A hit and a miss on masks
Recently, to beat the heat, a friend and I went to Summit County. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Town of Breckenridge has established a mandatory mask zone downtown, requiring masks to be worn at all times, both indoors and outdoors. The compliance rate was extremely high, by my informal count about 99%, not counting people who had temporarily removed their masks to eat or drink. What was really surprising to me was how normal it looked, with tourists enjoying a beautiful day and local merchants open for business. People of all ages and, presumably, all political persuasions, strolled along Main Street with good social distancing, and I didn’t witness a single kerfuffle over masks.
I truly believe that making masks mandatory for everyone depoliticizes the issue and emphasizes the public health challenge we are all facing together.
So how about it, Gov. Jared Polis? Isn’t it time to take the politics out of mask-wearing and put this virus in its place with a statewide mandatory mask order?
Ken F. Kirkpatrick, Denver
I attended a youth baseball tournament in Arvada last weekend at Harold D. Lutz Sports Complex to watch my 8-year-old grandson play in a tournament. While there, I saw just one other person wearing a mask.
There are nine fields at this complex and games were being played on each field. I must have passed hundreds of people! I was stunned.
Don’t these people realize that the United States is topping the list among countries, averaging more than 60,000 new cases daily? As I meandered through these crowds of clueless parents, siblings, players and their friends, Florida was hitting a grim single day milestone — 15,299 people tested positive for the virus.
What is it with youth baseball culture? Were these people acting to protect baseball tradition? Sure, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Sandy Koufax never wore a mask at a baseball park, but I’m sure they would choose to do so now in order to protect themselves and their loved ones during this pandemic.
Timothy R. Wagner, Boulder
Don’t forget the WMD
Re: “Why will our great-grandchildren scorn us?” July 13 commentary
Nicholas Kristof lists several valid issues for this subject. But a major one he apparently forgot to list is weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. They were developed and rarely used, thankfully. Yet there are still huge stockpiles on hand.
I would also quibble with his statement that we “…could have been so selfish as to refuse to take small steps to reduce carbon emissions.”
The steps necessary to be taken are not small but instead are monumental. That is why the needed levels of leadership on this have been missing.
Stanley Young, Fort Collins
Stockpiling debt
It seems nearly every day we hear of another politician promising more and more benefits “for everyone” and “for free.” Maybe itap just my old school math coming back from Catholic grade school, but I worry about this equation.
How can everything be offered to everyone for free? I suspect we can’t. Those who are producers (the minority) in our society will ultimately not want to pay for those that do not (the majority). Every society that has tried to “spread benefits around” has become inefficient, and ultimately, too costly to be sustainable. So, I guess we can all sit back and vote ourselves more benefits, but I worry about the next generations and the fact that we are robbing them every day.
Joe Pickard, Littleton
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.
