LETTERS: Wednesday

Media, public part of circus

I just got through watching the Larimer County sheriff’s news conference about filing charges in the Balloon Boy caper. The media isn’t miffed at the family for pulling a superb con job; they’re miffed at the sheriff for supposedly misleading them by not disclosing the fact the family was under investigation.

So, I have come to the conclusion that comedian Bill Maher is wrong. The American public isn’t stupid — it’s the American media.

The media wasted a huge amount of air time without bothering to check their sources to verify the story. This has been an ongoing problem with the television media in putting ratings first instead of accuracy and the radio and print personnel simply repeat what they see on TV. Richard Nixon once said, and I’m paraphrasing, the American people won’t believe it unless they see it on TV. Come to think of it, Maher may be right. We are stupid after all.

Tina Routhier

Black Forest

Public servants deserve support

I am a firefighter’s wife in Colorado Springs. This week my husband worked three 24-hour shifts with the Fire Department as well as working a second job on his days off just to make ends meet. I work as well. We live in District 11 in a home built in the 1970’s and drive a used car.

Since he was little, my husband dreamt of being a firefighter. He has a bachelor’s degree but chose to pursue his dream and dedicate his life to serving others.

Many times he is unable to attend his son’s games or daughters school events and spends Christmas and other holidays at the fire station away from his family. He puts his life on the line every day. He walks into burning buildings, and is the first on scene when a person goes into cardiac arrest. He is the person you depend on when your child is too ill to stand or you have been badly injured in a traffic accident. He sees new life and he sees death, too, but still he loves his job. He does not do it for money.

Colorado Springs is one of the lowest-paying cities for firefighters in this state. The Fire Department did not receive a department-wide pay raise in 2009; the last pay raise was 0.5 percent, which cannot even cover the rising insurance rates, let alone the cost of living. Still we are grateful. Other pay raises are earned when a firefighter becomes a paramedic, a driver engineer or an officer. The promotion and raise is only given when a position becomes available.

I am proud of my husband and all his fellow firefighters. We worry when he is gone but I will sing his praises to all who will listen. He is a hero who works in the shadows and is seldom recognized.

If 2C doesn’t pass this city will suffer. Stations will close and the response time to your home may be based on a station further away. When lives are at risk or a home is engulfed in flames seconds count and you count on the Colorado Springs Fire Department.

Mary Biskner

Colorado Springs

Common sense needed on 2C

Where is the City Council’s common sense? Members tell us they need more money but don’t tell us how it will be spent, just trust them to put it to good use (e.g., USOC, salary increases, bonuses, etc.). Don’t they realize that when they provide specifics in proposed requests — i.e. police, firefighters, public safety, etc. — the public responds appropriately?

If the city needs more money because of the recent economy why are we faced with a property tax increase that lasts forever? The economy is improving, city sales taxes are increasing, and it appears that the worst might be behind us. Why a tax that increases every year, never ends, and will increase even more as the real estate appraisals rise as the economy improves? Does the council really believe that the public is incapable of understanding specifics and is more influenced by arm waving and scare tactics?

A spoonful of common sense in the details and solutions would do wonders for council members. If the taxpayers are to swallow a glassful of proposed tax increases, a spoonful for them shouldn’t be too much.

Bill Offutt

Colorado Springs

Lamborn’s answer won’t work

I went to Rep. Doug Lamborn’s health care town hall meeting, which in real life was a narcissistic feeding frenzy for the anti-health care crowd.

The “chose not to afford health care” crowd, those who do not want to change health care was in force, as they do not want to help pay for the 47 million uninsured American citizens who fall within a gap of not being able to afford health insurance and not qualifying for Medicare.

The chose-not-to-afford crowd mantra is that people without health care simply choose not to afford it and therefore will be freeloaders the rest of us will have to pay for with increased taxes and escalation of health insurance premiums.

Forty-seven million people without care is staggering. I was one who has been part of that mob of people without health care years ago. Those people need access to health care without resorting to visiting the emergency department or calling 911.

Letting the free market (as proposed by Lamborn) take over health care insurance premium rates is not the answer either, as we have been experiencing that economic effect for the past 60 years. The people who have been driving health care insurance rates are the insurance companies.

Free market rates are an effective economic force when the consumer is paying, but we are not directly paying the cost for health care. To drive down prices, the direct involvement of the consumer in paying for a $3,000 CAT scan study is the economic driver to force a reduction in health care cost. We’ll probably never see that, so we need legislation that empowers the consumer’s interest, combining a public option with the proposed Medicare and Medicaid pay-out reductions will drive down the astronomic prices currently being paid for health care.

Do your own independent research, think of the 47 million people without health care, and arrive at your own decision. Then communicate that decision to your elected officials.

Steve Kjonaas

Colorado Springs

Charity requests out of place

Has anyone else noticed that almost everywhere you go these days, merchants are asking you to donate to charity when you pay for your merchandise? This week I was asked for a donation at a grocery store, a pet supply store, a coffee shop, and a natural food store.

My feeling is that if I want to donate to charity (which I do) I am capable of arranging that myself. I do not appreciate being asked to pay more money on top of the cost of the items I am buying when I shop.

Lydia West

Colorado Springs

Correction

Due to an editing error, a letter from Robert Murphy in Monday’s Gazette contained incorrect information. Murphy’s letter should have read, “Would someone explain why the 2009 City Budget has a payment of $2,200,495 to COPs when they are just now being sold?”