Letters: 2/9/17

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Loved the anniversary issue

Thank you for the wonderful articles celebrating local people who make the world a better place [Re: Jan. 26 issue]! It was my favorite Boulder Weekly paper.

Linda Schlake/Longmont

In the spirit thereof

Antonin Scalia is regarded by Republicans as the Patron Saint of Conservative jurisprudence, but before the Senate anoints yet another conservative of Scalia’s ilk to the Supreme Court it should be remembered that he was instrumental in the decision that held that an accurate count of the votes in Florida was not necessary and summarily appointed George W. Bush our 43rd President. He also led the majority in Citizens United which declared that money was equivalent to free speech and that there should be no limits on the amount of corporate money flowing into political campaigns. The current, conservative majority Supreme Court has consistently ruled in favor of corporate power over that of the individual, apparently adopting Scalia’s belief that “cost-benefit analysis” was an instrumental factor in court decisions.  Normally reserved for CFOs and CPAs, this seems a most bizarre take on the application of “justice.” What the court really needs is a breath fresh air, not another Scalia.

Robert Porath/Boulder

In defense of civil
disobedience in Lafayette and North Dakota

Fracking does not exist to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Fracking exists to make the maximum amount of profits for oil and gas companies. Period. Economists and geologists agree that any petroleum that companies get from here on will require drilling wells deeper and fracking. More than 50 percent of fracking wells leak, including those that have been abandoned. Abandoned wells are no good for making money; however, they are still under pressure and often leak into the aquifer.

When fracking wells run dry or are shutdown, they have to be plugged in order to keep them from contaminating fresh water aquifers. Because many fracking companies go bankrupt, the cost of cleanup falls to the states.

Cleanup costs include: repair of roads due to wear and tear of 400 trucks hauling water and heavy equipment for each well; air, water and soil contamination cleanup; species extinction; ozone depletion; climate change and medical treatment for skyrocketing cases of asthma, cancer, immune system diseases, cognitive deficiencies, miscarriages and birth defects. Wyoming spent 11 million dollars between 1997 and 2014, to plug abandoned wells. In 2014, California ordered the emergency shutdown of fracking wells stating that fracking “poses danger to life, health, property and natural resources” because oil and gas companies had been pumping fracking fluids and other toxic waste into drinking water aquifers.

Paul Danish cheerfully advocates for the death of anti-fracking protesters by oil and gas workers who “accidently mows down a few dozen of them.” [Re: Danish Plan, Jan. 19] Cleary, Mr. Danish believes that the profits of the oil and gas industry trumps the lives of Lafayette citizens protesting fracking.

So, while the profits from fracking go to the oil and drilling companies, the costs of cleanup, adverse environmental and health consequences will be borne by the people and taxpayers of Boulder County. Considering the earthquakes, the mess, the poisoned air and water and the sick people, fracking is just not worth it to Boulder County.

Andrew J. O’Connor/Lafayette

Apathy will cost us our democracy

Victor Frankel was a neurologist, pyschiatrist and holocaust survivor. He wrote a book, Man’s Search for Meaning, in which he speaks of three stages of survival, the second stage is apathy. He writes of how under normal conditions seeing a young boy standing for hours at attention barefoot in the snow would elicit horror, but in the camp it barely registered a second glance. Apathy was the only way one could manage to survive in such an upside down reality.

Apathy is where we as a world have been at for too long.

Donald Trump has instituted a media black out at the EPA.

We as citizens need to be allowed to be told what is going on, we don’t have to agree, but we deserve the right to be told and make our minds up for ourselves.

A media freeze is loss of our rights, and I am in shock at the apathy. I don’t care what party you affiliate with, this is the beginning steps of a dictatorship. We are losing our democracy hour by hour. Dictatorship is one in which a dictator has absolute rule, absolute authority in any sphere. The dictator has absolute power.

Donald Trump has started his term with executive orders. We have a Senate. We have a House of Representatives to ensure that one man is not in control. Our Founding Fathers had lived under a king and the United States was to be a democracy.

Obama used executive orders, other presidents use them, however, the difference is YEARS of attempting to work with our democratic system. Trump is turning this democracy into a dictatorship very quickly. What will it take to get people out of apathy? What will it get to make people get out of party labels and look at what is ethical? Boulder has declared itself a sanctuary city, Trump has threatened to target/ starve cities financially that do not enforce his isolationists mandates.

Diversity, innovation is how this country will expand/grow. NO to the wall, NO to media blackouts, NO to dictatorship. FREEDOM. I ain’t nothing, baby, if I am not free.

Jennifer Shields/Boulder

Fact-based reality

America needs an “alternative president.” Period.

The one we just plugged in is obviously defective.

Tommy Holeman/via the internet

And now from the right

Judges should decide what is legal or illegal; just or unjust; right from wrong. Yet, President Obama appointed one thousand liberal judges who ruled deportation of pro-American Iraqi and Cuban refugees legal, while barring entry to un-vetted young men from terrorist countries is illegal, all to promote diversity. Their more just society silences conservative speakers, yet does not punish rioters. Their more perfect society not only allows abortion in the ninth month but the sale of fetal body parts. Rather than change human nature it is time to return to the rule of law. Urge your senators to support constitutional judges.

M.F. McCarthy/via the internet