Opinion | Colorado Springs Gazette
EDITORIAL: Spock took us to strange new worlds
Television star Leonard Nimoy, of "Star Trek" fame, died Friday at the age of 83, after a battle...
Ryan McKibben, Chairman
Christian Anschutz, Vice Chairman
Dan Steever, Publisher
Wayne Laugesen, Editorial Page Editor
Pula Davis, Newsroom Operations Director
EDITORIAL: CPAC showcases GOP governors
If Republicans want to elect a president in 2016, they might be wise to nominate a governor. The...
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GUEST COLUMN: Charitable giving
We continue to receive good news about the economy. But one part of the story has not received the attention it deserves. That part is charitable giving. The year 2007 set a record high for contributions. But the recession brought the trend to a halt. In 2008, charitable giving experienced the largest decline in more than fifty years. But the...
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GUEST COLUMN: Colorado legislature takes a stand for military voters
Our country's military men and women serving overseas should have the same rights and privileges that we enjoy stateside. One of those fundamental rights is the right to vote in our republican system. A bill I'm sponsoring this year in the House of Representatives, HB 1130, ensures that military personnel serving overseas have access to ballots...
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GUEST COLUMN: The state of Colorado's 5th Congressional District
We stand poised to make incredible progress this year. Colorado Springs continues to rapidly expand in many areas. New defense companies are spinning off in our direction, new nonprofit organizations and churches are starting up, property groups are acquiring more land for business parks and major tourism projects, local hospitals, medical...
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Empower patients to control health costs
While you're reading this and sipping your morning coffee, a surgeon is cutting four holes in my abdomen. I'm lying unconscious on an operating table and paid $2,500 for the privilege. An outrage, you say? Hardly. I was happy to do it. I understand it's not fashionable nowadays for people to use their own money to pay for health care. This...
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GUEST COLUMN: Rebranding: Positioning a conservative message for victory
The facts are in and they are not pleasant to acknowledge or accept. Surveys, interviews and demographic trends show that the conservative message is not resonating broadly to the degree necessary for victory. Numerous groups have defected or remain unmotivated by conservatism today. Action is required! The brand has been diminished by a...
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GUEST COLUMN: Easy access to entitlements undermines Americans' work ethic
"Our greatest primary task is to put people to work." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933. Although sometimes considered the father of the American entitlement state, FDR understood that our sense of achievement and self-sufficiency comes from our work. Forty years later, another Democrat, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan likewise grasped the degrading...
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GUEST COLUMN: Regulate marijuana candy for the kids
As a newly sworn Republican state representative, I am surprised by strange alliances or conflicts on niche issues at the Capitol. Take the regulation of marijuana, for example. I didn't vote for Amendment 64, but it's in the State Constitution (for now), so I'll defend it until we awaken to repeal it. Yet I like this phrase: "Marijuana sold in...
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GUEST COLUMN: Why a healthy food policy is essential
Although we dearly love our cellphones and central air conditioning, there are actually very few things in this amazing world that we truly need to survive. These life-sustaining elements are the Great Trifecta of air, water and food. As we all know, policies ensuring the quantity and quality of our air and water are prolific, but not so well...
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GUEST COLUMN: The CU-Boulder that might surprise you
As I travel around Colorado talking with individuals and communities about the University of Colorado at Boulder, I always try to tell people one thing about CU-Boulder that will surprise them. As the state's flagship university, CU-Boulder is often in the news, and people generally know about our successes and shortfalls. I find, however, they...
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FAGIN: President must admit the genie is out of the bottle
I would rather live in a world where terrorists could kill my children than a world that thinks ignoring math will save them. Last month, President Barack Obama came out in favor of law enforcement having access to encrypted communications in smartphones, instant messaging applications and other digital communication devices. This awful idea...
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GUEST COLUMN: Colorado: A home for innovation, a home for the Army
Colorado is fortunate to be home to a diverse mix of military installations and a vast array of civil and defense-related space companies, making the military a strong and critical economic force in our state. The military is an integral part of Colorado's vibrant, technology- focused economy that has shown an enduring ability to adapt and...
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GUEST COLUMN: Franchise system under threat
The president concentrated on "middle-class economics" in his State of the Union address last week. That's ironic given how his National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is threatening one of the country's main paths to the middle class - the franchise system. As the owner of Camp Bow Wow, I understand the power of the franchise model firsthand....
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FAGIN: Price gouging is what capitalism is all about
Three cheers for price gouging! During the recent bouts of wintry weather, sharing companies like Uber and Lyft employ "dynamic surge pricing." Their prices rise, sometimes dramatically, in response to increasing demand. During crime situations where people are desperate to flee the area, during brutal storms where finding cabs is difficult...
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Look to charter schools for lessons on success
Jews and Christians educated in their religion know the biblical story of Balaam's ass. Balaam, a non-Israelite prophet, is traveling on the road on his donkey, and suddenly the donkey stops and, despite the beating by his master, refuses to go further. Eventually, the invisible cause of this recalcitrance is revealed. The obstinate refusal of...
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GUEST COLUMN: Far too many kids are still left behind
Thousands of National School Choice Week celebrations are taking place to remind us that access to more learning options makes a difference for thousands of students in Colorado and across the nation. But the concept of "school choice" doesn't go far enough to provide the flexibility many Colorado young people need to excel. Providing needy...
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City Council made right choice on Jones Park
On Tuesday, Jan. 13, the Colorado Springs City Council wisely chose to transfer ownership of historic Jones Park to El Paso County. This decision ensures that the property will remain open and under local control, giving our citizens and therefore our elected officials power to maintain the property. The principle of local control was key in...
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GUEST COLUMN: Poor country is rich in wisdom
Here I am, a skeptical Jew, staying in a Muslim city, in a Buddhist country, with a sizable Hindu minority. To make things even more interesting, Dean Martin's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is blasting over the hotel stereo. I must be in another part of the world. Americans don't go to Sri Lanka. It's a much bigger vacation destination for...
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GUEST COLUMN: Small segment of the population doesn't want people of color to advance
Last Tuesday, Jan. 6, things in my life changed a great deal. About 11:15 a.m. on this date, I received a phone call from the Colorado Springs NAACP staff notifying me that an explosive device was activated at the office. I quickly asked if anyone was injured and, thank God, the answer was no. After ending the phone call, I was in shock that...
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GUEST COLUMN: A peaceful solution to the marriage debate
Though she is pro-choice, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg decried the "heavy-handed judicial activism" regarding abortion in Roe v. Wade. Judges in the current debate over marriage are again disrespecting the people by denying sufficient input from them, thus risking another never-ending culture war. Fortunately, there is a peaceful...
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GUEST COLUMN: Voters should decide capital improvements funding
Our community recognizes the importance of addressing stormwater improvements, but November's vote on ballot item 1B made it clear that a different approach is needed to gain the support of our citizens. The Pikes Peak Regional Drainage Authority, which was proposed by the El Paso County Commission and supported by a majority of the Colorado...
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In education, support what we know works
News about the present and future of American K-12 education continues to be discouraging. But a series of effective out-of-school programs is creating a glimmer of hope. If we focus on these, thousands of children can be salvaged from a broken system. First the bad news (culled from three recent reports). - The U.S. Department of Education...
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GUEST COLUMN: Endorsing the proposed Clean Power Plan
Response to the Nov. 3, 2014, Gazette article by Stuart Sanderson, CEO of the Colorado Mining Association: Colorado has been in the forefront in diversifying its economy and its electricity production by increasing its reliance on its rich renewable energy resources while maintaining relatively low electricity rates. Portions of the Front...
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GUEST COLUMN: Proud spirit guided Udall during his time in public service
Recently, a lot of people have been asking me what it's like to lose an election. It stings, that's for sure. And while I wouldn't recommend it, falling short in a race is a very humbling way of appreciating just how far you've come. In fact, as a lifelong mountain climber, I've learned far more from the mountains I did not summit, than those I...
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GUEST COLUMN: A threat to economic opportunity
Imagine a country where the man in charge could, by the stroke of a pen, ban certain use of public lands by citizens. Sound undemocratic? Amazingly, this power is afforded to the president. And if President Barack Obama's allies get their way, soon parts of Colorado and the West will be locked away. The Obama administration recently held...
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GUEST COLUMN: Drug law enforcement isn't racial
Mayor Bill de Blasio seems to believe that law enforcement doesn't so much protect minority communities as harm them. His administration's latest effort will have the NYPD reduce enforcement of marijuana laws - a move toward legalization under the banner of social justice. The push for marijuana legalization begins with the claim that the drug...
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GUEST COLUMN: Business model, at cost of principles, not way for Republican Party
Nothing surprises me anymore when pseudo-conservatives talk about how the Republican Party could gain more relevance if they just followed their particular brand of leadership. Those that have succeeded in business, at least by their estimation, are convinced they have the answers to what the Republican Party could do better. That is what we...
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LITTWIN: Having the ugly conversation on race
If you believe the polls or watch cable TV news, you may be halfway convinced that race relations in America have somehow grown worse during the tenure of the first black president. But if that seems counterintuitive, that's because, well, it is. It's counterintuitive and it's wrong. Yes, people are marching in the streets. Yes, NBA stars are...
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GUEST COLUMN: Our republic is in danger
By now you have to know the legacy big-city newspapers, ABC, CBS, NBC and their JV cable stations have a liberal bias in their presentation of the news. The real danger to our republic is what the mainstream media (MSM) is not reporting. MSM reports on a Staten Island, N.Y., man who was (illegally) selling individual cigarettes when police...
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Opinion: Police run toward danger while cowards run away, second-guess their actions
Have we forgotten 9/11? Do we remember the police officers, firefighters and EMS teams who died trying to save innocent victims of a terrorist attack? Alongside brave firefighters and selfless EMS teams, 23 courageous New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority officers gave their lives that day without hesitation. As district attorney,...
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GUEST COLUMN: Christians and Satanists should unite
A Christmas angel is on fire at Florida's State's Capitol building this holiday season. Adjacent to a traditional nativity scene, this disturbing display depicts an angel falling from the sky in burning flames with a sign overhead wishing "Happy Holidays from the Satanic Temple". The New York-based Satanic Temple's holiday message was nearly...
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GUEST COLUMN: Conservative movement needs a makeover
The elections are over, and as conservatives we experienced victory and defeat. After an appropriate celebration, the question becomes: Where do we go from here? How do we remain relevant and escape extinction? Though we had much to celebrate after the 2014 mid-terms, we must be honest with ourselves. From a state standpoint, we barely won the...
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GUEST COLUMN: Colorado Springs Manifesto
On April 6 my Gazette Guest Editorial about revitalizing our economy suddenly opened the “proverbial door” to interview and interact with a broad spectrum of our city’s leading civic, business, military and political leaders; including a majority of our City Council. Their generous contributions of time and insight – eye-opening and at times...
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GUEST COLUMN: Save Browns Canyon from its would-be saviors
One problem with most politicians is that they just don't know when to leave well-enough alone. That impulse to fix what isn't broken helps explain why so many of their "solutions" make matters worse. One prime example of this is the push by Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall to get President Barack Obama to unilaterally designate the...
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GUEST COLUMN: Illegal Drugs and Civil Rights
The debate about enforcement of the drug laws has raised the question of what is required to support civil rights. Drug use is certainly an issue of social class. It victimizes the poor and vulnerable even more than it hurts the affluent, whose resources can be deployed to offset the social and health impact of drug use, provide for private...
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GUEST COLUMN: The immense value of lessons learned at the USAFA
I recently learned that I am the recipient of the 2014 Walter Camp "Alumni Award." It seems like yesterday (actually 26 years ago) that I was being recognized at this same event as an All-American defensive lineman from the Air Force Academy. Reflecting back upon my experience as a college football player, I am very appreciative of the...
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Expensive EPA rules affecting every utility
Your City Council will soon consider a modest rate increase to the nonfuel portion of your electric bill. Your local print daily has already weighed in on this increase a few weeks ago as a rate increase we all cannot afford. In their story, the editorial board noted a very productive meeting which included the editorial board, the chair of...