2 days Ago
Reading through the list of programs Colorado can’t pay for now looks like a very long list of local boondoggles. Most of the money is coming from the Energy Department (Colorado hates energy), and none of it particularly benefits all the residents of Colorado. I hope the Donald Trump administration puts all of that money into relevant programs and tells Colorado leadership to stuff it.
Joseph Ford Colorado Springs Woodland Park School District (WPSD) recently passed a Resolution Recognizing Only Two Sexes and Rejecting Gender Ideology and I wanted to thank Director Keegan Barkley for speaking out in defense of our students’ well-being instead of focusing on what’s in their pants. I aimed to remind board members of their responsibility to state laws and policies. I believe the verbiage of this resolution could be in violation of these laws and in turn, the freedoms and rights of even our youngest citizens, and acts as a distraction from the legitimate issues facing our schools.
Ultimately the concern of this, or any, school board should be on curriculum, facility upkeep, qualified and well-paid teachers and faculty, and the dedication to creating well-rounded, critically minded students who are prepared for this world. It is not for them to determine the thoughts, personalities, or identities of our students or to resolutely disregard our laws in favor of executive orders which also do not override our laws. There are state laws protecting all persons, particularly C.
R.S. § 22-32-v109(1)(ll)(I)(A) and C.
R.S. § 22-1-143(1)(d)(I) which lay out that all Colorado schools “are subject to all federal and state laws and constitutional provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of .
. . gender identity.
” I received a response from Director Suzanne Patterson from her official email: “Have you looked in your pants lately? There you will find the truth. Penis or vagina. No confusion there.
Blessings, Sue Patterson” I was taken aback by this blatantly unprofessional and side-stepped response but responded: “I appreciate your response! Do you have any comment concerning your responsibility to uphold the laws befitted to your position?” And received this reply: “Sir my responsibility to uphold the law are threaded throughout the verbiage of the resolution itself.” Elliane Enamorado Woodland Park Jared Whitley’s column about health care and insurance companies seemed like a hit piece on doctors. Dinging them as insincere on taking the Hippocratic Oath, really? I have been impressed by the care and dedication of most doctors I have seen.
I have never felt like I was their “product”. Whitley scoffs at other nations that use a universal single payer system to manage their health care costs. However, in looking at U.
S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, published by the Commonwealth Fund, comparing the U.S.
to 38 other high income countries, one learns that: Health care spending, both per person and as a share of GDP, continues to be far higher in the United States than in other high-income countries. Yet the U.S.
is the only country that doesn’t have universal health coverage. The U.S.
has the lowest life expectancy at birth, the highest death rates for avoidable or treatable conditions, and the highest maternal and infant mortality. The U.S.
has the highest rate of people with multiple chronic conditions and an obesity rate nearly twice the average of the 38 other high-income countries. Clearly there is room for improvement in the American health care/insurance system, but I don’t think the place to start is by throwing shade at doctors, or at other countries that have chosen a different approach that is getting good results. Ben Fromuth Sr.
Colorado Springs Nearly every day, there are new reports of the Trump administration exerting its efforts to control our thoughts, language and beliefs. This “Department of Government Efficiency” is interested in anything but efficiency – it is simply a thinly veiled witch hunt to erase any initiative which doesn’t fit lockstep with the views of the extremists now running the government. Surely moderate Republicans, if there are any left, must have begun asking themselves, “what were we thinking?” Unfortunately for the entire country, this administration sets a new, all-time low with their flouting of the concept that once elected, you have responsibility to govern the entire nation, both those who agree with you as well as those who disagree.
You are responsible to the American people, not just your extreme base. For nearly 250 years, our government has been based on compromise, not autocracy. In the present case, it is beyond forcing policy extremes – it is the demolition of our time-honored system of checks and balances and rule of law.
And in another blatant hypocrisy, the party that often rails against government mandates and interference in the affairs of private enterprise isn’t satisfied just eliminating programs like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within government agencies, they are now even pressuring private corporations to eliminate these as well. So much for small government that leaves business alone to make its own choices. Throughout our nation’s history, the pendulum of power and public sentiment has swung from left to right and back again.
One group gets in power and over-reaches, there is a backlash, and then the other side takes over and perhaps repeats the same pattern. This administration has reached beyond the threshold of tolerance that most Americans are comfortable with, and I predict the resistance will soon become vehement and impatient. Is this autocratic tyrant really the template you want to establish for the next Democratic rise to power? Surely you must expect that if this is now the norm, other presidents will feel justified in behaving similarly, and you may not like the results.
Moderates of both parties and independents – speak out and do not blindly acquiesce to this misuse of power! I believe our founders, who fought hard to overthrow monarchical rule would be mortified. Dave Seyfert Colorado Springs.
