Letters: 8/18/16

Colorado congress is making change
Saving children is something our Colorado Representatives know well. I want to thank the representatives I’ve already worked with, those who are co-sponsoring the Reach Every Mother and Child Act: Mike Coffman (R-6th), Diana DeGette (D-1st), and Jared Polis (D-2nd). These three representatives know that coming together has the power to change lives. Will the rest of our Colorado Representatives take the pledge? Contact Senator Gardner (R), Senator Bennett (D), Scott Tipton (R-3rd), Ken Buck (R-4th), Doug Lamborn (R-5th), and Ed Perlmutter (D-7th) to join this legislation today.
Alaina Dougherty/Denver, CO

ColoradoCare fills physician RX for broken health
system
Soon Colorado citizens will decide whether to support the current insurance system or muster the courage to change the entire system.

The Colorado Medical Society has been dedicated to advancing the profession of medicine and to caring for the people of Colorado. In 2006, the CMS House of Delegates recognized that: “The health care system in Colorado is broken and the entire system needs to be reformed. Working only on one part will cause problems in other areas.”

The delegates then approved the CMS Guiding Principles of Health System Reform:

1. Coverage ­— Health care coverage for Coloradans should be universal, portable, and mandatory.

2. Benefits — An essential benefits package should be uniform, with an option to obtain additional benefits.

3. Delivery system — The system must ensure choice of physician and preserve the patient/physician relationships. The system must focus on providing care that is safe, timely, efficient, patient-centered, and equitable.

4. Administration and governance — The system must be simple, transparent, accountable, efficient, and effective in order to reduce administrative costs and maximize funding for patient care. The system should be overseen by a governing body that includes regulatory agencies, payers, consumers, and care givers and that is accountable to the citizens.

5. Financing — Health care coverage should be equitable, affordable, and sustainable. The financing strategy should strive for simplicity, transparency, and efficiency. It should emphasize personal responsibility as well as societal obligations due to the limited nature of resources available for health care.

We believe that ColoradoCare, Amendment 69, can achieve the principles listed above, and will replace the present adversarial relationship between physicians and insurers. ColoradoCare will improve health care across the state via a working health care system in Colorado that benefits both patients and providers. Please vote yes for ColoradoCare, Amendment 69, on Nov. 8.
Ben Vernon MD, FACS, past president of the Colorado Medical Society

Laird Cagan MD, FACP, past president of the Boulder Medical Society and Physicians for ColoradoCare co-chair
Mark Matthews MD FACP, Physicians for ColoradoCare co-chair

What’s left of our rights?
Now that the limit-fracking petitions have been submitted (again; thanks for nothing, Jared Polis) we can only hope none of the boxes containing same were “hijacked” on the way to Pueblo for verification. I still wonder what carrot or stick was offered to Polis to withdraw all OUR petitions in 2014, just as oil prices began to crater.

It is useful as well to wonder why the petroleum industry is so apoplectic over what once could have been a ban on its activities in only about 1.5 percent of the surface area of the state – the urban portion. While it is true that proscription of oil and gas exploration and production from just under four million acres doesn’t imply that statewide oil production (93 million barrels in 2014, while gas totaled 1.6 trillion cubic feet in 2013 — gas prices began slipping in August 2008) would therefore recede by 1.5 percent, it is also true that Colorado oil and gas employment would not necessarily soften by 1.5 percent from its June 2016 level of 25,900.

Moreover, 1.5 percent of related state severance taxes (where DO they go?) — near $100 million at the recent price peak — would not necessarily be threatened by denying the “strat” rigs access to urban greenbelts, etc., near you or me.

The industry is nervous. Despite the advantages of multidirectional drilling that can reach resources more than three miles from the pad, the very reliance on such a method tends to reveal the certainty that all the low-hanging fruit is likely gone, that a scramble to avert the so-called “Hubbell Curve” (geologist Hubbell predicted in the early 1970s that oil production would peak in the ‘90s) is on in earnest. Hence, the industry panics at the thought of denial of access to any place. The fear is that such denial may be contagious. This desperation will grow regardless of the result of ballot measures promoted this year.

Some 81percent of Colorado oil production is attributed to Weld County. Insight into that County’s land use and other philosophies might be suggested by the location there in 1971 of the state’s only nuclear power plant. Some could say, if you don’t favor proximity of oil work then don’t live in Weld (or Garfield, number two). Fine. I can still choose where to live. But I’d prefer the industry stay away when I do.
Gregory Iwan/Longmont

Time to wake up.
Trump set the narrative:

1) Hillary is President;

2) Hillary picks a liberal judge;

3) “Then — nothing you can do folks”;

4) “Although, Second Amendment people …”

In that context, AFTER the election, voting is not an option, so what was he hinting at if not violence?

Also, there was Trump’s body language, and that of the people behind him. Trump shrugged slyly as his eyes shifted side to side. In the crowd, eyes grew wide, then smiles and laughter erupted. Is that the behavior of people excited to vote? At best, it’s a tasteless display of humor.

Then, there’s Trump’s record: Needs to research David Duke and the KKK before denouncing them; Veterans who were captured are losers; Protesters at his rallies should be punched, kicked and … (shrug); Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers; Ban Muslims; etc.; etc.; etc.

Trump supporters argue, with a great deal of anger, that Trump is misunderstood, demonized by a “liberal” media (which has never been what I consider liberal). They say Trump’s relentless stumbles (attacking an American-born judge for being of Mexican decent and a gold star military family) are not what he means … that Trump’s a good man that wants the best for everyone.

Still, Trump’s unyielding off the cuff, authoritarian, ego driven rhetoric, in which he regularly doesn’t finish sentences then turns around and complains about being misunderstood, has divided the Republican Party, not to mention the reaction he incites in most Democrats.

If Trump causes this much confusion, fear and anger in America, imagine what Trump’s hyperbole does to people around the world, who think and react in narratives forged in different cultures and languages.

Trump is unfit to be president.
Curtis Griffin/Boulder

EAB: opportunity for growing local fruit
With ash trees being about a sixth of our urban forests, imagine how much less shade we’ll have once the Emerald Ash Borer [RE: Boulderganic, July 28, “Slow-moving disaster reaches Longmont”] has done its work.

If you have an ash tree in your landscape, now is a good time to consider what, if anything, you want to do about it. If your ash is already infested, with visible dieback, it may be too late to treat it.

Consult with an certified arborist regarding whether to treat and the ongoing annual cost if you do. Know that some arborists may recommend neonicotinoid insecticides that can severely impact pollinator populations if used carelessly (there are options other than “neonics”).

If you decide to let your tree die, be aware that tree removal can itself cost quite a bit. Again, ask an arborist about your particular situation.

We see the Emerald Ash Borer as an opportunity to include more local fruit production in our urban forests. Our project, Widespread Malus, is grafting and distributing apple trees from a backyard nursery. In Spring of 2017, we’ll be distributing a number of rootstocks (small apple trees only a foot or so tall) that can be planted and then grafted the next year to a good eating or cider variety. Cost of rootstocks in bundles of 50 is relatively low ($1 to $3 per tree) and they perform well if given appropriate care.

We’re also growing out wild apples of the species Malus sieversii, collected by USDA in Central Asia. Wild populations of this species are threatened by habitat loss, but represent an important genetic reservoir of disease resistance and other useful traits that may be bred into domesticated apples. We’ll gladly make grafting material from these trees available to interested folks.

You can also find fruit trees at local nurseries, of course, or you may decide that a fruit tree is not the best choice for your replacing your ash. But if you’re interested in planting a rootstock and learning to graft, we’d love to keep you up to date on our plans for 2017 grafting classes and rootstock orders. Please visit www.widespreadmalus.org for more information.
Eric Johnson/Boulder