Our letters section and your opportunity to weigh in and be heard. Send us your thoughts and profundities. You can contact us here.



Constructive cartoon criticism

Dear Eds,

First off, congratulations on surviving five years! I feel honored to be singled out by name as one who challenges the views of one of several liberal-biased media outlets in Durango.

On that note, I would like to suggest that Shan Wells would be well advised to start tapering off in creating his hateful cartoons with the Bush administration as a central theme. Come Jan. 20 of ’09, the bleeding heart liberals in La Plata County will have lost the one they love to hate; President George Bush and members of his administration. John Edwards might be a good subject as he pays more for a haircut than FLC students pay for a room to rent in Durango. Love to see how Shan would treat chain-smoking Obama in a town with a no-smoking ordinance. Perhaps Shan could portray Hillary as a cute screw with a tail and pointy little ears. Just some constructive criticism.

– Dennis Pierce, via e-mail


Time to oust the Tories

Dear Editors,

I applaud the temerity that the Telluride City government displayed in calling for the removal of the Bush/Cheney regime, and I hope for more demonstrations of rugged, individualistic thinking from them in the future. I only wish more citizens cared enough about our Republic to display such political acuity.

Unfortunately, conservatives possess a bovine mentality – passive, docile, eager to be led, conformist and stupid. Such are the scoundrels of Texas and Florida who expressed anger at Telluride – instead of gratitude, and relief, that someone had finally manifested a little audacity.

It may be more than a coincidence that these

tourists were from states where the Bush brothers had established their political dynasties. Not since Patriots and Tories quibbled over another George-the-Third of England have Americans been so divided.

To continue the Revolutionary comparison, contrary to widespread misinformation, our Revolution was by no means a populist, or popular conflict. It was prima

rily a war of Enlightenment philosophy, propagated by elite thinkers like Jefferson, Adams and Hancock. Conservatives/Tories were mistrusted; and at any rate were generally illiterate and content in their squalid torpor, much like their modern counterparts.

In order to rid this country of its unfortunate leadership and the electorate that birthed them, we4 

must rely on the audacity and intestinal fortitude of its intellectual heirs.

– A Fabis Abstinetes,

M.K. Swinderman, via e-mail

Today’s money, tomorrow’s needs

Dear Editors,

It is amazing that after all the money spent on planning, the City Council is so short-sighted regarding its recent park vote. With the exception of Mayor Lyon, the council rejected the opportunity to apply for a GOCO grant of $750,000 to help with the first stage of construction of the Community Park in Three Springs. Now construction is “on hold.” Their logic eludes me! One councilor had the nerve to bring prepared statements while “pretending” to be interested in the presentations.

We need to think about our future! Three Springs is part of Durango and construction should be starting now on the ball fields and other amenities that 77 acres can afford us. Dollars spent today cost much less than those same dollars a few years down the road. Fiscal responsibility requires us to make use of today’s money for tomorrow’s needs.

– Dick Imig, Durango


Opening fire on open space

Dear Editors,

Re: Thumbin’ It, Aug. 30th, City Council Shelves Grandview Park...

How can you gloat about megabucks for open space and negative-bucks for affordable housing and playgrounds? We’re surrounded by millions of acres of federally-owned (i.e., owned by the people of the United States) “open space,” yet you and the anti-growth City Council want more at the expense of lower income residents who need housing, and kids who need more playgrounds and athletic fields.

When you get done playing on your mountain bike and sipping your Starbucks, try examining how such short-sighted City Council decisions continue to negatively impact working class people in our community. Try interviewing people forced to live in run-down trailer parks or pay landlords inflated rents for border-line housing (competing against college students) because they can’t afford to own a home here. Try talking to soccer-, football- and baseball coaches and listen to their complaints. Afterwards, tell that story and let us know if you still think the City Council deserves your lofty praise. I believe that’s called journalism, something that really is in short supply in Durango and La Plata County!

– Ed Andersson, Durango


Change begins at home

Dear Editors,

The recent article indicating that Army soldiers committed suicide last year at the highest rate in 26 years was just another indication of fatally flawed strategy in the Middle East.  Perhaps most sobering was the account in last Sunday’s New York Times, entitled, “The War as We Saw It.” Looking back over a 15-month deployment to Iraq, seven Army enlisted men from the 82nd Airborne gave a sobering view of the war.

They wrote that “four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise” and suggested that “in the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are – an army of occupation – and force our withdrawal.”

Ending this war requires all of us to act, and that is why it is a good thing our Durango City Council will decide whether to pass a resolution on the war in September. I urge all of you to take that stand as well – condemn this war; condemn this president and ask our local leadership to let our national leadership know, we are not happy with the current state of affairs in Washington. Bring our troops home. Stop funding the war, demand change. We want a sane foreign policy; health care for all Americans; an energy policy based on the future not the last century; dignity; human rights; fairness; the rule of law; good education for our children (so we can compete in this global economy); etc..

I support any and all efforts by this City Council to speak loudly to the world, that we want this war ended and real change in Washington.

– Erich Bussian, chairman,

La Plata County Democratic Party


 

 

In this week's issue...

January 25, 2024
Bagging it

State plastic bag ban is in full effect, but enforcement varies

January 26, 2024
Paper chase

The Sneer is back – and no we’re not talking about Billy Idol’s comeback tour.

January 11, 2024
High and dry

New state climate report projects continued warming, declining streamflows