Opinion

Thanks for support, help with memorial service
Editor:
The Platte Canyon Fire Department would like to thank all of the people, organizations, churches, businesses and community who helped and participated in the memorial service for Chief Jeff Davis.
The outpouring of support for the family and the fire department was incredible. Chief Davis will be very much missed by all of us.
Platte Canyon Fire Department

While there are many opinions about how we should educate our children in Jefferson County, we can all agree on one underlying principle — we care about our children, and we want the best for them.
Jeffco schools have struggled over the last three years to manage more than $60 million in state funding cuts without hurting kids. We have reduced costs, closed under-enrolled schools, trimmed staff, streamlined administration and cut compensation.

Dozier better choice for IREA board of directors
Editor:
Susan Bender writes in a March 2 letter to the editor that she is upset with IREA’s expenditures to opt out of Amendment 37 and on legislative lobbying.
If she weren’t in the natural gas industry - which benefits greatly from renewable energy requirements because of the need to back up renewable with gas generation- she might be more credible and better able to consider the issues.

While the 2010 general election day is still almost four weeks away, Colorado citizens will begin voting very soon. Mail ballots, which have become the preferred method of voting for election officials and increasing numbers of people, will go out next week. After that, early voting stations will open. In Jefferson County, voters can vote early from Oct. 18 until Oct. 29, except that polls will be closed Sunday, Oct. 24. The polls will then be open for every precinct Nov. 2.

If you think you’re seeing more negative campaign ads this year, it’s not just you. 2010 is shaping up to be an all-time high — or low — for negative campaigning. It’s gotten so bad, a recent Denver Post headline read, “It’s a miracle! Some positive campaign ads!” I still haven’t seen those yet.

Colorado voters will find nine statewide ballot proposals on their ballots this year. How they are identified will tell you how they got there and what document they propose changing. Those identifiers should also help you decide how to vote.

People in civilized societies understand that we have collective needs that can be met only through the coordinated efforts of citizens. Many of those collective needs are met through the activities of governments. We expect our federal, state, local and special-district governments to do things that it makes no sense to do individually. We drive on public roads. We get water and dispose of wastewater through governmentally owned utilities. We educate our children in public schools. We protect our homes and businesses through governmental fire departments.

At what point will we finally have enough surveillance cameras? It’s hard to go anywhere without being watched by at least one, and often several, closed-circuit eyes in the sky. On a typical five-minute walk in downtown Denver, you don’t have to look very hard to find 20 or more cameras. They’re on lampposts, the sides of buildings, on ceilings, atop traffic lights and along walls.

Women. More specifically, suburban women. Most specifically, independent and Republican suburban women.

Now that we’ve made it through the primary process and have a race for Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat between Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet and Republican challenger Ken Buck, it looks to me like the key to victory in this year’s race will be unaffiliated and Republican women voters from the suburbs.