Letters - Wednesday

ECONOMIC REALITY
Columnists are losing grip on reality of national conditions

   It's always fun to read a spectrum of contrarian opinions in The Gazette's op-ed pages, but one would hope columnists would have some tenuous touch with reality. That often fails to happen with many political opinions in these pages, but in the past week this problem has spread to economics. Syndicated columnists Thomas Sowell and John Stossel would have us believe that the economy is not doing as badly as news reports suggest ("Don't believe naysayers; U.S. economy doing fine," Opinion, July 2; "Economic news better than media reporting," Opinion, July 5). Unless these two pundits are comparing 2008 to the Great Depression, they could not be more wrong.

   As of July 2, the stock market officially entered bear territory. Businesses reported at the end of the second quarter that they expect job cuts to continue through most of 2009. The credit crunch for both consumers and small/medium businesses soon will become unbearable. Where's the silver lining?

   At the start of the year, many economists predicted our economy would have one of two trajectories. If we were very lucky, the crisis in subprime mortgages and commercial banks would be contained, and a mild downturn would show slight signs of uptick by early summer. The more likely case would be one in which commercial and consumer banks would be frightened by their huge losses, and would make credit virtually impossible to get, even for their best customers. Small corporations already are finding it harder and harder to get commercial loans, while individual credit-card customers are experiencing onerous terms. Meanwhile, all the economic signs are moving steadily downward.

Loring Wirbel, Colorado Springs

Recession or not, people have less money to throw around

   Whatever Thomas Sowell is smoking, I want some. Where I live (Garden of the Gods neighborhood), the economy isn't so hot. Traffic on Garden of the Gods Road is down outside rush hours, some restaurants don't even bother opening on Sunday, and some are nearly deserted on Sundays. There are fewer garage sales because gas is too expensive for people to cruise around looking for them.

   These indications admittedly are not scientific, but are no less clues to the real economy. People have less money to spend, whether Sowell can allow the "r" word (recession) to go through his keyboard or not.

Michael Maddox, Colorado Springs

FIREWORKS FALLOUT
Scofflaws ignore law, keep neighbors awake into the night

   Another sleepless night on the 4th of July due to individuals with fireworks but it is now out of control. These fools kept up the noise past midnight on July 4. The noise resumed the next night. What part of illegal do these losers not understand?

   Have the police considered putting some drones in the sky to stop this criminal activity? Let's seriously enforce the law. It is worth at least a penny increase to the city sales tax.

John G. Wood, Colorado Springs

WARRANTLESS SPYING
We must not allow government to do away with our basic rights

   Next week, the Senate is poised to vote on HR 6304, the sweetheart deal that allows the Bush administration to continue its unconstitutional surveillance on Americans. The bill reforms the FISA court, sanctioning warrantless wiretapping and handing retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies for their role in domestic spying. HR 6304 allows for mass untargeted and unwarranted surveillance of all communications coming in and going out of the United States.

   Both presidential candidates are supporting the bill. We deserve better from our next president.

   The FISA court (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978) was created to balance privacy and national security. That purpose has been prostituted by the badly named USA Patriot Act, then the so-called Protect America Act and now by HR 6304.

   In February, Sen. John McCain appeared on "Larry King Live" and defended his support of FISA eavesdropping, invoking Osama bin Laden's ability to communicate all over the world, even though security experts have raised doubts that the domestic spying program is effective enough to catch high-profile international fugitives.

   Sen. Barack Obama's recent statement argued that, "Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program."

   Terrorists want to destroy America. They want us to be afraid; so afraid that we are willing to change the very principles that make this a great country. They no longer need to use violence to destroy America. They can do it by making us so fearful that we surrender our rights and freedoms to feel safer, not be safer.

   Let's join together and tell every candidate that enough is enough. We want them to stop pandering to fear.

Cathryn L. Hazouri, Executive director ACLU of Colorado Denver

PHARMACEUTICAL FOLLY
Medical profession misleads us on benefits of cholesterol drugs

   I cannot sit idly by while the medicalpharmaceutical complex attempts to foist cholesterol-lowering statin drugs on children ("Forget learning ABCs. Try HDL, LDL," The Gazette, July 7). What people are not being told is that, when these drugs are used to prevent heart disease in those who have not been diagnosed with it, but are only being treated for high cholesterol, they reduce heart attack rates from 3 percent to 2 percent. The industry, supported by the FDA, will claim this is a 33 percent reduction. It is a 1 percent reduction. That means that 100 people will have to take the drug to prevent one heart attack. In other words, 99 percent of people taking these medications will not derive any benefit from them.

   Now, of course, proper diet and exercise are to be tried first. The problem is the usual low-fat dietary guidelines given simply do not work. When a Mediterraneanstyle diet high in healthy plant-based fats was given to patients who had already had a heart attack, it reduced subsequent heart attacks by 72 percent compared to the usual low-fat diet espoused by the American Heart Association.
   I urge all parents to thoroughly investigate this issue before allowing their children to be placed on these drugs for what likely could be decades. Especially given the fact that, in a number of studies, there was an increase in the development of cancer for those patients taking a statin drug. Unfortunately, the delivery of health care has become just another consumer product where the watchword must be, "caveat emptor."

Joel B. Klein, M.D., The Klein Center for Holistic Medicine Colorado Springs

CRIME FIGHTING
Springs should take hard stance against local gang activity

   I read the front page of the July 6 Gazette in which Chicago is worrying about shootings, primarily from gang violence ("Chicago to test firearms ruling"). Of course the city wants to keep its gun ban of about 25 years to stem the violence. The ban appears to be of limited value. That is because the problem is not primarily the guns, but the gangs. Here's an alternative for Colorado Springs:

   We need a police force that will throw much of its resources into harassing gang members. We need task forces of police officers stopping and arresting gang members for any possible violations of the law. We need to appoint judges who will back the police. We need more tents, sleeping bags and guard dogs for locking up the gang members.

   When the ACLU attempts to sue us, our jurors must be willing to find for the police. The gang members will tire of the harassment. They will move to Chicago or Denver and our crime rate will drop.

Dennis Mercadal, Colorado Springs