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Change a child's
life
Dear Editors,
I would like to take
this opportunity to thank you first hand for the article in last
week's Telegraph that brought to light an issue that is very close
to my heart, and yet not common knowledge around the community, and
this is La Plata County's lack of foster homes. This has always
been the case in the past, but it is especially crucial now that,
as you mentioned, several group facilities in the area have been
closed.
I was first removed from
my home in 1982 here in Durango. Over the next six years, I was in
a total of five different "permanent" placements and a few
"emergency" homes. At the ripe old age of 14, I was placed in what
was then called La Plata County Youth Home and later referred to as
Riverbend Youth Center, where I stayed off and on for another 3`BD
years. I was placed there because there were no foster homes for
children more than 14 years of age at the time. I was not a bad
kid, had never been in trouble with the law, and yet I felt that I
was being punished for having what the state considered an "unsafe"
living environment.
I like to think that I
am an example of what can come from loving care in foster
situations. I could have very well ended up being a statistic. I
was often referred to as a case number or "the minor." But, and
here's where I'm fortunate, every family that took me into their
home tried to give me peace, stability and, most of all, love. Even
the Honorable Judge Childress took a decided interest in me and
always referred to me by name, and not by my case, and he would not
allow anyone else to in his courtroom. I was truly blessed in the
people that decided to be a part of my life. At the Youth Home, my
house parents were some of the most remarkable human beings I have
yet to encounter in my life. I was not just a job to them. I was an
extended member of their family. Some kids could not be reached. A
lot of those in my peer group are in prison, or sadly have passed
on. I am lucky. I thank God every day for the Albertsons, for the
Simmonds, for Bobbi Fortin, Rod Gant, Ivan Mensch and Gail Ruffian.
These people were called on to take a child, an often angry child,
and love and guide her into adulthood. And if I do say so myself,
they did a great job.
So, please, if you think
you have something to offer a child, if you have a loving home,
open it to those who need you most. You could be instrumental in
changing a child's life. Remember, they may be small today, but
these young people are the adults of tomorrow. Give them the tools
they need be happy, healthy and productive.
Angie Bailey
Durango
Make growth serve the people
Dear Editors,
Again The Durango Telegraph delivers when it seems most of
Southwest Colorado's Fourth Estate are out to lunch or, heaven
forbid, have sold out for so long to the big real estate dollars
that they view the future only through the eyes of land speculators
and boom boosters.
Your article on the
Friends of the Animas Valley grasps a point some of us, including
myself, a fifth-generation Durangoan, have tried to raise for 30
years: When it comes to growth, is the dog wagging the tail or is
the tail wagging the dog? I suggest the latter.
FOAV has a great
ambition: returning representative democracy to planning in Durango
and La Plata County. Remember it? "Government by and for the
people," or carried a step further, growth that serves the people,
rather than the people serving growth, clearly the case in an area
where growth, in contrast to what other areas are doing, could not
be any more out of control.
When I moved to Los
Alamos in the early 1990s, a proposal was pending to cut a
high-voltage transmission line through a pristine area of the Jemez
Mountains. Los Alamos officials endorsed the idea, but residents
then went to the joint city-county government and said, "By
endorsing this, you pit local government against its own citizens.
You need to move the city-county government to neutral ground."
Knowing that they would face the wrath of voters if they did not,
the county council did exactly that, including forbidding employees
to speak for or against the project, which was ultimately killed by
the state Public Utilities Commission.
In stark contrast, a
Durango official, in reference to the new hospital at Grandview,
recently said, "I don't want to be party to letting $79 million
slip through our fingers," in my view an outrageous statement for
an elected official to make. (1.) It is highly unlikely that the
$79 million would just go away. (2.) That $79 million will require
huge public outlays in return. (3.) Elected officials owe ALL their
constituents assurances that they are scrutinizing a proposal
carefully and objectively, rather than advocate for it. Residents
should demand no less.
Whether it is a
development of a few dozen homes at one time a big development by
Southwest Colorado standards or a proposal that could double the
community's size and open the doors to massive sprawl, citizens,
not just developers, deserve to know they are being REPRESENTED by
elected officials, and indeed, the media. Citizens also deserve not
to be depicted as outsiders, naysayers, NIMBYs or an inconvenience
within the political processes.
I wish Renee Parsons and
her group god's speed in applying, perhaps for the first time,
representative democracy and a level playing field to Durango and
La Plata County's planning process. Public officials who are
charting a course to inflate Durango's population to 40,000 owe
citizens the courtesy of asking if that is what they want, just as
they need to assure that citizens get input during the conception
stages of any development, such as that at Grandview, which will
change the very nature of the community.
Kathleene Parker
Los Alamos, N.M.
Getting under the breezers
Missy:
I grew up playing hockey
in upstate New York (Rome, to be exact) and find the Adult Hockey
League at Chapman Hill to be wonderfully fun and exciting. However,
when I read your "From the Editor" column describing your
experiences with the hockey league, it was only through inference
based on context that I was able to deduce what "breezers" were. We
northeasterners have always used the descriptive yet colorless term
"hockey pants." Like the very colorful term "whippin' shitties"
(a.k.a. doing doughnuts), the term "breezers" seems to have its
roots in the upper Midwest, and may possibly be specific to
Minnesota.
I have done an informal
poll which seems to confirm this, but maybe your linguistic pal who
brought the whole "whippin' shitties" question to the attention
of Telegraph readers (or one of his overly academic
peers) would be interested in researching the regional usage of
"breezers" vs. "hockey pants." I am also beginning to form a
hypothesis that the upper Midwest is actually a rogue Canadian
state trying to infiltrate the great U.S. of A. perhaps even
responsible for sending the Hartford Whalers to Colorado to pose as
an American hockey team.
Scott "Griz" Kelley,
Durango
P.S. As a goalie, I find nothing
"breezy" about my hockey pants.