LETTERS: MMJ logic; College costs; Partisan outrage, and more

Concern laudable, logic void

In her letter of Jan. 27, Theresa Null, describes an acquaintance “Sarah”, who had a stressful family life, made an apparent escape but then began using medical marijuana (MMJ), which, Null claims, caused “Sarah” to sink into  apathy, affecting her responsibilities and relationships.

Null lists a whole litany of “Sarah” social ills (and bills) all of which she blames on (MMJ) thus dishing us up one of the most popular logical fallacies: Coincidental is not causal.

Given all of the things which have happened to Sarah, bad and good, it would take a gutsy professional to assign the blame for her apathy, let alone we amateurs. Some medical marijuana strains are suggested  for their calming effect, others to energize the user.

 Null makes little of the $66,000 in sales tax she says were collected on MMJ last month but ignores the very substantial fees levied by the cities and state over and above sales and use taxes. These are the best estimates of the responsible governing bodies to cover the social costs you refer to.

In summary, Ms. Null, your concern may be laudable. Your logic is, well, void!

John K. Smith

Colorado Springs

Understanding college costs

The chancellor at the University of Colorado in Boulder got a $50,000 (14.74 percent) pay raise from $339,000 up to $389,000. I wonder how much the other “administrators” received in their pay envelope? Students recently received their “good news” that tuition only went up 9 percent.

These lucky “administrators” live in God’s country. I don’t think they are going to leave anytime soon if they don’t get a pay raise that exceeds Social Security increases by more than 400 percent. Now you understand why college costs have risen faster than the cost of living for decades.

Don’t forget that they are also covered by PERA which, in my humble opinion, is a lavish retirement plan. This is nauseating.

Doug Gardner

Colorado Springs

Dumping pain on us all

This is in response to the Jan. 26 letter from Shari Kern about the dogs that were hit and killed on the highway.  Shari, you must not be a dog owner because if you were you would know that no matter how conscientious you are about taking care of your pet they get out sometimes.  Someone leaves a door or gate open accidently, or your dog jumps the fence in fear because you neighbor is shooting off fireworks, it just happens. 

When you find out you go driving all over looking for them hoping and praying that what happened to those two dogs hasn’t happened to yours.  That was more than likely the case with the two dogs you saw.  And now think how terrible the owners feel about not only losing their beloved pet, but about having to hear from you how horribly they died.  And thank you so much for planting that ugly image in the minds of so many other innocent animal lovers like myself. 

We all now get to experience feeling terrible for both the animals and their owners even though we had nothing to do with it. 

I’m sorry that you had to experience watching such a painful event, but shame on you for dumping your pain on the rest of us.

Karen Anderson

Colorado Springs

Improving grants process

In Colorado, federal grants and contracts can be a useful resource when businesses, local communities and nonprofit organizations have efficient and effective access to them.

In the most successful instances, they have been useful in facilitating partnerships between the federal government and the private sector as we work together to build a strong economy in this state for the next generation.

In our state, when the process works right, federal grants have helped entrepreneurs develop ideas into reality, regional economic clusters grow, local communities build infrastructure and rural small businesses get off the ground. Many Colorado businesses have also benefited from federal contracts that help create jobs and boost local economies. 

When I travel the state, I hear from Coloradans who have had both positive and negative experiences with the federal grants and contracting processes. I’d like to work to make the process more effective and efficient for all Coloradans who apply, and I’m asking for your feedback.

 I have launched two online surveys to gather more information about how the federal grants and contracting processes have worked for Colorado businesses, local communities and residents.

I invite all Coloradans to share their experiences and identify ways to improve these processes through the surveys available on my website at bennet.senate.gov/federalgrants/ and bennet.senate.gov/federalcontracting/.

I hope these surveys can serve as the basis for a deeper discussion about how to make the federal grants and contracts processes as efficient as possible.

Michael F. Bennet, U.S. Senator

Colorado Springs

Self-righteous partisan outrage

After reading the Jan. 29 Community Forum letters, I’m finally sick of the self-righteous partisan outrage about Rep. Doug Lamborn boycotting the State of the Union speech. He joined three Supreme Court Justices in doing so, and Justice Stephens also didn’t attend the address during his career.

Some say Lamborn was playing politics, without noting how political President Obama’s 2010 address was. Justice Roberts pointed out, correctly, that SOTU is little more than political theater; note that a prominent guest this year was Warren Buffett’s secretary (ironically, this class warfare prop likely makes $200K-$500K per year).

I also suspect many of those who criticize Lamborn’s boycott fully supported the boycotts by Wisconsin and Indiana state legislators. Finally, some accuse Lamborn of shirking his responsibilities, and I wonder if they feel the same way about Obama missing 24 percent of the roll call votes during his Senate tenure. 

For those who charge Lamborn with disrespect, how does this compare with the Democrats outright booing President Bush during his 2005 address?

Michael Schmidt

Colorado Springs