My ailing 86-year-old mother has been in and out of hospitals and rehab facilities since early February, and I’ve been back East for a total of four weeks in that time to help care for her.
So I have an opinion or two on health care and on issues concerning the aging.
My 14-year-old daughter is heading to East High School in the fall, entering the public school system for the first time after attending a parochial preschool, elementary and middle school.
So I have opinions on the quality of public education and the merits and pitfalls of private education.
I’m a Catholic.
So I have an opinion on the church’s stance on abortion, abusive priests and sainthood.
I’m a homeowner in Denver, and pay taxes that support city services I need.
So I have an opinion on how my hard-earned money is utilized by the city and the state.
I’m a citizen of the West, of America. So I have an opinion about our elected leaders and the job they are doing — or are failing to do.
I’m a Nuggets fan, so I have an opinion on the NBA playoffs — but that’s better left to the sports pages.
It’s quite easy to have opinions, actually. What’s difficult is writing about them. Just ask folks like Mike Littwin, Tina Griego, Vincent Carroll, Maureen Dowd, and E.J. Dionne, who make it look easy but know it’s not.
Our 16 Colorado Voices winners have opinions, too. Over the next year, they’ll do their best to get their opinions across and represent their communities around our state.
Colorado Voices began in 1999, and every year since we’ve taken at least 16 writers into the fold, nurturing their writing and helping them express their opinions in print under the banner of The Denver Post.
If you weren’t lucky enough to have been chosen, please try again next year. Remember that the best Colorado Voices columns not only tell a story, but also have an opinion.
If you can’t wait, we urge you to send us a guest commentary of 650 words or less to columns@denverpost.com, and be aware that we give preference to local issues. Letters to the editor of 150 words or less can be sent to openforum@denverpost.com.
Below are short introductions to the 2011-12 panel of Colorado Voices. Let the conversations begin.
MICHAEL ALCORN, Arvada
One of Michael’s contest entries begins: “I am a teacher. I am a musician. And I am a conservative. (Weren’t expecting that last one, were you?)” He has a second-degree black belt in tae kwon do and is a boot-camp fitness instructor.
CLIFFORD BEBELL, Arvada
Clifford is a retired professor of education who recently celebrated his 95th birthday — “if indeed you can call it a celebration. I think the real celebration should be the next morning, when I still woke up.” He says that his goal is to be a spokesman for the aged, “to say what they want and need, and help them get a rewarding life.”
KATHERINE BRAUN, Littleton
Katherine is a stay-at-home mom (“love my job, just not too fond of the title,” she says) who is working on a book about the Deer Creek Middle School shooting, along with David Benke, the math teacher who tackled a gunman shooting at students outside the Jefferson County school in February 2010.
EMILY BULLARD, Lakewood
Emily is a freshman at the University of Kansas in Lawrence — and the daughter of two former Denver Post employees, a fact kept from our judges until after she was selected as our college-age writer. One of her goals: “Finding somebody who will genetically engineer a giant bunny rabbit that I can ride to school.”
JANET CHEN, Broomfield
Janet, our other student winner, is a sophomore at Fairview High School in Boulder. She writes opinion columns for the school’s newspaper, The Royal Banner, and thinks a younger point of view on issues like education and politics is overlooked.
RYAN D. COBBINS, Denver
Ryan is owner of Coffee at The Point in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver. The new father — his wife gave birth April 13 — is excited about being part of the revitalization of Five Points. “It’s the place to be, the place to live,” Ryan says.
VICKI WYATT DAVISON, Longmont
“When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a writer, the Queen of England and a cowgirl,” writes South Dakota native Vicki. She is a “recovering advertising copywriter,” a job she held for more than 25 years, and wants to write books when she grows up.
DAVID FARIS, Aurora
David says he has “recently entered what a former colleague calls ‘the territory of serious illness,’ where I have already undergone adventures.” He grew up in Denver, and has “memories of a Colorado childhood from a simpler time.”
THOMAS GREENE, Arvada
Thomas says he grew up in Aurora “chasing ladies around the elementary playground and tooting my own trombone.” He is a high school mathematics teacher in Arvada, and wants to provide an insight into our public schools to counter the “policy-inflamed opinions and horror stories.”
DAN MacARTHUR, Fort Collins
Dan escaped from the suburbs and continues to toil in the trenches of journalism following a couple of ill-fated detours into the public sector in search of a living wage. He wants to offer “a heartfelt alternative to the other deep-thinking op-ed columnists in The Post.”
JEFF McABEE, Breckenridge
Jeff is a campus supervisor at Summit High School and writes about life in the high country for the Summit Daily News. He teaches skiing for Vail Resorts, and admits that “skiing 400 days in five years might not be a sound personal economic recovery plan.”
LORRAINE MELGOSA, Manzanola
Lorraine is a self-employed farmer and small-business owner, including the Wellington Carriage Company, which has provided horse- drawn hearse services — in an 1867 carriage — for 18 years, free of charge to families of servicemen killed in action.
JO ANN SALAZAR, Durango
“Of all my diplomas and awards,” Jo Ann writes, “the one I display is my ‘Bachelor of Rhymes’ diploma from kindergarten.” She is a native Coloradan who calls herself a mixture of Spanish and the native peoples of the Southwest. She is an avid cook and blogger.
JULIE SAVOIE, Englewood
Julie says her “head is filled with esays and columns, so I often burn batches of cookies and forget to set the parking brake.” She is a homemaker/volunteer who thinks our leaders in Washington could use a good “walk around the lake,” as Wallace Stevens said, to settle their differences.
JEAN TRESTER, Centennial
Jean is a retired nurse and a self-described “friendly, law-abiding gardener in a suburban neighborhood.” She wants to share stories of her sister, who has suffered with mental illness for 51 years, since she rarely finds “anyone with whom to share these experiences.”
JOHN WALSH, Conifer
Since 1986, John has worked with deaf and hard of hearing children, currently for Aurora Public Schools. He and his wife have four cats, a dog, a horse and a mini- horse. “Our monthly expenses provide our vet’s kids with tuition for the Ivy League college of their dreams,” he writes.
Barbara Ellis (bellis@denverpost. com) is editor of guest commentaries for The Post and coordinator of the Colorado Voices program.
