Nation should focus more on gun violence
We have lowered our flags to half-staff to honor the victims of the synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh. Why now? Is it because of the number of people killed or the violation of a sacred place? We have senseless gun deaths every week. Shootings in the streets, homes, places of worship, at concerts, or places of business are an affront to civility. All lives are precious. The tragedy is our continued acceptance, silence and lack of will to confront our gun violence epidemic.
The flags should remain at the lowered position until we as a people and our government representatives initiate agreement and action on gun issues. There is much we can do, must do.
When we accomplish reasonable and meaningful change, then raise the flags with hope and pride.
Jack and Barbara Lopez, Golden
Re: “The U.S. needs better data on gun violence,” Oct. 26 editorial
The editorial is exactly on point. Fortunately, we have data in Colorado that can help guide better policy now. Firearm injuries resulting in an ER visit or hospitalization are common in children (0-14 years of age) in Colorado, occurring on average every 4 to 5 days. They occur in both rural and urban areas and affect all races and ethnicities. The great majority are unintentional. They are much more likely to result in death than automobile injuries.
While firearm injuries and deaths in Colorado are increasing, efforts to improve automobile safety for children have resulted in significant decreases in automobile accident-related injury and death. Firearm injury is a public health problem that can effectively be reduced with similar approaches. The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended practical measures to limit access to firearms by children and to improve firearm safety. Such measures should be seriously considered to address this significant Colorado problem.
James Todd, MD, Denver
Raise your voices for immigrants taking sanctuary
Re: “Immigrant taking sanctuary,” Oct. 18 online story
Getting involved in sanctuary changes you. I got involved because the words Trump used to vilify a huge group of people did not match any experience with immigrants I have had. I’ve studied and lived in Latin America. I speak Spanish. I’m married to an immigrant. It wasn’t hard to see that playing on people’s worst fears could lead to incredible abuse of power if lies about immigrants were accepted as true.
What I didn’t know was that in doing my sanctuary shifts, Ingrid Encalada Latorre and her kids would become my friends.
For Ingrid there is no path in our current broken system. You can help by raising your voice to our elected officials and promoting a pathway for Ingrid, for DACA recipients, and for those who simply want to keep their families together.
Ann Morrill, Louisville
All the reasons to love Colorado’s mail ballots
Re: “Mail ballots in Colorado skew results to the left,” Oct. 28 commentary
It seems Jon Caldera would like Colorado to revert to the old 12-hour election day. He bemoans our mail ballot system as somehow too easy and perhaps even undemocratic. We should have to go to a polling station and stand in line to accord our sacred ballots the honor they deserve.
Many citizens cannot do that, my wife among them. She is under home hospice care and, at this point, cannot leave the house. However, she can still read, think, and discuss before marking her ballot. C’mon Mr. C, think a little before belching the same hyper-partisan blather that floods our mailbox.
Bob Jaeger, Englewood
The notion that “Mail ballots in Colorado skew results to the left” is patently ridiculous. Even though itap been a long time since I studied statistics, I do remember a fundamental maxim that states that the larger your sample size, the greater the chance that your results will skew to the middle, in other words, the average.
So when more people vote, the more likely you will get a result that you can be confident represents what the average person wants, not what the average “left-winger” wants.
Republicans have known this for years. And they also know that the more effort they put into keeping people from voting, the more likely that the end result will favor Republicans. So they do everything they can to suppress the vote. That includes writing newspaper columns that try to scare us into thinking that some invisible bogeyman called “Big Data” is going to somehow take away our freedom.
Michael Dubrovich, Parker
Oh poor non-tech-savvy Republicans being out outmaneuvered by those sophisticated Democrats. Wait a minute! Don’t I remember something about REDMAP? Didn’t Republican strategists used big data, mapping software and gerrymandering to swing majority blue states red?
Your argument seems to be that it would be much better for Republican candidates and issues if fewer people in our democracy actually voted.
I think Colorado’s vote-by-mail system is fantastic and should be replicated across the country. Voting in a democracy should not be difficult. We should be encouraging participation not constructing barriers.
Joan Hansen, Denver
Supervised-use facilities crucial in drug battle
Re: “Councilman wants city to have supervised drug-use site,” Oct. 29 news story
I am a Park Hill resident and am writing as a primary care physician, addiction medicine specialist and board member of the Harm Reduction Action Center to express my support for legislation that would allow for the establishment of a supervised-use facility in Denver.
As we all know, we are in the midst of an unprecedented drug epidemic, terrible to witness and perniciously difficult to resolve. The unexpected happy side effect of this scourge is that it has brought together people from normally isolated spheres and disciplines, including public health officials, law enforcement officers, medical providers, community service workers, and city facility employees.
This has resulted in a practical, “all hands on deck” approach to problem solving, and the realization that we must use every option available to us in order to be most effective in our battle. To this end, a supervised-use facility will play a small but important role, as an effective harm reduction measure to keep drug users alive and infection-free until they can access treatment.
Joshua Blum MD, Denver
Playing defense for Elway
Re: “Elway’s picks are not good for Colorado,” Oct. 27 letter to the editor
To Ralph Roberts: John also was able to get Peyton Manning to come to Denver! I rest my case!
Glenda Hower, Lakewood
Sentiment worth repeating
Re: “Who will speak for Earth?,” Oct. 28 letter to the editor
As a long time student of the climate, and a person frustrated by public inaction to combat the threat of global warming to life on Earth, I was deeply moved by the letter in the Sunday Post by Sharon McCormick of Golden.
She paraphrased pastor Martin Niemoller’s poem First They Came , written to describe the German indifference to the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, and applied it skillfully to the issues surrounding climate change. I hope to find ways to see it get wider dissemination.
Jonathan F. Ormes, Highlands Ranch
Not feeling all that secure
Re: “Election integrity hinges on security-tested firms,” Oct. 30 news story
Scary was the article describing the three companies that services more than 90 percent of U.S. election security.
They face “scant federal oversight yet effectively run elections.” Despite running on thin budgets, they resist hiring ethical hackers to test their systems, and have minimal public accountability, and hide their internal workings. Folks, these are the national election firms that count the results, and may be hiding errors that have never been made public.
Why hasn’t Congress taken action?
Len Wheeler, Arvada
Circumventing the Constitution
Re: “Trump stokes migrant fears before elections,” Oct. 31 news story
President Donald Trump’s idea to circumvent the 14th Amendment may cause some to celebrate because they imagine it will hurt only illegal immigrants. Think about this: What makes you a U.S. citizen, and can you prove it? The Trump administration has already started to question documents you may hold, such as licenses and passports, on thin evidence that some people obtained them with illegal birth certificates. So forget about anything based on a birth certificate (everything). Now Trump wants to challenge the next thing you’d say, “I was born here.”
What will you do when the government wants you to show your papers, and then doesn’t believe them?
David Stewart, Aurora
Occasionally, Trump’s clumsy rhetoric turns one of his whoppers into truth. Consider for example his statement, “We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States…” Itap true. Babies born in other countries, do not automatically become citizens of the United States. Only babies born here do.
Robert N. Stocker, Denver
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