LETTERS | Week of Feb. 13

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Corrections: In a Feb. 6 story, “Two of hearts,” the name of Elizabeth Baron was misspelled. And a Jan. 16 Tidbite mischaracterized a celebrity chef series at the Indian Peaks Bar and Grill in Lafayette: The series features the food of the celebrity chefs, not the chefs themselves.

Spanish Jews

[Re: “Eracism: Exploring the roots,” Cover story, Feb. 6.] Regarding your fascinating article on Hispanic origins in Boulder County that draws on the expertise of CU-Boulder Professor Marjorie McIntosh, Professor Janet Jacobs, also of CU-Boulder, is considered a national authority on this community, especially on its hidden Jewish ancestry.

Often called Conversos, these people trace their roots back to the Spanish Inquisition, when many Spanish Jews were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism. Professor Jacobs tracks their odyssey to the New World, where they attempted to elude the long arm of the Inquisition, which officially persisted in Mexico until the late 1800s!

I hope Professor Jacobs can help to illuminate a future article about this very unique aspect of the local Hispanic community.

Michael Korn/Arvada

Where’s White?

In letters/comments from the Jan. 30 issue [20th Anniversary Edition], I never saw or read any mention of another former BW great journalist, Pamela White. In my opinion, one of the best BW ever had, and certainly the equal of any at the Daily Camera, with the exception of Clay Evans.

Pamela wrote some of the best articles about some of the most controversial subjects.

I always looked forward to her columns. But no more. Our loss. All too often we lose the best we have and don’t realize it ’til they’re gone.

Forrest “Woody” Leigh/via email

Editor’s note: White was featured in three of the letters we printed and was mentioned in pieces by Leland Rucker and Stewart Sallo.

Stale Danish

[Re: “A modest proposal to begin updating our national symbols,” Danish Plan, Feb. 6.] Old stale view with the same old stale argument and rationale.

Not funny. View from West of the Cascades,

Rodney Badger/Edmonds, Wash.

Domenico’s track record

My husband recently received a flyer in the mail asking for his support in Cindy Domenico’s county commissioner campaign, and all I can say is … we will do everything in our power to remind the people of Boulder County how nearly she sold us down the fracking sewer for her political advancement.

Oh, and I noticed in her charming list of accomplishments that she is taking credit for the fracking moratorium?

That’s not how I remember it going down. As I recall, she was the commissioner who sided with the oil and gas cartel, and it was the outcry of her constituents that forced her to reconsider or face a recall.

So please, do us all a favor and try to be a bit more truthful, though I doubt it is possible with the lack of integrity she has shown so far. May her campaign flow down the sewer of her corruption.

Martha McPherson/via email

Study the dirty snow

[Re: “Dark snow,” Cover story, Jan. 9.] The phrase “as fresh and pure as the new fallen snow” is now but a romantic misnomer, if not an all-out oxymoron, but the transformation from white flakes to brown slush upon falling on our streets, highways and parking lots seems to darken every year, and I would hope there are environmental studies being conducted to study its chemical make-up and its distribution and effects upon both groundwater and the streams into which our storm drains flow.

Robert Porath/via email

We deserve healthy food

[Re: “Farmers’ suit against Monsanto reaches Supreme Court,” News, Jan. 2.] Farmers and healthy people should not have to defend their rights to plant natural seeds born from the earth, untainted by toxic chemically treated organisms! It’s not natural! It’s against all our human rights to not eat what God planted here on earth since the beginning of time! These chemicals do not belong in our foods or on them!

Farmers were doing incredibly well growing natural, organic fruit, veggies and grains, and our animals on earth were doing great too, until the greedy government started manipulating our farms’ greenhouses, etc., back in the late’ 80s, and now this toxic poison with Monsanto’s poisonous seeds!

Really, government of the U.S., is this what you want your children and grandchildren to eat, or your moms, dads, or anyone you love? Heck, I don’t even want my dogs eating Monsanto’s GMOs! This needs to stop right now in 2014; wake up or lose all cross-country trade agreements.

Gayle Williams/via Internet

Cognitive therapists

I say this only half jokingly, but it seems rather clear to me that there will be a lot of room for the extremely well-trained private cognitive therapist(s) here in Colorado, for those wealthy enough to want to party quite heartily on one hand but need to be in touch with business and other-worldly practical realities on the other.

What am I thinking? Knowing my “Old Boulder,” this is probably already happening even as we speak. Colorado, you are something else baby, and you have been for decades. Wow!

Grant D. Cyrus/Boulder

Fix Fido

Many organizations, including PETA, will celebrate World Spay Day on Feb. 25 by offering reduced-cost spay/neuter surgeries. If you haven’t already, there’s no better time to have your furry family members “fixed.”

Spaying and neutering save lives by preventing more cats and dogs from being born only to be abandoned on the streets, euthanized in shelters, abused, or neglected. Sterilizing even one animal makes a huge difference: Just one female dog and her descendants can produce 67,000 puppies in six years, and one female cat and her offspring can lead to 370,000 descendants in seven years. Every new animal who is born either takes away a chance at a home from an animal waiting in a shelter or will end up homeless herself.

Spaying and neutering also prevent animals from contracting uterine, ovarian and testicular cancers and reduce or eliminate animals’ mating urges, aggression and excessive territoriality — which is why sterilized dogs are three times less likely to bite.

Please call 1-800-248-SPAY to find the nearest low-cost spay/neuter clinic. To learn more, visit www.PETA.org.

Lindsay Pollard-Post, The PETA Foundation, Norfolk, Va.