The debate on giving aid to the homeless
Re: āWe need tough love for those living on the streets,ā July 4 commentary
In the early 1950s, my father drove me into the inner-city of Cleveland to show me how āthose peopleā lived. It was his warning to me that if I didnāt do all the right things, I would become like āthem.ā In those days we called these areas of abject poverty āthe slumsā or āhobo jungles.ā Today weāre calling them homeless camps.
Instead of using nostrums like ātough loveā in our descriptions, wringing our hands about how much money we spend on the homeless, or clutching our pearls about what to do that is decent and good, we must consider that it is a systemic problem with our whole society — how it is structured and how it¶¶Ņõap supposed to work. Instead of treating the symptoms by acquiring empty motels and such, perhaps we need to deal with what caused the homeless to be homeless.
We wonāt like what weāll find, but this societal blight wonāt be reduced or eliminated by just throwing taxpayer money and throw-away clichesā at the problems.
Vern Turner, Denver
While reading Krista Kaferās column, my eyes stopped at her claim we are doing too much for the homeless.
People who live on the streets or those who go to rescue missions are seldom lazy or stupid. Nor are they just societal dropouts abusing drugs. They are, in many cases, mentally ill.
When my son, a former class president and swim team captain, exhibited bizarre behavior at age 20 following his first year in college, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He behaved in ways we could not understand. In 1985 there were few books about the subject of mental illness. Kay Redfield Jamison MA, Ph.D. and Professor of Psychiatry, wrote āAn Unquiet Mindā about her own descent into madness. I suggest you read it. Today, there are many books that explain the behavior of people afflicted with mental illnesses. Resources are available at National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), and your library.
His father, brother, and I did everything we could to help our son be ānormalā; we loved him. He could not find the right combination of drugs and counseling to control the disease and took his life when he was 42. When encountering people ābegging for money,ā do not judge them. They are asking for help.
Sue Anne Graham, Littleton
My family and I really liked Krista Kaferās commentary. She hit all the points of contention that we have discussed over the dinner table. We also didnāt realize how much the non-profits were contributing ($90M) to managing the problem behind the scenes.
Motivating the lifestyle campers to change seems to be the key to cleaning up Denver and suburbs. Aurora Mayor Mike Coffmanās experiment was eye-opening and confirmed what we have been thinking about the campers.
Once Denverās proposed encampment law is hopefully passed, we should see further accountability. One additional thing we wanted to suggest would be to mandate that campers do some kind of work for the city and or state, like clean up streets and neighborhoods or other skilled work to earn their new lodging, or risk jail — more tough love.
Robert Krug, Westminster
I read with interest the column Krista wrote on the homeless problem. Having worked in social work for 30 years, I can tell her that not all homeless people are homeless by choice. Surprisingly (many will disagree with this), remaining homeless is also not a matter of choice, just as mental illness is also not a matter of choice.
With medication and through other means, there are those mentally ill who can live productive lives, but there are others who simply canāt. They may be so mired in the darkness of their illness that their addiction has consumed every aspect of their life and hope to them is just a word.
Kafer says enabling self-destruction is not compassionate and she discourages people from handing out food and pocket change. So I guess for those who may be disoriented and canāt seem to make it to a shelter for meals, the alternative is that they just should starve?
Mike Westmoreland, Parker
Re: āIn Denver, compassion rather than chaos for homeless,ā Feb. 14 commentary
I live in the Baker neighborhood and have seen a steep uptake in the type of encampments that lead to trash everywhere, needles, theft (stuff stolen out of my garage in broad daylight recently), etc.
Weāve reached out to the city numerous times, but no answer or action from them for over a month and when we call them, all they do is file a report over the phone. Residents wisely wonāt approach these people who have nothing to lose, and not knowing their mental state. The issue I want to raise is, if the city wonāt do anything in ample time and the residents arenāt going to confront these camps, what happens?
Right now, these camps sit on the outskirts of a neighborhood and the individuals have free rein to prey on a neighborhood knowing there will likely be no implications from the city or residents (stealing packages, bikes, breaking into houses, etc.).
I want to be clear that I have no issue with people setting up tents and trying to respect a neighborhood as best they can. The ones that flat out could care less are the ones Iām concerned about — the ones called out in Vincent Carrollās commentary. Does the city want to wait until a serious crime occurs and/or when a citizen steps in? My wife and I just had our first child and I shouldnāt have to worry about walking around the neighborhood or having my wife take trash out in the alley at night, let alone in broad daylight.
M. Reder, Denver
Ranked-choice voting ready for wider rollout?
Re:Ā āPump the brakes on ranked-choice voting in Denver,ā July 4 commentary
Doug Friednash appears to have two major concerns with ranked-choice voting in his commentary. The first is that in New York the voting tally mistakenly included ātest ballots,ā causing a delay when the ballot counting program had to be re-run without those test ballots. The second is that āit is highly unlikely that voters will have an understanding of the various candidates’ policy positions too in order to confidently rank multiple candidates.ā
It is interesting that the first concern has nothing to do with ranked-choice voting. The New York State Board of Elections made a mistake and counted a set of test ballots. That is not a fault of ranked-choice voting; it is a mistake made by the board (and has not occurred in any of the hundreds of other ranked-choice votes in other parts of the country).
The second concern is equally baseless — ranking additional candidates if a preferred candidate doesnāt win. This is the āconfusing, complicated processā that the poor voter cannot be expected to understand?
The real concern slips out at the end of Friednashās column, that RCV may āgive life to chicanery and extreme candidates creating coalitions that could lead to absurd results inimical to majority voter wishes.ā Yes, that is the very point; in RCV, you can show support for non-mainline candidates while still having your vote be counted for your preferred compromise candidate. In fact RCV requires that a majority voter preference be selected over the minority result.
Geoffrey M. Clemm, Denver
Thanks for publishing Doug Friednashās excellent column on the problems New York City is having with Ranked Choice Voting.
The fundamental problem with RCV is that it can easily lead to sub-optimal outcomes. Even if there is one candidate who would easily win a head-to-head contest against any of the other candidates, that candidate might get tossed out by the RCV process and so have no chance of being elected.
Imagine a race with three mayoral candidates; weāll call them Fast, Medium, and Slow. Suppose all voters like Medium as their first or second choice. But around 35% rank Fast first, 35% rank Slow first, and the remaining 30% rank Medium first.
Under RCV, Medium, who only got 30% of the first-place votes, is out. Then the final contest is between Fast and Slow, even though 65% of voters prefer Medium to Fast and 65% prefer Medium to Slow.
So, although Medium is clearly the head-to-head winner, Medium is disqualified, producing a polarized, sub-optimal outcome ā exactly what we donāt want.
A better alternative is approval voting (AV), where voters get to vote for as many candidates of which they āapprove.ā The one with the most approval votes wins. And AV elections do not require new hardware or software. They can be run by the county clerks, just as our current elections are. The only difference is that voters are not limited to voting for only one candidate.
Steve Pomerance, Boulder
Revising vs. correcting history
Re:Ā āAmerica the Beautiful, revised version,ā July 4 commentary
Tyler Cohen writes a lot about revisionist history, which is what we have all too much of in our United States history journals. There is a difference between revising history and correcting it.
Let¶¶Ņõap talk about correcting history. When our founding fathers, who were obviously imperfect individuals, wrote the greatest Constitution the world has ever known, some were slave owners and had other vices. They wrote into the Constitution that all men are created equal and would be treated equally under the law — even though they knew they were sinners of the new law.
Let¶¶Ņõap correct history by teaching truth in our schools, the media and other avenues. Does the correction meet the test of āThe truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?ā Revising history sounds less specific than correcting history. The fact that history was written incompletely or dishonestly is part of our history and should not be thrown away. Through truth comes understanding!
Mark Rawlins, Westminster
Keep pain relief medicines available in doctorsā toolboxes
Re: āFederal law would incentivize non-opioid pain relief treatments,ā July 3 letter to the editor
The letter writer serves a worthy cause by trying to decrease opioid deaths. But in our zeal to further that goal, let us not deprive prescribed opioid treatment for those in intense need of relief from pain.
Twenty-four years ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Fortunately, the diagnosis was made early and I handled the radiation seed implants with no need for opioid pain relief.
Twenty-eight months ago I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that destroys bones. Before the doctors got it in remission, I experienced really intense pain, which was relieved by increased doses of morphine-based pain killers. As I went into remission, I reduced the pain killers to none, which surprised quite a few people as much as my being around for a while longer.
When the myeloma comes back, which it will if something else doesnāt kill me first, Iād like to be ushered out of this life as pain-free as possible.
Yes, I think lessening deaths from opioid overdosing is a worthy goal, but let¶¶Ņõap not deprive doctors of the means of providing pain relief for those who are in excruciating pain.
John Dellinger, Aurora
Thankful to live in the USA
Looking back on a life that included service in World War II and the Korean conflict, Iām having a hard time figuring out why so many citizens are seemingly disenfranchised from this beautiful land all of us occupy. I feel doubly blessed when a flag goes by or I meet a service person — someone willing to take an oath and live by it. Are there those who would rather live somewhere else? This is America, folks. Each of us ought to thank God every single day that we are so privileged to live in this beautiful country.
Bruce Jacobsen, Denver
How is this an insult?
Re: āRemoving American Indian mascots from state schools,ā July 4 news story
With respect to American Indian named schools, teams, and mascots, perhaps we forget that the U.S. government does not shy away from such things.
We have Tomahawk cruise missiles. Helicopters named Apache, Blackhawk, Kiowa and Lakota. And let us not forget the code name āGeronimoā used in the attack that killed Osama bin Laden.
So is a team called the āBravesā really an insult?
William F. Hineser, Arvada
Fed up with illegal fireworks
Well, it¶¶Ņõap happened again. After fireworks being illegal for years in the City of Lakewood, ridiculous amounts of them were blown off on the third and Fourth of July.
What really upsets me is when I see whole families doing it for entertainment. Good Job! You are teaching your children that it¶¶Ņõap okay to break the law.
My husband retired from West Metro Fire Department as a deputy fire marshal. The lawbreakers make all of their jobs more difficult than it already is. What I donāt understand is why citations for $999 are not being handed out left and right. There are no consequences for the unpatriotic citizens that insist on entertaining themselves with their illegal fireworks.
I have a suggestion. Make a fireworks task force. We can pay the salaries with the money from the citations written to the offenders. As citizens, let us make fireworks as uncool as drunken driving and smoking cigarettes. Let¶¶Ņõap do it in honor of our veterans, sleeping babies, workers that need their rest, and the terrified animals. Grow up, people! It¶¶Ņõap past time!
Deborah Healy, Lakewood
Protect Afghans who aided U.S.
The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating daily as American forces continue their exit and the Afghan government proves unable to stem the resurging conquest being conducted by the Taliban. American officials now estimate that the federal government could survive only six months after the U.S. withdrawal is completed, and an additional calamity lies on the horizon if that possibility turns prophetic: the abandoning of Afghan civilians that aided the U.S and NATO forces.
Similar images to the evacuation of Saigon in 1975 may emerge less than a year from now as tens of thousands of Afghans attempt to escape the inevitable wrath of the Taliban should the terrorist organization regain control of the country. Besides the immediate necessity for the United States to abide by its human rights commitments in protecting civilians from those who would seek to harm them lies the long-term ramification of deterring local informants and supporters in future U.S military and foreign policy endeavors.
Local aids have always been crucial to assisting American operations abroad, and if the Biden administration fails to protect the Afghan civilians now, it could serve as a deterring element from any future involvement by noncombatants in other areas of strategic importance to the United States.
When the Islamic State seeks to rebuild its caliphate in Africa and China seeks to build its global influence, America cannot afford not to protect those who participate in its aid, regardless of where they come from.
Jackson Belva, Colorado Springs
Generalizations about political party are divisive
There is too much division in our country and the media seems to promote it. Everything does not have a Democrat or Republican āside.ā Those who disagree with a White House policy are not necessarily Republicans.
Can other words be used so civil discourse might occur? After all, one-third of voters in the nation are unaffiliated, with an even higher percentage in Colorado.
Monica OāBrien Wolfe, Lakewood
Critical to learning
Re: āOf critical concern,ā July 6 news story
The article on critical race theory should answer questions about what the theory is and what it isnāt. But I wondered about the comment made by William Conner when he outlined what he thought should be included in public education — ā. . .the ability to read, do math and critically think.ā
So I ponder: How does one learn to ācritically thinkā if all of the information is not presented? What happens when students ask questions and are not guided in discovering the answers? How does one learn about the history of the U.S. when certain aspects of that history are glossed over? Does a student develop ācritical thinkingā when his race, gender or ideology is discounted or ignored?
The article outlined various opinions on this topic, which provided those of us who did learn āto readā and ācritically thinkā adequate information to develop our own opinions on this issue. We need to be open to listening to those who have different experiences, problems and backgrounds. We will never be a great country until all citizens have equal opportunities to reach their potential.
Andrea West, Centennial
Russia, China, Iran, et al. must be gleeful about the current row over critical race theory that is enraging many people in the U.S. It wouldnāt be a surprise to learn at some point that Russia and others are feeding the beast on social media. It must be gratifying to our enemies to know that American history as taught in schools, U.S. race relations, politics and our fragile democracy are fraying even further as days pass. If not CRT today, then some other inflammatory topic tomorrow. We Americans are going down a dangerous, slippery slope and donāt seem to be able to stop the slide.
Natalie Parker, Longmont
Hope from the ground up
Re: āCarbon farming needs clear rules,ā July 5 commentary
Thank you to the scientists at Colorado State University for the article.
My husband and I recently watched a documentary called āKiss the Ground,ā which explains these methods farmers and ranchers could start using now to capture carbon from the atmosphere and at the same time regenerate the soil.
This article has further encouraged me that we do have a way forward that is immediate and we are not doomed by climate change. I pledge to contact officeholders to alert them to this important step we can take now to stop the ravages caused by climate change, including wildfires. I challenge others to do the same.
Sunny Kelly, Greenwood Village
Paper … and plastic?
Re: āPlastic bag fees begin,ā July 1 news story
āPlastic bag fees beginā is a headline on a paper delivered in a plastic bag for which no fee applies. Daily delivery adds up to about 2.5 lbs/year of plastic film. And although Iāve found a way to reuse those bags, few people do.
Dick Dunn, Hygiene
Get off the grass
Re: Growth, drought put focus on water,ā July 4 news story
I read with interest the article regarding the increased water funding, signed by the governor, for water development projects in Colorado. I now offer my two water development projects for not only Colorado but California, Arizona and Nevada: xeriscaping as mandatory for all new builds and the water utilities offer incentives to customers who reduce and replace their grass with native plants.
I get that this will not magically refill Lake Mead or Lake Powell but it is pretty obvious to me that if the demand is reduced as much as possible, then maybe it will help us ride out this megadrought with a little less stress
and reduce water consumption in the future.
Teri Jacobson, Boulder
As a lifetime Coloradan, I am well aware of water conservation and how critical water is to us. There is no doubt that the American West is drying up. We have a shrinking supply of water, and Colorado can do it¶¶Ņõap share to help with this dire situation that we and other states — including, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, and California — face.
One solution to water conservation would be to think differently about sod. Next time youāre out and about look carefully at how much grass there really is in your community. It¶¶Ņõap everywhere. Grass is certainly not needed in many places. Decorative rock, mulch, and water-tolerant plants would be a smarter solution.
It amazes me how much sod is planted all around the Denver Metro area. I live in Thornton and we are growing rapidly. New developments are going up everywhere.
Vast amounts of grass are planted in yards, common areas, and along streets. Of course sod is a thirsty crop and needs plenty of water.
Builders and municipalities should do their part and plan for something other than grass. Pay close attention to all green grass around you. Youāll notice a whole lot of it. But there are other ways that are wiser than sod to beautify your neighborhood and mine.
Jarred Ratzlaff, Thornton
Heroes get vaccinated
Re: āAurora mom will cheer for Arenado,ā July 1 sports commentary
Lost in an undeserving tribute to Nolan Arenado was the story of a young man, Taurean Taylor, who was a big fan of Nolanās.
But it was this passage that sunk my heart, āHaving posted a perfect record — 2-0 ā against cancer, it was complications and infections from COVID that caused him to pass away this past May 16. He was 13.ā
To The Denver Post and Sean Keeler, the death of a child due to complications of the COVID-Delta variant is your story. This should be a call to action to get vaccinated, if not for yourself, then for the memory of a young man whose immune system was compromised by his battle with cancer. That is the moral of this very sad story.
Gina Sinopoli, Centennial
Judicial transparency is what Colorado really needs
Re: āBody camera footage mandates,ā July 7 news story
I find it interesting the state would pass and sign into law House Bill 1250 requiring law enforcement to release unredacted body-camera footage in the event of an accusation of officer misconduct. The billās sponsor state Rep. Leslie Herod said the increased transparency is necessary. However, our nation is a nation of laws and protections of the rights of the accused, including due process.
Todayās political climate demands law enforcement does their job efficiently, effectively, transparently. I believe members of law enforcement would agree that they desire this too.
A former Supreme Court Justice is āunder investigation for awarding a contract that appeared to ensure the silence of a potential whistle-blower about instances of sexual misconduct at various levels of the judiciary by judges, including the Colorado Supreme Court.
Notice it¶¶Ņõap a former justice under investigation, meaning he will likely still receive all the rights and privileges of his retirement even though he is now under investigation.
Lawyers being investigated for misconduct have their investigations done in the strictest of confidentiality. Then, if they are found to have violated some cryptic conduct issue, it too is withheld from the public. Not so for John Q. Public and now police officers.
Judges, however, have the same confidentiality afforded all lawyers, but it is surrounded by the cone of silence. I guarantee that if, and that¶¶Ņõap a mighty big āifā the former chief justice is found in violation, and other judges as well, the public will never hear of their punishment.
Dave Adams, Greeley
Build Glenwood Canyon bypass
Re: āCDOT āleft to the whims of natureā,ā July 2 news story
Interstate 70 goes through Glenwood Canyon. It is a beautiful road, but the ground is unstable, and rock slides, mudslides and landslides occur, blocking traffic. These problems were known when the highway was built and great efforts were made to preserve the beauty of Glenwood Canyon. Because of the frequency that the canyon has been closed, a bypass circuit around the canyon should be built. There are now two county roads that do this already: Eagle County Road 10A and Garfield County Road 113. They are not passable by trucks and large vehicles. This project would be part of the infrastructure of the U.S. and it should be built with federal money, not county funds.
Bob Gordon, Lakewood
A call to our senators
Dear Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet,
The time has come, as it has but once before, to save our democracy. You have the power. Now you have the opportunity. You have the eyes of the country and the world upon you. So, as I am speaking out, you should too. Where are your editorials, your mailers (so prevalent during campaigns), your speeches at town halls, your Zoom invitations to your constituencies, your TV, cable, and streaming broadcasts? Your silence is alarming. Now is the time, so let¶¶Ņõap hear from you. Be leaders; be fearless; openly and loudly support the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act; change the rules of the filibuster! Get it done. Or we are done for.
Renee Ruderman, Denver
Common sense on plastic bags
So let me see if I get this straight. The left really cares about the poor, so they charge 10 cents per bag at the grocery store. Those same plastic bags that average-income and even poor people use as trash bags in their homes. If they use cloth bags for their grocery bags, they have to buy plastic bags to use for their trash. Those same bags that they used to get for free at the grocery store. Am I missing something here? Is there no end to the lack of common sense from the left?
Gerald Anderson, Denver
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