Daily Camera: Letters to the Editor

Sandra Moriarty: Keep bicycles off of the trails

Boulder is reviewing Open Space trail use on the West side of town. One of the most divisive issues is the request by mountain bikers for access to the area below NCAR and the Flatirons, across Shanahan Ridge, and south to Eldorado Springs.

Users of these trails (hikers, joggers, dog walkers, hiking families, bird watchers, nature lovers) are concerned because the area is heavily used by people looking for a quiet and safe experience in Open Space’s most valuable “nature preserve.”

They point to the 1980s when bikes where banned from these trails because of conflicts and trail degradation. Why allow bikes again when the trails are even more heavily used today?

Bikers propose “compromise.” But sharing trails (Dowdy Draw, Marshall Mesa, among others) doesn’t work. Given the unpleasantness and safety concerns of giving way or dodging careening bikes, hikers give up using these “shared” trails. Alternate days also means giving up access.

And creating a new dedicated mountain bike trail through Boulder’s own “Sistine Chapel,” which is another request, is a slippery slope opening this sensitive area to degradation via the many illegal but unenforced access points.

What mountain bike supporters have overlooked is that hikers have already compromised.

According to the Mountain Bike Association’s website, bikers have access to 199 of the 386 miles of trails in Boulder City and County Open Space and Forest Service trails. That’s nearly 52% of Open Space trails. And now the city is building a $4.1 million, 45-acre “ultimate off-road bike park” at Valmont and Airport Rd.

If mountain bikes are given access to the West Trail Area, how soon before users of ATVs and snowmobiles ask for a “compromise” giving them access too?

Why is it that this minor portion of Boulder Open Space—less than ¼ of the total—can’t remain peaceful, pristine, and bike-free?

For more information and to find out how to express your opinions on this issue, go to SOSboulder.org.

Sandra Moriarty

South Boulder resident

Carolyn Wegner: Racing pigeons as pets

This quote by M. Ghandi was written in the Daily Camera a few days ago: “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

Specifically, it is my intention to speak of the RACING PIGEONS that are kept in a loft in the backyard of a Gunbarrel residence. Their natural inclination to flight is disrupted and instead can only fly for a “very limited time each day.” (Daily Camera, 9/2/10) According to Jim Williams, owner of 35 racing pigeons, “They are very valuable and kept in top health, and they are routinely vaccinated.” I ask, at the most intimate level of consciousness, “for whose enjoyment are these pigeons confined, for the pigeons themselves, or the owners of these pigeons?” I speak on behalf of the birds: Intrinsically, birds that I’ve come to know as “pigeons” are able to fly without any limitations to their flight. Are these particular racing pigeons so VALUABLE because MONEY has been invested in them to race at human beings’ whims and fancies? At these beautiful creatures’ expense, do they win for their owners certain acclaim, trophies or other prizes? What acclaim do the birds receive? My purpose in writing this letter to the Open Forum is to bring into the Light a glimmer of introspection with regards our intentions, feelings, motives . . . concerning our relationships with the wildlife who reside on this earth with us.

As Ghandi said and I will paraphrase: We are great, or lacking in greatness and judged in this regard by our treatment of animals.

Carolyn Wegner
Boulder

Joyce Robetson: School of journalism

Editor:
My father would be turning over in his grave if he knew in what jeopardy the newspapers in this country now find themselves. He would not grieve as much for the CU School of Journalism’s possible demise, as he, himself, in the early 1930′s was educated in what he called “the school of hard knocks.” One year at the University of Montana, Missoula, netted him the woman he would later marry, but the cost of a University education was beyond him. Soon he was pounding a typewriter as a reporter, eventually as editor of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
I hope that this plan to establish an “information school “, a new program ” for information and communication technology”, does not mean neglecting the investigative and analytical roles that print journalism has frequently taken. The two investigative reporters who blazed the information trail to “Watergate” and the subsequent resignation of then President Richard Nixon were doing a crucial service to the nation. Newspapers in this democracy need to continue to serve this role, revealing unseen or ignored wrongs, malfeasance by trusted officials, and pointing possible directions to better ways. This role is important on a community level, as well as on the national level.
It’s imperative that this democracy continues to value the importance of a free press. And if just “jumping in and doing it”‘ as my father did is no longer enough, questions about training and experience for editors, reporters, and columnists are eminently worthy of consideration, debate, perhaps experimentation. Paul Voakes, dean of the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, has the right idea. He suggests CU could seek “a new and innovative way to create a school that is the first of its kind in the country and becomes a new model for information and journalism education.”

Joyce Robetson
Boulder

Greg Iwan: School district funding dichotomies

Editor: It is very strange how some have decided that if a school district “spends” any funds, then that is socialism. The district is spending for its own account, in certain distorted political statements. On the other hand, there is a “market,” which, if taken on faith, solves everything. Even if the two are diametrically opposite, why does this mood and so much hyperbole perceive some “zero-sum game?”

PUBLIC funds are expended for us all. I have no children, yet I support property taxation, for it is the major source for public education funding. I am convinced our entire society — all of us — benefits from education of our youth. The opposite is to commit to the ways of the Taliban. Some may want to substitute dogma for balanced, rational, critical thinking, but the route to the 22d century is assuredly NOT through the ninth.

Persons who want zero taxation and $10 auto registrations are, to put it bluntly, selfish. I wonder if any of them can tell the rest of us when was the last time the public sector ruined their prosperity. That was done nationally, no later than 2008. But does and can “the market” lay one off? You betcha! It happens every day and will continue to happen, until those who really can benefit from zero taxation have us where they want us. That may not be the ninth century, but you would not care to live in a company town and work for $1.50 an hour; would you? The “market” would call that competing. I call it the 3R’s: rape, ruin, and run. And you don’t learn those in school.

Open your eyes and see where your losses are someone else’s gain. Hint: It’s NOT at the local school district, or city hall, or the capitol.

Greg Iwan
Longmont

Marion Kreith: Response to ’2012 presidential dream team’

This is in regards to Nancy Jones’ suggestion (Sept. 1) of a 2012 Presidential Dream Team consisting of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. If Ms. Jones was sarcastic, kudos to her. But if she was serious, God help us all.

Marion Kreith
Boulder

George H. Johnson: Standoff at Discovery TV

Editor,

James Lee was shot and killed while protesting the effects of humans on the planet. While it is obvious that Mr. Lee was conducting his protest in an inappropriate manner…targeting innocent people…it is also obvious that the subject matter of his protest was entirely relevant. I refer to the recent hostage taking event regarding the Discovery TV enterprise.

Mr. Lee is perhaps the first warrior (demented yes) who has given his life to save Planet Earth from the toxic effects of the out-of-control growth of the human parasite. How else does one describe billions of creatures gnawing on the planet’s crust while creating and casting their toxic wastes into the environment with no thought…killing other innocent creatures (including themselves) by the millions as a result.

Sadly, Mr. Lee failed to realize that Earth, the planet, has existed for billions of years and has survived numerous hiccups such as humanity. While the human race considers itself “special”, the simple fact is that the planet has a few billion years to exist beyond the human infestation. Look around at the thousands of feet of ocean deposited sediments below and those thrust up to form Flatirons and mountains in plain sight. The Earth and tectonic forces will simply digest humans and their toxins…nuclear bombs and all.

Humanity is a one-act play…pregnant with possibility…doomed by reality…as the species kills itself wantonly for purely stupid reasons, and procreates irresponsibly while crapping in its own nest.

Oh, I suppose there is some hope that intelligent humans will find a way to survive in a symbiotic way with the planet. Prior to that, several billion less-than-intelligent humans will need to become compost.

George H. Johnson
Boulder County

Gurney Steele: Parent volunteers at BVSD

The Daily Camera headline (Thursday, August 19) read: “Plea for parent volunteers”, subheaded with – “Free help in demand following Boulder Valley budget cuts”, and recounted the plight of schools in the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD).

And thus it is.

Because of massive budget cuts to K-12 education funding in Colorado, understaffed schools have turned to “pleading” for parent volunteers to fill these staffing gaps. Parents are being asked to cover such positions as secreterial and health room staff, teachers aides, and library clerks, and to perform such tasks as answering phones, filing, making copies, and writing grants, this at the cost of paid teacher and paraeducator positions. While for many years, parents and community members have devoted countless hours of volunteer service to the schools, it has turned from a “glad to do it” to a “no choice but to do it” situation.

It would be easy to blame the BVSD superintendant or the school board for this situation (and some already have) but the true perpetrators of this crisis are the Colorado State Legislature which cut $250 million from education funding, and outgoing (thankfully) Governor Bill Ritter, who signed off on it without even a whisper of protest. All across the United States, politicians are systematically eviscerating the public school system while embracing the idea that standardized testing (a costly and mostly “penalty-bearing” endeavor) is a true measure of the success of education, and that the charter school concept will enhance the learning experience of American children.

It is as well a disingenuous slap in the face to continually blame teachers and the CEA for the shortsightedness of government in Colorado.

For those who might ask…”Well, who are you to speak of this?”, I worked for eight years as a Special Education paraeducator at Boulder High School, a position I felt priviledged and fortunate to have. For the past two years since my retirement, I have served as a classroom volunteer with Special Ed, and have seen the consequences of these budget cuts. I volunteer of my own free will as a “pay it forward” gesture for the blessings in my life. I volunteer because I am “glad to do it.”

I ask only this in return…all across the district and the state of Colorado, ask your representatives about their views on education. Ask the tough questions. If that person is in lock-step with the past, vote that person out of office and elect someone who will fight for education, not roll over submissively.

Your childrens’ futures depend on it!

Gurney Steele
Boulder

PS: And now, in an already strapped and struggling economy, because of the decisions made in Denver, the BVSD is asking for a property tax increase to “backfill” for the state budget cuts. In the vernacular of the children…OMG!

Charles Horowitz: Mosque at ground zero

The Camera’s Editorial by Erica Stutzman yesterday is absolutely right: for religious freedom to ring, in this country, we have to drop the anti-Muslim sentiment. Should we have gone anti-Christian or anti-Mormon because of the homicidal, suicidal Davidians at Waco, Texas? Not all are the same.
AND
The building of mosques at Ground Zero is absolutely wrong: it is putting salt in a wound. If that’s a way to bring change anti-Muslim sentiment, I’ll be. They should have the right to build it, but it’s not the right thing to build it! Unless they want to fire up the Right.

Charles Horowitz
Boulder

Will Toor: Subdivision roads: Solutions need to be fair to everyone

A number of letters to the editor have called on Boulder County to redirect county funds to reconstruct local roads in unincorporated subdivisions, rather than asking those residents to fund this through an improvement district. The roads in question are largely cul-de-sacs and streets used almost exclusively by subdivision residents to get to and from their homes.

I think it is highly unlikely that any current or future commissioners will support the use of county general fund revenues – collected countywide, not just from unincorporated areas – to pay for reconstructing these streets. There are strong practical considerations in the near term – the state of the economy make it very difficult to divert limited transportation funds from core functions like maintaining the arterial county road network– but the bigger issue is fairness.

Here is an analogy: As a society we have agreed that schools are a fundamental government responsibility – that all kids deserve an education, and that society as a whole benefits– so all residents pay, and every child in the district is eligible. We don’t, however, create a countywide school district, paid for primarily by urban residents (representing 85 percent of our population), and then use these funds to provide schools only in unincorporated subdivisions, while telling urban residents they have to pay their own city taxes for their schools. The unfairness of such an approach is obvious – as is the parallel to taxing all county residents to repave the roads in unincorporated subdivisions while city taxes pay for local roads in the cities.

I am committed to working with unincorporated subdivision residents to achieve a comprehensive solution for road reconstruction in these neighborhoods. But, I am elected by all of the residents of Boulder County, and this problem has to be solved in a way that is fair for everyone.

Will Toor, Boulder County Commissioner

Jeff Gaillard: Boulder has gone to pot

Kudos to Suzaine Smith for her excellent August 29 commentary about Boulder’s out-of-control marijuana situation, “Boulder is the real mile ‘high’ city.” Everywhere I look in this town kids are stoned, wandering along the Pearl Street Mall and barely going through the motions at their jobs in local stores and restaurants. The massive increase in the number of stoners coincides directly with the arrival of dispensaries on every corner. I agree with Ms. Smith that it seems very unlikely that these teenagers and young adults are afflicted with debilitating illnesses.

And yet we have heard nothing about this situation from our community leaders. What is clearly lacking, both in Boulder and across our nation, is a frank discussion about the reasons why America leads the world in recreational drug consumption, the harm that results to our nation and to the world, and the corrective actions that we must undertake. The costs of inaction, ranging from youth who grow up ill-prepared to run our country to the devastating civil war in Mexico, are unacceptable.

Jeff Gaillard
Boulder

Phil Barber: Pot raids are a waste of money

Dear Editor:
Let me say that I know that it must be great fun for the cops to get to play G.I Joe dress-up and tote around machine guns, and check their look out in the mirror (or in their comrade’s yellow wraparound shades). But the thought of 20+ “SWAT” members, helicopters, and police cars being paid to clear a field of pot led me to this thought.
There is a place to cut the City’s budget. Paying trigger-happy public employees to ferret out pot farmers is a waste of money. Why not just announce that there will be a raid, let the growers scurry away, and then have volunteers from C.U. come behind and pull the plants? They would probably pull weed for in-kind payments, and the City could sell the rest to the dispensaries and even make a little money.
Oh I hear the argument already. “There might have been people with guns hiding in the weed, so we need a militia to carry out the commando-style raid.” Truth is that there “might be” people with guns anywhere these days, but we don’t let our police arm themselves like combat troops to carry out their daily duty.
Stop the silliness and save some money.

Phil Barber
Boulder

Carol Seeley-Teboe: Boulder water: what are we drinking?

Back in ’75, when Rocky Flats was still operating, anti-Flats protesters and others
claimed that within 20 to 30 years, plutonium-tainted ground water would be
seeping into Boulder’s drinking water or water supply . Does anyone know the
actual truth in this allegation ?? If so, please set the record straight.
Somehow it doesn’t seem completely implausible, given the recent article about
finding traces of plutonium in the soil today, even after the multi-million dollar
cleanup over a score of years.
The population growth,, the impact of urban sprawl, and the threat of terrorist
contamination has caused the water treatment plant to probably double or triple
the chemical additives we had in ’75, which I believe were between 52 and 110!
Even with our home water purifier systems, what precious water we DO have
is certainly not pure, nor possibly even healthy.
The question remains- exactly what are we drinking here in Boulder?
If anyone knows or has some credible, current answers and proof, please inform
the rest of us.

Carol Seeley-Teboe
Boulder

Joe Huggins: Scorched Earth politics

‘m sure the juxtapositioning of Scott Schmidt’s letter and Paul Krugman’s
column was not a accident. And I believe it is fair for Mr Schmidt to question
another writer’s criticism of conservative’s culpabilities. He should have
stopped there; the trite reiteration of the bumper sticker wisdom-”How’s that
Hopey, Changey thing workin’ for Ya’?”- is ludicrous. You can’t be an
obstructionist and taunt the other guys for not achieving goals that you are
obstructing. (Not if you have any intellectual integrity, anyway.)

I am reminded of the movie “Prizzi’s Honor”. Kathleen Turner passes on her dead
husband’s wisdom;”watch out for the Sicilians (Mafia), they would rather eat
their children, than part with money; and they love their children”. The
jingoism, racism, and varieties of fear mongering on the Right only work because
the power behind the movement has so much money, and doesn’t want to spend any
of it, if there is no serious monetary profit involved. Blowing up other
countries, of course, is very profitable for lots of companies. Turning
Americans against each other is profitable. The Federal government is not
profitable- who would it profit from? Liberals? (Marshall McLuhan must be
spinning in his grave.)

It is dismaying to see so many Americans in paroxysms of rage over “socialist”
policy tweaks; seemingly unaware, and uncaring, that Corporatism has supplanted
our representative government. It would be comical, if it weren’t so sad.

Joe Huggins
Lafayette

Cathy B. Swanson: Charles Krauthammer’s myth-making

Charles Krauthammer (Washington Post) joins other conservative

voices in “Last refuge of the liberal” (Aug. 31) when myth-making about

the Tea Party movement. He postures, “When the tea party arose, a spontaneous, leaderless and

perfectly natural (and traditionally American) reaction to the vast expansion of government. . . .”

Jane Mayer’s August 30, 2010 New Yorker article titled “The Billionaire Koch Brothers’ War Against

Obama” reveals otherwise. Check out the magazine online to hear about Charles and David

Koch’s massive funding of conservative, libertarian think tanks, non-profits and the Tea Party

movement. They are silent partners behind the more visible leaders like Dick Armey, Rupert

Murdock and his Fox staffers Glen Beck and Sarah Palin.

Word Count=114

Cathy B. Swanson
Boulder

Wayne Wagner: The new elite

Well, the new elite really has done a job on all of us. Just read these daily editorials and you can see the finger pointing. “It’s the Republicans or conservatives that want to give tax breaks to the rich. No, it’s the Democrats and Liberal (oops, I mean progressives) that want to tax and spend us to death”. The facts are if the new elite really wanted to change things in this country they could. Is there really a difference between Republicans and Democrats? Maybe in what they say, but not in how they act. These parasites spend millions to get elected. Why? What are we missing? What elitist club do they get to join when they are elected. Seek these answers and you will come to the same conclusion I have. Join me in voting out every incumbent! If they don’t fix the budget, invest in Education, stop giving tax breaks to corporations without a payback, and make everyone earn their entitlements, then vote them out. But none of this is good politics. So the elitists like Pelosi, Reid, Boehner, and our own Bennet all point fingers at the other side while they count their money. Well, when you finally tire of it, use the only weapon you have: your vote. Cast it for whoever is running against the incumbent-regardless of party. Then do it again and again. Do it until we finally get what the forefathers wanted: a representative government made up of the people. Not just lawyers, elitists, or sons and daughter of past politicians. It’s time to throw the bums out! Who are new elite? By now you know it’s the politicians. They make more, live better, have better health care, better retirement, and they do it all with our money. Please vote them out.

Wayne Wagner
Boulder

Otto A. Friedli: Keep The Pottery Lab the way it is

Here we go again? Boulder’s City Manager’s trying to save Money!

Of course, there is always Room to save a Buck or two!

The Pottery Lab at the Old Fire House is “ALIVE” with ART! Boulder has a Reputation for promoting Art of any kind!

The Idea of privatizing the Lab is totally wrong! Please keep it alive the “WAY IT IS”!

As a Boulder retired Senior, I was able to take Classes at the Lab! Nancy Utterback was my Teacher! She is a great Artist and She can FIRE YOU UP, not in the Kiln but artistically! The other Art Teachers are equally SUPER! Money is not everything? The Lab in private Hands would be totally wrong!

Please keep the Lab alive “THE WAY IT IS”!

The Pottery Lab at the old Fire House IS BOULDER!

Otto A Friedli
Boulder

Nancy Jones: A Glen Beck, Sarah Palin presidential ticket

I was disappointed to read in the Aug. 30 Daily Camera that Glenn Beck has rejected a call to run for President in 2012, along with his potential running mate Sarah Palin. He said ” there are far more people smarter” than he to run and that he thinks he’s ” not electable”. Come on, others smarter than he is? He founded his own university, Beck University. Can’t do that if you’re not smart. Not electable? Millions upon millions follow his every word. And the beautiful Sarah Palin would cinch the deal as VP. She could fill in any intellectual gaps Beck may think he has. After all, she was the Governor of the great state of Alaska. Granted, only a half term, but by gosh, she learned a lot in those two years. Once they are elected, President Beck could appoint Newt Gingrich as Secretary of State. Then look out World, America has it’s honor restored!
So fire up those computers America and let’s get this dream team elected in 2012! America deserves them.

Nancy Jones
Louisville

Tom Lopez: Beck and Palin

Right wing conservative commentator Glen Beck, a rich white man, and right wing funded tea party cheerleader Sara Palin drew over 300,000 mostly right wing followers to a rally in Washington on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s historical March on Washington.

One purpose of the event, as Beck and Palin indicated, was to claim ownership of the civil rights movement since, all along , they are the ones who believe in individual rights.(not poor black minorities) Beck, who carefully praised King, would have us believe that King was a conservative as was Jesus. Palin, claimed that the spirit of the civil rights movement would “help our cause”

Omitted from the hoopla was how Beck and Palin reconcile how their right wing forbearers resisted and tried to sabotage every step of the civil rights movement labeling the peaceful picketers as anarchists, communists and terrorists. Omitted also was the agenda that their new right wing candidates propose like denying people the promise of stem cell research, denying women the right to choose, cherry picking science to deny the existence of global warming and evolution, revising textbooks to put a right wing slant on history, privatizing prisons, roads and Social Security, allowing the financial sector to remain unregulated and allowing corporations unlimited influence on our elections and further they would like to eliminated the department of education, make “their God” an integral part of government policy and obstruct any get out the vote organization that seeks to allow the poor and disenfranchised equal access to the polls. It seems to me that individual rights and freedoms are not very high on the list of their priorities.

Tom Lopez
Longmont

Scott Schmidt: ‘Hope and change’

I would like to respond to Rusty Davis letter regarding “Fearful for the our future” Aug 30 . According to Mr. Davis, American is going down the tubes, and it’s all the fault of the usually suspects, “conservatives”,” Reagan” ,” greedheads”, “Bush”, ” Christianity.., etc. He even blames the “press” ( guess he means Fox News!). Wow and I thought two years ago we elected hope and change. And so it goes.

Scott Schmidt
Boulder

Gene Fischer: County commissioners: Time for a change

To the Editor:

I have been reading the numerous letters from county residents disappointed in the failure of our current county commissioners to maintain our county infrastructure. This is a basic function of county government – one that seems to elude the current board.

My neighbors and I experienced this first hand when the commissioners, lead by Cindy Domenico, voted down the request of the Transportation Department to pave a heavily traveled section of Sunshine Canyon Drive last year. This is the most expensive section of gravel road in the county to maintain. Domenico indicated she was not persuaded by arguments that this $315,000 investment would save the county more than a million dollars over 20 years, or the clean air, health and safety issues raised in expert testimony, but rather by the need to preserve ‘rural’ character. She did not elaborate how a heavily travelled road generating huge amounts of atmospheric dust would preserve ‘rural character’. This blatant fiscal and environmental irresponsibility seems endemic in the decisions of the current commissioners.

After the hearing at which this vote was taken, Ben Pearlman told a group of residents that the only way the road will ever be paved is if we elect a different group of commissioners. I am sure that Don Sherwood and other residents who have been writing to the Daily Camera will agree that this is a great suggestion!

I am encouraged that there is a candidate running against Domenico this year named Dick Murphy who appears more qualified than any of our current commissioners. He is a former Deputy Colorado State Treasurer with a PhD in economics who consults with state and local governments on budgetary issues. It sounds like he might bring fiscal discipline to a body that is sorely in need of it!

Gene Fischer
Boulder