LETTERS

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It has to stop

The town and university I came to as a freshman in 1964 were far different creatures from what they are now. A room on the Hill ran from $25-40 a month, and leases lasted nine months. Boulder technically was “dry” and 3.2 beer was King of the Hill. The Sink had as good a jukebox selection as anywhere in America. Tuition and fees were $186 a semester and remained so for my entire tenure. Food services and the dining hall in the UMC were run as nonprofits by the University. The draft, Vietnam and Regent Joe Coors hung heavily over the campus, and Paul Danish, Paul Talmey and Samir Zakhem conducted spirited political debates in the courtyard. Communication was face-to-face and Howard Higman reigned over the department of sociology. In short, Boulder was very much a college town and was once tagged by a local wag as “Baghdad by the Flatirons” for its unique, even exotic character here in the hinterlands of the country.

Today, Boulder is a city of developers and landlords, and the university as well has jumped whole-heartedly into that enterprise spirit. For the city, the Danish Plan, at the time, was cuttingedge urban planning, a community surrounded and enhanced by open spaces free from development. The, perhaps unintended, consequence has been a creeping elitist gentrification and its subsequent occasionally snobbish heirs. No longer able to grow outward, the developers’ push for profit has focused on growing the city upward and into greater and greater density. Businesses are encouraged to locate here and commuters coming in for work fill the morning and evening roadways. “Affordable housing,” despite the growing profusion of warren-like apartment complexes springing up, is a phrase that largely rings with irony here. Meanwhile the university clings to an outworn (and doomed to fail) business model of constant expansion. Somewhere it all has to stop.

Robert Porath/Boulder

Vista Ridge deserves council intervention 

The Greater Boulder Green Party strongly supports an intervention by the Boulder City Council on the matter of Vista Village. We stand in solidarity with the residents of Vista Village in their request for Boulder City Council to create an ordinance that protects mobile home owners from harassment by mobile home park management and unlawful rules by land owners on the resale of their homes. Mobile housing residents need support.

When owners and management of mobile home parks try to declare older homes unsalable, even though they comply with all city housing ordinances, something needs to be done. When mobile home park owners harass residents who want to sell their older home, people on low-income budgets who are then denied a way to move, something needs to be done. It’s time for an intervention.

Harry Hempy and Fred Smith Co-chairs, Greater Boulder Green Party

Gun nuts 

Now, I read that Tim McGraw is being attacked by the gun nuts for being unpatriotic because McGraw wants to play a concert to benefit the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Massacre. It is time for the Second Amendment to be repealed. There is absolutely no need for ordinary Americans to arm themselves with handguns and semi-automatic weapons. The NRA and Republicans would have us believe that it is un-American to want gun control and regulation, because they want to sell guns. The NRA and Republicans and American gun nuts are immoral and reprehensible and put the lives of our children at risk so that they can make money from gun sales.

Andrew J. O’Connor/Lafayette

Sustainable eating 

Just in time for the 45th anniversary of Earth Day, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has made it official: consumption of animal products is not environmentally sustainable. Their conclusions match those of a massive 2010 United Nations report, which concluded that a global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and climate change.

Carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, is emitted by burning forests to create animal pastures and by combustion of fossil fuels to operate farm machinery, trucks, refrigeration equipment, factory farms, and slaughterhouses. The much more damaging methane and nitrous oxide are released from digestive tracts of cattle and from animal waste cesspools.

Moreover, animal agriculture contributes more pollutants to our waterways than other human activities combined. Principal sources are animal wastes, soil particles, minerals, crop debris, fertilizers and pesticides from feed croplands. It is also the driving force in world-wide deforestation and wildlife habitat destruction.

In an environmentally sustainable world, just as fossil fuels are replaced by wind, solar and other sustainable energy sources, animal foods must be replaced by vegetables, fruits and grains. Our next trip to the supermarket is a great starting point.

Stanley Silver/Boulder,

Ken Buck wants to save you from Hillary by taking your money 

Friends, we need to determine if our enemies were able to access Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

In a recent article, I argued that the FBI should conduct a forensic analysis of any attempted foreign penetrations, to determine which foreign intelligence services might have hacked into Clinton’s email server.

Denying a legitimate request by the Bureau to examine her computer would certainly suggest that America’s security is not Clinton’s highest priority.

I am committed to making sure your security is protected. Will you stand with me?

When I was elected, I took an oath that “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” But I need your help. Your support today will continue to pressure Hillary Clinton to make sure that none of our enemies accessed her emails. 

Ken Buck/Somewhere in Weld County

Let Polis know what you think about his support of TPP 

Media spin on the Trans-Pacific Partnership has assumed Orwellian dimensions. For six years, government officials and corporate “advisors” secretly negotiated a 29-chapter corporate bill of rights comprising thousands of pages. Promoters now claim ramrodding the TPP through Congress via “fast track” will somehow “open up” the process. Voters are supposed to believe “fast track” also known as Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) will magically transform a secretly negotiated corporate-friendly trade deal into an exemplar of the democratic process.

Sadly, Congressman Jared Polis seems to buy into the double speak. Polis recently wrote that fast track “empowers Congress to define the objectives and rules that must be followed when the administration negotiates trade deals.” Polis added that “absent renewal of TPA, the President lacks formal guidance from Congress about our priorities for any trade deal.” Exactly how might Congress provide formal guidance for an essentially done deal six years in the making?

TPP supporters say certain “protections” will be built into fast track. This last-minute tweak is sadly reminiscent of the now infamous NAFTA “sidebars” President Clinton promised would protect jobs and the environment. A million lost American jobs, mass immigration and ruined stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border are sad testaments to those earlier assurances.

An obsession with intellectual property seems to be all that remains of our once “progressive” congressman. Forget about defending local communities against corporate predators. Never mind protecting the public from dirty industrial practices like fracking. Mr. Polis seems more concerned that local Internet start-ups will be able to profit from the monopoly patents and restrictive copyrights promised by TPP than for community values.

Tell Mr. Polis what you think.

Contact him at http://polis.house.gov/ contact or 303-484-9596.

Martha McPherson/Longmont

Tell Polis to stop supporting Fast Track for TPP 

On April 16, a Fast Track Agreement (known as the Hatch bill) for the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement was introduced in the U.S. Senate.

The Hatch bill is the result of a back room deal cut in Washington and, if passed, will oil the skids for multinational corporations to achieve their long-sought goal of passing the TPP.

The Hatch bill and the TPP sound like dream deals for large corporations. The Hatch bill delegates away Congress’ constitutional authority over trade and forbids amendments to the TPP. Just like NAFTA before it, TPP will negatively affect Americans in myriad ways.

TPP will cause outsourcing of jobs to low-wage countries and put downward pressure on American wages; allow foreign tribunals to undermine our democracy by attacking domestic laws for interfering with corporate profits; and destroy the environment both here and abroad. In addition, the TPP would promote increased fracking and climate change; give more power to corporations over the Internet; and extend patents and increase drug prices.

Members of Congress have only been permitted to see TPP segments in a locked room and could not take notes or talk to staff or experts. The American public, of course, has had no access at all to this huge secret document except for sections leaked through Wiki Leaks. How is Congress supposed to know what they’re voting for under these conditions?

Congressman Jared Polis has finally gone public and admits he supports the Hatch Fast Track bill. The present Fast Track deal is as bad as the one from last year, which 151 Democrats in the House opposed. Please tell Congressman Polis (303-484-9596 and www.polis.house.gov) to protect American jobs and oppose the Hatch bill and the TPP.

Judy Lubow/Longmont

World is at war 

President Obama refuses to refer to ISIL, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Quds Force and others as Islamic terrorists. He tends to mischaracterize the attacks by the radical Islamic terrorists on Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims, and he seems hesitant to vigorously take the fight to the terrorists. Why is that?

Our President referred to the attack on a Paris Jewish deli saying “attackers randomly shot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.” In fact the victims were sought out, shot and killed because they were Jews. In response to the beheading of the 21 Coptic Christians the White House said they were “Egyptian citizens,” and then stated ISIL attacks are “unconstrained by faith, sect or ethnicity.” This rhetoric seems to be designed to downplay the seriousness of Islamic terrorist attacks and avoid offending Muslims.

The Obama administration talks about creating economic opportunities and jobs in the Islamic world as a cure for Islamic extremism. How can this work when radical Islamic ideology states Islam is the only true religion and non-Muslims have to convert, or pay tribute, or be killed?

The world is at war with the scourge of radical Islamic terrorism.

Donald A. Moskowitz/Londonderry, NH