Letters

Read It and Leap
Patricia Calhoun: What happened to you? Your April 17 column, "Look Before You Leap...to Conclusions," was sensible and well-reasoned. In short, it was a refreshing change from your usual strident harangues.

Sal Connors
Denver

Denver P.D. Blues
Regarding Karen Bowers's "Sliced and Dicey," in the April 17 issue:
I find it interesting to note that mention was made of several off-duty Denver police officers who apparently were in possession of concealed handguns. I would like to give all of the officers who were there that night the benefit of the doubt concerning their intake of alcohol, but considering the late hour and the location (a nightclub), it seems reasonable that at least a few of the off-duty officers would have had at least one alcoholic drink. I have no problems with the concealed carry of guns by off-duty Denver officers--considering their jobs and the responsibilities we place upon them, this seems only reasonable. I am concerned, however, that it appears as though the off-duty officers at Pierre's that night did not consider it inappropriate to carry their guns into a "supper club," where we presume they had a beer or glass of wine with dinner.

With the current debate in the legislature (and elsewhere) over the merits of uniform criteria for the issuance of concealed-weapon-carry permits, it seems reasonable to assume that one of the places that citizens would not be allowed to carry concealed weapons would be establishments where alcohol was served. The rationale for this prohibition would be that someone who has consumed alcohol would have impaired judgment; I think that this is a reasonable concern. I wonder, though, if the Denver Police Department considers it reasonable for their off-duty officers to carry handguns into places where alcohol is served.

Because Denver police chief Michaud has indicated that he considers it ill-advised to issue concealed-carry permits to average citizens, I would be interested to know what limitation--if any--he considers appropriate (as it pertains to off-duty concealed carry) for himself and his officers, and whether he would be willing to have his own people abide by the same rules that he wants the rest of us to live by.

Darin Gabbert
via the Internet
Cut on the Bias

Cut on the Bias
Great article on the newspaper wars ("All the News That Fits," April 10). Alan Prendergast explained why I do not take either Denver paper. I gave up on the papers about three years ago; they are really about style over substance. Too bad he didn't go into the obvious bias of both papers' news sections. The Post is a leftist paper, and the News's editorial page is moderate at best.

I wonder what the metro area would do with a conservative paper?
Lyle K. Marti Jr.
Arvada

Here's my response to the story on the newspaper fight: Who cares?
Both Denver dailies are bad, and I wouldn't miss either. In fact, I probably wouldn't even notice if one disappeared.

Pete Myers
Denver

Older and Wiser
Regarding Dorsey Hudson's letter about Channel 7 in the April 3 issue:
The firing of Dave Minshall from Channel 7 for being 53 years old (and for doing hard news) represents a growing--and alarming--trend nationally of firing the Bob Palmer types long before they reach maturity and replacing them with "suits and skirts," men with football shoulders and blow-dried hair and women with fashion-model photogenic looks. Hey, don't they all look alike, huh?

Thus do we observe the dumbing-down and the watering-down of the news by relative youths: untried, untested and untrue (no pain, no gain). And the standard becomes "All the news that's fit to sensationalize" rather than "All the news that's fit to investigate"--the agenda left to the alternative media such as Westword that has to dig for its news ore.

I drove a cab for eleven years in Denver, and over that time, I had three passengers whom I'll remember with a smile--good souls, good listeners, with hearts of gold. One of those three was Dave Minshall. Thousands of you have been interviewed by him over the years and know and remember him likewise. Dave's now engaged in the fight of his professional life, contesting the right of veteran newshounds with integrity and dedication to have access to the visual media, not just print and radio.

Do you suppose, just suppose, that Westword might have some readers in their fifties (and over) who are offended at Dave's firing? I'd encourage those readers to call Channel 7 and its advertisers and raise a little hell. Write some letters. Call some talk shows. Let them know we mean business. Isn't it time to give Channel 7 a wake-up call to the real news?

Gene W. Edwards
Lakewood

Small Craft Warnings
Bravo to Michael Paglia ("Life's a Stitch," April 10) for revealing what really lurks behind that arbitrary distinction drawn between "art" and "craft": balls. As a student of the fine arts in the 1970s, I was always disappointed by the work dredged from the past to demonstrate that "women artists" (painters) had really existed--those privileged few allowed by circumstance to pursue and follow what men had defined as art.