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July 31-August 6, 2008 editorial@boulderweekly.com
• See Jim Hightower
• See Danish Plan
• See Perspectives
Is Danish crazy?
(Re: “No excuse for not drilling,” Danish Plan, July 17.) Criterion: “a standard on which a decision or judgment may be based.”
My criterion regarding what I need: clean air; clean water; a healthy land base that supports healthy ecosystems (so I can eat); and a human community that behaves toward its environment indigenously.
Anything I want that damages what I need I must learn to live without. I can live without oil and the insane pursuit of a finite resource that destroys the land, air, water and ecosystems that I need. I can definitely and only continue to live without the suicidal culture that supports such pursuits.
P.S. Are you insane?
Jennifer Murnan/Longmont
In response to the Paul Danish article on oil drilling and the responses by readers, I was surprised that none of them mentioned hydrogen power — or the new hydrogen/water powered car manufactured in Japan as reported by Reuters or the home hydrogen station reported on BBC news. Google it. Personally, I see no advantage of mailing monthly checks to the oil and utility companies. Even if oil was as cheap as water-generated hydrogen, why would I want to pollute the air?
Larry Anderson/Broomfield
Progressives for Polis
(Re: Don’t pick Polis,” Letters, July 24.) Jack Morris, in his letter of July 24 to this paper, intended to argue against the Boulder Weekly’s editorial endorsement of Jared Polis; however, he actually made a valid case for electing Polis to replace the vacating Mark Udall in Congress. First, he stated that Jared was instrumental in getting Amendment 41 passed; a measure that restricted the ability of special interests to spend money in attempts to buy public officials. Yes, it was flawed in that it had some unintended, but ultimately reversible, consequences. But what is important is that it was the first attempt by anyone in Colorado to do something about the excessive influence of special interests on government officials. I see it as further evidence that Jared Polis spends his wealth promoting progressive values. I like that.
Now, on to Morris’ other charge that Jared Polis was trying to “buy the election” by spending his own money on his campaign. This is an example of “sound-bite cleverness” worthy of Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh, and it couldn’t be more wrong. Money doesn’t buy an election — but it sure can buy a candidate! Since it is Polis’ own money, we can rest easy on that score. And we know it costs a lot of money to campaign for a national office.
When this campaign started, Jared Polis had no name recognition. There are three ways to get name recognition. You can spend years as a professional politician — think on that for a moment. Or you can spend money on advertising. As a progressive myself, one who knows Polis’ position on social, education, health care, environment and war issues, I am comfortable that the money he has spent to get name recognition was his own to spend, money he earned on the Internet through forethought and creativity — good attributes for someone representing progressives. Plus, it’s money with “no strings.” That gets my vote.
Vickey Swenson/Broomfield
Who’s looking at your wife?
The Colorado legislature and Gov. Bill Ritter have recently passed and put into effect Senate Bill 08-200. This Act is intended to promote nondiscrimination against various kinds of people in Colorado, including those marked by disability, race, creed, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, familial status, national origin or ancestry. In other words, all people of Colorado are entitled by this law to enter and participate in any “place of public accommodation,” which includes bathhouse, swimming pool, bath, steam, or massage parlor and gymnasium.
This all sounds very good at first, but when one begins to consider having people of various sexual orientations or perceived orientations entering various bathhouses and dressing rooms, one begins to wonder about the wisdom and moral stance of our legislators. I, for one, do not look forward in happy expectation to having my wife exposed to biological men in her dressing room, regardless of what their belief is about their own sex.
Readers of this letter should understand that in the Colorado legislature, all but one Democrat voted for this bill and all but one Republican voted against it.
If you are interested in this matter, I would recommend that you look at citizenlink.org and click on “Coloradoans Deserve Better Than SB 200.” Write to your legislators and tell them what you think about this kind of legislation.
Edward Manring/Denver
Dismal choices at the polls
When it comes to this year’s presidential election, as a citizen of the first country to guarantee its citizens’ freedom in its founding document I have already lost.
Setting aside the fact that both Barack Obama and John McCain are the unprincipled pragmatists all politicians in our society must become in order to succeed, they each are, as human beings, governed by a philosophy of their own making. And for Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain, those philosophies have been consistently on display throughout their adult lives.
For Mr. Obama, that philosophy can only be described as ultra-leftist. To Mr. Obama, your life is not your own but a part of a collective, to be dictated to by the collective and, if necessary, to be sacrificed for the benefit of that collective. No attitude could be more at odds with a founding document that guarantees your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Mr. McCain’s philosophy can best be described in four words: duty, honor, service and sacrifice. To Mr. McCain the only honorable life is one of duty and service. Your personal desires, if any, should be sacrificed as you devote your life to the service of your country and your fellow citizens. Though couched in different terms than Mr. Obama’s, the message is still the same. Your life is not your own.
If you value your life, your freedom, your property and the right to pursue your own happiness, then you have already lost the presidential election of 2008. Perhaps the destruction wreaked in the next four years by one of these two men will finally be enough to persuade the citizens of this country to demand better leaders who will actually be interested in re-establishing the freedom originally guaranteed to us. If not, expect an even more dismal choice in 2012.
Russell W. Shurts/Centennial
Whining airlines
Please, please, please stop whining. Remember your customers frequently buy fuel and are well aware of the increased costs on their budgets. If the industry leadership can’t manage a commodity increase, then please don’t include us in your lament. Just how gullible do we you think we are as you dream up another service to cut, fee to raise, route to reduce? We know it’s tough, but if my kids whined as much as airline executives — trust me, an attitude adjustment hour would be in progress.
That said, please don’t tell us how important each and every customer is as you wring the last penny out of our pockets. It makes you sound about as sincere as Jesse Jackson’s apology to Sen. Obama.
O’Neill Quinlan/Centennial
McCain is right on energy
I am in total agreement with Sen. McCain’s energy plan to promote drilling for oil off the shores of the U.S. There are numerous oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and in offshore waters around the world that have not caused environmental problems. It is estimated we have more than 20 billion barrels of oil reserves off our coastlines, and at least another 30 billion barrels of untapped oil reserves in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and the oil companies say it is light, sweet crude, which is low in sulfur and easy to refine into gasoline.
The U.S. needs a comprehensive long-term and short-term energy program that will free us from foreign oil, reduce dependence on oil and promote cleaning up the environment. Long term we need to increase domestic oil production; increase domestic refining capacity; build nuclear power plants and develop technology to recycle nuclear waste; and expand mass-transit systems. In the short-term, we should continue to reduce gasoline consumption by driving smaller cars, buying flex-fuel cars, driving less, car pooling and utilizing existing mass-transit systems; conserving energy; and installing solar-power and wind-power systems.
Barack Obama and his cronies oppose offshore and Alaska oil drilling and are downplaying nuclear power. They continue to have their heads stuck in the oil sands of the Middle East, and their policies will ensure we continue to pay high gasoline and fuel oil prices.
Donald Moskowitz/Londonderry, N.H.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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