Letters to the Editor

I love this band. I love every member in this band, even when they're bad friends or they act like pompous assholes. I love every song this band writes, and I am physically unable to not smile every time I see it perform. But love is not silent and love is not still and love will not let me support such an awful, awful decision. And though I doubt there are, I hope there are other people in this town who love this band in the same way I do.

Walter Kovacs

Denver

"The Candidate," January 17

I read Naomi Zeveloff's article about my son, Muhammad Ali Hasan. Although there were many factual inaccuracies about my family and me, I felt it important to point out three in particular.

First, the article incorrectly stated that my husband, Dr. Malik Hasan, and other executives made a decision to sell QualMed. This is simply untrue. Foundation Health Systems, the parent company of QualMed, decided to withdraw its insurance operations from Colorado; it did not sell QualMed. Further, my husband had already retired from the company, and he had no involvement with the decision to withdraw from Colorado. In fact, although Dr. Hasan was retired and had no say in the decision, when he learned that Foundation Health Systems was terminating its Colorado operations, he took the initiative to persuade company management to extend greater benefits to Pueblo employees than contractually required. At his insistence and persistence, Foundation Health Systems gave Pueblo employees over $20 million in severance and extended health-insurance benefits anywhere from three to fifteen months (depending on the employee's length of service with the company). Naturally, I was sad to see the Pueblo division closed, but it was a decision out of our hands, one solely belonging to a publicly traded company that we were no longer involved with. I believe that my family's record of service to Pueblo, including the work and business of QualMed, is clear and very enthusiastic. Any suggestion or implication that Dr. Hasan wanted to abandon Pueblo or hurt Puebloans, or that he was involved in the selling of QualMed, is incorrect and actually scurrilous.

Second, although the article repeatedly mentioned "servants," I do not have any "servants." I do have staff members, and if someone characterizes them as "servants," such characterization is demeaning to them and to my family. They are very valued members of our household. Your writer's use of the term was wholly her own.

Third, the description of my voice's "thick Pakistani accent" was, quite honestly, news to me and to people who know me.

The whole article is either inaccurate or, when based on facts, those facts have been distorted or spun in a manner to present an untrue picture fitting with the writer's preconceived notions. This distortion or spin has resulted in an article that, rather than being objective, is actually a caricature at best. It is inconsistent with the best standards of journalism. Frankly, I am disappointed that your writer would abuse our friendliness and hospitality to write a vicious article. I sincerely regret extending those courtesies to her.

Mrs. Seeme Hasan

Las Vegas, Nevada

"TV or Not TV," Juliet Wittman, January 24

Juliet Wittman's review of the Denver Center production of Our House should have been headlined "Spoiler Alert." She revealed so much of the story that any sense of suspense or intrigue for the theater-goer is eliminated. 

Kathy Gregorich

Denver