Should the state be responsible for gamblers?
Re: “State places no money on table for gambling addicts,” May 14 news story.
When should the state step in? As a bleeding-heart liberal, I am generally supportive of the government’s involvement in treating the various ills of our people. However, The Post’s front-page article on gambling addictions has me wondering where we should draw the line.
A quick search of the Internet found Overeaters Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sex & Love Addicts Anonymous, Homosexuals Anonymous, and of course Alcoholics Anonymous. So it appears that gambling addicts are not alone in their need to abate an addiction. But should the state bear responsibility for funding these organizations?
These organizations should be funded through the generosity of the people. Sure, the state may rake in a fistful of cash off of the legalization of alcohol, tobacco and gambling; but the addiction is an individual’s problem. It’s the small price we pay to live in a society where free will is a commodity that is revered.
J.D. Brown, Aurora
Post’s coverage of domestic violence murder
Re: “Ex-cop led I-70 chase,” May 14 news story.
The Denver Post took a story about a horrifying domestic violence homicide and turned it into a hokey, Wild West-themed article that trivialized the fact that a woman was murdered by her ex-boyfriend.
The article began, “A former lawman from Dodge City is accused of gunning down a bank teller. But this is a current crime and not a historical tale.”
The homicide did not occur at the victim’s place of work, and her occupation as a bank teller seemed to play no other role in the story than to help the writer make an odd and completely inappropriate reference to Dodge City’s gun-slinging history. He even quotes a city official as saying that he can’t recall an event like this in Dodge City’s “folklore.”
The article never mentioned the unique risks faced by domestic violence victims whose perpetrators are in law enforcement or the fact that, according to the National Stalking Resource Center, 76 percent of female homicide victims are stalked by their perpetrators in the year prior to their murder.
According to Project Safeguard, Colorado experienced at least 50 domestic violence-related fatalities last year.
This is a serious problem that merits serious reporting, and I hope The Denver Post will not attempt to put a playful slant on such stories in the future.
Kim Whitrap, Denver
Blaming a lack of fight for Va. Tech deaths
Re: “We’ve forgotten how to fight back,” May 12 Colorado Voices column.
Come on! Blaming the Virginia Tech body count on the peace movement of the ’60s? Does Billie Louden seriously believe anyone in those rooms thought, “I don’t want to die, but fighting back would go against my non-confrontational ethic”?
The truth is, those teachers and students were probably too far from the shooter to subdue him and were likely sitting in chairs with desks attached that prevented them from lunging quickly forward to stop Seung-Hui Cho.
Louden seems to think the victims were mentally weak and passive. She’s implying that if she, with her military and law enforcement training, had been in one of those rooms, she would have heroically saved the day, and that if only we all taught our kids to be confrontational warriors, they wouldn’t be such passive sheep ripe for slaughter.
The truth is Americans will fight if the situation merits it. Once the passengers of United Flight 93 knew what was up, they acted heroically. If Cho had been wielding fists or a knife, he would have been quickly subdued. But our fighting spirit is no match for a Glock with a semi-automatic clip.
Sorry, Billie, peace is not the problem. Easy access to semi-automatic weapons is.
Curtis Hannum, Denver
Will the governor march for Columbus Day?
I noticed that Gov. Bill Ritter was the grand marshal of the Cinco de Mayo parade in Denver. He also was front and center at Pridefest last year and the Martin Luther King Jr. Marade in January. He’s a guy who certainly loves a parade, and is a man for all the people.
I’m wondering, however, if he will feel the same enthusiasm for another parade this October – the Columbus Day Parade. This is the one where one group tries to shut down, trample and interrupt the lawful rights of another group attempting to express its First Amendment rights to free speech and lawful assembly.
I’m sure the Italian-Americans would love to have the governor lead their parade.
Somehow, I don’t see the governor supporting this parade. What are the chances of him being “unavailable” or having a “schedule conflict” that day? Pretty good, is my guess.
If the governor does not attend, that would send a bad message – namely, that he endorses and supports the ideals and culture of one group and not another. He could rightly be accused of discrimination. To be fair, he should either attend all parades or no parades at all.
Ken Johnson, Littleton
Sacrificing for the war
Re: “Hikes in the cost of using national parks,” May 11 Open Forum.
Letter-writer Teresa Audesirk bemoans the fact that taxpayers will fork over only $2.4 billion for our national parks this year. She laments that $2.4 billion would fund only nine days of the Iraq war.
How much money did we spend on national parks during World War II? Unfortunately, people of Ms. Audesirk’s ilk do not understand that we are embroiled in another world war. The Islamo-facists understand what is at stake. So do the Army families at Fort Dix.
Wake up. We should all sacrifice something during wartime.
Ed Van Keuren, Castle Rock
Presidential misconduct
We have three U.S. soldiers missing under circumstances where death is very probably the better option for them. If that reality alone was the only factor at play and we hadn’t experienced the carnage and chaos this president has wrought over the past six years, those three missing soldiers alone would dictate that our president comport himself in a dignified manner.
I’m sure the parents of those missing men were delighted and amused to see Bush conducting an orchestra with glee. I’m sure it made them feel so much better about the hell they are now experiencing, that this man can blithely go through his life as though none of what he has foisted upon the world is any kind of a problem at all.
Somehow I don’t see a president like Abraham Lincoln behaving the way this buffoon in chief does.
Penny Visalli, Elizabeth
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