I was pleased to read Betty Scranton’s letter of Feb. 14, “Prayer Vigil at Planned Parenthood.” Ms. Scranton’s letter explained 40 Days for Life, a worldwide campaign with more than 500,000 pro-life volunteers who stand for the unborn.

For the readers of this newspaper, this may have been the first time you have heard of 40 Days for Life, yet Colorado has had an active role with it since 2007. It is the first time, however, that we in the Roaring Fork Valley will have an opportunity to have a physical involvement with the Lenten campaign.

I would urge all to research 40 Days for Life at its website, as I did some years ago before committing to its work of prayer, fasting and prayerful vigils at our local abortion providers.

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At 40daysforlife.com/glenwoodsprings and the national website 40daysforlife.com, visitors will be inspired with daily meditations by leaders in the pro-life community, such as Alveda King (niece of Martin Luther King Jr.) and Father Frank Pavone.

Visitors will read about the experiences of volunteers just like me who are no longer content to be passive about life. There are also many testimonies of women who have carried the guilt and pain of previous abortions, but who have now found healing and forgiveness with the help of 40 Days for Life. Those stories, those voices are the ones that called me to volunteer.

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Check out 40daysforlife.com today.

Mona Klinger

Carbondale

I read in the Feb. 15 Post Independent that the county commissioners softened some of the rules concerning what developers are required to do, as far as deed-restricted housing units are concerned. That is all well and good. I think trying to boost new construction is a good move.

But now let’s talk about the people out there who are already owners of deed-restricted units. The whole idea of deed-restricted units was to allow low-income people the ability to afford a home. And during the good ol’ days, when real estate in this area was booming and home costs were high, it really helped a lot of people.

But now that home prices are at an all-time low, and there is no sign of an end to the recession that we are in, deed restriction is a curse. Why would someone purchase a deed-restricted home when they can buy a free market home for the same price or less? I mean the exact same unit or larger, for less, and without all the restrictions.

These deed-restricted homeowners are stuck. Affordable housing does not work in today’s market. Most housing today is already affordable.

The very system that set out to help low-income people is now burdening the same people when they try to sell these deed-restricted homes.

If the county commissioners are willing to change things to help out the developers, they should also do something for the existing owners of deed-restricted units.

The deed-restricted system does not work in today’s market, it needs to be looked at and revamped to benefit the lower-income people it intended to help.

John Korrie

Glenwood Springs

I am writing in regard to the pending bill in the Legislature that will give illegal aliens residing in our state preferential tuition rates for college.

It has always been my assumption that our elected representatives were chosen to represent the interests of legal citizens and not law-breaking foreign nationals.

It is especially egregious that the taxpayer-paid benefits under this bill will exceed the benefits provided to some legal citizens. Wouldn’t it be a better solution to have them go back to their own country to get their education?

No doubt the political elites will have some smoke-and-mirrors explanation for this.

Garry Evenson

Battlement Mesa

The Post Independent’s editorial of Feb. 8 lecturing those employed in and visitors to the Glenwood Springs central business area was misplaced, if not thoughtless.

To admonish them to park in already overcrowded neighborhoods while construction of the library and new parking structure is to occur concurrently over the better part of a year is inconsiderate and unnecessary.

There would be three existing parking lots and two areas of the street, approximately 170 spaces, closed during that time.

While the plan to construct all facilities concurrently during the same period is intended to save costs with efficient construction operations, the impositions and disturbance to neighbors, and the costs and losses of business parking should be recognized. The structures could and should be constructed on a staggered or consecutive schedule.

It is not the employees’ fault that they must find other parking spaces and impose upon nearby neighborhoods.

Mike Blair

Glenwood Springs

Jennifer York in her Feb. 13 letter is correct in that at least every incumbent candidate has a voting record. But considering what has been going on in the debates and primaries, I absolutely have no confidence about people not being bamboozled. I am inclined to agree with Peter Schweizer in his recent book, titled “Throw them all out.”

Dale Reed

Glenwood Springs

I would like to respond to the letter written by Bob Anderson on Feb. 15.

As to his opinion on mortgages and unemployment, I believe he has made a couple of errors regarding some of the people who no longer are on unemployment.

Most of these people have exhausted their resources and are still looking for work. These people also read the paper every Wednesday to see if their house is about to be foreclosed on, and have tried every resource that is out there to try and save their home.

Most people would rather be working, having a steady income and feel they have choices. But at this time, the recession is still preventing things from happening.

So, Mr. Anderson, please look at the people who have already lost everything and still are trying to survive with no light at the end of the tunnel.

People are still being evicted even if they are working. The world may not be all roses, but most of the people are trying to make it.

Try giving credit for those who are still willing to try. Yes, they may need a hand up to dig themselves out of the hole that they would rather not be in.

Life sometimes deals people an ugly hand and they have to improvise to survive.

Mr. Anderson, I pray you will never have to face any of the difficulties that a lot of people are facing in this day and age of our recession.

I hope God is always on your side.

Bobi Jo Bergen

Rifle

I was delighted to read Bruno Kirchenwitz’s letter of Feb. 13. However, I must inform him that the Roaring Fork School District has no teacher union. We have a professional organization that supports and represents our teachers in many ways, but it does not have widespread membership or collect dues from teachers. I am not a member of any teacher’s union.

Overlooking this, he may see the passion I have for teaching by the fact that I unquestionably continued my work, enduring pay freezes for three years that resulted in a loss of more than $6,000. The community has asked me to share the impacts of hard times, and I have, and I do. I do gratefully accept the $1,500 stipend that he speaks of with such vehemence.

My salary does not constitute 12 months worth of pay. Most considerably not when tallying the hours I work in those vital nine months school is in session. In my seventh year as a teacher, I have only just begun working less than a 70-hour work week.

I find it hard to make presumptions about other people’s work, but my salary I can speak about. The Roaring Fork School District pays us for nine months of work, spread out over 12 monthly payments. It works well to supplement the other three months I must work over summer to survive living in this area.

Finally, the quality of student’s educational experiences within RFSD is excellent, and I speak proudly of the opportunities I give all students within my reach to better themselves. We have an engaged community that supports what we do to educate their children, our future.

Regardless of the educational expenditures in Washington, D.C., I will not lose a moment of sleep, for I know teachers in RFSD promote excellence by their own examples. I will lose some sleep grading papers, but that is beside the point.

It is impossible to see what the future brings, but I look back proudly over my last five years working in the Roaring Fork School District and living in Glenwood Springs. Thank you, Judy Haptonstall, and thank you Glenwood Springs.

Mark Browning

Glenwood Springs

These are serious times in education for the parents, students and citizens of the Roaring Fork Valley.

The Roaring Fork School District board of education is currently undertaking the search for a new superintendent. There recently were open meetings that included parents, student groups, business owners, employees and any other citizens who would like to be involved.

This is not a time for frivolous drama between individuals. Now is a great time to come together and elevate our conversation to a higher level. We must ask our neighbors, our children, our teachers to communicate about what they require to make our district even stronger and serve our community more effectively.

I would desire that the communication be respectful, inclusive and thoughtful to the best of everyone’s ability. I am sincerely hoping that our local news and entertainment providers also desire to keep the debate intelligent, reasonable and productive.

I encourage us all to get involved in a productive way.

Karen Dixon

Glenwood Springs

Mary Boland’s Feb. 9 high-minded column about why corporations should not be accorded the same political free speech rights as individuals reveals itself tellingly in her snide characterization of “the likes of Scott Walker.”

What exactly is Gov. Walker’s crime, apart from trying to keep private-sector taxpayers from being looted by public-sector unions, most of whose members receive better salaries and benefits than those in the private sector … while the state sinks into fiscal insolvency?

I don’t think Ms. Boland has a problem with the tens of millions of dollars spent by those unions in Wisconsin in their effort to unseat Gov. Walker. Nor should she. It’s called political free speech, and it is their right.

But why then should private enterprises not have the same right to promote and protect their interests? Is money dirty only when it is spent by the political right? Are corporations more self-evidently evil than thuggish unions?

Come on, Ms. Boland, if there’s a rigged game in this country, it currently favors the left. So, until America turns into Greece, why doesn’t Ms. Boland relax and enjoy the fruits of her labors?

Chad Klinger

Carbondale

I went to a showing of Glenwood’s Vaudeville Revue, a new spring show. It was very funny, worth a few hours to sit and enjoy.

My problem is other people in the audience – not everyone, of course, but those who insist on constantly talking and those who feel a need to check their e-mails or texts.

Can’t they spend three hours of their life just sitting while a bunch of people try to entertain them? I felt so sorry for the performers. Surely they heard the constant drone of chit chat in the background.

I work hard and am disgusted to have spent my money to sit and listen to others’ incessant ramble, and to see the soft glow of a cell phone’s screen every few minutes.

How far we have sunk as a society when an entertainer is drowned out or simply ignored to satisfy some desperate need to know if “Jane” got the text about the new set of tires he’d bought. How rude.

What’s the point of spending money to ignore a show? Stay at home and let those who want to be entertained see the show without having someone else’s life filtered through it.

In a time gone by, folks sat through a movie or performance, quietly enjoying the act, savoring the intricacies of a performance, without having to check their Facebook status.

Gary Kirchberg

New Castle

The Feb. 15 letter by Seamus Moore and Rep. Doug Lamborn’s Pioneers Act clearly show a lack of understanding of the status of oil shale development in Colorado. Production of oil from oil shale remains a pie in the sky.

Oil shale contains no oil. It is simply rock that contains kerogen, a precursor of oil. Results from six test oil shale sites leased by the BLM starting in 2005 show that no viable, economically feasible process has yet been developed to harvest the kerogen from oil shale.

Shell Oil, a company at the forefront of oil shale research, states on its website, “A commercial [oil shale] decision would be in the middle of the next decade and possibly later.”

The Department of Interior’s recently released environmental impact statement on oil shale and tar sands development will allow additional lands to be leased for research, development, and demonstration while protecting special landscapes and watersheds.

For this action, the Obama administration deserves praise for addressing the irrational oil shale giveaway plan left by the previous administration.

In spite of these facts, Rep. Lamborn’s Pioneers bill would open millions of acres of federal land to oil shale leasing. Speaker John Boehner has designated Lamborn’s oil shale legislation as a funding source for his controversial highway funding package, H.R.7.

This is “selling the American people a bill of goods. Since there is no commercial oil shale industry, there is zero energy, zero revenue, and zero jobs in oil shale,” said Matt Garrington of the Colorado-based Checks and Balances Project.

Oil shale legislation has no place in the highway bill. Even the Congressional Budget Office has concluded that Lamborn’s bill wouldn’t generate any significant revenue due to the oil shale industry’s lack of commercial viability.

Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., has filed an amendment to strip the Pioneers Act from the highway bill, thus setting up a House floor showdown between the Colorado representatives.

Please tell your Colorado representatives to stand with the Interior Department on the oil shale issue, and support Rep. Polis in his amendment to the highway bill.

Bob Millette

Glenwood Springs