Mock trial program thanks community

Thank you to the many community members who have supported Glenwood Springs High School Mock Trial throughout the years. This year the team placed 9th at the Empire World Championship and won the State Championship for the eighth time in program history, the most of any team in Colorado. Our mock trial program is one of the few public school teams to have national success, and that is largely due to the community support we can count on every year. Thank you.

Glenwood Mock Trial is known across the state not only for being successful, but also for the remarkable way our community rallies around the team. Thank you to the students and the parents for the time and commitment given to the program. Thank you to the coaches who volunteer their time. Thank you to every person who has spread the word about the program and believed in the benefits students get from participating. 

Finally, thank you to everyone who donated money to help our public school be competitive on a national level. 

We are especially grateful to the following donors whose financial support made it possible for us to attend this year’s national tournament in Delaware: City Council on behalf of the City of Glenwood Springs, the County Commissioners on behalf of Garfield County, Enis Alldredge, Mark Gould, Tony Hershey, Mark Iola, Greg Rippy, Lauren Sontag, Erin Zalinski, the Sunset Rotary Club, Roaring Fork School District, the 9th Judicial District Bar Association, and the Colorado Bar Association. We are so incredibly thankful for your support.

This program truly could not do what it does without all of you; thank you.

Zac Parsons and the Glenwood Springs High School Mock Trial Program, Glenwood Springs

An error as reminder to keep digging

Editor:

John Harcourt’s May 29 letter telling liberals to expand their news horizons offers good advice for all of us, and News Max is but one of many, many news outlets to consider. But his letter includes a glaring error, like so many news stories often do. I’ve done it myself. I suppose, though, if you tell a lie, or in this case, make an error, enough times it becomes the truth. 

America relied for decades on the words of Walter Cronkite, which so very often came directly from the White House. He missed a lot of good information about, for example, the Vietnam War, but he soldiered on. It took the leaked Pentagon Papers for us to wake up to the truth about that awful war. American news options were scarce back then, newsmen of the time were considered reliable sources, and not advertised on the Big Three networks, so we relied on Walter Cronkite. But he didn’t say “the rest of the story.” He signed his reports with, “And that’s the way it is…” If one wanted to hear “the rest of the story,” they would tune in their radios in to commentator Paul Harvey. 

Yes, expand your news sources, please. Look for the rest of the story. Ask if that’s the way it is. Read books, listen to lectures, study history. Study history some more. But verify, verify, verify, if that’s even possible in today’s say-anything-you-want-and-becomes-true, AI/social media climate. What you read may not actually be “the rest of the story.” Keep digging. 

Tamie Meck, Paonia

350Colorado wants to see RFV reduce carbon footprint

I am writing to share some exciting news with our community about a significant development in our for the statewide environmental group, 350Colorado. I have recently agreed to lead the organizations local activism network as the Roaring Fork Team Coordinator. I bring passion, experience and an energy to our mission of promoting alternatives to fossil fuel and protecting our planet from global warming’s dangers.

I bring a desire to see the RFV start to expand the use of alternative energy to protect our environment, I want to connect with the existing 12 or more environmental groups in the Valley to bring a new paradigm to the present situation where the diverse environmental groups don’t all point in the same direction. In order to leave the planet in better condition than we received it the movement requires a radically new concept. We must rapidly reshape society, we need every solution and every solver. As the saying goes, to change everything, we need everyone. What this moment calls for is a mosaic of voices – the full spectrum of ideas and insights for how we can turn things around.

350 Colorado is poised to expand its reach and impact. One of our primary goals is to enhance our educational programs, ensuring that more local schools incorporate environmental education into their curricula. We also aim to increase our community outreach efforts, fostering a culture of sustainability through workshops, clean-up drives, and advocacy campaigns.

My appointment comes at a crucial time. As we witness the escalating effects of climate change, it is more important than ever for our community to rally together in protecting our environment. If you are a person who is called to be part of the solution check out our website “350Colorado.org” The Earth really needs us, the wildlife and oceans really need us, our children really need us. Please join us.

Steve Kuschner, Carbondale

Hoping to hear from more city councilors on e-bike restrictions

Well here again Glenwood City Council says one thing and does another. My last letter spoke of council saying they want to keep Glenwood, Glenwood, yet they never seem to deny any new apartment complexes. And even tried to force them on us even when the majority of residence said no. 

More recently I emailed all council members about my concern with e-bikes being allowed on our sidewalks, specifically the ones that do not need any pedaling in order to move. Which in truth is a motorized vehicle, and motorized vehicles are already supposedly not allowed on our pedestrian walkways. I was asking council to make a policy on e-bike use on our pathways. That was more than two weeks ago and I have only heard from two out of seven council members. 

I want to thank council members Zalinski and Kaup for their prompt responses. City Council promotes that they listen to the public and want to hear from us on local issues yet my email fell on deaf ears for five of our council members. How else should we feel when this occurs except that they either don’t care or can’t be bothered with one person’s feelings. For me it was just another example of council talking the talk but not walking the walk.

John Korrie, Glenwood Springs

City broadband shouldn’t be shut out by developer deals with other providers

Back in 2000, the Glenwood Springs City Council, of which I was a member, decided to take a bold step and become one of the first small towns to install fiber optics. Since then, every few years I would check on how the city’s broadband was doing. 

Despite objections from some of the members of council over the following years who disagreed with the city competing with private companies and city manager who believed in outsourcing jobs rather than keeping services locally, the City Broadband survived and prospered. However, the City Broadband has hit a big bump in the road. 

It seems that the city has approved some 600 plus apartments in recent time which has the effect of freezing out the city’s broadband from installing its fiber for any future desire by the occupants who might prefer to switch to the city’s. It seems that these builders have a contract with the likes of Comcast that only they can install fiber. I was told that city staff was informed that they could legally do this. So, council cannot make it a condition for approval of the project that they must allow the city to install it’s fiber during construction? 

Meanwhile, Comcast is advertising very cheap rates in hope of eliminating any competition and running off any present competitors. We know what will happen with their rates after they have achieved their goal, much higher than they were before the offer. 

Comcast and the other internet companies are receiving millions in “Infrastructure Money”, that help offset their losses in the cheap rates that they are promoting today. Whereas, Glenwood Springs is not eligible for any of this money because we already have access to internet in our area. I am all for the help to the rural areas, but there should be some help for those of us that need to stay alive. 

This practice of allowing the developers to shut out the opportunities for the city to install the City Broadband has to stop. Just ask the present users of the city’s network and you will get very positive feedback. Council should be fighting for our Broadband.

Don “Hooner” Gillespie, Glenwood Springs

Foreign policy, then right to life

It is encouraging to see the recent letters discussing this administration’s foreign policy, which is a critical topic that doesn’t receive enough attention and debate. The Biden administration and the uni-party in Congress are belligerently leading the country, and the world, into a profoundly dangerous series of unstable crises in east Asia, the Middle East, and eastern Europe. The situation in Ukraine has recently escalated to particularly dangerous territory, with Ukraine using American-supplied weaponry to attack Russia’s nuclear early warning infrastructure, specifically the radar installations that identify and detect incoming nuclear ballistic missiles. This is unspeakably reckless and insane.

There were multiple incidents during the Cold War that came terrifyingly close to unleashing nuclear Armageddon. Do people still understand and appreciate what that means? Nuclear annihilation and catastrophe, a mass-extinction event which is entirely avoidable.

The war in Ukraine is lost, which was predictable, and was also avoidable. The current administration must alter its course and de-escalate immediately. Ukraine has been destroyed and ruined, which is tragic enough. But unless there is immediate change, the entire world could be next. These policies do not benefit the American people in the slightest way, and we must collectively demand that our rights be re-prioritized, beginning with our right to life.

Dan Ives, Carbondale