Hickenlooper is D-O-N-E
When you listen to him talk about his positions and his abilities to build consensus, remember: John Frackenlooper is a liberal Republican, posing as a Democrat. If he enters the Colorado Senate race, Cory Gardner will get a second term, because the Democratic vote will be severely split. It will be a replay of the Senate race in New York in the early ’70s, when James Buckley won a three-way race.
Pete Simon/Arvada
Was America really ever great?
Once again, Mr. Danish undermines a great thesis with right-wing, knee-jerk antipathy towards the left. (Re: “Was America ever great? You bet it was! And it still is,” Danish Plan, July 4, 2019). He asks when America “was ever great” and gives examples of when it was. Let’s take a look.
He cites the founding language, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident…” Yes, that was pretty good, but it only applied to a wealthy, white aristocracy.
He cites the 360,000 union troops who died “to preserve the Union and slavery.” Most of those northerners didn’t care about freeing the slaves, so this is a specious assertion. Even Abraham Lincoln, who did free the slaves (legally) wasn’t truly interested in freeing slaves. All he really wanted to do was preserve the entire Union and win a war, which was one of the bloodiest and brutal the world had ever witnessed.
He lauds the Morrill Land Grant College Act and the Homestead Act. Pretty great if you didn’t happen to be a Native American who experienced genocide because of them.
He cites the discovery of ether as an anesthetic as “arguably the single most important and far-reaching American contribution to medicine to this day.” Really? I guess you could argue for it.
And, yes, the GI Bill and the Marshall Plan were pretty good, too. But they contributed to a militarized world with America at the forefront of an oligarchic international military industrial complex. We may not all be enthused about this.
Danish cites our automotive culture and the construction of the interstate highways as a time when America was great. Yes, I like my car, too, but I’m not so crazy about urban congestion and the petroleum economy to which we are now addicted. William Levitt’s invention of the suburb? Has Paul never heard of out-of-control urban sprawl?
I must agree that Martin Luther King, Jr. said some great stuff. But why does Mr. Danish accuse the Democratic Party of embracing “inherently racist and sexist identity politics” and betraying “Dr. King’s dream?” I may not agree with the far-left program that today’s Democrats are attempting to sell, but let’s not get carried away with right-wing rhetoric. Are not his beloved Republicans embracing the very same things from the other side of the fence?
Mr. Danish contemptuously condemns the losers in the 2016 election, who have declared themselves “the resistance” instead of the “loyal opposition.” Has he never heard of Mitch McConnell, who famously claimed in 2008 that the Republican Party’s number-one priority would be to make Barack Obama a one-term president? His characterization of today’s Democrats ignores the fact that it was his beloved Republicans who played this game first.
So enough with the American exceptionalism and proud bleating nationalism. There is one thing that all of today’s Democrats surely understand: we can only make America great again when we rid ourselves of the lying ignorant hypocritical fascist oligarch gas-bag currently residing in the White House.
Evan Cantor/Boulder
Overcome partisanship to stop the climate crisis
I strongly agree with Joel Dyer’s “Hate makes us stupid” article (Re: Dyertimes, June 27, 2019). America’s growing, blatant partisanship is ruining our democracy and preventing our federal government from solving the many real, urgent problems confronting us.
Fortunately there is a good bipartisan solution to one of our most urgent problems, the climate crisis. The Energy Innovation Act was introduced into the House and Senate in late 2018 with bipartisan support. And the same bill was reintroduced into the House in 2019 as H.R. 763 with bipartisan support.
The Energy Innovation Act’s carbon fee and dividend will drive down carbon emissions by 40 percent in the next 12 years and will create 2.1 million new jobs (energyinnovationact.org). It has wide support including the non-partisan Citizens’ Climate Lobby and the conservative Climate Leadership Council (which includes senior Republicans George Schultz and James Baker).
Let’s not let the deep partisan divide stop us from solving the climate crisis. Thank Rep. Joe Neguse for co-sponsoring H.R.763 and tell Sens. Cory Gardner and Michael Bennet to introduce the same bill into the Senate.
For the sake of future generations, including our children and grandchildren, let’s bridge the partisan divide and solve the climate crisis.
Jim Dimmick/Boulder
False equivalency of Pelosi
and Republicans
(Re: “Hate makes us stupid,” Dyertimes, June 27, 2019). Let’s see: On one side we have the entire Republican Party and the Christian Taliban. On the other, Nancy Pelosi and her vast legions of fans. False equivalency (a favorite tool of the right), anyone? Joel, you can do better. But at least you made me appreciate Jim Hightower. As for the Christian right, hate the sin but love the sinner? Or as the man they purport to follow would say, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Jim Wilkinson/Boulder
Fixing robocalls would
require thought
In “A modest proposal for combating the plague of robocalls” (Re: The Danish Plan, June 20, 2019),
Danish skips the big question: Why do Americans get so many robocalls? There are two big pieces to the answer.
One is that the caller-ID technology is badly broken: Since it’s trivial to forge the ID, it usually doesn’t identify the caller. So it has failed.
But more than that, there are so many robocalls because they work often enough to make them viable scams. Why do they work? Because many, if not most, Americans are so outrageously gullible. They’ll believe almost anything they’re told. (Examples abound.) Fixing this aspect would require convincing Americans to think and question, so forget that.
Dick Dunn/Hygiene
Sixty toilets rolled away from library
During the Boulder Memorial Day Festival, Boulder’s library had about 50 portable toilets rolled in. Three days later, I watched that 50 or so portable toilets rolled out. If you were a tourist with no access to a public toilet before the library opened, would you feel welcome in Boulder? No outdoor facility in this lovely area is inhumane.
I offer three solutions, both costly and not. Our compassionate, tourist-encouraging City Council could choose among these solutions to beautify and clean up and show mercy to visitors.
1) Sanisette. The most high-end but cleanest would be the Parisian self-contained, self-cleaning, unisex, public outdoor toilet: the Sanisette. You pay, you enter, you go, you leave. When you leave, the Sanisette locks and a flood of soapy water immerses the whole interior! It completely washes itself inside before the next person pays, enters. Paying to enter eliminates homeless use, however. A very classy Boulder solution for human need would be the Parisian Sanisette.
2) Cheap concrete building. Another solution is a concrete park-style little building with a modestly paid attendant who keeps it clean and avoids vandalism. Hire people who really need income.
3) Rolling moon room. The cheapest solution is the lower-end solution of portable toilets on wheels. Easy to roll away and empty, easy to satisfy the human needs, easy to keep Boulder Creek clean for our children playing in summers. A larger unit is available with an attached faucet to wash hands.
Please consider these or other compassionate solutions to human needs at the wonderful Boulder Library ASAP, and roll some toilets back to the library.
Louise Love/Boulder
