Swiftboat attack on womens rights

To the editor,

This one goes out to the ladies. I picked up the Durango Herald last week and read a very good letter written by Candice Carson defending Planned Parenthood using facts, evidence and also without having to resort to an emotional piece of poorly written fiction like she was responding to. I’m sure both of these are still found on the Herald’s website. I would just like to bring up the “who” and “why” for the ideological witch hunt against Planned Parenthood. It ain’t pretty. 

It’s based on Christian Conservative Republicans’ religious beliefs. They’ve decided that they know what’s best for our society. They’ll decide if a mother has to die so that the unborn baby may live. They’ll decide if a mother must bring a still born baby to term. They’ll make abortion virtually impossible in many states. The CCR’s also have other nonsensical objections to many standard and necessary reproductive medicine women need to stay healthy. 

I like Pope Francis, and I agree with him on many issues but the Church has a fairly poor record when it comes to getting serious subjects right. Galileo was tried by the Inquisition for teaching that the sun is at the center of our universe and spent the remainder of his life under house arrest because of it. The bible claims the world is 6,000 years old. Many Republicans still deny the reality of evolution. These knuckleheads get to decide what and how much reproductive womens’ health care will be allowed by law?! Screw that! I want all the women everywhere to get the best possible health care available regardless of what some religious zealot happens to place his faith on. You would expect this from the Taliban or ISIS but not from politicians in the United States. Religious liberty should be scoffed at when women’s health and lives may hang in the balance. The time is long overdue for science and reason to take the lead. 

The Republican “Swiftboat” attack on Planned Parenthood is not based on medicine, science or even sound ethical reasoning. It’s based on their fears, ignorance and judgmental bias. If you want to believe in gods, devils, elves or whatever, fine by me. But then you don’t get to decide what kind of health care we can all have. You can be in charge of decorating the White House Christmas tree or be on the Easter Egg Hunt committee. But when it comes to serious life and death decisions, I want reasonable and rational people in charge. Mike Huckabee you won’t be needed. 

I understand that there are many fearful people with superstitious beliefs, but do we have to elect them to positions of power? Unfortunately, this country has no shortage of low-information voters (thanks Fox News) and we can see the results. I’ll wager these are many of the same political hacks that won’t ever allow even a discussion on meaningful gun control, but’s that’s a different rant. What we really need is for reality-based people to register and then vote. And for the rest of you, please put down the Bible and read some nonfiction for a change. Hope I didn’t offend anyone.

– Bill Vana, Durango

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1 cent now will save future dollars

To the editor,

This letter is in support of Ballot Issue 2D, which Bayfield voters will be deciding with mail-in ballots in this November’s election.

Back in the mid-1980s, Bayfield’s streets were gravel. That is when the people of Bayfield voted to pave those streets, making the decision that paved streets would be a better deal all the way around than gravel streets. If memory serves, I voted for paving, and have not regretted it. Since then, I have not heard many people complain that this happened.

With this decision, however, came an ongoing responsibility: to maintain those streets. Our town has grown significantly in the intervening years, and so has the traffic that uses our streets: same streets; way more cars, way more impact.

It makes good sense to take care of what you have built and to take care of it in a timely manner. It is also good sense to get out ahead of a problem you see coming.

The town needs to take care of our streets before they fall apart any more than they have already; and they will continue to fall apart without a steady schedule of repair. Letting things deteriorate, aka “deferred maintenance,” just does not work, especially on something like streets. The more they fall apart, the more costly it is to repair them. The longer you wait, the more it costs.

Bayfield voters are, by and large, a pretty conservative bunch when it comes to spending tax dollars, and that is as it should be. Maintaining our streets before they fall apart is the most cost-effective way to take care of an essential piece of our infrastructure.

Ballot Issue 2D asks for a one cent sales tax increase, which will be dedicated to our streets. This makes sense in that it will be not just residents of Bayfield, but everyone who is using our streets that is helping to maintain them. That is fair, not frivolous. That is also smart. I urge Bayfield voters to vote yes on 2D to support our community, and SOS, “Support Our Streets.”

– Josh Joswick, Bayfield

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Take action to reduce cancer risk

To the editor,

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. However, in spite of tremendous breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment, breast cancer remains the most common cancer, and the second leading cause of cancer death, for women in the U.S.

With more than 230,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer and more than 40,000 deaths nationwide last year alone, it is imperative for every woman to know what she can do to protect herself from this terrible disease. 

For yourself: Get screened! Early detection of breast cancer dramatically increases women’s chances of survival – with nearly 98 percent of women surviving breast cancer as a result of receiving an early diagnosis and treatment. American Cancer Society recommends yearly mammograms starting at age 40. To determine your own estimated lifetime risk of cancer, go to the National Cancer Institute’s Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool at www.cancer.gov/bcrisktool/. If your lifetime risk is greater than 25 percent, be sure to talk with your medical provider about additional steps you can take to reduce your risk.

For your friends, family and community: Here are just a few ways you can join the fight to finish breast cancer:

- Make a donation of time or money to a local coalition or hospital foundation that provides support for people with breast cancer in your community.

- Register, fundraise and walk in one of nearly 300 “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” (MSABC) events across the U.S. or participate virtually at MakingStridesWalk.org.

- Take action to help make fighting breast cancer a top national political priority at acscan.org/makingstrides.

- Learn more at cancer.org/fightbreastcancer.

– Karen Forest, American Cancer Society

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Brie brings diversity, perspective

To the editor,

Please join me in voting for Brie Stahnke, incumbent, for the 9-R School Board. I have known Brie both personally and professionally for over 10 years, and she is an intelligent, pragmatic, thoughtful and decisive individual. Her engineering background brings an analytical mind and an invaluable diversity and perspective to the board. She understands the importance of a high-quality education and is passionate about STEM curriculum. She is motivated to serve and support our children and their educators.   

I have tremendous respect for Brie as an engineer, mother and member of our community. She is the person I want helping to shape the future of the 9-R School District for my own children. To learn more about Brie visit www.brieforboard.org.

– Kristin Jensen, Durango

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Roads: pay one way or the other

To the editor,

As a participant in local government, I have come to appreciate roads as one of the fundamental roles of governance. All great civilizations have roads at their core. All too often citizens take roads for granted, never thinking about how they are funded, built and maintained. On the ballot this election is Ballot Question 2D, which asks the voters living in the Town of Bayfield to approve a one cent sales tax for roads and storm water drainage systems.

The town is preparing two budgets: one with the penny tax and one without. Without the one penny increase in sales tax, the town will still have to fund roads. The budget without will include new fees and increases in fees to residents and property owners as well a reduction in services. The one cent sales tax is the fair way to share the costs with people using the roads that live outside town limits.

The need to support our streets is as plain as the nose on your face. Please vote “yes” on Ballot Question 2D.

– Ed Morlan, Bayfield

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Vote ‘yes’ on the sewer bond

To the editor,

Please vote yes on the city of Durango’s Question 2B. A yes vote allows the city to sell bonds to finance the needed improvements to the waste water treatment plant (WWTP). This will not raise our taxes.

The fact that we have had an operating waste water treatment plant coexisting with a recreational area and now a world class whitewater park is an unusual mix of a necessary municipal utility process and public recreational activity. Regardless of how it came about, I have always thought that, other than the odor issues on occasion, this seeming incongruity worked well. With the odor mitigation processes included in the proposed plant expansion and renovation, the major objection of its current co-location should be satisfied, at considerable savings over the cost to relocate it.

The most environmentally sensitive and sustainable solution is not to relocate it and build all new but to reuse all that is reusable, modify what can be improved and build new only that which must be built new. There is a tremendous amount of embodied energy in the current structures. The land has already been disturbed.  

Santa Rita is a great recreational asset and city park, but gateway? Visitors approach the city from all cardinal directions and encounter the city long before they get to Santa Rita. Their experience has already been informed.

If we vote down the question, the cost to finance the expansion and modifications of the sewer treatment plant will be borne by today’s rate payers by significantly raising sewer rates and would not be shared equitably by system users in the future.

– John Ballew, chairman City of Durango

Utility Commission

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Check the box if you’re mentally ill

Dear Ed,

It never fails to amaze me as to the stupidity and lack of common sense progressives show every time there is a multiple shooting in the U.S. Take the President for example. Even before the bodies had been recovered, he was using this event to push a gun-control agenda. By the way, his hometown of Chicago has the strictest gun controls on the books. Yet, in the first half of 2015, there were 216 homicides in Chicago. He lives in Washington, D.C., that also boasts some of the strongest gun control in the country. Through 10/8/15, there were 120 murders in D.C., a 44 percent increase over last year.

Another gun control law will not change a damn thing. It’s safe to say that the majority of the problems have to do with those that are mentally unbalanced. I’ll bet money that the vast majority of TELEGRAPH readers have never filled out an application to buy a gun. Did you know that there’s a box to check if you’ve ever been treated for mental illness? 

Instead of voting for restrictions on mag capacity, what if those bleeding heart liberals in Denver had voted for a five-cent tax on every box of ammunition sold in Colorado with those funds going to creating metal health services throughout the state? I know, I know, I’m dealing with common sense to achieve a positive outcome. Something progressives don’t understand.

– Dennis Pierce, Durango

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Team leadership on the run

To the editor,

Why did the soccer team have suspensions invoked after the cross country team members were suspended? Was it because the information was shared publicly after the XC team was suspended? The XC coach has talked about senior leadership in the past. Where was the senior leadership on this trip? The coach in a Herald article is quoted that the drugs were found. Did he report this to the local Arizona police department? Did he determine if the drugs were at the cross country meet? If they were, did he timely notify the Arizona High School Athletic Commission? Why are a select few being suspended when the coach admits the drugs and alcohol were on the bus? Simple query, are these “senior leader” cross country members exempt from suspension because some of their parents are public officials? Or, is it because Durango Cross Country may have success at the state meet? Kids learn from their “leaders,” and the leadership here is truly questionable.

I expect the privileged few who get away with murder in this community to attack this letter. I am truly happy that the cross country team is so HIGH in the rankings.

– William Greer, Durango