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“Death Knell,” Melanie Asmar, July 29
Welfare Check
A state-run child-welfare system or county-run child-welfare system? After 23-plus years as a foster parent, watching child after child sent home for further abuse, I know that there is not one place in Colorado where “the buck stops” when a child is mistreated by the system. A current case I am watching has kept a toddler away from her mother for two years — despite the fact that the child was never abused or neglected — and the child remains endangered in her drug-addicted, felon father’s home. The mother’s sin? She went to her legislator for help. The toddler begs her mother, “I want to go home with you, please.” County politics are running this case because no one — certainly not the state — can stop this county abuse of the child and her mom. The county attorney said the mom “needs to pay” for taking this case to the state; unfortunately, the child is paying, and there is no one who can stop that.
It is past time for the state child-welfare system to be handed a whip to ensure that the buck stops at the state director’s door. Children and their families and advocates must stop being punished for trying to ensure ethical treatment by powerful counties. Until a strong, ethical and centralized state child-welfare system is a reality, children will continue to suffer.
Adoree Blair
Littleton
When counties rely on a central system for funding, counties will adhere to the rules of the system to their best advantage. The system now and as proposed will not change that relationship. Centralizing the operation of the system will not solve the problems at hand. A state-run system will trump the power of the counties. The egregious treatment of Chandler did not happen in an “outlying,” small county. Prior to centralizing the system any further, one should look in one’s own back yard before complaining about the neighbor’s yard.
George Verstraete
Lakewood
Parents are denied due process in family courts. The presumption of guilt without evidence needlessly destroys family integrity, harming every child taken “for their protection.” The child-welfare industry is about far more than protecting children.
Rosemary Van Gorder
Posted at westword.com
No matter how many changes they make to the system, when it comes down to it, government is too big, and they do not run welfare efficiently in general. I imagine it might be the same when the new health care comes out, also. They say they will check on children’s welfare, and yet I have never heard of anyone being checked like they should be. Also, when someone needs help, it takes forever to get it.
Sandra Onstott
Posted at westword.com
“In the Weeds,” Joel Warner, July 29
Weed It and Reap
I’ve been following much of Westword‘s MMJ reporting from Colorado Springs, and this latest on Ken Weaver is just great work. Keep it up.
Bryce Crawford
Colorado Springs
I am a gravely ill 49-year-old woman and a medical marijuana patient, having had my license since June 2009. (If you search my name on YouTube.com, you will find a testimonial video I taped last winter to be used for lobbying the Senate as well as Congress in the future. As I make it clear in my testimonial, medical marijuana is all I have for pain; I cannot take opiates or any other pain relievers due to digestive issues and severe nausea as well.) I had been with Patient’s Choice of Colorado until I became a patient with Rocky Mountain Farmacy. I met Ken Weaver and Michelle Pawinski when they hired my daughter to work as a budtender for them back in February, at Farmacy’s Emerson Street address (now closed due to zoning issues). They presented themselves as both being owners, and seemed more interested in me as a dollar sign than as a patient. The product seemed good at first, but over the course of a few months, it was getting worse and worse. So was service: They often didn’t open on time, and expected my daughter to sit out front and wait for them, and the patients to wait as well. My daughter has a more patient-oriented approach to the issue, and they clashed often over that.
Through my daughter, they talked me into signing over my caregiver rights, just about the time the new laws were going into effect that require dispensaries to grow 70 percent of the product they sell. But when I called there in mid-May and was told they had nothing available in the strains I need for pain and appetite stimulant, I’d had enough, and since I had not yet mailed my renewal app, I went back to Patient’s Choice that day. When I walked in, they all knew who I was and asked me about each of my health issues. I was home.
I am so upset that someone like Dan Pope, who is an acquaintance of mine, was turned down in favor of Ken Weaver! After reading Joel Warner’s article, I am more and more convinced that they are money-hungry con artists who saw an opportunity to make a quick buck off of unsuspecting patients. They put my health at risk by misrepresenting the product for strains I need. They also endangered my daughter, legally and ethically. Weaver is not a man who I want representing my rights as a patient!
Janna Harrison
Denver
Editor’s note: Ken Weaver resigned the appointment last week. See page 16 for the details.
“Trial by Fire,” Joel Warner, July 22
Ashes to Ashes
Yeah, these Denver gangs are pretty tough and mean. Denver may have fewer gangbangers than Oakland, but out here they tend to mean business.
John Delello
Denver
This is a great article. It has been a long time since something interesting has been headlined in Westword, and I thank you for keeping us informed on real-life issues in Denver. If you ignore the problems in one part of a city, they will grow into the whole city.
Tim
Posted at westword.com
Ask a Mexican, Gustavo Arellano, July 29
Proof’s in the
Pudding
It’s funny that someone brought this up: I’ve always wondered how “panocha” meant two different things!
I’m from Española, New Mexico, and my grandma used to make panocha all the time when we were kids. It was delicious! My dad employed a number of Mexican guys, and when I overheard them talking about “panocha,” I began to tell them that I loved panocha! I couldn’t understand why they were laughing, telling me, “That’s good, I’m sure your dad will be happy.” When I asked my dad about this, he just said they thought I was talking about something else…which was true, but he didn’t bother to tell me what it was. I had to wait until high school!
Jeremy Rodriguez
Denver
“Boob Jobs,” Off Limits, July 29
community chest
I am writing this in support of all Perky Cups, Hot Chick-A-Lattes and organizations that support people, no matter the “color” of their bikini (or not bikini). Molly Markert reports her concern as being the personal safety of the women in bikinis. In her personal e-mails to me when I contacted her about this in late spring, Ms. Markert stated that she wished women would use their “brains” instead of their assets. When I provided evidence of very conservative companies such as Avon showing women’s assets to advertise bras, panties, etc. Ms. Markert did not see the comparison. As she did with Westword concerning this topic, Ms. Markert then grew silent but offered her support to my organization, the Sex Workers Out-Reach Project Colorado.
I wonder if her concern would be the same if it were men running around in their swim trunks serving perky cups!? Would she still boycott? Is she going to boycott Avon? Victoria’s Secret? Those poor dumb women are only making money with their assets! Way to go, boobies!
Billie Jackson
Denver
“Lax and the City,” Joel Warner, May 27
Lacrosse Purposes
I am a high school assistant head coach and from the end of February to Memorial Day weekend, it is a thankless 24/7 job that really does not and can not pay well, and I am just getting through some long overdue reading. Joel Warner gave mention and props to a great deal of my fellow lacrosse colleagues who have not been given any credit ever what they have done to bring lacrosse to the sporting forefront in this state over the past twenty years or so.
Shame on the rest of the sports reporting in this town for falling asleep at the switch and kudos to you for getting it out. City Lax and its story is not a unique one, as it resides in every city where lacrosse is growing — but thanks from those of us who have given a lot back to the great sport. And besides, if high school recruiting has hit the lacrosse game in Denver, then things are being done right!
Mattie Bicknell
Denver
Editor’s note: City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story will have its Denver premiere at 7 p.m. Saturday, August 7, at the Paramount Theatre; for ticket info, go to www.paramountdenver.com. To read Joel Warner’s feature, go to our online archives at westword.com.