The weekly newsletter of The Denver Post’s opinion pages.
This is The Denver Post’s Sound Off newsletter. Every Monday, we deliver to your inbox a roundup of what we’ve been publishing on the opinion pages over the past week, including both print and . That includes Denver Post , op-ed by Post columnists like Chuck Plunkett and Megan Schrader as well as nationally syndicated columnists like George F. Will and Garrison Keillor, plus guest commentaries, and editorial .
Perspective
First, a summary of what was in our Sunday Perspective section yesterday:
The campus echo chamber: Vincent Carroll, The Denver Post’s former editorial page editor, wrote: Some of the biggest threats these days to don’t involve the suppression of students’ words so much as the speech of controversial outsiders invited onto campus by student groups.
Why I invited Ann Coulter: Pranav Jandhyala, the founder of the campus group that invited Ann Coulter to speak at the University of California Berkeley, to Coulter and the furor that resulted in her canceling.
Just because you support gay rights … Craig Konnoth, who teaches law and bioethics, late-night host Stephen Colbert for a recent monologue in which he made a joke about a sexual relationship between President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Hungary and the U.S.: Dalibor Rohac and Mate Hajba laid out that the United States can slow Hungary’s descent into authoritarianism under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Denver sentencing reform: In its Sunday editorial, The Post’s editorial board wrote that Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s plans to reform low-level jail sentences — which will protect immigrants from deportation — and have a lot of heart.
Letters to the editor: On the letters page, Denver Post readers tackled several issues. Here are several of their letters:
Relating to Jimmy Kimmel: In response to Jimmy Kimmel’s emotional monologue about his infant son, who was born with a heart defect, columnist Mario Nicolais praised the Affordable Care Act and of a child with a pre-existing condition.
“Fake news” accusations: The Grand Junction Sentinel’s thin-skinned publisher, Jay Seaton, , wrote former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler.
Settled science? Columnist Teresa Keegan : Scientific instruments are not crystal balls, and scientists are not soothsayers. In spite of our best efforts, the planet may continue to warm, or because of our best efforts, it may not.
FEC reform: Former Colorado Gov. Richard D. Lamm Colorado Congressmen Ken Buck, a Republican, and Jared Polis, a Democrat, for introducing a bill calling for changes to the Federal Election Commission.
Who wants to be a billionaire? George F. Will pondered the question: Would you be willing to if you could be as rich as John D. Rockefeller, who was thought to be America’s first billionaire?
Obama being greedy? In response to former President Barack Obama saying he’d accept $400,000 for a speech to a Wall Street firm, Washington Free Beacon editor Sonny Bunch suggested Obama should which knows something about post-presidential greed.
Obama being prudent: On the flip side, syndicated columnist Froma Harrop asked: Whatap wrong with Barack Obama receiving $400,000 for a speech? She called criticism of Obama .
Cutting Amtrak funding: Forrest Whitman of Salida of several iconic Western trains — including the California Zephyr, the Coast Starlight, the Empire Builder, the Texas Eagle and the Southwest Chief, under President Trump’s proposed budget.
Drawn to the News: For those of you who can’t get enough editorial , here are the two we featured on the back page of Sunday’s Perspective section, regarding the reasons Hillary Clinton says she lost the election:
The past week
Here are highlights from last week’s opinion coverage:
Denver Post editorials:
Colorado budget deal: Despite its complexity, and some quibbles, we consider the deal to drive Colorado’s budget into 2018 without massive cuts to hospitals, roads and schools .
Thanks, Mike Coffman: The American Health Care Act of 2017 is a bad bill and we Colorado’s Rep. Mike Coffman, the Aurora Republican, for standing up against his party’s plan to “fix” Obamacare.
Oil and gas risks: The fatal Firestone house explosion caused by likely failures of an oil and gas powerhouse what was an already tenuous relationship of trust between community and industry in Colorado.
A chilling arrest: The arrest of Arturo Hernandez Garcia, an immigrant living in Denver, sent an across the land. We hope members of Congress are listening.
Combating heroin and opioids: It is good news that state programs and greater public awareness are combining to push back against the horror that is heroin and opioid addiction in Colorado. One is the life-saving drug naloxone.
Op-ed columns:
Bob Beauprez’s “charity”: Everyone knows Bob Beauprez’s charity was a political committee, , wrote Denver Post columnist and editorial page writer Megan Schrader.
Late-night driving: Garrison Keillor : All last week I got to drive around Minnesota late at night, drifting through the little towns, just me and the truckers out on the road and Merle and George and Emmylou on the radio.
GOP’s Anti-Health-Care bill: Responding to the passage of the American Health Care Act, syndicated columnist E.J. Dionne congressional Republicans: May 4, 2017, should forever be marked as the day when the House of Representatives descended to a new level of cruelty, irresponsibility and social meanness.
AHCA is an abomination: The Washington Post’s Paul Waldman also against the AHCA: The American Health Care Act is not just wrong, or misguided, or problematic or foolish. It is an abomination.
Why I voted for the AHCA: Republican Rep. Cathy Mcmorris Rodgers, who voted for the bill, : This bill isn’t perfect. It doesn’t include every single component I wanted. But it came down to the AHCA or the continued disaster of Obamacare, which was an easy choice.
Trump as Wizard of Oz: Conservative Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote: Donald Trump is loud and bombastic. A charlatan. There is — other than the institutional chaos that defines his White House and the psychic chaos that governs his ever-changing mind.
Medicaid cuts: Colorado Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne wrote that cutting $1 billion from Colorado Medicaid would hurt, .
Trump and NRA out of sync: Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg View wrote: NRA chief Wayne LaPierre’s gig still depends on Apocalypse Now. Donald Trump’s depends increasingly on Apocalypse Forestalled. The .
A fake holiday: Syndicated columnist Esther J. Cepeda wrote: Cinco de Mayo is a , but since it isn’t going away, the only weapon Mexicans really have at their disposal is to make fun of the whole thing.
ESPN’s woes: Bloomberg View columnist wrote: ESPN, which recently laid off 100 people, has a multitude of problems, but : It pays too much for content and costs too much for consumers.
Cannabis church: Peter G. Chronis, who lives in Denver’s West Washington Park neighborhood, asked the question: Why was the International Church of Cannabis from the neighborhood?
Letters to the editor:
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