Beware privatization of pensions
To the editor,
Colorado PERA, the state’s public pension plan, just released its 2012 financial report, showing a 12.9 percent investment return, nearly 5 percent above the rate required for sustainability. PERA’s average return over the last 30 years is 9.4 percent, and 8.4 percent over the last 10 years (including the universally devastating losses of 2008).

State Treasurer Walker Stapleton visited Durango in March of this year presenting his opinions on PERA. He questioned PERA’s reliance on a projected 8 percent investment return, paraphrasing remarks by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, saying “… an 8 percent rate of return is laughable, a 7.5 percent rate of return is unachievable and a 7 percent rate of return if somebody offers it to you, you should take it and hope their last name isn’t Madoff,” referring to convicted Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff.

I don’t claim much knowledge of investment management, but I know that 8.4 percent, 9.4 percent and 12.9 percent are all more than 8 percent. Viewed in light of nationwide efforts to destroy public pension systems, moving them to 401(k) and similar approaches, one has to wonder what the critics of Colorado’s public pension system are trying to achieve. The cynic in me says “follow the money,” and reminds me of a quote from a 2011 Forbes magazine article – “the only clear winners when pensions switch to 401(k) plans are bankers and brokers.” I’d rather see retired teachers, highway workers and other public employees keep that money instead of giving it to those who created our recent financial disaster.

– Gary T. Skiba, Durango

Age of Aquarius will be televised
Dear editor,
A tremendous event is taking place, which will transform life on the planet. That event is the emergence of Maitreya and the Spiritual Hierarchy.
Maitreya (My-tray-uh) is the one who is expected by the world’s various religions as the Christ, Imam Mahdi, Krishna, the Buddha, the Messiah, and the Bodhisattva. However, Maitreya is not a religious teacher, but a teacher in the broadest sense of the word. He simply prefers the title “World Teacher.”

As the World Teacher, Maitreya is the Head of the Spiritual Hierarchy, a group of men called the “Masters of Wisdom” who, after hundreds of thousands of lives (or incarnations), express their divinity perfectly. For ages, they have lived in the remote mountainous and desert regions of the world, guiding the evolution of mankind.

In July 1977, Maitreya left His Himalayan home and traveled to London. He has returned to inaugurate the Age of Aquarius. Approximately every 2,500 years our solar system comes into alignment with a constellation of the zodiac. He will remain with mankind for approximately the next 2,500 years.

Since that time, He has lived as a seemingly ordinary man, but with extraordinary insight, in London’s Asian community. His energy has been galvanizing the world and bringing about great change. And He has not come alone. The Masters have been following Maitreya back into the world.

There are now 14 Masters back in the world, including Masters that now live outside of New York, and in Darjeeling, Geneva and Tokyo. And the Master Jesus lives outside of Rome, Italy. Eventually, the Master Jesus will be invited to assume the Throne of Saint Peter and will clarify the many misconceptions held by the Christian church. A Master will perform a similar function for each of the world’s great religions.

Beginning several years ago, Maitreya has been giving television interviews in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil and currently Russia. He does not use His name and makes no claim to status. People must evaluate His words based on the wisdom of His insight and advice and not because of claims as to personal status.

Maitreya’s advice is simple: share and save the world. “Without sharing there will be no justice; without justice there will be no peace; without peace there will be no future,” Maitreya says.

As Maitreya continues to speak around the world under His nom de plume, He will become more and more well known. This will lead to an invitation to address all humanity: the Day of Declaration. We will all see Maitreya on our televisions, but He will not say a word. Rather, we will hear Him inwardly (telepathically) in our own language.

Maitreya will outline His priorities and the choice confronting mankind. We can continue in the same divisive and competitive ways and assuredly destroy all life on the planet, or we can choose oneness, brotherhood, unity and sharing. Maitreya knows our answer. We will choose oneness and brotherhood.

On these high ideals, mankind will create an unbelievable future of justice, where no man, woman or child lacks; freedom for all people; and a future of peace and love. War, poverty and suffering will come to an end. Technological marvels will come about, based on a new science called the Technology of Light, which will free mankind from the drudgery of hard physical labor, create all that society needs and will take us to the stars.

We are all progressing and evolving toward expressing our innate divinity – the same divinity that the Masters express perfectly – in our own lives. This progress will be hastened once brotherhood is accepted and justice through sharing is the basis of our systems and institutions.
For more information please look at www.share-international.org.

– Sincerely, Jason V. Francis, Clarksburg, Mass.

Penumbra

The natural world
and our inner world are similar,
yet rarely examined.
Rock, light and shadow
create an aura, an essence.
Translated into sensuous curves,
ridge lines become
reminiscent of sentient forms
for they morph within
of want and transformation.
Strata and horizon are
the bleached- boned histories
that complement the contours
of our own weathering.
They patiently reoccur,
constructing an afterimage,
a penumbra
around the corporeal form
which is
daily accentuated
by what is lithic
under the great cauldron’s turn.

– Burt Baldwin, Ignacio