RTD making progress
Re: “Reduced fares, monthly passes to begin on Jan. 1,” Dec. 29 news story
This is great news about RTD.
Now, I’d like to add to the great news.
Twice in 2023, The Denver Post published my letters about my concerns with drug use on the W line.
The great news is that, in the past few months, I’ve seen security guards at the W line stops, most notably at the Sheridan and Wadsworth stations. The problems have been drastically reduced!
Kudos to RTD!
Mike Filion, Lakewood
Juries at work
Re: “Officials are charged, but are juries convicting?” Jan. 2 news story
Your article seems to suggest that different verdicts in cases of deaths of minorities caused by police or paramedics mean our judicial system is not working. As with the recent case in Colorado, the police were acquitted while the paramedics were convicted. It seems to me the jury figured out who was at fault, and different verdicts on different facts mean our system is working.
Joe Pickard, Littleton
Your front-page article leaves your readers with the notion that a jury’s “job” is to convict. The article does not clarify this implication. Juries were created to protect citizens from government overreach, which is just the opposite of what this headline implies. I cannot understand how the authors and a string of editors let this go by. If juries are not convicting, it may be because they are doing their job.
Don Reckseen, Broomfield
“Cease-fire now”
Re: “How Israeli family found community in Denver,” Jan. 3 commentary
I read your sympathetic commentary concerning an Israeli family temporarily relocating to Denver. I commend your effort to shelter and support this traumatized family. However, I cannot overlook the collective trauma of the Palestinian people. You say nothing about 20,000 people dead, thousands more mutilated, homes and country destroyed, and population evicted.
Stop the violence! Cease-fire now.
Victoria Swearingen, Denver
Comparing apples and desperation
Re: “Enforce customs laws everywhere,” Dec. 23 letter to the editor
In a recent letter to the editor, the author was upset that a customs agent took his apple upon returning from Ireland. He then incorrectly compared customs to immigration and the southern border crisis, inferring that customs laws are not equally applied around the country. Before he entered Customs, he went through immigration to have his passport scanned. At the customs step, one goal of the service is to protect our country’s agriculture from pests that can decimate crops and landscapes. Instead of appreciating this service to our country, the author trivialized the requirement to declare his apple.
The letter writer had sufficient means to travel to Ireland and grab a free apple at a nice hotel and, fortunately for his wallet, declare the apple to the customs agent. On the other hand, the border crisis he mentioned is about people with absolutely nothing to declare to any customs agents, not even one free apple, because in their desperation to leave wretched poverty and violence, they left everything behind. Everything.
This is unimaginable to most U.S. citizens. They walked hundreds of miles, even thousands, through knee-deep jungle mud and killing deserts, hoping to survive and rebuild homes and families. This is a whole different issue than keeping our country safe from pests riding in on someone’s entitled apple.
Karen Hamilton, Denver
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