hurt developing countries when we leave all the cool toys on the shelf.” Yep, especially China, which now has a consistent quarterly trade surplus of more than $100 billion with the U.S. – translating into huge trade deficits for us.
Phil Stahl, Colorado Springs
Lingering questions in death of Emily Keyes
I have done a lot of work in Park County and the Bailey area and feel enormous empathy with the community over the tragic shooting of Emily Keyes at the high school. Because I am not part of the community, however, I perhaps feel freer than others do to ask a question and offer a suggestion.
The question is: Whose bullet killed Emily? We have seen a summary – not the whole report, for unknown reasons – of the autopsy of the gunman, Duane Morrison, concluding that four of the five bullets in him came from deputy sheriffs’ guns. The fifth was his own, and they say this was “the bullet that killed him.” That is obviously puzzling, but whether or not it was, we have not had this question answered vis-a-vis Emily.
Regardless of the answer, the lesson we need to learn from this is that there are other strategies for defending against an armed man than summoning a load of impressive firepower to the scene. One mother interviewed at the time suggested that students arm themselves with pepper spray, an eminently sensible suggestion. A knowledge of martial arts, such as karate or judo, would also plausibly enable someone to disarm a man with a gun. In the end, when you find yourself confronting a crazy man with a gun, your best bet is to disarm him. Relying on a SWAT team outside the locked door, which has to blow a hole in the wall to get in, means someone – probably you, and maybe many others – is going to die.
Alison Maynard, Denver
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation released details in October of the Sept. 27 shooting at Platte Canyon High School, including the conclusion that it was Duane Morrison’s bullet that killed Emily Keyes. A complete autopsy report has not been released.
Keeping pets, kids safe
Re: “Perhaps we should move to save dogs from their owners,” Nov. 22 Al Knight column.
I read with interest Al Knight’s column regarding dogs in the beds of pickup trucks. I agree totally. It reminded me of another, even more stupid practice, and that is permitting small children (or anyone, for that matter) to ride in the same place. I have often seen this. Sometimes whole sports teams are packed in there. I am tempted to holler, “What is wrong with you? Do you hate your kids?”
It takes only one misdirected act, perhaps by another driver, to spill small bodies all over the road.
If we’re too stupid to protect our children, why should we be expected to protect our pets?
Doug Karhan, Pleasant View
MTV’s “Real World”
Re: “Many dizzy with anticipation over MTV’s spin in Denver,” Nov. 22 news story.
We can’t believe it. In the opinion section on Nov. 21, you ran a great cartoon lampooning television news for ignoring genocide in favor of celebrity fluff, and then the very next day you devoted nearly 40 percent of your front-page space to a bald-faced promotion of television “reality” fluff. You had already provided significant coverage of this event in the entertainment section, which is fine; that’s where it belongs. But come on, do you really think that this is “news” that belongs on the front page?
Ron and Sally Harms, Brighton
Female golfer’s trials
Re: “Wie stumbles in men’s event,” Nov. 24 news story.
Is it worthy sports news that Michelle Wie finished almost last in the first round of a men’s golf tournament in Japan, and does anyone really care? To date, Wie’s admitted major goal is to make the cut in a men’s event on the PGA tour. She should be concentrating on winning on the LPGA tour. Though she certainly is talented, up to now she is suffering from the worst of all the kinds of athlete’s diseases: unfulfilled potential. I wish her well, but she certainly has her priorities messed up and is apparently getting a lot of bad advice from her sponsors, her parents, and the sponsors of events on the men’s tour.
Jane C. Smith, Grand Junction
To send a letter
E-mail: openforum@denverpost.com (only straight text, not attachments)
Mail: The Open Forum, The Denver Post, 101 W. Colfax Ave., Suite 600, Denver, 80202
Fax: 303-954-1502
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.
To reach us by phone: 303-954-1331
