Offended by cover
Your July 4 cover illustration was highly offensive to any military person, past, present, healthy, maimed or dead. These people risked life and limb so you could publish such a trashy front page. You might wish to research all of Obama’s “un-presidential” utterances through the media he chose — late night TV shows, correspondents’ dinners, public speeches, etc. You’ll find that these were essentially no different than the tweets of Trump, which the mainstream media and the Libs find so “offensive” and “un-presidential.” Oh, hypocrisy — you are soulless and brainless. If you feel Trump is “course” in his discourse, look at yourself in the mirror because he is simply reflecting the coarseness that our society as a whole has evolved to. That’s why his communications cut through and are embraced by so many Americans. We have met the enemy, and they are us.
R. Eggers/Niwot
Work on ACA, don’t kill it
Everyone eventually will need healthcare. It’s a policy that will affect the entire nation, and I hope others feel that the process behind the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA — the Senate version) has been unacceptable. Hopefully people are reaching out to their senators and representatives, and letting them know that crafting bills in secrecy and then trying to push them through without debate, opportunities for amendments, etc. is not good practice.
We should vote out those that think that it is.
As for the actual healthcare bills, I understand that some feel that Obamacare/ACA is not perfect. I’d agree, but would prefer to see the issues worked on, rather than starting all over, and saying it’s “exploding” (which it’s not).
Regardless, I know it can be improved, and I wish that was the main focus, rather than the current bills (AHCA and BCRA), which are not really health care bills, but rather a massive transfer of wealth from working people to Wall Street and corporations. It will cause an estimated 22 million Americans to lose coverage (that’s almost 7 percent of the population, which is a huge deal.) The Senate bill effectively destroys Medicaid — stripping health care, especially from children, seniors and low-income Americans. Again, I hope many people are inspired to reach out to their senators and representatives to let them know the current bills, as well as the process being used, are unacceptable. We need to be better at holding our legislators accountable.
Adam Pastula/Boulder
Independence Day
reflections
This Independence Day I’m reflecting on our founders’ attempts to reintroduce a radical notion. Simplified, the founders created a grand experiment to see if “We the People” could govern ourselves through representatives to make our voices heard to create laws, and thus, communities we wanted. That system of democracy has struggled all along to fulfill its promise, but now is in dire shape mostly due to fatal mistakes that allow corporations to pay the people’s chosen representatives for influence. Representatives and the Executive are now beholden to corporations, not voters.
Today I’m compelled to focus on one failure of representative democracy that poses an imminent danger to the people of Boulder County — the kind of danger that many privileged people don’t often have to personally face.
As you may know, hydraulic fracturing is set to begin in the coming months in Boulder County. The catastrophic results wrought by fracking will hurt you and your family if you don’t stand up and prevent it from ever happening in Boulder County. The time is upon us. No more moratoria, no bans allowed (say the County Commissioners).
We are poised to allow permanent damage to our beautiful Boulder open spaces. Fracking could ruin the special, gorgeous place where we live and our vibrant community for the rest of our lives.
Because of the failure of representative democracy, only “We the People” through direct action can protect our land, air and water.
You may say, “That’s so dramatic. This tree hugger must be exaggerating.” Nope. Did you know that Boulder County already has an “F” rating for air quality?
Did you know that it is impossible to prevent accidents related to oil and gas extraction no matter how strict the regulations? Things blow up, things leak, toxins get in your air and water. “Safe regulation of oil and gas development” is an oxymoron.
Sharon Cascone/Boulder
