Team USA’s performance at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver has been inspiring, from the gutsy downhill gold won by alpine skier Lindsey Vonn of Vail, to the improbable performances put down by U.S. Nordic combined competitors, including Steamboat’s own Johnny Spillane. Throw in golds by snowboard savant Shaun White, speed skater Shani Davis, and freestyle moguls skier Hannah Kearney, and it’s clear that efforts to develop winter athletes have been wildly successful. We applaud our athletes, not just for the number of medals they’ve won, but also for the way, by and large, they’ve conducted themselves on the world stage. You’ve made your country proud.
However, the pursuit of faster, higher, stronger has limits. By that we are referring to the very fast and, we think, dangerous track at the Whistler Sliding Center used by Olympic competitors in luge, skeleton and bobsled. A luge athlete from the country of Georgia, Nodar Kumaritashvili, died on the track after losing control of his sled at nearly 90 mph. The International Olympic Committee must take responsibility and ensure that future Winter Games are held on courses that are safely built and do not emphasize ever-increasing speed over the well-being of athletes.
If red means stop, does yellow mean go faster? Don’t get too excited if you see crews dismantling red-light cameras at four intersections in Denver. The cameras are going back up, but under a new contractor. In fact, the city hopes to eventually install cameras at as many as 20 other intersections. While we don’t want the cameras snapping our pictures, we think they’re a good addition to the city and will further reduce accidents. We’re also fans of one other simple step the city has undertaken: extending the time it takes for a yellow light to turn to red. Now that’s smart.
We won’t drink to that. It is too bad lawmakers failed to modernize Colorado’s liquor laws to allow convenience stores to sell full-strength beer instead of just 3.2 percent beer. We’d like to see fair markets and true competition. Since the issue has bedeviled legislators in recent years, lawmakers should work off-session with the various interested parties, including liquor store owners, to find sensible ways to update some of our Prohibition-era laws.
Short Takes is compiled by Denver Post editorial writers and expresses the view of the newspaper’s editorial board.
