Corrections: Watch Duty has a staff of 20, plus 280 volunteers across the globe. The 25th Amendment provides the power to discharge the president when they are sick or incapacitated.
Disability plates
Next time you buy a new car or annually renew your existing plates, please consider the new black specialty plate, which supports people with disabilities by raising $12 million a year. Colorado offers retro black license plates with white lettering (a throwback to Colorado’s 1945 license plate design) as a specialty plate option. The $25 annual fee is specifically dedicated to the Colorado Disability Funding Committee, which provides grants that support programs for people with disabilities.
Half of the $12 million raised goes to help people with disabilities access the full range of benefits they may be eligible for — like Medicaid, Social Security and supplemental security income. The other half goes to innovation grants to improve people’s quality of life via the Colorado Disability Opportunity Office. Thank you!
Sara Sims
Glenwood Springs
Library board
The Garfield Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) seem to forget that the Garfield County Public Library District is an independent subdivision of the state, established by the voters and more than capable of managing its own business. In 2023, the BOCC deliberately chose to ignore a 16-year tradition of confidence in the library trustees, when it upended the trustee selection process. Instead of trusting the library to interview, nominate and recommend new trustees, the BOCC attacked the actions of the trustees and library employees, accused them of pejorative “group think,” without defining the term, and reproved them for not adequately protecting the county’s children.
A clear-eyed review of the actions of the library trustees and employees reveals exemplary dedication to the welfare of the county’s children, and residents, and complete adherence to the rule of law. Compliance with law and Constitutional tradition is not “group think.” Rather, it is what is expected of all American citizens and is to be commended.
The clear intent of the BOCC was to influence the library to enact policies prompted by claims about various books. Consequently, the county replaced four of the seven trustees within 12 months. What was the result?
The new library board chose not to ban books, move them to locked locations, fire the director or create a new restricted library card for children. In other words, having conducted due diligence, the library trustees, including BOCC appointees, concluded that the library followed the law, adopted appropriate policies for its mission, is properly administered and that parenting is the right of parents, not government institutions. They were not misled by the vague, false and misleading statements of a small and disruptive group. They did not act to appease this group, but are to be commended for standing up for our children, our residents and our Constitution.
Ellen Dole
Glenwood Springs
Israelites and Arabs
The Israelites have shown themselves to be a uniquely, unified commune, yet intensely separated from outer communities. Both they and the Arabs, born under Abraham, have suffered under each other’s hand for 4,000 years. They both missed the message 2,000 years ago of forgiveness. But now, having turned their Gaza brothers’ land into an open air prison these past 70 years, surrounding them with a 37-mile-long, 22-foot-high razor wire fence and a .6-mile-wide strip of bulldozed land to detect footprints of escapees, one would think that the Israelites would have created enough separation in a land they were meant to share by the U.N.
I’ve got to admit that it is breaking my heart to watch the decimation of the Palestinian children and women — 2 million folks being addled by starvation and bombardment who will never know peace — and knowing that my country is sending them ammunition to perpetrate the injustice. Our Karmic debt is building massively into a nuclear sized retribution, while turning the world into wide-eyed antisemites. With such a massively simple solution to peace, I am stunned that we refuse to see it, instead acting out selfish cowardice and hate.
John Hoffmann
Carbondale
Dear editor
The Sopris Sun has a letters policy that includes the phrase “no smearing.” Yet, I can always count on my weekly dose of hysterical anti-Trump invective when reading through the letters. It is actually amusing at times to wade through the morass of opprobrium dealt out by your inveterate contributors. It is hard to take very seriously though. Just last week, one letter refers to Trump running again in 2024, the next spells Capitol incorrectly, and the next refers to “Article 24” of The Constitution. There are seven. Perhaps this was a reference to the 25th Amendment? In any case, keep up the good work! It is all very convincing.
Michael K. Stahl
Carbondale
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, no smearing, cite your facts and 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.