Helmets
As a recovering brain injury victim, I was appalled at your cover feature on WE-cycle (The Sopris Sun, Aug. 10-16). One of the recommendations listed on the front page was to wear a helmet when riding. There are six out of six cyclists gleefully disregarding this advice. I call helmetless riders “organ donors” and I urge them and others to please wear a helmet.
Russ Criswell, Carbondale
Re: WE-cycle
I have been reading the articles in the area newspapers about WE-cycle coming to Carbondale. If my wife and I each rented an electric bicycle and took the RFTA trail to Basalt for lunch and biked back to Carbondale, it would cost us approximately $900. That is not going to happen!
Larry Ballenger, Carbondale
Re: Wild Horses
Thank you for publishing Barbara Sophia’s piece on America’s wild horses.
Eloquently stated, accurate in facts, and her personal observations are of great value to us all.
Go local papers!
Penny Jackson, Tallahassee, Florida
Forest Service is anti-tree
Of all the federal bureaucracies, you wouldn’t expect the Forest Service to be removing nine trees in Sopris Park to make room for the expansion of the White River National Forest offices on Main Street in Carbondale. The trees with their necks on the chopping block include two large spruces and two maples.
This is an environmental and climate change issue. Trees are a carbon sink. A single mature tree can absorb up to 48 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year and release breathable oxygen. This will come in handy as the carbon dioxide-emitting traffic increases on Main Street because the up-valley traffic from City Market can’t turn left onto Highway 133. Further, the Forest Service plans for a visitor’s center at their new building which would increase congestion on Main Street.
We shouldn’t be totally surprised by this action from the Forest Service. This is the agency that approved the Uinta Basin Railroad, an 88-mile stretch of tracks through an up to now roadless area in the Ashley National Forest in northeast Utah, without studying the effects five to 10, two-mile long drags of heated oil tankers would have on Colorado.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack heads the Forest Service. A high school classmate of mine ran against him for governor of Iowa. Vilsack won two terms, a remarkable achievement for a Democrat in Iowa. Although a Democrat, my friend said Vilsack is no environmentalist. He’s strictly business-oriented.
We’re up against the Feds on this one. About all we can do is protest, and that’s exactly what we should do at the Aug. 22 Board of Trustees meeting where the matter will be discussed.
Fred Malo Jr., Carbondale
Smut
Yes, that is how an author describes her “art” in the manga/anime style of adult graphic novels that children have access to in the libraries from Carbondale to Parachute. These 25+ books all have a parental warning stating the material is of “explicit content,” what most people would call porn. The library placed red dots on the spine to indicate the graphic nature. Once kids know what the red dot means they can go right to them because some are on the bottom shelf in the Silt Library. They can freely view the drawings and use the self-checkout without interacting with anyone. The library has no policy addressing this growing concern. The library director has been asked more than once to place the books on the top shelf to no avail. Because of this lackadaisical attitude toward our youth a petition has been started to require these books be placed in a secure area away from children, (not a ban) and require an 18-and-over ID.
The worst book is the “Prison School” series depicting all forms of abuse toward the student characters including emotional, physical and sexual. There are drawings of public humiliation, coercion, bondage and sodomy. In the story the school is controlled by a female referred to as the Vice President. She is dressed in a short skirt up to her crotch and is drawn from the angle of the floor emphasizing her genitalia. She wears S&M-style stiletto heel boots which she uses to ram into any orifice of boys. The school president, a male, has a butt fetish. He challenges the imprisoned boys to decide if butts or boobs are better. Depending on their answer he may release them. Do I need to go on? There are other sick challenges and depictions.
Please sign the petition in Rifle at Action Shop and Rifle Performance Motorsports, also Hy-Way Feed in Silt. I need help collecting signatures at your business up-valley or from anyone who simply agrees that the library has a responsibility to keep our children safe. My number is on the petition if you have any questions. Thank you and please see these books for yourself.
Trish O’Grady, Rifle
Letters policy: The Sopris Sun welcomes local letters to the editor. Shorter letters stand a better chance of being printed. Letters exclusive to The Sopris Sun (not appearing in other papers) are particularly welcome. Please include your name and place of residence or association. Letters are due to news@soprissun.com by noon on the Monday before we go to print.