Local racism

No racism in Glenwood Springs? How about Silt? Maybe New Castle? Or, my favorite white supremacist hang out: Rifle?

I used to go to Lauren Boebert’s Shooter’s Grill from time to time when I wanted a cold beer and a burger, and they were not too bad either! I never saw Lauren Boebert there in person, but did see two Hispanic cooks in the kitchen who came out in the late afternoon for cold soda near the bar.  

They spoke fluent Spanish. Nobody paid attention to them.

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In Aspen, hotels like Hotel Jerome, and so many others in Snowmass hire a lot of Hispanic people to work for them between Nov. 1 of every year to May 1. They work a lot of double shifts, and make enough money from tips alone to allow them to not work for the rest of the year if they choose not to. The reason I know this is because between 2012 to 2018 I was one of those commuters to Aspen.

Housing is next to impossible to acquire in and around Glenwood Springs. I had a friend who lived full time in Grand Junction and drove to Aspen 5-6 days a week for work. I asked her why she did that? According to her the pay was so much better in Aspen, it made sense for her to commute.

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When I lived in West Glenwood Springs for those years, my next door neighbor was from Honduras legally with a green card. She cleaned houses in Aspen, and she told me she had so much work that if she wanted to, she could work 7 days per week, 12 hours per day. She told me her clients said no white people ever reached out to her or her friends to clean their houses. So the Hispanic women went to work 55 miles up the mountain who lived in Glenwood.

Without the Aspen tourists in the summer as well as the wintertime, Glenwood would not be such a nice place. The rent is already outrageous from Aspen all the way to Parachute, and house prices?

Insane.  

My family owns a house in Texas that is 2,700 square feet with a yard on one third of an acre,  completely redone top to bottom. They paid $179,000 for it three years ago.  

That house in Glenwood would sell for $600,000 to  $700,000, easily. Why? Greed.

Without those essential workers at hotels in Aspen, like cooks, valets, maids, those hotels would close. Glenwood would dry up and blow away?   

Welcome those essential workers, folks, because without them the Glenwood economy would suffer. Racism in Glenwood Springs? Sort of. That language is spoken in hushed tones in bars and restaurants, but not out loud. Rifle? White supremacists meet weekly. The police know who they are, but do not seem to care much.

America is still coming to grips with their racism. Eventually, they will get it right.

Steve Gluckman, Glenwood Springs

Half the loaf

Some friends had a wonderful time enjoying music in Basalt’s new River Park. It was a big turnout. Families brought children. Children, and even adults, were taking off their shoes for the delicious feeling of grass on their bare feet. Afterwards, people walked into Old Town for drinks and food. It’s what some hoped for eight years past when the battle ensued over replacing the Pan and Fork Mobile Home Park. The battle was drawn between the developers and the community-minded. Growth, always growth, was opposed to a priceless community resource that is a central park at the confluence of two rivers. The festivities vindicated those who fought for the public space. They got half the loaf. They should get hero medals.

Patrick Hunter, Carbondale

On American Birthright

As usual, the Post Independent skews the news to the left, calling the American Birthright curriculum conservative, when actually the proposed curriculum by the Colorado Board of education is far left “progressive.” Only ONE person in 20 spoke in favor of it yet that is the person the post gave the most print to. Nearly all the other speakers were in support of a more traditional, less ideological driven curriculum.

Before the knee jerk supporters of the “experts” at Colorado BOE jump into this — READ the American Birthright curriculum before commenting.

Also the majority at the meeting is AGAINST the social justice activist type of education, called indoctrination by many. Keep it up with the provably harmful revisionism happening in education and watch a continued exodus to home schooling and alternatives as the parents rebel against politicizing their children, and go against child developmental growth. This increase in educational overreach that disrespects parents, ALL students and an imbalance in presenting history from a relativistic revisionist view, loses much of the span of the ugly, and the inspiring, to learn from.

Sky Quarto, Carbondale

Libraries and certain books

This letter is in response to Trish O’Grady’s letter to the editor titled “Revoke this Book,” published Aug. 9, 2023. I am a conservative voter who voted yes to more money for our libraries in our last election. I’m appalled at what I am now becoming aware of. The library has always, in my opinion, been a safe wholesome place for children and young adults to visit. Parents beware. They are grooming your youngsters. When did porn creep into our public libraries? When did it change? Our schools and our library have the ability to change our culture. If we let them. Anything that has a parental advisory warning should not be freely handed out to under age youth. The books that I’m speaking about have a red dot on the spine identifying them as explicit. They aren’t just sexual but violently so. There isn’t much of a story line, just cartoonish pornographic violent depictions of explicit scenarios. They are rubbish.

In the U.S., child trafficking is aggravated by four main factors: the porous southern border, predatory social media use, pornography and broken families. Quoted from Emma Waters. If you haven’t seen “Sound of Freedom,” please go and see that movie. Open your eyes and ears to what is happening. Our children are our future. 

What future do we have if their lives are ruined? Our children need to be innocent, not groomed. Please sign the circulating petition to have these books pulled off the library shelves now.

Robin Pruett, Silt