Correction: One correction and an important clarification are needed for the article about the Spring Gulch Nordic ski area that appeared in the Nov. 27 Sopris Sun. First, the capital campaign was $750,000. Also, volunteer labor was used to install fencing, replace sign posts and work on weed mitigation and revegetation, while the major improvements, including tree and boulder removal, were part of the capital improvements plan.
Defending democracy
We want to express our thankfulness at this time of the year to the individuals and organizations risking their freedom and wellbeing to defend democracy:
– On the local level, a special thanks to Mountain Action Indivisible for organizing the No Kings marches and other activities up and down the Valley (and thanks to the many individuals who attend); to Lift-Up and the churches who help feed the hungry; to Voces Unidas, Valley Settlement and other organizations for helping the immigrant community; to CVEPA, Wilderness Workshop, Roaring Fork Conservancy for helping to protect our environment.
– On the national level, special thanks to the American Civil Liberties Union for leading the way in defending democracy, to Indivisible for its work on mobilizing Americans to defend our rights, and other groups: League of Women Voters, Common Cause, etc.
All these groups may now be under threat from President Trump’s new memorandum, NSPM-7, which is defining their social justice goals as terrorism. As Robert Reich noted: “Under NSPM-7, you could be prosecuted for terrorism if you espouse such views as ‘anti-capitalism,’ ‘extremism on migration, race and gender,’ and opposition to ‘traditional American views on family, religion and morality.’”
Now you might be wondering, what exactly do those terms mean? If you support unions or raising the minimum wage, does that make you “anti-capitalist?” If you think ICE should stop tear-gassing kids, does that make you an “extremist on migration?”
We give our thanks to groups and individuals brave enough to stand up to authoritarianism.
Thelma Zabel and Sue Coyle
TRUU Social Justice Committee
As Mona Charen put it…
We have an incredible situation happening in America currently.
It is so important to see this clearly and to understand that the messages the administration is sending to us are informed by social psychology meant to command our attention mesmerizingly. Respect is the key to being able to see this administration clearly. How can we respect a person who has been accused by dozens of women over the years of various forms of sexual misconduct, was impeached twice by the House of Representatives and has been accused of treasonous insurrection against our government. The Republican House and Senate have shown spineless supplication. Jeff Hurd leads the vote to squeeze money out of the folks making it.
Meanwhile, on a world map, Russia takes the aspect of a wild boar charging East.
Over the past seven months, Trump and his MAGA stooges in Congress have passed legislation to: strip health care from up to 15 million people; cut food stamp benefits which over 40 million Americans depend on, half of them children; slash $8 billion from life-saving foreign aid programs; defund fact-checked public radio and television stations nationwide; kill hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs; hand $4.5 trillion in tax breaks to Trump and his billionaire friends.
Never have I seen any president or Congress do so much harm to so many people in so little time. It would seem Trump thrives on pain.
John Hoffman
Carbondale
Will of the people
Our Constitution not only protects our rights by limiting the power of government, it also protects our society from the ill-conceived, emotional policy responses designed to bow to the “will of the people.” The framers recognized the danger of a mob mentality responding in an unreasonable fashion to current events, and designed the Constitution to withstand these short-term frustrations.
Some decry the actions of so-called rogue judges because they defy the current administration, but these judges are simply doing their duty as they swore to in an apolitical manner. The whims of the people is subservient to the intent of the Constitution because, as an ideologically foundational document, it has precedence over the day to day concerns of the general population. Or the president.
The population and elected officials must abide by the decisions of our judges as they interpret the law simply because judges have access to the testimony and possess the legal authority to make informed decisions based on the law, not political expediency. If people disagree with a finding there are means to determine if the finding is just, but we should never attack judges based solely on politics.
John Cordasco
New Castle
Lords of Aspen
The Lords of Aspen are not ignorant of the game.
Billionaires Lester and Paula Crown and their family’s AspenOne enthusiastically back APCHA’s subsidized-housing machine because it quietly funnels corporate welfare to house their 4,500+ employees while keeping the tax burden on everyone else.
The Valley has also noticed the oldest trick in the elite playbook: keep the little people sniping at one another over crumbs so we never look up at who’s devouring the banquet. Tyranny doesn’t need to read history; it just repeats it. That’s exactly what Julian Assange exposed before they silenced him.
On Oct. 8, 2011, while under house arrest for revealing American war crimes, he stood in London’s Trafalgar Square and said: “We must form our own networks of strength and mutual value which can challenge those strengths and self-interested values of the warmongers in this country and in others that have formed hand-in-hand an alliance to take money from the United States, from every NATO country, from Australia, and launder it through Afghanistan, launder it through Iraq, lander it through Somalia, launder it through Yemen, launder it through Pakistan and wash that money in people’s blood.”
Assange wasn’t just leaking documents; he was naming the mechanism by which the transnational elite siphon trillions from Western taxpayers and bathe it in the blood of women and children.
Some mechanisms are global (endless war).
Some are local (subsidized employee housing for billionaires).
Both are just different circuits in the same wealth-transfer machine.
Lee and Sandy Mulcahy
APCHA delenda est.
Keep going
The holidays are a time when many folks are dealing with depression and thoughts of suicide. So I’d like to share my personal experiences in hopes that maybe just one person reading this will not make the worst and last bad decision of their life.
A quick background: I got married young and after a couple of years and drug busts I lost my marriage, my daughter, my business and my self respect. I continued to feed a bad habit via my arm and wound up living on LA streets. My almost-last campsite was under a bridge in Northern California.
I sat with a rope cinched around my neck, knowing I was the worst mistake God ever created. Leaning back slowly, the rope tightened, but before slipping into unconsciousness, a survival fear kicked in and I didn’t die under that bridge. However, that wasn’t the first time I’d opted to take the coward’s way out.
After my divorce and business failure I tried ending my life by hitting a three-foot-wide tree at sixty miles per hour. All I achieved was breaking the little finger on my right hand. Not only was I a failure at life, I was even a failure at death. My slit wrists did get confined to a funny jacket for a while.
My life took a 180 turn when I found an angel to love. I stopped putting a needle in my arm when I found out I was going to be a father to my first son. We went back to a normal life until my son’s best friend got run over by a semi on a highway project in Georgia. He was working for me and my feeling of guilt, though irrational, was devastating and the demon depression claimed me again. But thanks to strong family support I got through this, too.
I have felt that dreadful pang of regret for waking up, still alive. I have lived like a recluse inside my head with no hope or end in sight. Severe depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain. You can’t just decide to be happy and unafraid. But I survived and am ever so grateful for being alive.
If I’d worn that noose a few seconds longer, I would not be the proud father of three fine sons and their loving families. I’m truly enjoying life with my six grandchildren and am eternally thankful for every day of my life.
Do NOT give up.
Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. You are not the Lone Ranger, everyone has their demons to fight. The trick is not to battle those demons alone. People do care. Ask for help because it’s never too late to turn things around.
At the moment all you might see is darkness, but I am living proof there is a dawn.
Life is too precious to waste.I survived and found true happiness. So can you. Please, reach out for help, people do care.
Bruno Kirchenwitz
Rifle
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