Letters - Friday

REVOLVING DOORS

Voters are responsible for putting felons on street

This is in response to the letter from Annie Dieckbrader (“Judicial system too lenient in treatment of fire suspect,” Jan 28, 2007). Dieckbrader stated that “If Derrick Johnson is charged for the fire at Castle West Apartments, so too, should be Judge Thomas Kane, Judge Robert Lowery, the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, the Domestic Violence Fast Track court and every other official who allowed this repeat offender to plea bargain his way out of doing serious jail time.”

If these people are to be held responsible, so, too, should every citizen who repeatedly voted down the funding to build more prisons and jails. The public is so eager for legislators to pass bills to strengthen penalties against criminals, but nobody wants to pay for it. By passing these laws, more and more offenders are being charged with crimes, but because of a lack of funding, prosecutors are forced to plea bargain and find alternatives to incarceration, which results in offenders being put back on the streets.

Of the 25,000 offenders booked into the El Paso County jail each year, more than 60 percent are repeat offenders. Basic math will tell us our jails and prisons can’t handle this volume when they are already at or over capacity, and society in general does not want to add more jails and prisons.

It’s time we all stop pointing fingers and focus on addressing the problems. The next time there is an opportunity to demonstrate support for our court system, prosecutors and law enforcement officers, the public needs to step up to the plate. After all, it’s the citizens who set policy.

Vicki Maketa

Colorado Springs

Publicizing judges’ records would allow voters to choose

After the public outrage over the revolving door of justice concerning suspected arsonist Derrick Johnson and the fire at Castle West Apartments, I was appalled and surprised to see the doors still revolving at supersonic speed as I read in the Jan. 26 Gazette about the arrest and quick release of three more suspects in that fire. They were out by early afternoon on only $1,000 bond each.

It is time to replace bleeding-heart judges who refuse to do their jobs. Their judicial records should be made public before each retention election so the public has knowledge of their leniency and can vote them out of office.

John H. Kettle

Colorado Springs

ELECTORAL COLLEGE

Founders worried popular vote would favor large states

Bob Nemanich should understand that our Founding Fathers looked very closely at the “one man, one vote” approach to electing our president (“Direct election of president would move republic forward,” Letters, Jan. 26). Better known as the popular vote concept, the Framers of our Constitution decided against it.

Direct election was rejected not because they doubted public intelligence but because they feared that the choice of president would always be decided by the largest, most populous states with little regard for the smaller ones; Thus the Electorial College was established.

Jim Metcalf

Colorado Springs

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’

West Coast liberals coddle illegal immigrants

I read Sean Paige’s column in Sunday’s Gazette and quite agree with him (“California dreaming should stay on coast”). If California is such a great place to live, why move to Colorado?

Michael Siffin’s opinion that Californians are “open about their views” and that he likes to think of this as “enlightenment” is what is indirectly driving people from California (“Paige’s plan for transplants smacks of elitism,” Letters, Jan. 31). The liberal mentality of most Californians tries to meet the needs/demands of every group. This is what pollutes and dilutes the common values, goals and way of life that made this country the best in the world.

The turn-of-the-century immigrants to this country did not get special treatment. They learned the language, assimilated into society and were given the right to move up and down the ladder as far as their hard work, skills and abilities would take them. In California today, immigrants are mollycoddled. They are educated not in what this society has to offer, and what it takes to achieve, but rather in how they can use the system to circumvent assimilation and hard work, to reap the rewards of those who came before.

If Colorado is so bad, move. If it isn’t so bad, assimilate.

Dan Spohn

Colorado Springs

Socialist transplants bring baggage with them

Sean Paige’s column on California transplants was interesting. I saw the same phenomenon in New Hampshire. Socialist Democrats move to New Hampshire to escape the high taxes of Massachusetts, but they cannot leave the rest of the left-wing garbage behind. They even complain that there are different TV stations and newspapers than in the Boston market. I guess they need their daily dose of leftist propaganda.

Withdrawal from Massachusetts' political climate must be very difficult. Too bad New Hampshire has to suffer from it.

Gary Thuerk

Colorado Springs

CORN FLAKES

Synthetic fuels accolades not likely for Bush

In Chuck Asay’s Jan. 30 cartoon, the wise sage on the mountain suggests to President Bush that he might win the accolades of environmentalists and farmers if he touts corn-based ethanol production. In reality, the problems with ethanol are surfacing early enough that the only ones supporting Bush’s ethanol plans will be the richer Democratic and Republican members of Congress being lobbied by the likes of Archer Daniels Midland.

Environmentalists rejected corn-based ethanol production long ago, realizing that only fiber-based ethanol carried the slightest chance of being environmentally sound. Technologists are dashing cold water on most ethanol programs.

Even in this nation’s heartland, corn farmers are having second thoughts. The Lansing (Mich.) State Journal carried a cover story Jan. 29 in which farmers expressed fears and skepticism as to the impact too many Midwest ethanol plants would have on the price of corn used for food. Mexican farmers and consumers already are protesting about corn price escalation due to ethanol schemes.

In short, Bush won’t get much good press from touting ethanol. Someone needs to tell ethanol mascot Corn Cob Bob to go take a hike.

Loring Wirbel

Colorado Springs

REMEMBERING ‘NAM

Most troops in war volunteered for service

I take issue with Floyd Veatch’s assertion that Vietnam was a disaster (“Return to conscription isn’t the answer for military,” Letters, Jan. 23). He points out that draftees had low morale and that leaders were afraid of being fragged. He is mistaken.

Although we had a draft, 100 percent of the officers were volunteers and more than 60 percent of the enlisted were volunteers, not draftees.

I am not in favor of the draft, but don’t attempt to characterize the Vietnam-era soldier as not as good as the present all-volunteer military. As far as our present military, the morale and conduct of our men and women is not much different than those of any other time of war.

I don’t know which unit Veatch was in, but during the two years I spent in Vietnam as a commander of airborne infantry units, the morale of our men was never low. So he shouldn’t lump his experiences in with others.

Hank Cole

Major, U.S. Army, retired

Woodland Park