A sampling of recent editorials from Colorado newspapers:
STATE:
The Aurora Sentinel, July 18, on the Aurora shootings, gun violence and gun control:
The view from the Aurora Sentinel newsroom window is about the same as last year. In the near distance, a vacant field looks much like it did before it became an enormous shrine to victims of Aurora’s July 20 theater massacre.
The Century 16 theater looks only slightly different than it did before James Holmes unleashed death and terror one year ago during the opening of what was then the latest installment of the Batman movie franchise.
While the lives of the victims in the theater that night and their families were cruelly changed, the rest of us have eased back into the routines we knew before the massacre.
It’s a reflection of the rest of the state and the country as well. Even after 26 children and school staffers were murdered in a Newtown, Conn. school just a few months later by another mentally ill man with guns, little has changed.
Legislatures in Connecticut and Colorado were able to pass measures that infuriated gun-rights activists while at the same time did little to either reduce the number of guns, reduce easy access to guns, restrict access to guns by mentally ill people, or reduce the number of military-grade weaponry that is becoming increasingly prolific.
As for Congress, their meager attempts at addressing the problems of rampant gun violence and outright massacres was pathetic.
Given this, it couldn’t be more clear that people in Aurora and all over the country need to be the agents for change. There actually are political leaders willing to offer or entertain new ideas or even old efforts. But without public support, overzealous gun-rights groups and the self-interested firearms industry will continue to call the shots.
Most important is a campaign to educate the public on the facts about gun violence and gun control. Working against a propaganda machine built on misleading sound bites and bumper-sticker logic, America’s waning appetite for understanding details of complex matters is just what the firearms industry is hoping for.
More Americans need to understand that few gun-control advocates are asking to seriously restrict lawful gun owners. Instead, most are asking for accountability measures and ways to reduce access to weapons that previously had only military applications. Sadly, our schools and movie theaters have become war zones partly because we have such easy access to war-zone weaponry.
Also, one year after the Aurora massacre, Colorado needs to talk seriously about mental health issues. It’s undeniable that mental illness is key to the problem, more to the point, untreated mental illness. In almost every case of a mass shooting, the murderer was clearly handing out signs that such an attack was very possible or even imminent. As the James Holmes’ story continues to unfold, it’s likely the public will be shocked by how much those around Holmes knew before his attack.
Colorado must wade into the dilemma of how much personal freedom to sacrifice in order for the state to detect and act on those who create such a danger to the public. Such discussions of nearly eliminating sacred personal rights for the public good will make fractious gun-control debates seem easy.
We can wait no longer to find ways to identify and stop people likely to commit mass murders. Delaying this debate only invites an opportunity for another community like Aurora to have to look back after a year beyond the next inevitable theater or school massacre
Editorial:
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The Denver Post, July 19, on Deer Trail, drones and concerns about creeping surveillance:
The idea that a rural Colorado town would issue licenses to shoot drones—unmanned aircraft—out of the sky is deranged and dangerous.
Elected officials in Deer Trail, a town of 598 people an hour east of Denver, ought to put a stop to such nonsense and fast, assuming they’re remotely serious.
The measure is aimed at drones “owned or operated by the United States federal government.” When drones do become commonplace, however, they’re more likely in Deer Trail’s region to be checking on crops than spying on people.
“Basically, I do not believe in the idea of a surveillance society,” the man who drafted the ordinance told 7News. Well, neither do we—or most Americans, for that matter. But that doesn’t mean stunts like this are called for.
If nothing else, however, the Deer Trail initiative is a sign of growing uneasiness with creeping surveillance that is real enough.
Recent revelations about the extent to which our government has been collecting vast quantities of information on the activities of ordinary Americans not suspected of crimes ought to concern us all.
For a time it seemed that Colorado’s Mark Udall and Oregon’s Ron Wyden, both Democratic senators, were alone in drawing attention to the spying activities the National Security Agency was engaging in with the blessing of a secret court.
On July 17, the administration took a bipartisan scolding from the House Judiciary Committee.
It’s about time.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and an author of the Patriot Act, said Congress never intended the national security measure to enable broad fishing expeditions.
He also cautioned a deputy attorney general appearing before the panel that Congress might have qualms about reauthorizing the part of the law used to justify the sweeping collection of data.
Democrats joined in the criticism, with Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., saying: “I think very clearly this program has gone off the tracks legally and needs to be reined in.”
The Obama administration, which purports to want a national conversation about security measures, maintains that what it’s doing is perfectly legal. But the explanation is unconvincing and is going to foster greater concern and outright paranoia about what the government is up to—the kind of paranoia at play in Deer Trail.
The truth is, drones have many beneficial uses. They can be deployed to survey fields for agricultural purposes or used in law enforcement search and rescue operations.
Like many technological innovations, though, drones could be abused. So we need clear rules in place to protect privacy.
To be concerned about the spying potential of drones is reasonable. To advocate shooting them out of the sky is crazy.
Editorial:
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NATIONAL:
The Durango herald, July 22, on rare earths, the market and western mines:
The current excitement about so-called rare earth elements reflects their usefulness in electronics, as well as geopolitical factors such as China’s increasing reluctance to sell them cheaply. It could, however, also become a factor in the American West. China is hardly the only place those elements are found.
And as the Herald reported Monday, probably the smartest place to look is in the tailings discarded by old-time miners. Many most likely had no idea what rare earth elements were, and, in any case, had no use for them.
That has all changed. Prices of some key rare earths have increased dramatically in the last few years. As the Associated Press reported, neodymium went from $15 per kilogram in 2009 to $500 in 2011. At the same time, another rare-earth chemical, dysprosium oxide, went from $114 per kilogram to $2,830.
At those prices, reprocessing old tailings makes perfect sense. That is particularly true in that the mining part is already done.
Rare earths are series of elements few of us knowingly encounter or recognize. Even lists of the elements called rare earths vary. Some count only the 15 lanthanides – metallic elements with atomic numbers 57 through 71. Some add the similar elements scandium and yttrium. (Those last two are so named because the first rare earths were taken from a mine in Ytterby, Sweden.) Some count as many as 30.
And the term rare earth notwithstanding, they are not necessarily rare. Some are, but one of them, cerium, is about as common as copper. They can nonetheless be hard to find in that they do not usually occur in a pure form.
Not actually a rare earth element, tellurium is often referred to as one. One of the planet’s rarer elements – said to be about as common as platinum – tellurium is one of the few things that can react with gold. When it forms a binary compound with gold the resulting substance is called a telluride. The hope of finding just that prompted early miners to name the now-famous resort town.
Two years ago, tellurium was also rumored to be the true goal of the then-owner’s efforts to reopen the Mayday mine.
But if current trends continue, it will not be gold but the more esoteric elements that miners will be seeking. The list of uses for rare earths is long and growing. It includes all sorts of aerospace applications, lasers, superconductors, lenses, catalysts for cleaning ovens, flints for lighters, specialized magnets, a wide variety of alloys, PET scans and several kinds of amps. And given the increasing use of technology – and the pace of its development – the number of applications can be expected to increase. That should drive demand and price.
What that might mean for the West is uncertain. Mining has colorful history but left a troubled and ongoing legacy of environmental destruction and pollution. No one wants to repeat that. By the same token, however, a sustained boom in rare-earth prices could be the impetus for renewed mining that could be part of and help fund the cleanup of earlier, messier efforts. Done right, that could be a real benefit.
As with all commodity prices, though, the only real certainty is change. What was throwaway material once is valuable now, but that, too, will change someday.
Editorial:
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The Longmont Times-Call, July 21, on the Colorado Lottery and future spending:
When voters authorized the creation of a lottery game in the state of Colorado 30 years ago, a majority decided that additional funds for capital construction and outdoor recreation outweighed the concerns about the introduction of gambling into the state.
After three decades, it seems that both the supporters and detractors have been proven right, to some degree.
Since 1983, the Colorado Lottery has generated $2.4 billion in revenue for projects in every corner of the state. It has been used as grants to municipalities that have needed improvements and as matching funds on many more projects. That is money state legislators certainly did not have at their disposal to spend through the normal budgeting process — in fact, the Legislature has looked longingly in some years to the proceeds generated through lottery games to help stanch the red ink that sometimes has befallen state government budgets. It’s not new money, though. It’s from the pockets of taxpayers who choose to play it in spite of the long odds.
However, the program also has grown beyond its initial reach as a limited gambling option for Colorado adults. While the first game through the lottery was scratch tickets, the program has grown to include Lotto, the multi-state Powerball and several smaller games. Also, since the approval of lottery style gaming, voters have approved and expanded gambling at three historic mining communities in the Colorado mountains. Those who worried about expanded gambling also can see it around the state. Also, it’s worth noting that interest in the games comes from many who live out of state. Among the top outlets for Lottery products are stores just inside the Colorado border from Wyoming and Utah.
Lottery officials have made efforts to ensure those with gambling addictions have an outlet in which they can find the help they need. Such outreach efforts are difficult to balance with the marketing efforts to ensure residents keep playing.
As the program moves forward, residents should take note of the many amenities that residents have been able to attain because of the influx of dollars. Also, however, they should look at some of the other needs in the state to determine if they perhaps might be more worthy of support. State funding for mental health services is one area that immediately comes to mind, for instance.
As the state celebrates the Colorado Lottery’s 30th birthday, residents should be heartened by the transparency of the program and the fine projects it has funded to date. A large majority of the state’s residents are better for it.
Editorial:
