Letters

See Bill Run
Regarding Ward Harkavy's "Making Book on Bill Owens," in the August 6 issue:
Okay, okay! I surrender! If I promise to vote for anyone other than Bill Owens, will you quit writing is-he-or-isn't-he stories about Owens's supposed ties to the religious right? The only thing more boring than reading a story about Owens is reading a boring story about why Gail Schoettler is boring.

Amy Frankel
via the Internet

Bill Owens, Republican candidate for governor, is certainly causing the local right-wing propaganda machine to go into emergency spin control. Owens, ardent supporter of the war in Vietnam, managed to forget how he avoided--for three years--actually going there. According to Mike Rosen and other conservative flacks, Bill Clinton, who actively and publicly opposed the war and secured a college draft deferment, is a cowardly draft dodger; Owens, on the other hand, who supported the war at least to the extent of red, white and blue armbands while enjoying the safety of his own legal college deferment, is portrayed as patriotic but somewhat forgetful. Owens, already busy with some fancy footwork tapping out the Pat Miller Backstep, ought to provide some much-to-be-desired comic relief to what otherwise promises to be a depressingly dull campaign.

Seva Mock
via the Internet

Your article on Bill Owens states that evangelical Christians brandish their Bibles against homosexuals.

Leviticus 18 seems to be directed to a heterosexual male Jew who must not commit incest with close female relatives. No homosexual male has to be told not to have sex with female family members. The heterosexual male Jew is also told not to sleep with a beast, and female Jews are told the same thing. The female Jew is not told to avoid lesbianism. The Ten Commandments are for both sexes, though.

Matthew 7:1 says Judge not lest ye be judged. It's easier for people to judge others and forget what they're guilty of.

Name withheld on request

It's me, Whistle-Blowing John once again! I just mailed off Ward Harkavy's hate article to Bill Owens so he will see for himself what derogatory things you had to say about him. And he already knows how you feel about him, because I mailed your other hate article about him to his office months ago. He read it and sent me a letter, thanking me for alerting him. Since you made derogatory remarks about Barry Arrington and Pat Miller, I am also sending a copy to them in care of Pat Miller, who is a member of Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada.

John the Whistle-blower strikes again!
John Bales
Boulder

Bright, Shining Lies
Regarding Alan Prendergast's "Fortress of Solitude," in the August 6 issue:
You forgot the new Gilpin County Courthouse. It opened last year just in time for juror Laura Kriho's show trial for voting her conscience and features really odd public art: a sculpture of three buckin' donkeys, said to represent Laura's two judges and prosecutor. The sheriff up there ignored the (nonfatal) hanging of a black man, too. Gilpin, smallest county in Colorado; justice by the smallest minds and biggest asses. Let's hear how Laura's appeal in Denver this week goes.

Evan Ravitz
via the Internet

Always on Guard
I read Eric Dexheimer's July 23 article "Used and Abused," and the apathy of Arapahoe House West management toward employee safety is criminal.

My first question to the misguided Lorrie Laroe [a counselor at Arapahoe House Inc., whose letter about the story was printed in the July 30 issue]: Did you ever work with the three ladies who told their stories in the July 23 article? If not, you should reserve judgment until you walk in their shoes. Second question: Could it be the poor pay and/or the unsafe working environment that led the ladies to end their employment with Arapahoe House?

Lorrie Laroe comes across as a prospective manager who does not want to stroke her superiors the wrong way. However, judging by her letter, maybe she is trying to stroke the powers that be any way she can.

Lorrie, wake up--and do not forget that one day you could be the victim of a poor working environment.

Kem K. Molet
Northglenn

Connect the Plots
Congratulations on yet another ballyhooed jaunt into the wastewaters of yellow journalism. Megan Hall's August 6 "Crossed Wires," about US West's purported victimization of an innocent, maltreated customer, is typical of your lack of journalistic integrity. With your so-called news stories, there's always a finger to point, always a corporate/governmental conspirator to blame.

I'd like to know exactly how "writer" Megan Hall concluded that US West was at fault for Anna Croteau's errantly processed check. Denver Municipal Federal Credit Union would never have attempted to pay $11,630.01 had the check indicated a different amount. Either the credit union and US West made the same accounting error, or Ms. Croteau mistakenly wrote the check for that amount. The only alternative is that Ms. Hall is trying to delude us into believing that someone at US West committed fraud. The conclusions at which Ms. Hall arrives require a phenomenal leap in reasoning and lack any supporting information. Your article borders on libel, but Westword has never allowed truth to stand in the way of a good story. Megan Hall's article lacks development and arrives at a convoluted insinuation that US West is to blame for what the average, reasonable person would conclude was probably a simple mistake on Ms. Croteau's part.