LETTERS: Marines urinating on Taliban; SDS condemnations; and more

SDS and eminent domain

Once again, SDS has stretched fact to fallacy. Why are we landowners not surprised? This has been the same folly coming from them as we have had from day one.

In an item in the paper this week entitled, “SDS Pipeline projects under way,” quotes from a “Janet Rummel” were completely untrue. First of all, she has never spoken with us on any matter. Landowners have no idea who she is.

Yes, we have had notice that the ditch was coming, and that it was due and we are all very much aware of that invasion of our property through “eminent domain,” otherwise known as a seizure of our property.

The issue that day was the fence that was being put across the property. We had notified SDS that we did not want that orange plastic fence that animals get caught up in and choke or linger. They had promised to put up a chain link fence. When I saw that they were still going to put up the plastic, I confronted the construction people about it. The guy said it didn’t matter — he had his orders and if they wanted the other he would just get paid to do the job twice. When I stepped over into the area they were fencing in, he told me that I no longer owned that property and that he would call the police (which he did).

What he failed to recognize was that we still own the property, pay the taxes and are required to keep it up, although we can not build on it or plant a tree.

I called SDS and asked them to make that promise good and, due to the language used by the individual, never to allow him on our property again.

By the way, even though they are digging, we have never received anything in writing.

Dwain Maxwell

Pueblo West

Nation’s in a me and mine crisis

After watching the marquee of mediocre Republican candidates in the debates, I understand why most Americans poll politicians lower than the media — somewhere in the 20s.

One way their mediocrity was exposed was when they refused to answer questions directly. I hold the moderators responsible, but I also blame the candidates for only giving a cursory nod to the questions, then launching into their campaign slogans, often divisive.

This letter is not about issues, flaws of candidates, taxes, etc., it’s about the regrettably low caliber of Republicans aiming to be president. It is not about my Democratic party, with which I am not pleased, including the president.

This letter is also about the impossibly two-year-long campaign for president, which could not happen if it were not for the unconscionable amount of money pouring into candidates’ pockets.

I guess though, it is only fitting for money to rule campaigns because money mostly rules Congress and the White House.

This nation is not just in an economic crisis, it’s in a ME crisis — I got mine, you get yours. It’s in a hate and anger crisis and these two offensive, dangerous traits won the 2010 election. Let’s hope the Me and Mine folks lose in 2012; same goes for the hate and angry crowd. If this happens, America wins — its about time

Phil Kenny

Colorado Springs

Another awful message

Steve Sinn wrote recently that legalizing marijuana sends “an awful message” to our youth, namely that it is “better to use pot to get high vs. alcohol.”

While it is certainly true that marijuana is significantly less dangerous than alcohol, Sinn is mistaken as to the real message that marijuana legalization sends, which is simply this: “You are the owner of your body, not Sinn, and not anyone else who wants to lock you up for ingesting a substance that they don’t want you to ingest.”

Incidentally, 80 years ago, marijuana was legal and alcohol was illegal. What kind of awful message was it to your great-grandparents, to legalize alcohol?

Robert Herzfeld

Colorado Springs

Dealer has a stacked deck

It’s not about class warfare. It’s not about punishing success. It’s not about redistributing wealth.

Life isn’t fair. I know that. When I would complain, as a child, that something wasn’t fair, my mother would suggest I get my birth certificate and show her where, on that piece of paper, it promised that life would be fair.

I think that a poker game is a good metaphor for life. You sit at the table, you play the cards you’re dealt. Sometimes you’re dealt a royal flush; sometimes you’re dealt a pair of deuces. I have been dealt a wide variety of hands over the course of my life. I know that with a bit of skill and some luck, you can turn a pair of deuces into a winning hand. I do not expect government or God to alter the cards in my hand.

What I am angry about is that the dealer has been playing with a stacked deck. It is useless for me to play by the rules when the person (or corporation) dealing the cards doesn’t have to follow the same rules, or indeed any rules.

I don’t want special treatment. I don’t want your money. I don’t want to punish your success. This is what I want: I want to start every hand with a clean deck. Moderate regulation that ensures transparency is a very reasonable place to start.

Amy L. Sylvain

Colorado Springs

Required to be above this

A recent picture in national news, of four U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban bodies, has stirred great emotion. While I, personally, do not condone this, I think we fail to remember that we are sending young men and women, to do a task 80 percent of this country will not, or think they are too good, to do. These young men see atrocities being committed on a daily basis on their friends, yet are required to be above this. They are required to be professional, have no feelings and perform as machines. It is the politicians, who for the most part, have never, and will never, face the enemy in the battlefield that order these young men to face death or injury.

While many will disagree with me, I really hated to see the end of the draft. In the U.S. today, people want their freedoms but are not willing to fight to keep it. I hear some young people say, “What do I owe this country?”

It saddens me to see the president’s desire to try to install bigger government, to run our lives, order these young men and women to combat, that he, or his children, are too good to do, and yet require these soldiers to act professional and not lower themselves to our enemies’ tactics. I would love to see what President Obama would do if violence ever came to his door and he had no Secret Service there to protect him.

Larry V. Guerin

Colorado Springs