Letters

Duty to Di
Was Kenny Be's Princess Di Hip Tip, in the September 4 issue, really necessary? I enjoy reading Westword, but I think that cartoon was tasteless and disrespectful.

Dana Murphy
Northglenn
Your last issue was another one avoiding all important life-and-death issues: this time, the untimely death of Diana, Princess of Wales, on August 31.

Instead, we are expected to bypass the most tragic and untimely moments of the century in order to be sucked into yet another fairy-tale romance, this time not even with a person but with a trend (T.R. Witcher's "The Spin Crowd"), and merrily trot over to Old South Gaylord Street and tango. Another Denver native told me last year he thought that street was more fun when it was boarded up.

Bob Seger's "Get out of Denver, baby" lyrics have come back to haunt us all here today.

Mae Eckles
Englewood

Duty and the Beast
Regarding Tony Perez-Giese's "Forest Bumps," in the September 4 issue:
Must we suffer through another "love the perks" governor of Colorado's wild places? Who will Lyle Laverty love most: those with a bag of tired but true tirades about preservation of wild places, or those who dole out free skiing, executive lunches and lodging at Colorado's finest resorts? Lyle is from Washington, D.C. Let's face it--this guy will be drugged from the goodies bonanza poured out from the recreation-industry carafe. He will be bored to tears by emotive pleas for such non-revenue makers as pure, untrailed, beast-inhabited wilderness (if it still exists). What is the use of bringing back grizzlies or wolves if they will be harassed endlessly by techno-clad brain-dead bikers, off-roaders and the anti-enviro forest-abusing glee club?

Maybe the problem lies not so much with Lyle Laverty or Elizabeth Estill. Perhaps the capitalist need to find uses for the unused, to see the money through the trees, is Colorado's inherent problem. Our spiritual guides in government can't seem to leave anything wild alone. Lyle will likely succumb to "perk stupor" when he shakes hands with the smiling well-wishers in the ski and outdoor recreation industry. Colorado wilderness will disappear like the steak and lobster devoured at Vail and Aspen "power lunches." No wonder the ski industry and other abusers are so giddy over Lyle's arrival. The lynx are being terminated, the wolves have all been shot--now let's charge a fee and start the party! See ya at Vail!

Ed Jahn
via the Internet

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Gory
I have just finished reading Alan Prendergast's feature about Victor and the open-pit mine ("It's the Pits," September 4). I was raised in Victor. My father was a hard rock miner who was killed in 1959 in the Ajax mine just above Victor.

I have seen the destruction the mine has wrought. I roamed those hills all my growing years. I sold a house at a loss in Victor because of the mine activities and the new face of Cripple Creek. I feel like a stranger in Cripple Creek; I feel that Victor will soon be the same.

Fran Ward
via the Internet

Room to Glow
Regarding Patricia Calhoun's "While You Were Away," in the September 4 issue:

Although I appreciated the update on the Lace House (Black Hawk officials and anyone else who supports this scheme should be dropped down a mine shaft), is anyone else getting as tired as I am of the Rocky Flats grand jurors? They had their fifteen minutes of fame; now it's time to move on.

The Cold War is over, for crissakes. Let's get the place cleaned up, and then everybody can finally shut up!

Terry Collins
Denver

Calhoun, finally you're getting in touch with the Colorado that I grew up in--that's the good news. The bad news: Is Colorado still sucking?

Name withheld on request
via the Internet

As a Colorado resident, I am deeply concerned with the Department of Energy's proposal for a ten-year cleanup at Rocky Flats. While expedited cleanup is an admirable goal, I have some questions as to what we get at the end of ten years. Plutonium is one of the most toxic elements known to mankind. It remains dangerous for 240,000 years. How clean will Rocky Flats be at the end of ten years? Has the cleanup plan been offered for public review? Will cleanup be done safely? Cleanup of nuclear-weapons facilities is a new prospect. All that I ask is that current safety protocols be reviewed and modified or developed as needed by members of the public.

Matthew Crozier
Boulder

Since Westword has taken the lead on the Rocky Flats grand jurors' attempts to reveal the documents supporting their call for criminal indictments at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, why is it that Westword soft-pedaled documentary evidence made available to you concerning plutonium dumping by Rocky Flats outside of the nuclear-weapons plant, in a landfill in Aurora where developers now plan still more subdivision homes? Why is Westword more interested in the "he said/she said" type of reporting that typifies the dailies in this town instead of exposing the real evidence of environmental crimes when it comes into your possession? Who is Westword really serving by this type of journalism? In Stuart Steers's "Sister Sludge" story, in the July 24 issue, Westword seemed more interested in who was slinging mud at whom than in the facts of the case.