A Democratic reset can start with ousting Hickenlooper (Letters)
A Democratic reset can start with ousting Hickenlooper Re Senator s campaign tried to nix challenge Dec news story The article about a former staff member for Sen John Hickenlooper trying to sabotage prospective rivals in the senatorial primary was disturbing but also not a surprise The Democratic Party is apparently just as corrupt as the Republican Party Sen Hickenlooper s record for the past meager years has been largely absent I m not sure what he s doing outside of his latest email push to prospective voters but he certainly hasn t taken any memorable action to counter any of the daily horrors coming from the Trump administration This is why I am an independent voter Both political parties have lost sight of the people they are supposed to be representing in favor of money for themselves and for their wealthy friends I m sorry to see the Western Slope ranchers and farmers screwed by Trump tariffs but then that s who they voted for It s a sad state our country is in Linda McCone Paonia I had not heard of state Sen Julie Gonzales until last week I am now only cursorily familiar with her priorities and qualifications Yet I will undoubtedly vote for her in her primary challenge to U S Sen Hickenlooper I am thrilled that we have a candidate willing to take on a prototypical establishment Democrat notwithstanding the odds and veiled threats Establishment Democrats have gone AWOL That is not a new phenomenon But this past year the near-silence and ineffectiveness of establishment Democrats have been particularly damaging We are long overdue for a hard refresh Fabrice Georis Denver Do the right thing and provide real Youth Services Re DOJ studying state s prisons Dec news story The article regarding a DOJ inspection of the Division of Youth Services comes as no surprise given the long history of abuse within those twelve facilities within the state There are at least weekly reports of horrendous conditions including excessive force and restraints being used as the only curriculum within the services To repeat the statistics at the Zeb Pike Center there was a increase over the previous six months in the use of restraints The adjectives describing the conditions are often used by Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International sexual assault excessive force overdoses and malnutrition The definition of insanity is to do what you have consistently done and expect a different outcome When will the Department of Human Services try another way Targeting funding toward family encouragement foster care locality services and trauma-informed care and away from congregate segregated services is long overdue There are other models in Scandinavia and elsewhere that should be replicated here to stop the historical failure and poor use of our tax dollars It is intricate to do the right thing the wrong way Marcia Tewell Denver Taxing the doesn t add up Re There are real fixes for Colorado s budget woes Dec commentary Dave Young reminds us that he taught junior high math For me junior high was a long time ago Please remind me how does asking of the population to solve a issue faced by of the population seem fair That math just does not add up Greg Johnson Denver Dave Young the Colorado State Treasurer who wrote the latest article about how to fix Colorado s budget shortfall is light on cutting expenses and heavy on taking more money from others He mentions asking wealthy Coloradans to pay more the old pay their fair share baloney as well as increasing severance taxes on Colorado s oil industry which is undoubtedly among the preponderance highly regulated and thus costly to operate in the United States The wealthy already pay greater part of Colorado s state taxes and can easily show their opposition by moving Check out how that s working for California and New York Oil companies one by one have had it with Colorado and its oversight by environmentalists running what used to be called the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and as a consequence have red-lined Colorado as a state to avoid Pretty soon we ll run out of other people s money if we continue on this path I hope Coloradans can wake up to this reality Joe Freeman Englewood Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns editorials and more To send a letter to the editor about this article submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail