The shenanigans taking place
I read your very excellent D Section of The Sunday Gazette, underlining some portions, on the legislative overreach in our Legislature.
Thank you for writing it. I hope it is widely and closely read. I have personally followed the shenanigans taking place with growing concern and sadness.
I fear that Colorado natives and assimilated Coloradans are rapidly being replaced by newcomers, despite the efforts of some, like myself, who try to educate those who will listen and who vote to help spread the original message of freedom, tolerance and live-and-let-live that made this a desirable place to live.
It’s quite sad when Colorado elects someone who fails to share our ‘Western values’ and who can afford to buy the governor’s office.
Janice Taylor
Colorado Springs
No friend of emerging outdoor economy
The op-ed running in The Gazette by Joey Bunch about new Interior Secretary David Bernhardt came as a surprise. Just because Bernhardt is a Coloradan and a “nice guy” did not mean that he was the best choice for this position. As a conservative conservationist, I believe that Interior needed a secretary who can move past the policies of the past that prioritized energy development and mining on our public lands.
Yes, we need oil and gas to run our modern society. But Bernhardt’s record shows that he is not a friend of the emerging, outdoor recreation, economy in Colorado and the West. One need look only as far as the annual Conservation in the West poll, done by Colorado College, to see what the priorities of citizens living in the West are for our public lands.
Bernhardt has an impressive list of corporate clients from his lobbying work as a high-priced lawyer. Only time, and pressure from citizens, will show if he is able to take a balanced approach in managing Interior’s lands, instead of just carrying out the bidding of his corporate clients.
Steve Bonowski
Lakewood
Take steps to get homeless off street
In his Gazette column April 29 (“The moral questions on homelessness”), Lt. Col Matt Cavanaugh tells how he felt he hadn’t been friendly enough when he jogged past a couple of street people along the Midland Trail. He uses this experience to philosophize that we should all remember the Golden Rule when encountering the homeless, because, as he puts it, “they are people, just like us.”
It’s hard to argue with that sentiment, although I suspect that cheery greetings from yuppies with ear buds and pricey running shoes would be viewed by most street folks as patronizing and incongruous.
But here’s my main point, which is Cavanaugh’s statistic from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, that half or more of those identified as “homeless” have issues with mental health “and/or substance abuse disorders.” So it might be more pertinent to philosophize why, with the recent spotlight on individual sanity — including El Paso County’s 2018 launch of a mental health/suicide prevention campaign — it is not a higher priority for local governments to dissuade people with such disorders from willfully living the homeless lifestyle.
Remember, these are typically the ones who have been told by police and service agencies that what they are doing is illegal, unsanitary and a risk to themselves and the community. It’s one thing for Cavanaugh to say we should be more congenial to homeless people who might have mental problems; it’s quite another to take actual steps to save their lives.
Kenyon Jordan
Colorado Springs
Absence of the church or faith
I was bewildered for now the second time to read every word of The Gazette’s second article in their series on mental illness in today’s Sunday Gazette and find not one word — literally, not one word for “God,” “faith,” “prayer,” “church” — concerning the church or faith, or prayer, or seeking God’s help, or a faith community. Should I be surprised? Is this just another sign of the increasing secularization of our society? Is this just another sign of the increasing irrelevance of the church and Christianity in our post-Christian culture?
Reading about Owen Chaffin and his struggles — and his parents’ struggles — since he was 3 years old (he is now 18) was heartbreaking. His violent outbursts and self-destructive acts couldn’t help but bring to mind Jesus’ encounter with the demonic boy (Mark 9:16-29). I am no expert on these issues, but I do know that Dr. Neil T. Anderson, who is an expert, believes many of these mental illness problems we see today have spiritual dimensions. There have been studies on faith-based interventional modalities related to depression, anxiety and other mental disturbances that have been shown to be statistically beneficial in clinical studies. That fact alone increases my bewilderment in the complete absence of even a mention of such modalities in The Gazette articles.
Reading these articles also makes me think of the much broader dimensions of a church that is increasingly relegated to the sidelines. The church used to be in the forefront of care for orphans, the mentally ill, prisoners and the destitute; founding many of our great hospitals and care centers — for example, the Mayo Clinic and St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minn.
Dean N. Tollefson
Colorado Springs
Pass bipartisan safe family bill
As a court appointed special advocate in Colorado, the safety of children is extremely important to me as it should be to Rep. Shane Sandridge and Sen. Owen Hill.
As a Colorado resident and personal friend of the late Kyle Forti, I ask my representatives to vote yes in the finance committee on HB-1142 (the “Safe Family Option,” renamed The Kyle Forti Act).
This bill deserves a yes because:
It gives parents a safe family to entrust their kids with as parents deal with a crisis (rehab, housing, employment, intensive therapy). We want to give families support before a family gets to a “foster care” level of emergency. This is child abuse prevention.
The Colorado Depatment of Human Services has worked with us on this bill. It’s truly a team effort, and we’re grateful for the way they prioritize public-private partnership.
This is a bipartisan bill, sponsored in the Senate by Jim Smallwood and Dominick Moreno.
Kyle and his wife, Hope, worked on this project for over two years, and we need a unanimous pass to help them get this done.
Jerima King
Colorado Springs
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