Letters - Tuesday

LOSING VOTERS
Treatment of black Republicans could cost McCain Oval Office

The Republican Party has become fatuous and I am not sure if it believes it needs every vote. As a black man my vote is a mute point because I have tried many times to get in contact with the Republican Party in Colorado Springs to no avail. I am by no means impecunious so why do they continue to treat us as if we were?

Sometimes I feel like taking down the picture of Ronald Reagan I have in my office as a sign of the times. It would be a shame for Barack Obama to win because the GOP has dissed the black Republicans.

And even though I would rather give my vote to an independent over Democrat, this will be a win for Democrats.

As a pastor and a black man I have seen our party become more and more like Democrats and I have realized that if I want Democrat ideas I might as well vote for a Democrat.

John McCain is the best candidate we have but my associates appear to be in a quandary: Do we continue to support a party that presumes we will continue to be loyal even when it is not loyal to us or do we show our discontent with the way we are treated, the lack of outreach to our group and the blatant disregard that is being displayed for us over the other ethnic groups that we jump ship and cast our vote for Obama?

I have received more calls and invitations to help from the Democrats here than I have from my Republican friends.

It is my deepest desire to see McCain in the White House, but at what cost? At this point it appears to be costing me and my peers a lot. We have to continue to show confidence in, commitment to, cooperation with, communication for and companionship among an assemblage that has predetermined we are the ones in this relationship that remain actors without speaking parts.

We are a needed vote but we believe this party thinks we should just be grateful we were given the privilege to a part and leave it at that.

The legerdemain and the legerdemainist that has been in the party for the last eight years have weakened everything we have stood for and the very reason I was proud to become a black Republican in the first place.

Bishop Jerome S. Nixon, Colorado Springs

ON THE BLOCK
If Memorial in the red after charges, privatization might be a good idea

Privatization of Memorial Hospital ("Big problems for Memorial," Our View, Aug. 17)? To my mind this is a good thing. I've lived here for 28 years and Memorial is still my favorite place to go when I am hurt because the people there are kinder than at the other hospitals.

Financially, though, I have to question where the real trouble lies. I'm an accountant so when things don't add up I start counting.

My last visit to the emergency room was last winter. I had no real desire to go but my doctor didn't have EKG equipment and wanted me to get one. My only symptom was "weakness." I had a standard wait to be seen - about 30 minutes. Over the course of the following six hours I had blood drawn twice, one fairly ordinary EKG with one tech, and saw the doctor for roughly three minutes at the end of the visit.

The majority of the six hours I waited alone. Hospital personnel of any stripe only interacted with me for a maximum of 30 minutes (if that). Nothing was prescribed.

The bill was $3,000. How can this possibly be the bill for half-hour of time, one EKG and two series of blood tests? What if something actually had been wrong?

If Memorial is charging this kind of fee to people with insurance, how can it be going in the hole? Surely this phenomenal charge must have covered the fees for a number of people who couldn't pay. As the questions pile up I begin to think that privatization might not be the worst thing that could happen to Memorial.

Joan Taylor, Manitou Springs

HISTORY LESSON
Amendment 2, not gays, sparked controversy, city's reputation

Al Ackerson's letter was a work in denial ("You spit on me, count on me spitting back," Aug. 16). Perhaps he does not remember this bit of recent Colorado history.

Amendment 2 was initiated and promoted by a Colorado Springs group with the deceptive name of "Colorado for Family Values." This group gathered signatures to place an amendment on the 1992 ballot that would deny Colorado citizens, who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, equal protection under the law because of their sexual orientation.

And while 53 percent of Colorado voters approved this amendment, court challenges eventually reached both the Colorado Supreme Court (1993) and the United States Supreme Court (1995). Both of those high courts ruled that Amendment 2 violated the 14th Amendment. On May 20, 1996 the United States Supreme Court in a 6 to 3 decision reached the conclusion that Amendment 2's "sheer breadth is so discontinuous with the reasons offered for it that the amendment seems inexplicable by anything but animus toward a class that it affects; it lacks a rational relationship to legitimate state interests."

Denying a group of people equal access to legislation that could prevent them from discrimination isn't the American way. I believe that people of whatever class, race, religious faith (or none at all), political party, or sexual orientation should be treated equally under the law, nothing more, nothing less.

So, to use Ackerson's words, who spit on who first?

Bob Armintor, Colorado Springs

MEDALS ALL AROUND
Ascent volunteers real winners for their work aiding runners

I ran in the Pikes Peak Ascent on Saturday morning and would like to thank all the volunteers who made the event possible. Although the weather made conditions horrible, the volunteers from the starting line where it was raining, along the way where there was even more rain, to above tree line where there was snow, sleet and thunder, were extremely helpful and supportive.

I can't say enough about them or offer enough praise and thanks. In my opinion, they are the people who truly deserve medals for their effort during the Ascent.

Don Shearer, Colorado Springs

MISMANAGED RESOURCES
After tax hike, shouldn't district pay for athletic equipment?

Why are the students from District 49 schools soliciting the citizens of the district for football gear? We were hoodwinked into a sizable mill increase for the District's operation. Shouldn't this extra money from my pocket have provided the proper equipment?

I expect District 49 administrators to manage their resources that we have provided them to include athletic equipment for the safety of the young students, not encourage students to walk the streets to get the funding for their equipment.

David Lueck, Falcon

OFFSHORE DRILLING
Changing our habits critical to conserving limited resource

If we really need to discard past environmental decisions and authorize oil drilling off all of the coastal areas that are currently protected, shouldn't we make the drilling conditional on our undertaking some meaningful mitigation measures?

I suggest that for every square mile of off-shore area that is opened, the ocean off those shores should first be improved by the addition of a new, artificial reef composed of a reasonably large number of our least gas-efficient recreational motor vehicles. If enough Winnies and Hummers are not volunteered, then perhaps a lottery could be set up to decide whose Big Gulps take the big dive.

Seriously, we do need to focus our national effort immediately on demand, not just supply. Drilling all-out now and changing our consumption patterns later is not the solution. We're sure to need those oil resources more later rather than sooner, and I don't think we'll ever really need the super gas-guzzlers.

James E. Lockhart, Colorado Springs