Yes, kill. Whether singly in a cold ravine or by the thousands in profiteering wars; whether alone at the hands of a crazed psychopath or by the tens of thousands under the perverted system of denied health care, or by the millions from the despair of losing homes, livelihoods and sanity, these acrid, serial killers have executed the biggest, most murderous, most heinous act of treasury-looting class warfare in history. And they don’t care that the country runs red with blood from sea to shining sea.

What to do?  Make humans the only “persons” in the Constitution. Stop wars. Demand prosecution of war crimes. Force even trade policies. Repeal TABOR. Support progressive taxes. Win Medicare for all.  Demand financial regs with teeth. Let bad banks fail—they’re too depraved to save. Bust trusts. End merger monopolies. Move your money to sound local banks. Cancel all but one credit card. Invest in green energy and transportation with American parts and living-wage labor. Fight for public schools. Get eco-smart. Pass full-spectrum corporation laws—no more privatizing gains by socializing losses. Promote kindness, but be powerful. That drives a stake into the vampires. Sharpen that point.

John Roberts
Boulder

Malia Thompson

Boulder

Voting at your precinct on a paper ballot has been the gold standard in elections around the world and in Boulder County for a long time. When comparing the security of precinct polling place voting to the security of the mailed ballot, there is little doubt about which is gold and which is tin.

Neither the chain of custody of a ballot mailed from the clerk’s office nor the chain of custody of the ballot mailed back by the voter is as secure as the chain for votes cast at a polling place or hand-delivered to the clerk’s office. While the U.S. Postal Service is among the best in the world, its margin of error is greater than our elections can afford. Low-income urban dwellers do not receive their ballots as reliably as stable addresses of property owners. Of course, transient and marginalized peoples lose ballot access. There are instances in Boulder County and elsewhere when ballots turned up in dumpsters rather than ballot boxes on Election Day.

Elected officials will state authoritatively that absentee ballot fraud doesn’t happen when, if the truth be told, they don’t know. Researchers at Project Vote find that absentee voter fraud is more common in local, county, and municipal elections than in general elections. There are four known forms of absentee ballot fraud: forging signatures or signing fictitious names; coercing or influencing a vote; vote buying; and misappropriating absentee ballots. It’s happened in a mayoral race in Miami and a Dodge County (Georgia) sheriff race.

Many Coloradans fear union hall voting brunches as much as congregational church voting breakfasts during the two-week run-up to Election Day. The potential for voter intimidation is much greater with mailed ballots than at the polls. And while voting at the kitchen table is convenient, the secrecy of the ballot can be compromised in ways that do not exist at the polls.

The positive benefit effect of precinct polling—people gathering to perform a civic duty—stands in stark contrast to the voter who is paying bills, answering phone messages, making sandwiches, while voting, licking stamps, and leaving their ballot in their street-side mailbox.

No doubt postal workers benefit from more work if we impose mandatory all-mail-in ballot elections. County clerks are relieved of the burden of training and hiring day-labor election judges at precinct polling places. However, the public at large stands to lose from reduced citizen participation in the oversight of the more centralized and factory-like processing of a mail-in election.

In these hard economic times it is difficult to justify nearly any expenditure of tax dollars. What justifies the risks that all-mail elections would face?

When elections fail to produce representative democracy, then lawmaking becomes as tainted as the election. How then is respect for the law to be imbued in the people? How will we get the right decisions if the decision-makers are elected in a method that lacks integrity?

In 2002, Coloradans voted 57 to 43% that they wanted to retain precinct polling place voting and rejected mandatory mail-ballot elections. Conducting all-mail primaries could well put us on a slippery slope toward mandatory all-mail general elections when the abovementioned vulnerabilities would be greater still.

Coloradans deserve more gold than tin from the Secretary of State and County Clerks charged with conducting our elections.

Don’t let cost and convenience trump democratic principles.

Boulder County’s Clerk Hillary Hall has asked for public input on the decision to eliminate precinct polling places for our primary election in August. By March 23rd, please ask her to retain precincts for the primary, because in Boulder County, the primaries are often, in effect, the general election. Precincts must therefore remain a meaningful option for voting in our primary elections. Please write to Clerk Hall in care of jcornelius@bouldercounty.org and copy commissioners@bouldercounty.org.

Coloradans for Voting Integrity has monitored election reform legislation and the state of our electoral infrastructure. CFVI’s concern is not who wins or loses the electoral races, but the integrity of the process and results. For more info, visit www.cfvi.us.

Mary C. Eberle, President, for the Board, CFVI
Boulder

The decision of the administration of Sacred Heart Catholic Church to deny the two children whose mothers are lesbians a right to an education in their school is a travesty.  It amazes me that more people have not come to the defense of these tax paying law abiding citizens.  The mothers of these two children are being sterotyped as improper parents and therefore unholy Christians because they love one another.  This is not different than denying Rosa Parks a seat on a bus.  Infact it is worse. Why do heterosexuals think they own religion and therefore have the right to deny others who don’t meet their sexual preference a right to an education?  Jesus would never deny anyone a seat in his church or school.  Churches and schools run by them should be a place where people are accepted as parishioners based on their faith and not based on who they sleep with.

.1″Stop judging, so that you* shall not be judged, 2for with what judgment you* judge, you* will be judged, and with what measure you* measure, it will be measured to you.* 3But why do you look at the speck, the [one] in your brother’s eye, but you do not notice the log, the [one] in your own eye? 4Or, how will you say to your brother, ‘Allow [me], I shall take the speck from your eye,’ and look!, the log [is] in your own eye? 5Hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-5).

“In this passage, Jesus is addressing hypocrisy. He is saying that we will be judged by whatever standards we set for others. So we need to be careful in making such judgments. We need to be sure that we are not engaging in the behaviors that we condemn others for. So in this sense, we do need to “worry about ourselves.” But Jesus ends the passage by saying, “then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” So He says we should try to correct other’s behaviors once we have dealt with our own.
(Excerpt from Judging the Beliefs and Behaviours of Others, by Gary F. Zeolla).

In conclusion there should be laws against a tax exempt institution denying children a right to a religious education.  Sacred Heart Catholic School has no right to discriminate against children whose parents are not practicing the desirable sexual preference of that institution.  The children are not protected by the law in this instance and therefore are hurt by this unholy decision.

Sincerely,

Rita Stanford
Boulder

Loving trains, I have tried to see the positive of the FasTracks program.  However, the only individuals that will receive any benefit will be Boulder – Denver commuters, as it is only a commuter train.  This will not aid people in getting around Boulder; in fact it will slow them down at every train crossing.  And it has been noted at the RTD meetings that the new bus service along Highway 36 will get folks to Denver five minutes faster than the train.

I love trains, but spending unfathomable amounts of money to implement this albatross (I was going to say “train wreck”) seems like we are digging our own graves.

Bruce Tenenbaum

Boulder

Victoria Ruwitch
Louisville

Kent needs to move on to the Private School sector at this time in his career.All students and parents sign behavior and academic contracts. There are clear guidelines and consequences for every student to learn to regulate their own behavior.All students should be at school to be inspired and to grow into the young people of tomorrow, hopefully as life long learners. Sadly, the majority of students today have been given permission to make their own rules. These children have all been living in household off all kinds. Rich,poor, of all races creeds, shapes, sizes, and conditions. These students and children in today’s Public School system are in the pickle that they are in due to parents and guardians who have tended most entirely on their own needs before the needs of these kiddos.

As a 15-year veteran of the Public Schools of the late 70’s and early 80’s I believe that if we don’t have a code of conduct then perhaps Kent Jones has the model that should be followed. Verbal harassment cannot be tolerated/and tough love and push ups are healthy and good for tough kids!

Tracy O’Brien

Broomfield