This shutdown hurts our parks
Re: “Under shutdown, trash and human waste collect,” Jan. 3 news story
My step-son and daughter-in-law own and operate a hotel outside Yosemite. They have been handing out toilet paper and trash bags to their guests who are there to visit the park, so as to dispose of human waste due to the government shutdown back at their hotel.
Every government shutdown (and one heinous wildfire) costs them tens of thousands of dollars in lodging income and that impacts not only them, but also our grandchildren.
Everyone is agreed on the need for border security, and as one who lived years on the border, a few miles of wall here and there, along with improved technology and more personnel make sense to me. Closing the government down with an absolute insistence on the need for a complete, end-to-end concrete wall strikes me as a complete unwillingness to compromise. We are playing between the 45 yard lines here. How about a little give and take?
Please do not place my family members in the middle of this political argument.
You are creating innocent American victims.
Re-open the government and letap negotiate how we handle border security, and those who have overstayed their visas and remain in the country illegally.
John W. Thomas, Fort Collins
I’m not sure which disappoints me more, the fact that our executive and legislative branches won’t govern responsibly enough to avoid a shutdown or the fact that members of the public who visit national parks during the shutdown won’t behave responsibly by carrying out their own trash and protecting land, wildlife, and artifacts without ranger supervision.
Merrill Leavitt, Denver
Don’t forget Gardner’s NRA ties
Re: “Gardner got it right by crossing party lines on shutdown,” Jan. 5 letters to the editor
Yes, Sen. Cory Gardner should receive the electoral “Bye, Felicia” courtesy of Coloradans in 2020 for his complicity with The Great Prevaricator currently residing in the White House.
Yet perhaps even more disturbing to those with a modicum of gun safety on their minds, letap please not forget Gardner’s ultra-chummy relationship with our old gun lobby stalwarts at the National Rifle Association.
Gardner, as most already know, is one of the NRA’s top recipients of campaign donations, having garnered near $4 million in funding over his career from a group that refuses to support politicians who dare consider anything beyond the obligatory “thoughts and prayers” following mass shootings in Orlando, Las Vegas and many other unfortunate locales.
For those who are beyond frustrated with the do-nothings when it comes to gun safety and safe schools, remember to whom Gardner is truly beholden in 2020.
Ryan Bauer, Thornton
Photo captures a beautiful welcome home
Re: “Newest Citizens,” Jan. 6 photo package
What a heart-warming picture in the Sunday Denver Post — a precious girl taking the oath of allegiance during the children’s citizenship ceremony at History Colorado Center.
I had almost forgotten that is the way we do it. Thank you for the beautiful reminder.
Mary Ann Lueckel, Broomfield
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