Holiday Baskets
The Holiday Baskets Program, run entirely by volunteers, was once again a joyful community effort. For 44 years, this program has provided new toys, gifts, clothing and food to people in need in our Valley. This past holiday, we served 270 families and over 1,000 individuals.
We are so grateful to the more than 300 volunteers who purchased individual gifts, shopped for entire families, sorted, wrapped and transported gift bags. And we certainly appreciate those who made monetary donations which enabled us to gift over $40,000 worth of City Market food cards.
In addition to all our volunteers, we especially wish to thank our Steering Committee: Elaine Bonds, Marsha Cook, Kathy Dreher, Suzi Jenkins, Elizabeth Parker, Bobbi Teliska and Rachel Guest who spent countless hours and lots of energy matching families with Holiday Angels and making sure all the gift bags were ready on pick-up day. We also thank the 13 agencies and schools who referred the families and delivered their gift bags.
We are extremely grateful to Mike Garbarini, who once again coordinated our online system. Mike carefully monitored the applications and assisted the agencies and volunteers, saving us all many hours and a tremendous amount of paper.
We greatly appreciate the Aspen Chapel Gallery for serving as a drop-off site for gift bags and wrapping materials, and St. Peter’s Church in Basalt for providing space in which to coordinate and distribute the thousands of gifts and gift cards.
We are thankful for continued financial support from Aspen Thrift Shop, Aspen Rotary, Traffic Clothing, Aspen Elks Lodge, the Aspen Chapel Gallery and many individual donors. It was truly a joyful experience to witness the generosity and caring of so many members of our community!
Please visit our website: www.holidaybasketsprogram.com
Anne Blackwell & Sarah Murr
Holiday Baskets
Come together, Colorado
Our state must come together and resist the intrusion of our sovereignty by the federal government. We are being attacked as a state for simply following the law and exercising states’ rights within the federal system. Attacks from Washington on our governor, attorney general, members of Congress and even our internal infrastructure crosses party lines and impacts us all.
The Governor’s refusal to grant convicted criminal Tina Peters a pardon has earned us the ire of the president, and a water project designed to help citizens on our eastern plains, which has unanimous bipartisan support, has been denied by the president. In addition, a decommissioned 45-year-old coal plant in Craig has been ordered to stay open in spite of huge repair costs that customers will have to pay for.
Red or Blue, we must act together and resist these childish retributions by an administration that sees itself as the sole arbiter of what is acceptable. Please call your state and federal representatives and insist they stand up for Colorado.
John Cordasco
New Castle
Venezuela
There is no love lost with removing Maduro from Venezuela. He was, after all, a man who was initially elected legally but who then denied the results of a later election and became a dictator who was only benefiting his friends and supporters while hurting the country as a whole. It’s ironically similar to the situation here.
However, the ends don’t justify the means. A president doesn’t have the power to unilaterally declare war. That falls to Congress, which wasn’t even consulted and has become pathetically impotent because of Republican obsequiousness. Our stated reason for regime change (narco-terrorism) is also pathetically weak, given Trump’s pardon of Juan Orlando Hernandez, former president of Honduras who was convicted in the U.S. as a drug lord and sentenced to 45 years. It’s more than worrisome that Trump now says “we” will run Venezuela to protect “our” oil.
To say the U.S. has a troubled military history in Central and South America is a huge understatement. It’s time for ordinary Americans to stand against our own government’s tyranny.
Peter Westcott
Carbondale
No right
Even though Trump recently pardoned the former president of Honduras, who was serving jail time for being tried and convicted in a U.S. court for running a drug cartel that brought drugs into the country, Trump has just bombed Venezuela and kidnapped President Maduro and his wife, accusing them of running a drug cartel.
President Trump did not have Congress’s authorization to attack Venezuela. Only Congress can declare war on another nation. The United States has no right to take over another country and run it, and kill its civilians in the process.
Trump clearly does not have the mental capacity to be in charge of our country. He has already threatened Colombia and Cuba with similar invasions. He has no respect for U.S. law and international agreements. He should not have access to lethal force via the military and nuclear weapons.
Write your Senators and congress-
men please.
Illene Pevec
Carbondale
Dear Rep. Hurd,
We the people should not need to list for you the numerous ways in which Donald J.
Trump has violated and continues to violate the Constitution of the United States of America.
A few examples come to mind: illegally firing Inspectors General; illegally defying court orders; illegally usurping the power of Congress to set tariffs, spending amounts and priorities for the federal government; illegally federalizing the National Guard; blatantly enriching himself, family and cronies, including accepting bribes for pardons; the violation of asylum laws set by Congress; ICE illegally detaining and incarcerating U.S. citizens; the illegal invasion of and killing of citizens of Venezuela.
Representative Hurd, do not be swayed by Trump’s insistence that his invasion of Venezuela was necessary. What was necessary for Donald J. Trump at this particular point in time was to continue to create havoc, to dominate the news, to override your and the public’s attention to Jack Smith’s damning testimony before the House Judiciary Committee and the release of the horrific and incriminating Epstein Files.
Trump has engaged in criminal activity his entire life and this is how he gets away with it. He just keeps throwing shit at the fan. Mr. Hurd, I believe you have shown courage in your representation of our district and are attempting to uphold the oath you took to abide by your country’s Constitution. Please continue to maintain your diligence of Donald J. Trump’s illegal actions and abuse of power.
Annette Roberts-Gray
Carbondale