LETTERS

The Name Is Bond
Once again, good work by Westword on the airport. I'm referring to Arthur Hodges's May 18 story about the bond lawyers, "Gentlemen Prefer Bonds." The article was very well researched and written. Thank you for taking the time to do it right.

Just remember, a million here, a million there--pretty soon you're talking real money!

Joe Garcia
Arvada

More Plane Speaking
I saw Lloyd Jojola's article about how Stapleton airport was left off a couple of maps and things ("One of Our Airports Is Missing," May 18). Well, on Continental's envelopes that you get when you get your tickets, Denver International Airport is there, but Stapleton is no longer listed, and they don't even have the map of the plaza or anything. The DIA map--how to get around Denver International Airport--is on the inside, but Stapleton's been left out of that one, too.

Name withheld

X Education
What's with the sudden obsession about Boomers versus Generation X? First the debate moves from the music section to the letters page, then the May 18 issue has not one but two cartoons about the topic--Buddy Hickerson's "Kung Fu:The Slacker Years" and Rolf Helland's "Generation eXorcist" (buy that man some drawing lessons, won't you?). What's the matter, Westword? Worried you're getting too old? That you'll fall down and go Boomer?

Kate Murphy
Denver

Boot Hell
Regarding Richard Fleming's May 11 article "Getting the Boot," about Eve Meelan's suspension from Smoky Hill High School because she had purple laces in her Doc Marten boots:

Your article implies that the dress-code rule covering colored laces in boots was written by the administration at the school. In fact, the dress code at Smoky Hill was developed by Smoky Hill students. I happened to be on the committee that made up the Student Response Team/Dress Code Committee. This group was formed by three students during the 1991-1992 school year in response to the administration changing the dress code so that no combat or work boots, including Doc Martens, could be worn in school. That committee still exists today with a group of about forty diverse students who hold monthly meetings as well as emergency meetings concerning not only the dress code, but also any other student issues, including racism, fights and keeping the student body safe and the school's environment a productive place for learning.

When this committee was originated, the school was a far cry from being a safe place to learn. Smoky Hill is not an inner-city school, but I assure you that it wasn't exactly the safest place to be, either. There were usually a lot of fights, not to mention the ones that were initiated by students from other schools and sometimes included weapons. There were a few other major problems that we had to face with the Klan. During this time there was a large problem with racist pamphlets being passed around inside the school and across the street by people high up in the rankings of the Klan. This was unacceptable to both the administration and the students. These problems led to a harsh administrative dress code.

This was right around the time that the dress-code committee was started; within a week or so we were allowed to wear our boots again. After all, it's not the boots that say anything, it's the laces. So there was a compromise that was made here: We sacrificed our colored laces to be able to wear our boots. This was agreed upon among racists and nonracists alike. Even I gave up my cute little laces with the flowers on them and traded them in for black. So now when any student receives the student handbook, the dress code clearly states: No colored shoelaces in Doc Marten boots.

It's not really worth anyone's time and definitely not worth digging into the budget (especially after all of the cuts) to pay someone to try to figure out what colored shoelaces mean. Personally, I think that school is more of a place to learn rather than a fashion show. I'm just really glad that the administration is letting us have some say in the dress code as well as many other aspects of the school. It is definitely a lot more lenient than other schools that don't allow baseball hats, let alone Doc Marten boots. If more people could learn to negotiate their problems and differences, I really think that we could all get along a lot better and not have to worry about such menial things.

Lisa Wolfard
Aurora

Stall in the Family
Finally, in the final hours of the last day of the 59th Colorado General Assembly, SB 205 was passed by the Senate to the governor for his signature. SB 205 provides for the mechanism by which a family can lodge a complaint against the Department of Social Services for wrongdoing against them by the department (see Patricia Calhoun's "A Touching Story" in the February 16 issue).

For five general assemblies--1990-1994--the Colorado Coalition of Concerned Families has waged a battle against the power of the state lobby in order to bring about change in and implementation of laws that would correct and protect families from wrongdoing by the department. From the Interim Committee of 1990 through the Legislative Task Force on Family Issues of 1992-1993 through the Governor's Task Force to Establish Grievance Procedures of 1993, families have struggled to bring about a correction of the injustices perpetrated against families through abuse of power by the Department of Social Services.