Weighing in on the runoff election for Denver mayor
Re: “Brough and Johnston: The runoff candidates,” May 21 news stories
Thank you for publishing the side-by-side summaries of the backgrounds of , which presented sufficient contrast to present a clear choice, in my view. Kelly Brough — a woman of humble beginnings, worked her way through public colleges; found a full-time career encompassing a breadth of City of Denver jobs, including working up to and serving as Chief of Staff for Mayor John Hickenlooper, followed by a lengthy stint as CEO of the Denver Chamber of Commerce.
After reading that Mike Johnston was a born Vail aristocrat; exclusive private school grad; and spent a great deal of his recent past as an adviser in politics, with eight years as a part-time state legislator (120 days/yr. in session) — followed by failed campaigns running for governor and for U.S. Senate, my voting choice is made, regardless of which candidate can raise more money.
Peter Ehrlich, Denver
The recent attack ads by Kelly Brough should disqualify her from the current mayoral race and from ever running for office in Colorado. It is not just the content; it is also the timing.
Whether it is her directly or a PAC, she could shut it down, or at least disavow them.
With all the joint debates, she had many opportunities to make these accusations. She lacked the courage to look him in the eye and repeat what are the worst of political campaigns.
Those who endorsed her candidacy should immediately issue retractions.
Edward Shackelford, Denver
Re: Denver needs “killer instinct’,” May 21 editorial
After reading both excellent pieces on Kelly Brough and Mike Johnston, we’re saying how fortunate for Denver voters that we don’t have to choose between the lesser of two evils. That said, we’re voting for Kelly Brough.
Considering everything explained in the editorial about what might be in store for the Mile High stadium district, she has “the chops” to deal with giant issues involving all the different constituents that will need to be juggled – businesses, sports fans, neighbors, land owners, civic cheerleaders, media, and billionaires. She’s a competent diplomat.
Helen and Chris Gray, Denver
You report that mayoral candidate Kelly Brough has been employed by various entities both in and outside of the city government. She is reported to be an effective administrator. But the question is, if elected mayor, who will she be working for? The average Denverite or the developers and Chamber of Commerce who both paid her handsomely while she worked for them and who have also invested millions of dollars in her campaign?
Guy Wroble, Denver
Beware wrongheaded definitions of capitalism, socialism
Re: “A wrong turn on capitalism and religion,” May 21 commentary
Krista Kafer appears to be a graduate of the Ron DeSantis School of Economic History. She rants about the twin menaces of communism and Venezuela but totally ignores the damage that unregulated capitalism did throughout the history of our country.
Was she not taught about the Ludlow Massacre, where the Colorado Militia slaughtered innocent women and children to protect the monopolist John D. Rockefeller’s mining interests? Did she not learn of the terrible working conditions and income inequality in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that only changed because of the trust-busting of Teddy Roosevelt and the progressive laws later passed under Franklin Roosevelt?
Did she not learn about the destruction of our environment that corporations got away with before the passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts during the Nixon administration?
Doesn’t she understand that her savior, St. Ronnie Reagan, the union buster, started the decline in middle-class income that continues to this day? Does she not care that the recent repeals of child labor laws in red states like Iowa and Arkansas are taking us back to the dangerous working conditions Upton Sinclair wrote about in the early 1900s?
Kafer’s embrace of revisionist economic history seeks a return to the days of unregulated capitalism in the Gilded Age that ignores the hardship of anyone who was not in the upper class.
Jim Blugerman, Georgetown
Honoring the fallen and the survivors
Dad, Uncle Harry, Uncle Paul — thatap how we knew them when we were kids. They didn’t talk about what they did in World War II, so we didn’t know how proud we should have been. They went to war to defeat the great evil that threatened the entire world. “Just doing our duty” they would say, as if it was nothing special. But it was, and they answered when history called. Our parents and relatives.
We would learn much later that they were deemed by history to be the “Greatest Generation” and that they had saved the world from unspeakable evil. Our soft-spoken and humble parents and relatives. The debt we owe them can never be repaid, but we can remember and ensure that others remember.
Thank you, Greatest Generation. We’re sorry that we have not taken better care of the world you left us and have not been adequately attentive to the threats to our democracy caused by elected liars, cowards and criminals. We will try harder.
Steve Haverl, Denver
Leaning in on the guilty party
The editorial section of your Sunday paper is properly named “Perspective,” especially when reading about the Durham Report, by special counsel John Durham, on the investigation into Donald Trump.
Considering the past history of how former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page treated their approach to Trump, and the leniency of former FBI director James Comey toward Hilary Clinton, there is no doubt in the mind of any conservative that the FBI was out to get the “outsider” Donald Trump and protected Hilary Clinton.
If you are a Democrat, Hilary is innocent, and Trump is guilty. It is a matter of perspective.
William F. Hineser, Arvada
The civil liberties we trampled at home
Re: “Civil liberties: Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch has given himself away,” May 24 commentary
This commentary listed numerous examples of intrusions on civil liberties by the U.S. government. However, one very striking example was overlooked. What about the seizure of businesses, property and homes from the Japanese Americans during World War II? While we were fighting the Nazis in Europe and eventually freeing Jews and other people from German concentration camps, we interred our own citizens in camps here in the U.S.
I only learned of this injustice from my best friend in high school. She told me that she was called a “desert rat” by her father since she was born in a camp in Arizona while he served in the American Army. Her father served in intelligence, translating intercepted Japanese messages to help us defeat the Japanese.
Many “white” Americans were able to thrive in southern California on the farms and businesses confiscated from the Japanese Americans who were held in our concentration camps. If it had not been for my friend, I would never have known of the camps in America; this was never taught in high school in the 1960s, and I am sure it is not taught in schools today since we do not want our children to “feel guilty” for these realities of American history.
June Spero, Denver
Massacre site needs “fixes”
For the past three years, I’ve tried to get some inequities “fixed” at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.
1) The 6-mile rut-filled road is nearly impassable above 15mph.
2) The granite marker says, “Sand Creek Battle Ground.” It was not a battle; it was a disgraceful massacre.
3) At the road’s entrance stand two former city limit signs for Chivington. This is the cavalry colonel who led nearly 700 troops to massacre and mutilate more than 200 women, children, and elderly.
People I’ve contacted repeatedly include Sen. Michael Bennet, Gov. Jared Polis, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland — and nothing! Please help!
Gary Austin Heyde, Lincoln, Neb.
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