Ask, listen, vote accordingly
Since Dave Anderson’s column on guns came out last week, there is indeed hope for some action in the Senate, perhaps in response to the bill that passed the House (The Anderson Files, “Fear, despair, and gun profiteering,” June 9, 2022). With elections coming, gun control, reproductive freedom, homelessness, tax fairness and more are driving voters to the polls. Time to ask questions of candidates to see where they stand. For example, do you support renewing the expanded Child Tax Credit that lifted 4 million children out of poverty? Ask, listen, vote accordingly. None of the crises in America are beyond answer, the question is who is willing to take action? Find out and then let’s elect/re-elect them.
Willie Dickerson/Snohomish, WA
As if Boulder cares
This was my speech to Boulder City Council during open comment last night:
Let’s talk about Boulder exceptionalism. Philosophy professor Matthew Harris threatens mass murder at CU, God King Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his son are revealed as abusive sex cultists, while real Buddhist Wynn Bruce burns himself to death to protest climate arsonists like our drill baby drill governor! CU hires Trump insurrection attorney John Eastman and fires scientist Detlev Helmig for studying oil and gas emissions. CU invests student money in oil and gas, sealing their climate fate. Yet, city government caters to Polis, CU, Shambala, Xcel, all the 800-pound gorillas.
Boulder, where the roads are crumbling, swimming pools are half closed and half the city department heads have left since 2019, but there’s always millions to persecute the homeless and prevent people from using direct democracy to solve our own problems AND problems caused directly by government.
The new city manager, city attorney and city IT director have their jobs because we exposed their predecessors lying, cheating and defrauding taxpayers of half a million dollars, all to try to kill our online petitioning for direct democracy, which we voted for overwhelmingly, in 2018! (All documented at tinyurl.com/petitionstory)
Yet the new administration told Boulder County Democrats a pack of lies when asked why the city wouldn’t give adequate notice that the online petition system has been fixed. People aren’t using it because they refuse to tell people it’s fixed and waited months to decide to fix it.
I’ll document the lies next time. As if you cared.
Evan Ravitz/Boulder
Only women should have guns
As I stood in the kitchen listening to news of the latest mass shootings, I blurted out, “It’s always guys! Women never do these crazy things!” So, I searched and discovered that, since 1982, there have been 124 men shooters to 3 women shooters. In other words, women are over 40 times less likely than men to massacre people with a firearm. Therefore, I think that lawmakers should consider restricting gun possession to women only, as we men have forfeited any such right through our propensity to violence.
Women could retain that same right because they do not tend to abuse it. And they might need a gun to protect themselves from us, although I prefer the curved-blade dagger that I saw one sister carrying on her belt, which sends the message, “Don’t mess with me.”
We men always seem to need ways to project ourselves outward and relieve the tension of unexpressed emotions, pent-up frustrations, and shattered dreams. But you don’t need to shoot people just to let off steam! Since time immemorial, men have instinctively known how to pump the pizzle between their legs. And though it may not shoot multiple rounds, the pumping is semi-automatic and has a kick of its own. So, when you are all tied up in knots, go to your room, close the door behind you, and get to work. It is far more satisfying than going on a deadly rampage.
Abraham Gutmann/Lafayette
More early voting
It may have been better if I had written this letter about a year ago BEFORE Republicans in many states made large changes to their state’s election system. But I don’t think that those of us who believe in a democratic system are completely defeated and I want to comment on this.
I didn’t read about every change made by these Republicans but I was always relieved when I read that those Democratic state lawmakers standing up to this had succeeded in preserving early voting. I’m not saying the other stuff isn’t important, but I believe that early voting is incredibly important, partly because I don’t think the Republicans have even tried to suggest that it’s easier to commit voting fraud with early voting. I mean as important as voting by mail is, it IS a little more vulnerable to fraud than in-person voting. But not voting early in-person.
I frequently hear reports about long lines at polling places in certain areas. I haven’t seen it myself but I have always voted in Boulder and I’m not surprised that it doesn’t happen in a liberal, middle-class white area. It seems these long lines, which result in some people going home without voting, are in areas with a lot of working-class Black and brown people. I don’t know what happens to cause long lines at such polling places. My theory is that some mid-level employees and maybe some senior employees of county elections departments provide an insufficient number of working computers. However it’s done, it seems like a great solution is LOTS of early voting.
This is a serious problem when people leave the line without voting so that they can go home and sleep so they can get up for work the next morning. And it’s even more classist and racist than I have already suggested. To some extent a lot of voters who are middle-class and in that situation have some flexibility in their job and can make arrangements to skip the next day or part of the next day so they can sleep in a couple hours after staying up late to vote. And the white ones who get in that situation have to worry less about their white supervisor firing them for coming in a couple hours late than their Black and brown co-workers do.
I think that some areas need MORE early voting and no areas needs less, and it’s also a good idea to either make election day a holiday or to have elections on Saturdays.
Tom Shelley/Boulder
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