By some measures, Dougco growth has ebbed
Re: “Douglas busting its seams,” March 22 news story.
The Post’s article highlights data within a revised Census Bureau report that indicate the county was seventh in percentage growth during the period of 2000-06. The slant is that a vibrant housing market is a reflection of boom times within the area. However, a closer analysis of the same revised census data would have clearly suggested the boom times are quickly dissipating and the current reality is that Douglas County is no longer “busting its seams.” The New York Times reported on Thursday that the fastest-growing counties are in Arizona, Florida, Texas and Nevada, and that Douglas County is now significant only in that it dropped from seventh-fastest in 2000 to 32nd in 2005. Thus, Douglas County is not one of the fastest-growing counties, as is suggested in The Denver Post. The endless sea of “for sale” signs that dot every street in the county are not proclaiming a burst of growth, but rather the downward side to an overgrown market.
Michael Kass, Parker
Indirect result of redefining “public hospitals”
The Bush administration has indirectly targeted more Americans to die than are included in the request for 22,000 more troops in Iraq. They are attempting to accomplish this by an obscure “rule change” in the Medicaid program, allegedly for the purpose of reducing costs.
This proposed rule change would redefine “public hospitals” and would cut funding to 24 Colorado hospitals by $140 million. This will translate directly to greatly reduced health care for our most vulnerable people and will burden our existing health care infrastructure to the point it will reduce health care availability for everyone else. People will die as a direct result of this “rule change.”
This ruthless tactic clearly comes from Grover Norquist, philosophical leader of the anti- tax movement and mastermind of the Bushies, whose intention he has publicly declared to be “to shrink the federal government to where it can be drowned in a bathtub.”
Is this the kind of America we want? Call your senators and representatives and tell them to support legislation which will put a two-year moratorium on this rule change.
Martha J. Karnopp, Aurora
Garbage and graffiti along Highline Canal
The historical, once beautiful and mulit-function Highline Canal is dying. Walk it in Aurora from Chambers (Aurora City Hall) to Sable and smell stench; see no water flowing but observe stagnant ponds; read and see 400 to 600 feet of multi-colored and large gang signs and graffiti; see trash strewn on the bank; and watch out for speeding motorized Aurora Parks/Public Works and Denver Water vehicles and racing bicycles.
Aurora government and Denver Water need to enforce their codes and rules, establish a speed limit for bicycles, erase or paint over graffiti and gang symbols within 48 hours of placement, and eliminate the use of the trail as a short cut for Aurora Parks Department and other vehicles. These actions will change the current ghetto atmosphere to the former Aurora asset.
Carol East, Aurora
Sacrificing the lives of children in bombing
Re: “New Iraq tactic: Children used in suicide attack,” March 21 news story.
I was not surprised to read your headline stating that Iraqi children are now being used in suicide attacks. That may be an inevitable development in a world of people who value eye-for-an-eye killing over life. However, we aren’t there yet. There is not a dictionary in the world that would describe this as a suicide. The adults who drove the vehicle fled the car, leaving the children inside before detonating the explosives. Those children did not commit suicide. They were murdered by the people who put them in that car.
Jane Imber, Wolcott
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