Feeling the heat in Colorado
Thanks to Mike Keefe for his July 7 editorial cartoon comparing hell with Colorado. The fire and fury in our forests gets worse every year. The health consequences of the wildfires burning in the state were emphasized in an article on page 4A the same day: “Unhealthy air blowing across Colorado.” With an administration that denies the existence of global warming and an EPA that, despite the welcome exit of Scott Pruitt, is bent on dismantling any small steps the country has taken toward reining in our carbon footprint, we need an environmental revival as soon as possible. And it should start in Colorado before the great forests of the West are only a memory.
Susan Permut, Monument
Re: “Contract isn’t enough for jet to join fight,” July 8 news story
Is it a little bit interesting that the contract with Global SuperTanker Services still isn’t signed by the feds? Does it seem like the current administration is in no hurry to help either California or Colorado when it comes to natural disasters? Could it be because both states were adamantly “anti” our current vindictive president in the 2016 election? Just wondering …
Debbi Fleckenstine, Littleton
Voting in protest?
Re: “Nearly 7,000 votes nullified,” July 7 news story
“Flubbed it.” “Not reading their ballot instructions carefully.” This is how the Post characterized those unaffiliated voters who submitted both Democratic and Republican ballots in our recent primaries. And the Post is not alone in its dismissive language — Denver television anchors and reporters have been just as presumptuous in their interpretations of the phenomenon. (9News, for instance, says on its website that these voters “can’t follow directions!”)
Before news organizations start jumping to conclusions — rather than simply reporting — I would like to suggest they consider reasons other than incompetence that might have motivated unaffiliated voters to submit ballots for both major parties.
Could it have been, for instance, a form of protest?
When one learns that the 10 counties with the highest number of unaffiliated ballots nullified for two-party voting all voted against the 2016 initiative that allowed unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in state primaries, and by an average of more than 60 percent, then I don’t think it unreasonable to consider protest might have been behind at least some of these dual-ballot returns.
Steve Oelrich, Denver
