Lawyers aren’t calling back

For the past two months, I’ve been trying to hire an attorney for a minor traffic citation. I’ve called every criminal attorney in Glenwood Springs and Rifle. A couple have taken my contact information, yet none will call back.

I called a prominent attorney in Eagle. He wasn’t interested in my case. He gave me the name of an attorney in Rifle. Turns out, that attorney was removed from the bench in 2010 and disbarred a few years later.

So back to re-contacting the local attorneys again, to no avail.

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Why is it so difficult to get legal representation in this valley? How is someone supposed to contest a charge in court when nobody will represent you?

Even with a civil matter, it took three calls to an attorney to get a response. It was only because a family member of mine uses them for their business matters that I received a call back.

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It’s very disappointing and frustrating.

George Kuersten, Silt

Inequality of health: An economic endemic

Since March 2020, our country has endured the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period, well over 1 million people have died due to this widespread pandemic nationally. May 11, 2023, marked the end of the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration. This is a long-awaited welcome sign of relief from such a widespread catastrophe.

During the pandemic America’s billionaires have grown $2.1 trillion richer, their collective fortune skyrocketing by 70% according to Forbes data. The $5 trillion in wealth now held by 745 billionaires is two-thirds more than the $3 trillion in wealth held by the bottom 50% of U.S. households estimated by the Federal Reserve Board.

Income disparities are now so pronounced that America’s richest 1% of households averaged more than 84 times as much income as the bottom 20% in 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Americans in the top 0.01% with average household income of $43 million bring in 1,807 times more income than the bottom 20%.

For over four decades our country continues to endure an economic affliction that adversely affects a large segment of our country’s population. Congressional Budget Office data show that between 1979 and 2019, the richest 0.01% of households had a cumulative income growth rate of 507%. That’s more than five times the 94% growth rate for the bottom 20% of households. Tax cuts for the rich are a key driver of this rising inequality.

Now is the time for us to unite and share in our prosperity. Tax Reform: The Sequel. Unlike the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, this long awaited campaign will provide true tax reform that will directly impact the vast majority of Americans.

Jim Coddington III, Carbondale

We’re being played

How many years would it take for combustion engines in America to equal the amount of CO2 emitted from the current rash of Canadian wildfires? To compound this overlooked and under-reported tragedy, these forests are not being maintained, not to mention being replaced in a timely way to offset greenhouse gasses.

Why the “woke” demand for all-electric cars by 2035? We’re being “played” while carbon is mismanaged from Canadian wildfires to coal-burning Chinese solar panel manufacturers.

Fred Stewart, Grand Junction

Harsher penalties for fentanyl dealers

A PI story on June 5 claimed a paroled miscreant was arrested eight times in less than three months.

In reality, a paroled person gets arrested once, and it’s back to the Crossbar Hilton. This “parolee” was an informant “arrested” eight times while helping bust his buddy drug miscreants. 

Only Dem-controlled urban hell holes with no bail laws allow criminals back on the streets multiple times. Hopefully, we will be spared the plague of ignorance infecting liberal legal policy.

The filth dealing fentanyl death should be charged with attempted murder.

Bruno Kirchenwitz, Rifle