Contact Us Advertising Information Online exclusives Cover Story Buzz Feature In Case You Missed It Vote 2009 Boulderganic Fall 2009 Student Guide 2009 Boulder Weekly Sweet 16 Anniversary Boulderganic 2009 Summer Scene 2009 Email Newsletter Legal Services Best of Boulder 2009 Annual Manual 2009 Newspaper of the Future Kids Camp Guide 2009 Wedding Marketplace 09 Jobs available Student Guide 2008 Best of Boulder 2008 Annual Manual 2008 Join Our Mailing List
|
August 21-27, 2008 editorial@boulderweekly.com
• See Jim Hightower
• See Devil's Dispatch
• See Perspectives
Save Orchard Grove
(Re: “Home, sweet mobile home,” cover story, Aug. 7.) Diversity applies to habitats as well as humans. It’s not just the current residents who will suffer if Orchard Grove is redeveloped. The developers, as they always do in Boulder, will rip out the trees — whether they are 80 years old or not — destroy the grass, gardens and trails, displace the wildlife and generally wreck the environment. In return, as they always do, they will plant a few pathetic saplings to relieve the incoming desert of flat concrete.
What do we want for Boulder?
Simon Martin/Boulder
I’m not one of the Orchard Grove residents who has lived here for years. In fact, I only arrived in 2007. Moreover, it was never my intention to live in a trailer park. I didn’t scope out every park in Boulder. I didn’t think, “Yes! This is it! Orchard Grove is where I want to be.” The reality was I worried how was I going to tell friends and family back in New York City, “I live in a trailer park.”
Fed up with the speed of the city and with a social worker’s salary that didn’t allow me to pay the rent, I moved to Boulder in 2004. My father lived here and was sick with cancer. In the fall of 2005 he moved to Orchard Grove. He was an artist. He made jokes about living in a trailer park, but at the end of a marriage and physical illness, Orchard Grove became home. He lived here for five months, and died here, at Lot 147. When I say here, I mean right here in my trailer. What happened in the two weeks of his dying and subsequently thereafter is why I live here today. It was my first direct experience of the richness of community. With support from beyond, my father’s dying was met with nurturance for him and me. This trailer supported his leaving. And this trailer park supported me to stay.
A year, to the day, after my father died, our neighbors gave birth to a baby in the trailer next door. For over a year after his death, I wrestled with whether to sell the place or move in myself. Could I live in the place my father died? I questioned, pondered, made a decision, changed my mind, made a decision and changed my mind again. I found people in Orchard Grove — my neighbors and friends who were here that supported my process, asked me questions, talked about my dad, supported my grieving process, talked about how they loved living here, what they loved about their homes and asked me more questions. It was their support and guidance that led me home. To Orchard Grove.
Because in the end, what I wanted out of moving westward was community. I wanted a place that was affordable, where I could pay my rent on a social worker’s salary so that I could continue to stay committed to a career with at-risk youth — a career I love. A place where I can have a garden (my first!), where my neighbor’s children roam freely in and out of our homes, where I can live in one of the only neighborhoods in Boulder where diversity exists. Life is community. Birth and death and everything in between. That is Orchard Grove. Save our homes! Salvar Orchard Grove!
Jetha Marek/Boulder Weekly
A slippery slope
(Re: “Which comes first: a woman or her egg?” cover story, July 31.) What happens to the person who initiates a fender-bender accident resulting in a woman’s miscarriage? Will they be convicted of manslaughter? Likewise, when other events happen, will the death of any unborn child result in prosecution of the person responsible? Whose tax dollars are going to take care of these children with the extreme handicaps and deformities? Who will pay for the professional counseling these families will require? This is a slippery slope. I also wouldn’t attach too much of the blame on the Catholics. They have had their beliefs since their founding, yet their families are smaller today, too. It is the fundamentalist Christians who are far more involved and pivotal in “explaining God’s wishes in women’s reproductive rights.” They talk to Him, you know.
Marsha Thomas/Lakewood
Proven false
(Re: “Yes we can (drill our way out),” Danish Plan, Aug. 14.) In the August 14 column, Paul Danish tells us that a new report shows that proven reserves of natural gas are a 118-year supply. The report he cites doesn’t say this. Danish has taken the liberty to inject “proven” into his quote to make it sound stronger. This country’s proven reserves are one-tenth what Danish cites.
Teddy Weverka/via Internet
Get off oil
We all know that America is addicted to oil. This addiction plagues our health, our environment, and our security. Given that two thirds of our oil comes from foreign nations leaves us open to the whims of potentially hostile foreign governments, and the combustion of oil in our vehicle chokes our skies with smog and contributes greatly to global warming.
It’s not enough to get off of foreign oil — we need to get off of oil altogether. If we are to successfully accomplish this, we need better funding for public transportation, strong conservation measures, higher fuel efficiency standards, and more funding for alternative energy sources. Opening up Virginia and more of Alaska to oil drilling will not solve the problem.
These are common sense solutions, and are well within our grasp — I only hope our elected officials have the wisdom to enact them.
William Hunter/Los Angeles
Russia’s cloak
Now we know the true nature of Russia’s cloak. Of course, the origin of the current application of the phrase “regime change” is nowhere east of New Brunswick. It’s rather difficult to criticize invasion and colonization when it has been one’s practice. Isn’t it interesting, though, to recall our own president’s glowing treatment of the ex-KGB man only a few years ago? The former, I am sure, wanted to somehow show he was “doing” foreign policy or was knowledgeable of it. You lie down with snakes, you’re gonna get bit! Gregory Iwan/Longmont
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
Back to top
|
| |
