Letters - Saturday

LOCAL ROADWAYS
Commuters would benefit from parkway extension

It seems clear to me that the majority of the increase in traffic on Woodmen Boulevard has been caused by the continued expansion of the Falcon/Peyton area. My experience is that the busiest times through this corridor are morning and evening though traffic seems to always exist on Woodmen east of Powers.

Has any consideration been given to continuing Briargate Parkway through to Stapleton Drive as an alternate route for Falcon commuters? Briargate Parkway offers a much smoother entrance/exit from Interstate 25. Briargate Parkway is already six-lanes wide from I-25 to Powers Boulevard. The five miles that must be traversed from Powers to the west end of Stapleton is fairly open land.

The exit from Stapleton to Meridian Road dumps one in the middle of Meridian Ranch. Eventual expansion plans could include an interchange at Highway 24, a strip that currently is essentially vacant.

While there has been great concern about the abandonment of the south and middle portions of Academy Boulevard, the north end is not in the greatest condition either. The area around the proposed Woodmen/Academy interchange has seen the loss of Albertsons, Long's Drugs, Media Play, CompUSA, Macaroni Grill, and many smaller retail stores. Creating even more congestion for two to three years will put this area at even greater risk.

Our city and county need to reconsider the goal of the Woodmen/Academy interchange. Is it to allow traffic to move from one street to the other smoothly or is it simply to ease the passage of Woodmen traffic across Academy? If it is the latter, then alternate routes that allow the use of two interstate interchanges and 10-12 lanes of capacity must be reconsidered before a shovelful of dirt is moved at the intersection of Academy and Woodmen.

Daniel Mullin, Colorado Springs

COMMON MISTAKE
Jefferson not a framer of U.S. Constitution

Bill Hochmann, former chairman of the Colorado Springs ACLU, made a common error in his argument about the separation of church and state ("ACLU works to keep religion, government separate in U.S." Letters, May 14). He cited one of Thomas Jefferson's letters that mentions "a wall of separation between church and state" as evidence of the intent of the Framers of the Constitution.

The problem is that Jefferson had nothing to do with either the Constitutional Convention or the passage of the Bill of Rights. He was in Europe for the whole period of the framing of the Constitution and came back to America only after the government was in place.

The genius of the actual Framers was to enshrine freedom of religion in the founding documents. Evidence that a wall of separation of church and state is not the same as freedom of religion can be seen in the fact that the Soviet Union used the "wall" phrase in its constitution. How much freedom was there in that country?

Lamar Cole, Colorado Springs

PERSONHOOD AMENDMENT
National push would derail Supreme Court challenge

While I commend Kristi Burton and the pro-life community, it would be better to push for a Personhood Amendment in the U.S. Constitution, or for a return to the pre-Roe v. Wade federalist law that allowed states to individually decide the abortion issue.

If the referendum passes and the Personhood Amendment becomes part of the Colorado Constitution it likely would be declared unconstitutional. It sounds counterintuitive, but the U.S. Supreme Court has declared part of the Colorado Constitution unconstitutional before. The Supreme Court likely would use its nebulous "undue burden" on abortion test from Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Or the Supreme Court could follow the argument of the pro-choice community and use the Dred Scott v. Sandford argument that even if unborn children are persons by definition, they are not persons to be protected by the Constitution. Some might recall that it took several decades to correct the decision that found blacks are not persons to be protected under the Constitution.

Andrew McVay, Colorado Springs

CONSIDERING OPTIONS
Upcoming elections chance to change commissioners

Comparing the on-going budget woes of El Paso County to a publicly held business presents an interesting analogy.

When a business begins to fail to deliver the services for which it is in business, must close its offices one day a week, lay off employees, sell off its assets to raise cash and is still millions of dollars over budget, the stockholders replace the board of directors.

With elections in November, giving careful consideration to who we elect to the Board of County Commissioners may pay dividends in the future.

Rick Wehner, Colorado Springs

IN RESPONSE
For integrity of his office, Newsome should step down

I started my law enforcement career with the Colorado Springs Police Department. I remember clearly the police academy class on ethics. One of the captains provided the lesson. He said ethics was easy. Just think about the action you are contemplating and imagine it on the front page of tomorrow morning's Gazette. If you're OK with that, go ahead and do it. If you are not, you might want to rethink what you're doing.

I was as shocked as anyone at The Gazette's front-page story on May 9, documenting the television story showing the district attorney consuming large quantities of alcohol and then driving. This was a clear breach of ethics and law. Its effect is devastating because of the appearance of arrogant disregard for the law by the area's top law enforcement official. It demeans our system of law and justice because it suggests that he can drink and drive, but you and I cannot.

I am disappointed in the response to this incident. Clearly, the district attorney has violated the public's trust. He is human like the rest of us and overall, in my view, he is a good guy. But you don't get to violate the public's trust while holding public office. Doing so is a clear breach of the community's high ethical standards.

How should an elected official respond to such a breach? The answer is awful and clear - you resign, and you do it immediately. You do so to protect the integrity of the office. The office is, and should be, bigger than any of its occupants, even if the occupant is you.

If District Attorney John Newsome refuses to resign, his political party and friends need to step in to remind him of his duty to the office and the people it serves. But, whatever happens he should not let his friends or his political party attack the messenger. For if that happens, he has lost his integrity. Even when faced with an ethical breach, and we are all capable of poor behavior, you can still retain, and encourage those around you to retain, integrity.

I cannot imagine the pain currently being endured by Newsome. I know there is more pain to come as doing the right thing is not necessarily doing the easy thing. But in the long run, after his resignation and replacement, he can hold his head high and the rest of us should salute his integrity while forgiving his ethical and legal breach.

In the meantime, please remember it is not OK to drink and drive no matter who you are.

Sen. John Morse, Colorado Springs