Letters: 5/3/18

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Diplomacy and war

According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the dangers of nuclear war are at their highest since 1953. Russia and the U.S., the two nuclear superpowers, are on opposite sides of a potential nuclear escalation triggered by events in Syria, Ukraine and Iran.

The U.S. attack on the Syrian government installations on April 14 had a lot of experts and citizens wondering if our luck in preventing nuclear war was running out. Before the strike, Russia had repeatedly said that if any Russian soldiers or personnel were killed, they would retaliate. Russia and the U.S./NATO are also on the opposite sides of the deadly war in the Ukraine. Ukraine is on Russia’s border.

First-strike policies and uncertainty about what the other side will do increase the dangers of escalation. Russia/U.S. diplomacy is at an all-time low, lower than during any time during the Cold War. Diplomacy is needed to prevent war.

The president and the Pentagon make their plans with very little input from the American public. We cannot sit aside and be silent. We must press Congress, who are supposed to represent us, to play their constitutional role to stop endless war and prevent nuclear war.

A panel entitled “The Current Dangers of Nuclear War” will take place Thursday, May 3, and will focus on the flashpoints for nuclear war between the United States and Russia. Panelists will include: Ron Forthofer, Judith Mohling, David Barsamian and Moji Agha. The event is at 7 p.m. at G130, Duane Physics, CU Boulder and is free.

Carolyn Bninski/Boulder

Firing of Camera editor

I am very glad that the Boulder Weekly is a locally owned paper not owned by the New York-based hedge fund Alden Global Capital, which owns controlling interest in both the Denver Post and the Camera.

Alden recently fired one-third of the Denver newspaper’s staff to save money for the hedge fund. This will strip the paper of in-depth local reporting. 

Dave Krieger was fired after he was denied permission to criticize Alden in an editorial in the Boulder Camera and did so in a recent private blog. He was then fired last week. No mention has been made of his firing in the Camera nor have any letters appeared protesting his firing.

He was interviewed on KGNU, a local independently owned FM station on April 30, and expressed his fears about the possible demise of the Camera in the future because of Alden’s management and practice of stripping its newspapers of funds that support local reporters.

I am hopeful that some local entrepreneurs will step forward to buy both Colorado newspapers from Alden. Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post and invested in it to beef up the number of reporters and staff and has kept his nose out of interfering with its news coverage.

I am very appreciative of the Boulder Weekly’s coverage of local news and the large staff of contributing writers but our community also needs a good daily newspaper as well — unrestricted in its news commentary by its publisher.

Joan Graff/Boulder

Democrats vs. progressives

Recent revelations from The Intercept prove the Democratic Party is anything but democratic.

In an April 26, 2018 article by Lee Fang, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is on tape unequivocally admitting the national party is intervening in primary races here in Colorado and trying to squash true “progressive” candidates.

This is the same Steny Hoyer contributing thousands to Joe Neguse here in Colorado’s second congressional district race. His super PAC, AMERIPAC, has also contributed generously to Neguse, along with the DCCC. The DCCC, in fact, held a fundraiser for Neguse in Williamsburg, Virginia, in early March.

Why are the DCCC and Democratic leadership unfairly influencing a decision we as voters should be making on June 26? Voters deserve to know these facts.

This district is one of the most progressive, safe blue districts in the country — if not the most — and we deserve a real progressive like Mark Williams. Mark refuses PAC money and funding from the oil and gas industry. Neguse, on the other hand, takes PAC money and his largest funder (Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, & Schreck) sued our communities in Fort Collins, Lafayette and Longmont over fracking bans. Joe has been asked about this multiple times, yet he still refuses to return this dirty money.

Ryan Reeves/Boulder

Fracking threats continue

Fellow citizens of Boulder County, our local community is under imminent threat. Two large private companies, Crestone and Extraction 8 North, want to come into Boulder County and risk the beautiful existence and health of the open space land that makes Boulder so desirable to live and play in. I personally oppose fracking because we have already discovered solutions to our energy problems that don’t require cracking open our land and pumping harmful chemicals into the ground. I also have zero trust for private companies who want to profit off of the natural resources. Some of this natural gas may go to Colorado, but some will be sold to outside interests for a profit for those private companies. And who pays for the externalities of the hydraulic fracturing? We do as a community. Boulder citizens have invested over $100 million taxpayer dollars into our open space fund. Why should we allow a private company to harm our environment and profit off these pristine resources, which belong to all of us? I call on all Boulder County Commissioners to obey the will of the people who elected them and stop any fracking on our open space lands and within the county indefinitely. If Portland can do it, why not Boulder?

Joshua Smith/Boulder