Letters - Tuesday

MAKING THE CUTS

TABOR is something next manager must live with

Why am I not surprised that the people selected to interview city manager candidates lamented the sad state of fiscal affairs in Colorado Springs, all due, they say, to TABOR.

Every business has a certain revenue stream. When some of that dries up, astute managers find ways to reduce costs, including cutting the fat from the bone. The city should tighten its belt, cut some of the waste and get back to providing necessary services, instead of parking garages, excessive real estate purchases and the list goes on and on. Everything — including everybody and every department — should be on the table for evaluation and cost cutting. Given a few weeks, any number of top flight local business managers could cut millions out of the city’s budget.

I suppose it is too much to expect that our milquetoast City Council will select a tough, bright, no-nonsense city manager. Let’s get to work and quit whining about TABOR.

Duane C. Slocum

Colorado Springs

PUBLIC EDUCATION

Rosen misrepresented Merrifield’s positions

If Mike Rosen wants to attack me personally (“Why Merrifield should support maximizing school choice,” Oct. 26), fine. He’s entitled to his opinions, however misguided they are. But he’s not entitled to his own facts.

Where I differ with Rosen, and agree with Bill Gates, is that rigor needs to be accompanied by relevancy and relationships. That means a student’s success should be measured according to their proficiency in a subject, not solely on the length of time they have sat in a classroom. I’m a strong advocate of a broad and deep curriculum, not a narrow and shallow one.

After all, we live in a global economy that is highly competitive and shifting all the time. If our children are not nimble on their feet, and if they lack the ability to think, Colorado, like the nation, will be in trouble.

I’ve also never disparaged parents who choose to send their kids to charter schools. Charter schools are a great option for some families.

Rosen’s one accurate statement about me is that I briefly stepped down as chairman of the House Education Committee last year. Not out of “shame,” as Rosen writes, but because I was battling cancer and didn’t want to divert attention away from important legislation pending in our committee.

Schools are where we define who we are as a nation. I, for one, intend to continue to fight to see that I am proud of the definition. I’m for rigor in the classroom. I’m for strong academic standards in math and science, and every subject our children study.

Michael Merrifield

State Representative, District 18

FOUL BALL

Team deserved praise, not negativity

I was very disappointed in the headline on Sunday morning’s paper, “Blake Street Bomb”. I expected to hear ( and did Sunday morning) some ESPN “expert” say the Rockies should not have been there. But hearing that from people who live here, even before the series was over, had me shaking my head.

What is wrong with so-called fans that they have forgotten in a blink of an eye what this team accomplished? The best record in baseball since June; the best team defense in Major League Baseball history; a September that should be, but apparently won’t be, remembered forever — all are lost over the last four games.

Rockies fans have a right to be disappointed over how the series played out, but they have no right to think that this team lost anything. The only “Blake Street Bomb” is the reaction to the end of what should be called an amazingly successful season.

Don Rodgers

Colorado Springs

PAY TO PLAY

‘Extortion’ allegation unsupported by evidence

Steve K. Clarke should either choose his words more wisely, or produce evidence regarding what USOC has requested in order to stay in Colorado Springs (“Gazette aids and abets USOC ‘extortion’ attempt,” Letters, Oct. 27).

Coerce means “compelled to compliance; constrained to obedience, or submission in a vigorous or forcible manner,” according to Black’s Law Dictionary. Extortion means “the obtaining of property from another induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right.”

Strong words are sometimes compelling. But the use of legal terms such as coerce and extortion in the public dialogue regarding USOC impugns our city government and an important community asset.

Charles A. Wood

Colorado Springs

All letters pertaining to the Nov. 6 mail-in election must be received at The Gazette by the close of business Nov. 1 to be considered for publication.