LETTERS: Colorado water at risk; Sirota and sarcasm

Colorado waters are at risk

Standing ankle-deep with the hot summer sun on my back and the cold, crisp water rushing past, I cast my fly line into a deep pool and watch it float for an instant before lifting it up again and repeating. I am fully focused and determined on the challenge of hooking my first trout. It wasn’t just about catching a trout in that moment — it felt like a rite of passage to be a Coloradan.

That’s why it’s so important that the Obama administration restore protections that safeguard Colorado’s prized rivers of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River from unlimited pollution.

Lawsuits brought before the Supreme Court by big polluters ended three decades of Clean Water Act protections for thousands of streams and millions of acres of wetlands nationwide. Here in Colorado, waters that are at risk of losing their protections feed and replenish the Arkansas River. And nearly 3,772,743 Coloradans get their drinking water from public supplies fed by streams currently at risk.

President Obama and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have the chance to stand up for the Arkansas River by restoring the Clean Water Act. I urge the Obama administration to see this essential effort through, bringing us closer to the day when all our waters are safe for swimming, fishing, and drinking.

Virginia Shannon, Environment Colorado, Denver

Leigh is way out of line

My letter is a response to Tim Leigh’s statement of “Do you want to contribute more toward your PERA personally … or do you want to get fired?” I feel this is very unprofessional almost in the line of dictatorship. I think that all city employees understand the budget crunch and if an idea would be presented in a decent way, the employees would feel more like employees and not a number.

After all, they have already had to accept the fact that jobs will not be filled if someone leaves, retires, or gets fired. They have also faced the fact that they must contribute more, personally, to pay for their health insurance. They also know this money they will pay to contribute is from the same salary due to the wages being frozen.

So I believe Leigh is way out of line and only will cause misunderstanding and tension towards any leadership such as he is representing. Just a reminder to the leadership: “A queen bee without her workers has no hive!”

Sharon Williams, Florissant

Sarcasm in the beholder’s eye

I found Dr. Dennis Jackson’s letter in the Dec. 31 Gazette interesting. I must, of course, disagree with his take on David Sirota’s columns. I find the majority of Sirota’s columns to be well-thought-out, and usually presented in fairly calm tones. Dr. Jackson says “he resents his (Sirota’s) belittling and sarcastic tone toward ideas and concepts with which he disagrees.” Does Jackson also apply that same criticism to local conservative columnist Michelle Malkin’s offerings? If not, why not? Her most recent Gazette column was dripping with sarcasm, if not outright hate.

In all areas of life I think we could do with less “heat, and more light.” Unfortunately, listening to and viewing the presidential election circus that is just beginning does not give me high hopes for 2012.

Bob Armintor, Colorado Springs

Pockets picked again

The two-month Social Security tax cut is another charade and our pockets got picked again. Using Washington terminology, the two-month tax “cut” is going to be “paid for” with higher fees on mortgages through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The payroll tax cut equals $32.5 billion and the expected revenue raised by the mortgage fees will be $36 billion over a 10-year span. So, once the two-month cut is history — what then? Does the payroll tax expire while we still have the 10 years of mortgage fees as well?

Dan Weber of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), which is an alternative to AARP, has an idea. Restore the 2 percent Social Security tax money into the Social Security fund, not into the general fund where it goes now, and institute an across-the-board 4 percent income tax cut on all wage earners making less than $250,000 per year. His plan, which there is not enough room here to explain, can be seen on AMAC’s website under AMAC In Action.

Harry Reid, (D) Nev., keeps saying that the way to get things done in Washington is through compromise. Unfortunately, the only ones who always get cornered into compromising are the GOP members. The progressives are always the ultimate winners.

Washington needs a lot more tea party members in order to put the brakes on the likes of Harry Reid and Colorado’s two “rubber stamp” senators.

Robert LaLanne, Colorado Springs

Mail them checks instead

If Verizon wants us to pay a “convenience fee” for the “privilege” of paying our bills online, I say OK, but I would follow up by organizing a campaign to have all 90 million subscribers return to the practice of paying their bills the old-fashioned way we grew up with: Mail them checks.

The online payment system is as much a “convenience” for Verizon as it is for the subscribers — it certainly saves them money, both for the staffing that they used to need to process their mail, and for the increased revenue they get by receiving the funds in their accounts that much sooner. It may not be much, but multiplied by 90 million, it adds up fast.

This whole issue began with the introduction of ATMs. The first ones were in the parking lots of the banks. My bank started by charging a “convenience fee” for not having to come into the lobby, and for 24-hour availability, but soon afterward, they began charging (simultaneously) a “service fee” to cover the “additional cost” of using the services of the tellers in the lobby.

Both banks and wireless services have rates that are subject to federal regulation. These “fees” are blatant attempts to bypass the regulations, which are (presumably) calculated to take into consideration the cost of doing business.

John A. Skiba, Yoder