Letters - Saturday

BATTLING BRUCE

Lawmaker should vote on merits of a bill

I find the statement by State Rep. Douglas Bruce, quoted in Barry Noreen's Sunday column, puzzling ("More in GOP starting to think Bruce is a bad movie"). Bruce had said earlier that, "The voters will have a clear choice between someone who wants to reform government and someone who wants to vote with Democrats."

Bruce has publicly stated that he will never vote for any bill that contains the "safety clause." The vast majority of bills, rightly or wrongly, contain the safety clause. This means Bruce will vote with the Democrats against any Republican bill or any bill that could benefit his district, El Paso County, or Colorado Springs if it merely contains the safety clause. In fact, he was the only "no" vote on Rep. Kent Lambert's House Bill 1097 which protects the jobs of emergency volunteers simply because it contained the safety clause.

We don't need Bruce sitting in a House chair voting on a bill, not on the merits, but solely on whether or not it contains the safety clause. At least with Mark Waller, we will have a representative who will consider facts of a bill before deciding how to vote.

Bernie Herpin, Colorado Springs


Many in area still support tax-cutting legislator

I don't think there are many "in the know" who would agree with Rep. Larry Liston's assessment of Doug Bruce ("Bruce will be No. 2 on ballot," The Gazette, march 9). He has been the taxpayers' best friend around here for a lot of years. Being a true conservative in government at any level is not for sissies. There's a clear reason why his detractors must use rather childish measures against him. I say the TABOR fan club is alive and well hereabouts.

Lou Van Pelt,Colorado Springs


ATTACHMENT DISORDER

Many children have problems bonding with others

This letter is in response to the article, "Therapy or Quackery?" in the March 4 Gazette. The article said, Linda Rosa, executive director of the Loveland-based Advocates for Children in Therapy "believes ‘attachment disorder' is a bogus diagnosis." Later in the article she said, "For attachment problems what you need is consistent, gentle, patient parenting."

Clearly, she believes that children have attachment issues. Obviously thousands of therapists do also, since the diagnosis is in the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - kind of like the Bible for therapists.

There are many qualified therapists who treat attachment problems in our community and do so with success and without using holding techniques. They partner with parents to work on parenting skills that are consistent, gentle and patient. Many parents do not know that they can interview a therapist before choosing one. Parents should ask questions and look for a qualified therapist when seeking someone to work with their child. They can ask questions such as:

Do you have specific training in Attachment from ATTACh (The Association for Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children), The Association for Play Therapy or the Post Institute? If they have never heard of these organizations, go somewhere else.

How long have you treated attachment issues and what percentage of your caseload is treating families with these kinds of problems?

Have you ever had a grievance upheld by the Colorado State Grievance Board and what was it for?

Can I attend the sessions with my child? An attachment specialist should include the parents in the therapy, so bonding can occur between the parent and child.

As in all fields, knowledge and training is the key.

Linda S. Klein
Licensed Professional Counselor and Registered Play Therapist/Supervisor and the therapists at A Children's Counseling Center
Colorado Springs


TWISTED LOGIC

Discrimination of all types denies some rights

In its March 11 Our View, "Discrimination rights," The Gazette argued that some forms of discrimination are reasonable. "Imagine a radical Muslim job seeker, sporting an anti-Zion lapel pin, seeking a job from a Jewish employer," the editorial posited, or "a prospective tenant wearing a shirt that says ‘God hates homosexuals' applying to rent an apartment from a homosexual landlord."

On the face of it these might seem like reasonable opportunities to practice "reasonable discrimination." But what The Gazette is really arguing for is the power to deny rights to anyone whose beliefs or views the writer, personally, finds objectionable.

Suppose the landlord refuses to rent apartments to Jewish couples because he finds their faith an affront to his religious beliefs? Suppose the employer refuses to hire Catholics on the grounds that their church is "the great whore," as evangelist John Hagee calls it? Suppose the landlord refuses to rent to a homosexual?

There's really no substantive difference between those cases and the examples cited in the editorial. In each case, someone wants to practice discrimination on the justification that their own personal beliefs justify it.

Richard Brandt, Colorado Springs


CHEAP SHOT

Editorial on church displayed ignorance

Too bad The Gazette couldn't resist the temptation to join in what has become, it seems, the national pastime of mocking the Catholic Church. The Gazette owes local Catholics an apology for its smartalecky Our View headline, "Hail Nature, full of grace."

The Gazette also needs to learn that if it's going to write about religion, it would be best if the writer actually consulted an expert, instead of blindly following in the footsteps of the anti-religion bigots in the British and U.S. press.

To set the record straight, the Vatican does not maintain an official "list of sins." Not now. Never has. But if I'm wrong, and there is an a list of transgressions against God, then God, not man, authored it and we know it as the Ten Commandments. And if, in his interview, Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti spoke of "new" sins, it was simply his attempt to remind us of the new dangers of modern society, such as human genetic manipulation, something not possible in the past.

In any event, Girotti has absolutely no individual authority to create church doctrine, so the suggestion that he promulgated a list of new sins is complete and utter nonsense.

Ivo Fronzaglia, Colorado Springs


PAYING THEIR WAY

Special interests shouldn't have access to city payroll

I agree with The Gazette's March 8 Our View, "The auto-pilfer."

Late last year our El Paso County commissioners did the right thing by making sure the county payroll system can't be used to funnel money to unions and special interests. The city of Colorado Springs lacks any policy regarding how the taxpayer-funded payroll system can be used.

Wouldn't it make sense for City Council to show a little common sense and follow suit by enacting a policy that prevents outside special interest groups from using the city payroll system to fund their self-interests? Currently five select groups are using the payroll system for their own purposes. These groups collect money from the payroll system and turn around and spend it on the candidates and lobby the city on policies that affect all of us.

Unions and other special interests should have to go ask workers directly for their money rather than depend on government as the middleman. Once the city stops subsidizing lobbyists, then maybe the council can hear what the taxpayers think.

Chuck Broerman, Colorado Springs