Letters | Same song, different verse

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Same song, different verse

Here we go again! President Obama came to CU to promote continued federal stimulus of loans for college students loans. There are over $1 trillion in student loans and default rates are rising. It is just like the housing bubble, a good intention run amuck: government stimulus (regulated interest rate, prohibit bankruptcy exit, standard instrument to encourage securitization) of mass borrowing for the purchase of an asset, excess production of a deficient product that will not bring sufficient value to pay off the loan.

Again, a government promotion and industry beneficiaries conspire to herd lemmings over a cliff. We need to conduct a transformation of how we conduct higher education as a decentralized, lifetime process.

Stephen Colby/Boulder

Fan of Fan’s

(Re: “Chinese-American standbys,” cuisine review, March 15.) Your observations and comments regarding Fan’s are on the money.

We’ve lived in Colorado for almost three years and have patronized the family eatery since then. Everything is freshly made, well-presented, and very tasty.

The owner, her husband and her daughter are very accommodating and friendly.

Dick Tahl/Gunbarrel

Terror in Boulder

How does it feel to be afraid, take to the streets because you might get waylaid. By those whose minds are chained by hate looking for a black male to lay out in state? How does it feel to fear the bus stop? Alert for the SUV screaming “Fuck you black asshole” as it drives past in haste, wishing to disturb my peaceful state.

So should I buy a .38 so I can feel safe? A .38 is light and can be pulled out fast to take out the hater before he steps on the gas. Maybe I need a 45. It will kill any sentient being alive. But then I’d have to live with what I’d done. Stained my conscience by the bark of a gun. Bear a grieving mother’s pain ’cause her son was so distorted that he had to be slain. I saw the grief on my own sister’s face when her son Al was buried in a state of grace. Would gentle Jesus so meek and mild understand my need to kill someone else’s child? See his mother cry like my sister did? Cry over the coffin of her youngest kid. I’m a 60-year OG who wants to stay alive; see his five children, four granddaughters and white son-in-law thrive. Should I leave the Bodhisattva path? Sacrifice my soul and face a loving God’s wrath? Would gentle Jesus so meek and so mild accept a brother who killed someone else’s child? My ancestors cried to see anyone die. Even the haters who brought the lie:

There is really a difference between you and I.

So I sit in my room, hang my head and cry. Am I shedding tears for Viola, Malcolm and Martin, who were all cut down as they tried to help the black, the poor, the white and the brown? Why do I stay in a town so blind that it doesn’t care about a black man’s bind? Turns a silent ear to a black woman’s speech who was called “nigger bitch” as she walked down the street.

My Naropa community says this is what I should do: write about my experiences that I know to be true. Use the power of the pen instead of a gun. Hoping Boulder will hear before I am slain. Just one more dead nigger like Trayvon, whose life was in vain. I’ve decided to let heaven decide. Depend on my ancestors to keep me alive. Do what my mom said when troubles arise. Pray to the God, who has been by our side, since our ancestors took that first fateful ride. My actions must be just; in Moses, The Buddha, Christ and Muhammad I trust. Brothers of color who were sent from above to teach lost humanity the meaning of love. Told us we could end suffering if we accept what is true:

There really is no difference between me and you.

—Rev. Donald H. Matthews, associate professor of religious studies and program coordinator, master of divinity program, Naropa University/Boulder