NASCAR track plans
Re: “Road to racetrack has many drivers,” Feb. 18 news story.
Do I understand this correctly? NASCAR wants taxpayers to contribute $1.5 million so they can waste lots of fuel and further pollute our air. The negatives mentioned were noise and dust; noise will affect the immediate neighbors, but the brown cloud will affect a much wider area. On the positive side, a new track will make money for the already-rich international investors – but they won’t have to live with the environmental consequences to our state. Can’t we find economic development opportunities that are less destructive?
Mary Casper, Bailey
“Clean coal” technology
Re: “Research going underground,” Feb. 18 business news story.
The Post’s article made it seem that this so-called “clean coal” technology is the answer to our energy prayers. The article states that carbon dioxide produced from coal plants can be buried underground, where it won’t cause any pollution. As a bonus, this COb will push out previously unrecovered oil from old wells. Unless we plan on drinking this oil, this will hardly reduce pollution.
Referring to these projects as clean coal is a scam. In the end, the pollution from burning the newly recovered oil will be far greater than the COb pollution from the coal power plants. If the energy companies want to take this approach, that is fine, but this technology should never be referred to as clean, green, or pollution- free.
At one point, the article said that the San Juan project will have the same effect of “removing 15,000 cars from the road for one year.” The response to that is: How many cars could be added to the road with the oil that is recovered?
Ronald Stanis, Golden
Top candidate not running
Among the candidates for the presidency there is an abundance of egoism, but not one possesses the combination of ethics, experience, honor or honesty to deserve election to the office. Short of a miracle, we are once again going to have to vote for the most competent of two poorly qualified politicians.
Only one nationally prominent person has selflessly demonstrated the will, the courage, the honor, the ability and the statesmanship to reverse the tragic direction of this country.
I have three words of advice to the Republican presidential nominating committee: Draft Colin Powell.
Robert H. Masonheimer, Aurora
Interstate 70 closure
Re: “Snow work halts play,” Feb. 18 news story.
Your front-page story covering yet another closure of Interstate 70 illustrates the need for a solution to the traffic-weather conflict on that road. While the loss to ski-town economies of $800,000 per hour ought to be incentive enough for planners to consider sensible alternatives such as rail, the potential loss of life risked by the confluence of interstate trucking, regular commuter and overzealous snowriders on powder days certainly argues in favor of modernizing Colorado’s mountain transportation.
As the thoughtful Silverthorne writer Robert H. Leilich observed in the Aug. 7, 2006, edition of the Summit Daily News, “The best solution to untangling the I-70 corridor mess is … rail” – modern comfortable trains such as the Swiss have developed for their mountainous terrain. He pointed out that the capacity of a single track “far exceeds that of a single highway lane, takes less real estate, and is much more environmentally friendly,” while noting rail is far more tolerant of the foul weather that makes I-70 a cruel joke of a highway: “Rail is also a more reliable and far safer mode, saving lives, injuries and property damage.”
Wynn Miller, Colorado Springs
Community spirit
Re: “Warriors edge rival Angels, share DPL title,” Feb. 18 sports story.
What a joy it was to experience the positive energy, sportsmanship and community spirit exhibited at the sold-out Manual High School Thunderdome last Saturday during the East vs. Montbello high school basketball game.
It was a fantastic double-overtime game, but more importantly the community – young and old alike – rallied like the teams, which were coached by two very positive role models: East, under legendary Rudy Carey, and Montbello, by his son David Carey, a Manual High School graduate returning to his alma mater. The well-played, clean, back-and-forth game, complete with a young student’s excellent rendition of the national anthem, had Manual rocking.
As citizens know, Manual closed in 2006, but it is scheduled to reopen with a new purpose, mission, commitment and focus this fall. Let us all hope the atmosphere, hard work, support and respect that were demonstrated at the game carry over on a 24/7 basis when Manual’s doors are opened permanently once again later this year.
Bob Knous, Denver
Debating the death penaly
Re: “Death penalty makes no sense,” Feb. 18 Perspective article.
David Lane’s argument is sophistic at best. To say that the death penalty is in retreat in other states and therefore Colorado also should follow suit is equivalent to saying that sodomy is on the rise in other states so Colorado also should follow suit. We are not lemmings, sir.
The death penalty was meant to be a deterrent, and it can and should be administered when necessary. Twenty-first century America cannot afford to warehouse millions of social miscreants. No longer should arguments of inappropriate administration of the death penalty receive credence, not in the age of chain of custody, DNA testing and judicial oversight. And please don’t offend me with arguments along the lines of fairness and/or cruelty to the guilty prisoner. Those arguments are at best insults to the memories of the victims.
If potential death-penalty candidates knew with certainty that they would face a speedy trial and would lose their lives upon conviction, I suspect they might be deterred from offending. Instead, they kill and then are warehoused in modern jails while their cases are tied up in an overburdened and overcautious judicial system for 10 or 15 years (all at the taxpayers’ expense).
Let the punishment fit the crime.
Gregory W. MacPherson, Fort Collins
…
Not surprisingly, violent punishment is correlated with violent crime: We are one of the last developed countries to retain the death penalty, and we suffer by far the highest levels of criminal violence of all developed countries. There are three possible explanations: High rates of criminal violence cause countries to retain the death penalty; the retention of the death penalty promotes high rates of criminal violence; or some third factor explains both the retention of the death penalty and high rates of criminal violence.
Arguments can be made for all three: High rates of violent crime harden people’s attitudes; legitimating violent revenge within the legal system feeds into a culture of violence in which violent responses outside of the penal system are less repressed; and this is part of a cultural “gene” (or “meme,” as the biologist Richard Dawkins calls it) for violent behavior that is expressed both in the law and beyond the law.
I submit that all three factors are linked into a system of mutually reinforcing feedback loops, all feeding that cultural meme for violence. The best thing we can do for victims of violent crime is to try to make fewer of them. Abolishing capital punishment, in the long run, is likely to do just that.
Steve Harvey, Littleton
Attack on state judicial system
Re: “Judges coddled by sweetheart process,” Feb. 18 John Andrews column.
Will former state Sen. John Andrews ever stop trying to destroy Colorado’s judicial branch? After his illegal midnight gerrymander was rejected by the Supreme Court, he tried to fool the people with his ill-advised effort to enact term limits for appellate judges. Having failed at that effort, he now suggests that the system of judicial performance review needs his meddling. Why? Because, he says, “the rarity of dismissals indicates a broken system.”
It is madness to suggest that the review system is flawed unless it finds that a certain number of judges must be ousted. Imagine such a review system for other state employees. Some specified percentage must be fired each year in order to prove that the reviews are tough enough. Never mind that no serious fault can be found. Heads must roll to demonstrate nothing more than a frequency of dismissals.
Colorado’s system of judicial selection and retention is not perfect, but it’s better than most alternative systems. The rigorous selection process weeds out all but the most qualified. It also avoids the judicial elections of other states, with judges accepting campaign contributions from the lawyers who will appear before them.
Evan Lipstein, Lakewood
…
John Andrews’ polemic speaks about one possible interpretation of the data. His interpretation is based on the idea that there is something wrong with the Colorado judiciary. Here’s another premise: There isn’t anything wrong with the Colorado judiciary. Here’s another interpretation: Voters keep judges in office because they don’t feel that judges should be removed by pluralistic fiat because they’re unpopular. Self-government wins and king mob’s insurgency is put down.
Chris Cousineau, Golden
TO THE POINT
To quote Commerce City Mayor Sean Ford: “If you have an ugly girlfriend and she changes her name, she is still ugly.” Lovely. Mayor Ford, I suggest you send your heartfelt words to Hallmark for Valentine’s Day 2008.
Denise Peck, Evergreen
It was reported in an AP story last Saturday the death of Robert Adler, the co-inventor of the TV remote. He is credited with more profound discoveries, but to us couch potatoes, it was the holy grail.
Gene Sabatka, Arvada
Iranian weapons are killing “our” troops? Even President Bush should be able to figure out how to solve this problem: Bring them home!
Will Ropke, Franktown
Headline: “Urinal lecture aimed at DUI.” What about potential female drunk drivers?
Dick Stacy, Montrose
It used to be that defensive driving meant watching out for the negligent driver who did the unpredictable. As the years passed, we added the road rage driver and the person using a cellphone. Now we must add the pothole!
Wally Brauer, Denver
To have your comments printed in To the Point, please send letters of no more than 40 words to the address below. Writers are limited to one letter per month.
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)
