Letters to the Editor, December 8

Published December 8, 2005 at midnight

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Did News mean to rip special ed students?

"DPS plan applauded," an article in the Nov. 19 Rocky Mountain News, stated "[Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael] Bennet . . . and [Chief Academic Officer Jaime] Aquino say it is clear the district lacks a consistent curriculum for teaching students who are not native English speakers. The result: Students with special needs in DPS often outperform English language learners."

This statement appears to have been made to highlight the plight of English language learners under our current system, but was it also intended to imply that special education students are stupid?

On what data is the correlation between the performance of English language learners and special education students made? Or is it based on the misperception that students receiving services from the special education arm of DPS are low achievers?

Special education provides services to students with a wide variety of needs: some require modifications to curriculum because they learn differently, some require adaptations to help them see or hear, some simply need a little help pronouncing their L's and R's.

The ignorance in perpetuating the myth that special education students are stupid leads to prejudice and discrimination.

Furthermore, it conflicts with the Denver Plan which indicates that "All students (including English language learners, special education and gifted and talented) . . . will exceed state performance standards." The Denver Plan was written with high regard for equal treatment of all student subgroups within DPS. So, please, let's not rally support for the plan from one group at the expense of another.

Mary Henneck

Denver

We're paying bill for secularization of U.S.

Benjamin Franklin said, "He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity will change the face of the world."

With the Christmas season we see with clarity the decades-old attempt to remove Christian expression from American society. Why is this? Christianity has proven to be the only worldview truly supporting human freedom and liberty. The Founders of America thus incorporated it irrevocably (they thought) into every phase of our government, law and education.

The human fruit of Christianity provides a level of conduct necessary to maintain a free, industrious, compassionate, and just society with emphasis on individual responsibility and liberty. John Quincy Adams said, "The highest order of the American Revolution was that it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

So, why is Christianity being so vigorously challenged? Throughout its history, and our history as well, powerful people, wanting to rule over men, found and still find the Christian worldview a roadblock to the increase of their power. Secular humanism, with its dependence on government, relative values, self- centeredness and lack of responsibility, is much more suited to subversion. As long as Americans knew what the Founders did and why they did it, they successfully resisted. The tactic that finally worked was to take over the education and law, and force secular doctrine on America in both. Needless to say, are we not are seeing the results?

David Cook

Loveland

Face it, Christmastime is a Christian time

What is going on? Christian religious floats in a Denver parade celebrating the Christmas season being allowed for the first time in 31 years? The national tree - a Christmas tree or a holiday tree? Christmas vs. holiday parties?

Muslims have Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr and Jews have Hanukkah. Why cannot Christians have Christmas? If atheists, agnostics and other non-Christians wish to join in the festivities, they are welcome. But let us be honest - it is a Christian religious season, celebrating the birth of Jesus.

The First Amendment to our Constitution guarantees the freedom to exercise one's religious beliefs. And as long as the government does not attempt to create a state religion, it is allowed.

The celebration of Christmas, the display of the Ten Commandments, or the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance are within the First Amendment boundaries - as long as these are not compulsory.

Victor True

Parker

Christians show little 'goodwill toward men'

No one should be mean-spirited at the holidays. But the American Family Association, upset that department stores are omitting the word "Christmas" from their promotions, called for a boycott of a SuperTarget store.

No one came. Most shoppers realize that the holiday season is celebrated by different religions. We all take delight in brightening up the dreary winter months by observing our diverse holidays at this time of year. Even people with no religious belief enjoy the festive lights, the gatherings of family and friends, the exchanging of gifts and the general gaiety of the season.

Purists, of course, resent the secular nature of all this. They would take the "merry" out of "Merry Christmas," preferring to honor the birth of Jesus with sober ceremonies.

The term "Happy Holidays" encompasses all celebrants. Recognizing this, and realizing that the area of the City and County Building used for the annual holiday display has been bought and paid for by all these citizens, the mayor of Denver last year proposed replacing the traditional "Merry Christmas" greeting with this more inclusive welcome. The resulting protests from enraged Christians could be heard far and wide, forcing the mayor to abandon his noble idea.

Christians should realize that they do not have exclusive ownership of this holiday. Their lack of "goodwill toward men" violates what many see as the true "reason for the season."

George Brazill

Colorado Springs

CU monkeys around with taxpayer money

We've all read the many articles about the University of Colorado Foundation and their frivolous spending habits. Did News readers realize that the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center is also wasting our tax dollars under the guise of medical research?

The center's Mark Laudenslager is currently conducting a study to determine if poor mothering in monkeys is a contributing factor to alcohol abuse in adolescent monkeys. For the first year alone, the National Institutes of Health has funded this project to the tune of $768,509.

This is the same CU researcher who spent nearly 17 years studying maternal separation in monkeys, i.e., what happens when you separate a baby monkey from his/her mother. Again, this study was paid for with millions of dollars in tax money.

Similar research has already been conducted with human subjects. We are aware that parenting (good or bad) is one of the main factors that determines whether a child/adolescent will choose to abuse alcohol.

How many human lives are being saved by these studies that do little other than give a researcher a job and a paycheck? Please help to stop this abuse of our tax money.

Rita L. Anderson

Boulder

Carroll wrong to laud Gilded Age plutocrats

Just as Ann Coulter is trying to rescue the reputation of vicious demagogue Joe McCarthy, Vincent Carroll is distorting history by praising the robber barons who held a stranglehold on politics and the economy during the Gilded Age (" 'Barons' redeemed," On Point, Nov. 22).

Progressives such as Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, Eugene V. Debs, Jane Addams, Woodrow Wilson, and many, many others fought for decades to loosen the death grip that the robber barons had on the United States.

Gradually, painfully, workers gained the right to organize and fight for better wages, safe working conditions, decent benefits, and freedom from exploitation, harassment, intimidation and violence.

The Ludlow Massacre monument here in Colorado is a grim reminder of those terrible times to which Carroll would apparently like to return.

The era of corrupt, selfish rule by the robber barons deserves no praise by Carroll or others trying to justify present-day corporate greed.

John Steinle

Arvada

Rampant NIMBYism

A letter by Gary Olhoeft ("News must try harder in next tower editorial," Nov. 20) finally ticked me off about the Not-in-My-Backyarders around Lookout Mountain.

As a native of Lakewood, I remember the days when we had a clear view of Lookout Mountain and used to take U.S. 40 (now Interstate 70) to Idaho Springs. The towers were there and have been there ever since I can remember. What I do not remember is all of the homes that now dot the area!

If the NIMBYs did not want to worry about transmissions from the towers that were there long before they arrived, why did they move there to begin with?

Sounds like another Stapleton Airport situation to me. It was once out in the boondocks, too. Then people moved in and demanded soundproofing. What a world we live in.

Michael Lambdin

Lakewood

Glossing over abuse

Does the Rocky Mountain News now require its readers to engage in doublethink? I pose this question after reading in disbelief the photo caption for the article "Colorado has watchful eye on bird flu" (Nov. 26). The caption begins: "At Dave Turunjian's egg farm north of Boulder, chickens can roam free . . ." The accompanying photo of scores of chickens crammed together in a narrow enclosure portrays tragically different conditions.

At what point are journalists going to stop glossing over the inhumane treatment of animals raised for food?

And why didn't the News reporter point out the obvious in the article - that not eating poultry or any animals, for that matter - is the most certain way to avoid catching the avian flu and mad cow disease?

Stephanie Janard

Denver

Shuffle up and deal

The problem with Paul Campos' analogy of poker and the Iraq War ("Is it time to fold 'em in Iraq?" Nov. 22) is that the "game" doesn't end just because we fold 'em. The other "player" dealt us a losing hand and we didn't even know we were playing (Sept. 11, 2001).

They will keep dealing even if we think we are out of the game. We can either step out of the game and be assured that we are dealt losing hands or we can continue to be the dealer and stack the deck in our favor. How many dead terrorists have caused us harm on our soil since we started dealing?

Greg Kelly

Lakewood

Democratic Party sad

It is a shame that the left and the Democratic Party are using the war in Iraq as a political tool to try to regain control in Washington. And isn't it a shame that what is good for America is bad for the Democratic Party?

That is a sad commentary on the party.

Bill Riedel

Aurora

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