LETTERS: Tuesday

Medical marijuana needed

Our daughter, Molly, was born with cerebral palsy and has always been in a wheelchair. Now 37, she has been having a hard time trying to be able to remain in her wheelchair. Her muscle spasms have caused her hip to dislocate and it is painful to sit.

She has had three operations in the past six weeks and is on Vicodin and Valium, indefinitely. Both drugs are physically addictive, their affect is lessened with use, and both have drastic withdrawal complications. Her doctor says pot is far better for both its pain and muscle relaxing properties as there is no down side. We plan to get her certified as a medical marijuana patient and make it legal for her to use this herb.

Last week’s “reefer madness” production at the City Council meeting was a blow to her and thousands like her in this city (“Pot growers in the city’s sights,” The Gazette, Oct. 27).

I have supported 2C but feel like going to the other side to keep code enforcement from taking it away from her providers. I feel like selling our plot at Evergreen Cemetery and moving elsewhere where city leaders use their heads and retain their hearts at the same time, and are not swayed by self-serving police propagandists. Let’s do something for her and others who suffer due to the history of politicians telling physicians how they can help their patients.

John Murphy

Colorado Springs

D-11 not ‘easy’ on neighbors

I am writing to address the education article quoting Glenn Gustafson, District 11’s chief financial officer, saying, “the easy stuff is gone” (“‘The easy stuff is gone’ in District 11,” Local, Oct. 25).

Gustafson is apparently completely out of touch with the impact that recent school closures have had on our modest Colorado Springs neighborhood.

My children (now grown) attended Jefferson Elementary and East Middle School. Both are now closed and the buildings “repurposed.” It is a sad thing to see small children bused and shuffled to other schools when perfectly good schools within walking distance are closed.

Although I understand that this is economically necessary in a financially strapped district, it certainly was difficult for those of us residing in the area. I realized recently while taking a walk, that I no longer hear the school bell ring or the noise of the kids playing on the playground. Mr. Gustafson, this was not “easy stuff’ for our neighborhood.

Susan K. Page

Colorado Springs

Science backs Dobson

Ralph Blair of Evangelicals Concerned, a support group for gays and lesbians, says that Dr. James Dobson’s legacy will be tarnished because he lacks science to support his theory that homosexuals are made, not born (“Dobson will leave radio job next year,” The Gazette, Oct. 31). I would like to challenge Blair’s interpretation that homosexuals are somehow genetically manufactured.

Columbia University’s William Byne and Bruce Parsons’ study “Human Sexual Orientation: The Biological Theories Reappraised” finds the following: 1) “no hormonal difference has ever been discovered between homosexuals and heterosexuals;” 2) “data pertaining to possible neurochemical differences between homosexual and heterosexual individuals are lacking;” and 3) “there is no evidence at present to substantiate a biologic theory, just as there is no evidence to support any singular psychosocial explanation.”

In some cultures, homosexuality between older men and young boys is 100 percent. Dr. Jeffrey Satinover says the following in “Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth:” “With an incidence of 100 percent, the measurable genetic contribution in such a culture would be zero” (p. 115). Historically, Sodom, Gomorrah and Sparta were in just such a 100 percent range. Were all males born there homosexual?

Satinover says that “where people endorse and encourage homosexuality, the incidence increases; where they reject it, it decreases. These factors have nothing to do with genetics.”

In other words, there is no gay gene, no gay hormone, and no gay protein.

And if one considers evolutionary anthropology a science, there is every reason to believe that natural selection would essentially eliminate homosexuality if it were genetically based since homosexuals can’t reproduce sexually — the very essence of evolutionary theory.

David A. Noebel

Manitou Springs