The cost of ignoring climate science
Re: “The whole sky was black,” July 2 news story.
From where I sit today, about fifteen miles from the Aspen Acres fire, the sky is not an argument. It is smoke. The hills are not a theory. They are burning.
Fire officials say this fire was human-caused. In the narrowest sense, that means a person or human activity started the spark. But the larger truth is harder to look away from: scientists wrote this script more than thirty years ago. They warned that a warming climate would dry forests, shrink snowpack, intensify drought, lengthen fire seasons and turn ordinary ignitions into disasters.
Now, Colorado is living inside that warning.
Families are fleeing Beulah, Rye, San Isabel and Colorado City. Homes are gone. Livelihoods are uncertain. Firefighters are risking their lives in heat, wind and smoke while the rest of us watch ash fall on places we love.
This is why climate policy matters. It is not some distant political debate in Washington. It is the difference between preparation and abandonment, between clean energy and more pollution, between listening to scientists and pretending the flames are a surprise.
Colorado understands fire. We understand wind. We understand drought. What we should no longer tolerate is leadership that treats climate science as an inconvenience while our communities burn.
The Aspen Acres Fire may have been human-caused. The conditions that let it explode were not a Jim mystery. They were predicted. They were documented. They were ignored.
And now, from fifteen miles away, I can see the cost.
Judy Ricks, Pueblo West
Please, actually enforce fireworks bans
Re: “Nothing declares independence like a little rebellion, but play it cool with the fireworks this year,” July 28 opinion column
This year, fortunately, there was a lot of information printed and aired, about the banning of fireworks in our state for the 4th of July. I saw and heard that cities were going to make use of drones to assist in locating those folks who apparently did not care that there was potentially a $1,000 fine for setting off fireworks that go into the sky and explode.
The people who do this are probably showing their children what used to be. They are totally inconsiderate of the people who have pets, and they include the possibility of starting a house or wildfire. I saw on TV that at least three home fires were started by fireworks. I live in the suburbs, and we had numerous violations of the fireworks laws around our home. My dog would not go outside any time before my 11:00 bedtime. I got up at 3:15 am to take the dog out, and there were continuous sounds of fireworks at that time.
Several years ago, The Denver Post issued an article giving statistics of how many people were contacted for the use of banned fireworks and how many were fined for the violations. A very small percentage were fined. I am asking The Denver Post to once again investigate and report these same statistics for July 4th, 2026.
John O’Rourke, Centennial
Mourning for the America we once had
I have been trying to understand why the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence has left me with such a hollow feeling. It is probably because I was 21 when America turned two hundred in 1976.
Back then, America came together to celebrate that it had survived the race riots of the 1960s and had ended its involvement in the Vietnam War. Both the Republicans and the Democrats had united to end the presidency of a man who had broken the law in his quest for power. Civil rights legislation had been passed while campaign finance reform reduced the influence of money in politics. There was a brighter future for America.
In 2026 America, things are different. Division, not unity, is the rule. We have a president who openly lies to the American people and is shameless when his lies are exposed. He claims that elections are rigged and fraudulent. He seeks to roll back civil rights legislation and has been enabled in this by a Supreme Court that has also given him immunity from the law. He starts wars on his whim. He is a man who would be king. Which is apparently just fine with the Republican Party.
At best, there is turbulence for the nation ahead. But it could easily become far darker. The probability that these are the last days of the American Republic is higher than most people will acknowledge. Which means that there was very little to celebrate on this 4th of July.
Guy Wroble, Denver
America’s great poet, Phillis Wheatley, helped break racism
The many 250th celebrations were deeply moving, but one heroine deserves a nod of recognition — Phillis Wheatley. A girl 6 or 7 years old was so sick and small that she could not be sold at the South Carolina slave market. Her station was below slavery. Taken to Boston, she was purchased by a wealthy merchant to assist his wife, Mrs. Wheatley.
Recognizing Phillis’ brilliant mind, Mrs. Wheatley and their daughter Mary taught her to read and write excellent poetry. Because she was black and a slave, Phillis could not publish in the colonies. So, with Wheatley’s assistance, she sailed to London, where she found a publisher and her works were well received.
In the New England Colonies, slavers justified their acts by saying the difference between men and animals was the ability to reason, read, write, and express oneself. Non-thinking animals are beasts of burden or slaves. Thinking men must be free. In 1772, a board of elite men, including Gov. Thomas Hutchinson and John Hancock, “examined” Phillis Wheatley to determine if she had truly written her masterpiece poems. The board agreed the poems were hers. She could reason, write, and express herself. She was human, not animal.
Phillis Wheatley breached the wall. Black people and all skin tones between black and white are human; all women are capable of reason and are human; we all are human and must be free and equal.
Thank you, Phillis Wheatley, for what you accomplished.
Paul Bonnifield, Yampa
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