Time for social distancing
This is a time of social distancing. To help stop the spread of the coronavirus, it is recommended that we avoid large gatherings and maintain a distance of six feet from other people.
It is understandable, therefore, why many people are choosing to hike in the OSMP and are going off trail. Or is it?
Springtime is a time of bird songs, baby foxes and new green growth. It is also a fragile time. Hikers that go off trail could disturb or destroy the biome. Some of the open space areas may not be able to sustain the recent onslaught.
This is a time for social distancing as well as a time to work together. The word ME has flipped and has become the word WE. We are a part of, not apart from, nature.
If you chose to hike in the OSMP during this crisis (or anytime), please stay on the trails. Let’s be able to look back at this time as a time when we were able to stop the coronavirus and protect open space.
Kristen Marshall/Boulder
Wake-up call
After 10 workers at a Colorado meatpacking plant tested positive for COVID-19, about 1,000 other employees walked off the job, because slaughterhouse workers are forced to work in crowded, filthy conditions — without safety gear — and aren’t given sick pay to self-quarantine.
This just reinforces my decision to eat only vegan foods.
Slaughterhouses are sick, unsanitary places that typically don’t show concern for their employees, many of whom must keep up with dangerous slaughter speeds and stomach unethical, revolting practices. Many slaughterhouse employees become mentally unwell, even suicidal, and workplace safety records indicate that U.S. slaughterhouse employees are three times more likely to suffer serious injury than the average American worker.
Approximately two slaughterhouse workers have a limb cut off by machinery each week. Others lose an eye or suffer from fractured fingers, second-degree burns or head trauma. And now they have to worry about becoming infected with COVID-19 as well.
The meat industry isn’t likely to change, but we can, by going vegan. Meat and other animal-based foods aren’t essential. Let’s enjoy healthy vegan foods, and retrain meatpackers to be an important part of the growing vegan food industry. Visit www.PETA.org for more information and a free vegan starter kit.
Heather Moore/PETA
Venom
Were I a political cartoonist, I would draw Donald Trump as an alarmed cobra wearing a long red tie, beady-eyed, hood flared and poised to lash out with a limited but venomous vocabulary at any perceived threat. It is no wonder Congressional Republicans live in constant fear of him.
Robert Porath/Boulder
Voting by mail
Voting by mail should replace voting at the polls in it’s entirety. The two institutions that can definitely be trusted is the County Board of Elections and the U.S. Postal Service. The money saved by eliminating the need for poll workers could be used to offer free postage on the envelopes used to vote by mail. The person voting would also have more time to consider what they are voting for and would not be confined to the hours of the polling place. It would also prevent unwanted entry to schools and churches from anyone trying to harm someone. In addition the voter would not be harassed by someone trying to place unsolicited campaign literature into their hand. The additional revenue would boost the Postal Service and perhaps keep it afloat until we as a country are able to vote online. Voting by mail would solve the registered voter problem.
Joe Bialek/via internet
End housing crisis
As the affordable housing crisis looms, evictions rise and wages remain stagnant, we can take action to make a difference (‘Taking initiative,” News, Feb. 27). Since rents have risen over 60% and wages only 6% since the 1960s (according to a Harvard study), it is not surprising millions of Americans are rent burdened to the point of eviction or choosing between rent and food. Currently there are proposals in Congress for a renters’ tax credit, more affordable housing to be built and minimum wage raises. This is a multi-pronged approach to battle a crisis that leads to evictions, hunger and homelessness. Our voices can turn this around by asking those who represent us in Congress to pass these and other initiatives. Our calls, letters and visits to our senators and representatives can help end this crisis.
Willie Dickerson/via internet
