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She is wrong. She needs a lesson in American history. Racism, “lynchings, oppression” and obliteration of this country’s first citizens began with indigenous people, not with “slavery.”

How many friends, family or fellow Americans does she know who would be willing to work in the fields, planting and harvesting crops and doing other jobs that employers cannot fill because the work is hard and low-paying?

Are the lives and blood shed by other individuals striving for a better life less valuable than others in this country? Did Rev. King not march and die for all of the oppressed in this country, or was it only for African-Americans?

Does she know how many Hispanics and other non-citizens are in the U.S. military, fighting and dying in the war for this country while their families are being deported? Some of these soldiers are awarded their citizenship posthumously. How is that for understanding the sacrifice and fighting for country and what it means to them and their families?

Patricia Martinez, Arvada

…

Thank you to Billie Louden for standing up to bigots of every color. She is a true hero in today’s loaded environment of political correctness. Common sense in the public and political arena is a rare commodity, and it is refreshing to read a column like Louden’s, where it is the key to solving many of the social problems in this country. Immigration is just one of the problems facing this country; entitlement programs from Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and welfare must be addressed with plenty of common sense, or this country will go broke before too long.

My worst fear is that my grandchildren will someday look at my gravestone and say, “Grandpa, why didn’t you do something about these problems?”

Harold Manhart, Montrose

Racism in Brazil – and the U.S.

Re: “The many hues of racism,” July 8 Perspective article.

While it was good to see an article about Brazil’s problems with racism, I feel compelled to comment on Leonard Pitts’ biases and inaccuracies.

As someone who has traveled to Brazil often in the last 10 years (studying race and education), and someone who has been involved in the multiracial movement for more than 25 years, a few comments are in order.

Pitts asserts that in the U.S., “no matter your skin color, your race is never in question.” While this used to be the case, it is changing (yes, things do change!). My four children (white, black and Chickasaw) identify as multiracial. Ironically, they have been identified by others as everything from Hispanic and Native American to Samoan and Brazilian – but not black. In the 2000 Census, 6.8 million people identified with two or more races.

Elisa Nascimento, an American living in Brazil, comments that in Brazil, people with light skin “pass as white.” If society sees you as white, then you are white, not “passing as white.” Remember that race is a social and political construct, not a biological reality.

Pitts argues that many people in Brazil skirt their African heritage altogether. This statement poses two problems:

1. In a multiracial society like Brazil, people can legitimately identify with a European, Amerindian, Asian or Middle Eastern heritage – if they must select one – just as well as an African one. Why do they have to choose black?

2. According to scientists, we all originated from Africa; thus we all must identify as black!

Brazil has a problem with racism (and sexism and poverty – and a tragic combination of all three). They do need to debate how best to address all these issues. But let’s not impose an American solution. We don’t have a lot to shout about in our attempts to eradicate racism from our own society.

Francis Wardle, Denver

Cynics vs. skeptics

Re: “Rove faces cynics in Aspen,” July 9 news story.

Skeptics. I’m sure that’s the word your reporter and his editor were reaching for, but failed to grasp. Karl Rove, the ultimate cynic, faced an audience of skeptics – not cynics – in Aspen. The words are not synonymous. It is very important for our nation’s future that we all recognize and understand the difference.

Skeptics are willing to listen to facts and sound logic, but are not easily swayed by weak arguments or blatant fabrications. Cynics are persons with an agenda, for whom the ends justify the means and for whom arguments are for bludgeoning enemies, not to persuade.

This intellectually, morally and ethically bankrupt administration is just wandering aimlessly, awaiting the end of the lamest of lame-duck terms. We are all the poorer for it, as the other two arms of our federal government seem unable or unwilling to take up the considerable slack.

Harry Doby, Denver

Live Earth coverage

Re: “Voice for actions,” July 8 news photos.

According to the caption with one of your pictures, “hundreds of millions” of people participated in Live Earth on July 7. Yet this event did not warrant front-page coverage. Instead, the tragic death of one teen in Weld County, a businessman who dumped wine down the drain, and Harry Potter received almost all of the space. Not only that, but coverage of Live Earth consisted of three pictures several pages into the paper, and virtually no text.

I cannot conceive of a rationale for a newspaper not prominently covering the actions of “hundreds of millions” of people. Live Earth transmitted dozens of inventive and practical ideas for individuals to reduce energy use, but there was no mention of this information.

The most crucial issue facing this country and the world, and the biggest event perhaps in history, received pathetic coverage by your paper.

Jan B. Scott, Loveland

Attorney for Department of Justice ashamed of Bush administration

Re: “Bush justice is a national disgrace,” July 8 Perspective article.

Department of Justice attorney John S. Koppel’s essay should be required reading for every voter and student from middle school on. His conclusion that the Bush administration’s actions and those of the Department of Justice are a “national disgrace” and why is particularly important, because it comes from a 25-year employee in the Department of Justice who is a civil appellate attorney.

That Mr. Koppel has the immense courage to do so knowing that the hissing, venomous snakes in the Bush administration will come after him is especially laudable. I applaud Mr. Koppel, and strongly support his statement of the performance issues against which President Bush and his cronies must be measured: “high crimes and misdemeanors,” including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

I worked in Washington during the Watergate debacle that brought down Richard Nixon. Those crimes, which set in motion the impeachment process, now seem petty compared to what Bush, et al, have done to severely damage our nation and its laws.

Thank you, Mr. Koppel. Impeachment of Bush and Cheney is in order.

Jerry L. Colness, Aurora

…

Bravo to John S. Koppel for having the courage and fortitude to speak truth to power. I’m sure his essay places him on this administration’s enemies list and makes him the subject of future reprisals.

Joe Golaszewski, Aurora

…

John S. Koppel, attorney with the Justice Department since 1981, attacks the Bush administration by saying he has “never before seen such consistent and marked disrespect on the part of the highest ranking government policymakers for both law and ethics.”

Mr. Koppel must have dozed off during the Clinton administration, which included such delights as impeachment, Whitewater, Travelgate, the Lewinsky affair, etc.

He laments President Bush’s commutation of “Scooter” Libby’s prison sentence, saying it “merely highlights yet again the lawlessness, incompetence and dishonesty of the present executive branch leadership.” Again, Mr. Koppel must have slept through the vast number of pardons given by Bill Clinton to his rogue’s gallery of unsavory characters.

Mr. Koppel and his ilk are constantly saying the Bush administration is the worst. If they are truly looking for the administration that matches Mr. Koppel’s above quotes, I’ll give them a hint: It starts with a C.

Charles Newton, Highlands Ranch

…

Thank you to John S. Koppel for so honestly and eloquently stating what so many of us believe about this current administration. What I find so irreconcilable is that so many policies of this administration are under the guise of “national security,” yet such a blatant risk to national security such as the involvement of a top White House aide in the leaking of a CIA agent’s name (and then lying about it) is shrugged off by George W. Bush with an “everybody makes mistakes” mentality. How hypocritical. President Clinton was impeached for lying about a personal affair, but a top White House aide lies about a matter of national security and all he has to do is write a check. I do not understand how Bush and Dick Cheney sleep at night, nor do I understand how we, as honorable citizens of this great country, are allowing the abuses of this administration to go unchecked.

Jen Stone, Denver

TO THE POINT

If rock musicians really want to save the planet, they could help by eliminating the electric amplification of their sound with boxcar-sized speakers. That would save 2.3 bazillion kilowatts of power annually.

Dick Hilker, Loveland

If and when “Scooter” Libby is called to testify before a congressional committee, and he again engages in the administration’s approved practice of lying and “forgetting,” he should then be subjected to the administration’s approved method of waterboarding to get him to talk.

Dorsey Hudson, Denver

So President Bush thinks that the Iraq war has similarities to our American Revolution. Someone needs to tell him we are playing the role of the British.

Jim Cameron, Avon

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