Letters - Thursday
Revisionist history?
Democrats to blame for loss, current economic crisis
The Vietnam War ended under Republicans due to a Democratic Congress’ refusal to further fund weapons for South Vietnam (“Timeline shows Vietnam War lost on Republicans’ watch,” Letters, Dec. 17). It was the correct decision to get out of Vietnam, and Richard Nixon made the best of the situation at the time.
Which political party’s watch is also playing out with blame for the credit and liquidity crisis of today? We Democrats are readily assigning responsibility to George W. Bush, but it all began with Jimmy Carter and his Community Reinvestment Act. Bill Clinton expanded the Act by requiring that 40 percent of real estate mortgages go to urban and poor homebuyers.
Bush warned two years ago that this practice was leading to economic problems, but our Democratic Congress refused to listen to him. Bush will have this crisis as part of political history, but it all began with Democratic Party design.
Larry Snell
Peyton
Democratic Congress pulled rug from under South Vietnamese
Letter writers Terre Watt and Peter Lotto are both wrong about how the Vietnam War was lost. It was nominally under a Republican administration, but more importantly, it was under the newly elected Democratic Congress that funding for the war came to an end, so President Gerald Ford had no choice but to begin the pullout which led to the catastrophe for the Vietnamese people that ensued.
You can’t fight a war without funding. Presidents can lose wars, but in this case it was the Democratic Congress with defeat and blood on their hands. Even the North Vietnamese have stated that the U.S. was on the brink of defeating them when we (the Democratic Congress) threw in the towel.
Derel Schrock
Col., U.S. Air Force, retired?Colorado Springs
Looming problem
Loss of detox facility will add burden to health care system
Margaret Sabin, president and CEO of Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, recently sent out a memo about the upcoming closure of the Pikes Peak Mental Health detox facility and how it would affect Penrose Health Services and its three medical facilities in the area. In the recent past, Penrose Main has experienced a sudden rise in the number of deaths from pulmonary embolisms of people coming into Penrose for alcohol withdrawal issues.
Sabin said that while people with alcohol-abuse/alcohol-withdrawal issues would not be turned-away from their facilities, she wanted her staff to realize that there would be a big increase in the number of alcohol-related cases and that that fact would have a tremendous impact on the care for and treatment of people coming out of surgical recovery and trauma.
There is a fear at Penrose that care for other patients will be severely compromised because of the flood of patients expected to be arriving, and Sabin wanted to alert her staff and have them be mentally prepared for this upcoming happening.
The word is out to this area’s medical facilities: we have a pending crisis situation with the closure of this area’s only detox facility.
And when area health centers are already sending out messages of warnings and preparations, how should regular citizens feel about their health care needs?
And why are so many people in this area, while undergoing withdrawal from alcohol, dying from pulmonary embolisms? That’s a question that must be answered.
Addy M. Hansen
Colorado Springs
Wasting money
Government spending addresses issues that aren’t problems
How much of the government budget is spent on solving imaginary problems? I’m sure some of this money is well spent (national security, welfare-to-work programs, drug safety when safety is a real problem, etc.). But my hunch is that the vast majority of the federal budget is completely wasted on imaginary problems.
Some examples:
• Global warming. There is no evidence whatsoever that humans are responsible for climate change or that global warming would even be a real problem. Global temperatures have been flat for the past 10 years and indications are that temperatures will cool during the next decade due to decreased solar activity.
• Radiation phobia. There is plenty of evidence that small doses of excess radiation are healthful. This has been shown in numerous animal studies and accidental human exposures. A classic case of the latter is an apartment building in Taiwan that was constructed using rebar that had been contaminated with Co-60. Residents lived in the building for 10-20 years before the high radiation levels were detected. The exposed residents had significantly fewer cancers, lived significantly longer, and were significantly healthier than non-exposed citizens.
• Chemicals in the environment. Billions of dollars per year are spent regulating minute quantities of supposedly harmful chemicals in the parts per billion range. There is no evidence that such minor quantities are harmful, but the environmental lobbyists scare people with this imaginary problem.
• DDT. Banning DDT in the 1970s resulted in the needless deaths of hundreds of millions of people, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa. In North America and Europe, DDT was successfully used to eradicate the scourge of malaria with no harmful effects to humans or other animals (this was the conclusion of the EPA’s own scientific council). But it was banned to solve an imaginary problem. Lack of DDT in Africa to fight malaria cost the lives of millions of innocent people.
The next time you read or hear about how much money the government is spending on such and such or that we need a new law or regulation for such and such, ask yourself “Is this a real problem or imaginary?”
Charles T. Rombough, Ph.D.
Manitou Springs
Dream city
What price would we pay for Matejczyk’s utopian vision?
Lon Matejczyk presented an interesting vision of the future of Colorado Springs (“Smart, progressive city will draw businesses,” The Gazette, Dec. 14). If only it were possible to implement that vision solely through the voluntary activity of the free market. But nearly every aspect of his utopian vision would require higher taxes and a larger, more intrusive government. Is this what we want?
Paul Prentice
Colorado Springs
Man’s best friend
Area needs new laws requiring pets to be spayed, neutered
The Humane Society’s dilemma was quite predictable (“massive cuts proposed for animal issues,” The Gazette, Dec. 12). The city should make it mandatory to spay and neuter all dogs and cats, except by special permit. It should never come to the point that a living, breathing, feeling animal should have to be “disposed of” like garbage.
Low cost spay and neuter fees should be readily available. Taking on a pet is a lifetime commitment. Proper care and training is a must.
Anne Connors
Colorado Springs
Sweet 16
Family has a right to spend own money however it sees fit
One letter writer said Ashley Crimmins should have helped some poor family (“Money for girl’s Sweet 16 party could have been spent on others,” Letters, Dec. 17). We don’t know how much money her family gives to charity and I can’t see any teenager giving away money.
Most of the people who are rich in America are no longer old money. They have worked hard to earn it and deserve the right to spend it the way they want.
Rodney Hammond
Colorado Springs
