Letters: 3/2/17

Get loud

We all have been thrown into a time of drastic change, whether or not we expected or wanted it to come. The climate is changing; the way the world works; and politics and people have become extreme. The choice is simple, either sit back and do nothing but complain or get up and do something. We need to take our fear, anxiety and anger, and turn it into something more effective like prolonged action. Make your voice heard.

Call your representatives especially those at the City and State levels, because if we cannot change things locally how can we expect them to change nationally. Get out and participate in cooperative actions in your home town or at the Capital. Hopefully, we can create our own political “wall” to keep #45’s policies out of our State. If we make these actions happen, over time we can ensure that our politicians are focused on our loud voices rather than those of the lobbyists. I’ve heard that there are 52 paid oil and gas lobbyists in our state. Just think of what might happen when 50-plus citizens are there to meet them with an alternative view. Our voices have to grow louder. Our democracy is eroding right before our eyes.

Jake C./Longmont

A voice for peace

Humanity wants peace, but peace seems a far off goal.  According to the International Peace Bureau, “The world’s governments are spending more than $1.7 trillion a year on their militaries, more than at the peak of Cold War.” $100 billion of this is going toward the production and modernization of nuclear weapons, weapons which would destroy the planet, humanity and all living beings if used in an all-out war.

The United States spends as much on our military as the next 10 countries combined. The figures for what we spend annually range from $773.5 billion to over a trillion dollars, depending on what is counted. China spends about a quarter of what we spend, Russia one-tenth.

How do we get to peace when we spend more than 54 percent of our tax dollars on war and the preparations for war? How do we protect our environment, address climate change, fix our roads and bridges, fund our schools and health care, and take care of the elderly when the majority of our tax dollars are spent on the military?

We appear to need some help. Maybe a voice from another continent would give us some ideas on how to address our present dilemma.

Reiner Braun has been a German peace activist since 1982 and is the co-president of the International Peace Bureau based in Berlin Germany. He’s has also been the executive director of several peace organizations in his career. He will be speaking on the relations between U.S., NATO and Russia, a topic that has been highlighted in the national news lately. Braun will speak on Friday, March 3, at 7 p.m. at the Eaton Humanities Building, Room 250 at CU Boulder. The event is free and sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. For more info: [email protected].

Carolyn Bninski/Boulder

You’re fired

It appears that our newly selected leader and lover of “reality “ shows is in need of a bit of advice in language he can understand:

“Comrade 45, since it has become evident that you have outlived your entertainment value and have in fact become a liability , YOU’RE FIRED!!!

So… Thank you for your service.

You may now return to your Daddy’s Golden Tower… Goodbye!

Tommy Holeman/Christiansted U.S.V.I

Boulder can lead

The qualities of ingenuity and innovation are what drew me to pursue an education in a city like Boulder. Nothing is more inspiring to the minds of eager undergraduates than the possibility of moving forward or progressing towards a better tomorrow.

As a junior at CU, I am constantly excited by Boulder’s positioning at the forefront of progress, particularly when it comes to tackling the issue of climate change. Due to the threats of the federal agenda, taking action locally is more pressing now than ever. We need to address climate change before it’s too late.

We have the unique opportunity to lead the way for environmental policy throughout the country by adopting a municipal utility. Boulder has always demonstrated its commitment to sustainable environmental policy, and transitioning to a renewables-based power supply would display the qualities of ingenuity and innovation that Boulder is valued for. City Council recently adopted a Climate Commitment Goals of 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030. The best way for us to do this is through a locally controlled utility.

Boulder voters have voted twice in favor of municipalization, and we should respect this vote and commit to moving forward on these plans. Our community forged a new path for Boulder’s environmental policy, one that will have nation-wide implications once our city’s plan achieves success, and so I strongly urge City Council to uphold this vote.

Caylin Enoch/Boulder

The Diet of Lent

March 1st marks the beginning of Lent, the 40-day period preceding Easter, when many Christians abstain from animal foods in remembrance of Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness before launching his ministry.

The call to refrain from eating animals is as old as the Bible. In Genesis 1:29, God commands humans to eat only plants; then Prophet Isaiah predicts that “none will hurt or destroy on God’s holy mountain.”

A number of Christian leaders have followed the call, including Methodist founder John Wesley, Salvation Army founders William and Catherine Booth, Seventh-day Adventist Church founder Ellen G. White, and prominent evangelical leader Franklin Graham.

A meat-free diet is not just about Christian devotion. Dozens of medical studies have linked consumption of animal products with elevated risk of heart failure, stroke, cancer, and other killer diseases. A United Nations report named meat production as the largest source of greenhouse gases and water pollution. Undercover investigations have documented farm animals being caged, crowded, mutilated, beaten, and shocked.

Lent offers a superb opportunity to honor Christ’s powerful message of compassion, but also to protect the health of our family and our planet Earth by adopting a meat-free diet.

Stanley Silver/Boulder

Another postcard to Donald, president

It was only late yesterday afternoon when I discovered the reason my latest postcard to the nation’s “reality chief executive officer” hadn’t been picked up. 

News broadcasts announced that it was Presidents Day, and that many thousands in at least a dozen cities around the country were holding “Not My President’s Day” protests. 

So now, this message from my postcard (one side of which was mainly devoted to an Adam Zyglis Buffalo News cartoon titled “The HAND that FEEDS HIM,” which depicts Donald J. Trump as a fanged attack dog holding in his salivating jaws an amputated forearm of The Media still holding the microphone Trump so much needs) will be a follow-up to those wonderful persisters’ communications:

My post card says: Donald, this is how it’s going, and the world sees a pattern: You and/or the people you’ve hired make a big mistake and/or make up fake news, aka lies.  The news media does its job, investigates and then, using reputable sources and evidence collected from named sources and/or leaks from people within your administration and/or other parts of the government, exposes your mistakes and lies, which makes you look worse and lose legitimacy. Desperate to regain reputation, you blanket-attack the news media with ridiculous name-calling — really, it sounds so pathetic — and more falsehoods.

“This past Friday, you tweeted that the news media is ‘the enemy of the American people.’ And yet, on November 22 of last year, after earlier in the day labeling the New York Times ‘failing’ — you’re getting to sound like a broken record with that one — you told editors and reporters of that same publication, in a closed-door meeting, ‘I have great respect for the New York Times. I have tremendous respect.’  You even gushed that the paper was a ‘great, great American jewel.’ As long as you, sir, are an enemy of truth and decency, the news media will call you on it, and by doing so, they will be a friend and defender of the American people, not our enemy.”

Your lies are wearing thin.

Matt Nicodemus/Boulder

Conflicting pledges

An interesting set of conflicting pledges put Donald in the white house. Firstly, he said he would run the country like his businesses because he was a “very good deal maker.” Secondly, he promised he would “drain the swamp.”  These pledges attracted both the wishful and the vengeful.

Since his inauguration, though, we are witness to an inverted business model. The norm for industry is that all critical positions are occupied by the most qualified individuals, people who know the job and have the skills and temperament to do the work. You wouldn’t see Apple, General Motors or Boeing put Rick Perry in as head of engineering, Steve Bannon as chief strategist or, for that matter, Mother Teresa in as CEO. Those companies would fail within the first year.

As for “draining the swamp”? Great! But why not refill it with lilies instead of roaches?

Tom Lopez/Longmont

National security

Beginning with fostering the birther movement and continuing through Kellyanne Conway’s “alternate facts,” the Trump phenomenon has been, shall we say, “sketchy” with the truth. It is understandable then that Michael Flynn might think the same standards held for him. That he did not consider that the Russian embassy phones were being monitored, however, is inexcusable for anyone aspiring to a national security post. The Ambassador had to be thinking, “How stupid can this guy be?”

Robert Porath/Boulder