Correction: The article “Chacos Park design proceeds with best intentions” referred to Dan Bullock as the chair of Carbondale’s Tree Board. Lisa Paige is now chair of that advisory body.
Thank you, firefighters
I would like to publicly thank, from the bottom of my heart, all of the heroic fire folk who fought the Coulter Creek Fire on Sunday.
We live on County Road 100 in Missouri Heights and watched from our front porch all day. The dramatic, professional and elegant response was a sight to behold. Within minutes of a black plume of smoke rising, vehicles were speeding toward the scene. All day neighbors reached out. We were a community caring for each other amidst an extremely frightening threat. We waited and wondered how it would end.
As I closed my curtains that evening I was suddenly overwhelmed with feelings of unspeakable gratitude. Across the street at the fire station I saw probably a dozen fire response vehicles parked. I now knew I could sleep that night. In a world filled with so much random cruelty, total strangers were watching out for me. They were watching out for all of us. I had seen the very best of humanity this day and I am beyond grateful…
Julia Behar
Missouri Heights
Labor statistics
The credibility of our government’s statistics determines fiscal and monetary policy, guides our businesses in hiring, expanding, or holding decisions and is foundational to investor trust.
Trump’s petulant firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief on Friday was akin to a 6-year-old flipping the Monopoly board because he’s losing the game.
The data validated what economists have been warning about for months. The “stable genius” has no clue what he’s doing.
It’s bad enough for us, but imagine if you lived in Lesotho, where textiles accounted for nearly 90% of industrial jobs. Because of Trump’s blather of imposing a 50% tariff on goods from this tiny African country, Walmart, Levi’s, JCPenney, etc. cancelled orders. Now many thousands there are back living in abject poverty, barely able to feed or house themselves, much less pay school fees for their children.
It’s disgusting and shameful that one petty, ignorant, self-important individual could render this much harm to so many people.
Annette Roberts-Gray
Carbondale
Bombing Iran
At the behest of Israel, our country recently bombed Iran with 2,000-pound bombs. Iran has done nothing to the U.S. This attack was not authorized by our congress. As a caller said on CSPAN, not one word has been said about Iranian people who were killed or injured. This incident is unacceptable in every way. Fire Trump.
Patrick Hunter
Carbondale
Schumer and Jeffries must go
In this historical moment, as President Donald Trump and his fascist allies are dismantling American democracy, I’m frequently unsure what the best progressive strategy moving forward is. One thing of which I’m certain, though, is Democratic congressional leadership, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, must be replaced.
They’ve proven themselves to be wildly out of step with their party’s base. The pair are more interested in fighting leftists in their own ranks than the right-wing authoritarian menace engulfing this country and setting us back generations. It’s a particularly shameful state of affairs, given both of these conservative Democrats are from New York, which should be a progressive powerhouse.
For instance, both Schumer and Jeffries have so far refused to endorse the winner of the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist. The Big Apple, of course, is home to a massive number of people who voted for them and their party. The pair’s Mamdani snub is a betrayal of these voters, who have clearly expressed their preference in the contest.
Vice President Kamala Harris was to my right on just about every issue. Still, I voted for her in the 2024 presidential race, and urged others to do the same, in the name of unity against a looming fascist threat. How will Schumer and Jeffries have any credibility urging leftists to rally behind a centrist primary winner, at any level, if they won’t back Mamdani, when the shoe is on the other foot?
More recently, Schumer voted against a resolution put forward by Senator Bernie Sanders, blocking the sale of bombs to Israel. I’m by no means an expert on foreign policy or the precise scholarly definition of genocide, but how can you see what’s happening in Gaza as anything less than a deliberate effort to exterminate an unwanted ethnic group or force them to move elsewhere?
Beyond the profound moral emptiness of Schumer’s stance, from a political perspective, he’s completely out of step with the mainstream of the party he nominally leads. Poll after poll show Democratic voters are opposed to Israel’s one-sided “war.” I have no reason to believe Jeffries — a longtime, unquestioning supporter of Israel — would have taken a different position from Schumer.
The Democratic Party’s progressive base has a wide variety of policy goals. For example, as an animal activist, I’d like to see a massive infusion of state and federal funding into cultivated-meat research. The new protein is grown from livestock cells, without slaughter. However, none of our goals can be achieved under fascist rule, which Trump and his gang of criminals is trying to establish.
Unfortunately, Schumer and Jeffries are willing to sacrifice party unity and political effectiveness in order to retain their vision of a conservative Democratic Party. They have shown themselves fundamentally incapable of standing up to right-wing authoritarianism, perhaps because they view leftists as a greater threat. We have to replace these two so-called leaders of the opposition.
Jon Hochschartner
Connecticut
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