Sixth Street construction

I am concerned about the intersection at Sixth and Pine.

Not sure whose idea it was to neck this down to just wide enough for two small cars to be able to use it. This is the most-used intersection off Sixth Street. Buses, RVs use this to get to the entrance of the hotel. In no way is this intersection going to work.

Please fix this before it becomes a problem from now until you see the problems and rip up another new street. One other note is the diverted traffic for the closure of Sixth up to Fifth has no temporary stop or yield signs. An accident will happen unless fixed.

Jim Otto, Glenwood Springs

Commissioners on resolution

I attended Monday’s Garfield County commissioners meeting as part of a group organized by Mountain Action Indivisible. The topic was the cuts to Medicaid in the Republicans’ massive continuing resolution spending and taxing bill currently moving through committees in the U.S. House. MAI wants the commissioners to communicate to Rep. Jeff Hurd that 14,000 Garfield County residents are covered by Medicaid and it’s important to them it remain untouched.

Somehow, Commissioner Mike Samson got immigration into the discussion. He claimed undocumented immigrants were tapping into the Medicaid pool. Actually, Medicaid benefits are very difficult for even documented immigrants to acquire. There’s a five-year waiting period. For the undocumented, it’s practically impossible. Some states allow Medicaid coverage to undocumented pregnant women and children.

Commissioner Tom Jankovsky on two occasions jumped in when it was suggested these cuts to social programs were motivated by a desire to give tax breaks to the wealthy and large corporations. What they are is a continuation of the 2017 tax scam passed in the first Trump administration, and they’re significantly skewed toward the rich and big business.

The commissioners refused to send any written message to Hurd about Medicaid. Jankovsky said he wants to see what the bill looks like after it passes. It was pointed out that would be too late. Samson said he would call Hurd and express the concerns about Medicaid. Good luck getting through, Mike.

Time is of the essence. Republicans are rushing this bill through Congress for a reason. They want it to pass before their constituents realize what’s in it. This has been the Trump game plan from the beginning of his second term: rapid-fire executive orders, and when somebody questions the constitutionality of one, send out another or make an outrageous statement to divert their attention.

Fred Malo Jr., Carbondale

The return of tax cuts for the rich

There is a saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. And yet here we are, with another Republican Congress selling tax cuts for the rich.

Tax cuts would just result in more wealth inequality, more homelessness, more suffering for the hourly wage worker, and higher interest rates due to our additional national debt to fund them. It is a big cruel lie rather than a “big beautiful bill.”

We know what it takes to balance the budget. Democratic President Bill Clinton produced a surplus in every year of his second term. Hint: it requires taxing the rich more, cutting defense spending, and constraining the growth of social programs.

As soon as Clinton left office, the Republicans passed major tax cuts, primarily for the rich, and the deficits grew out of control. Since then, presidents from both parties have piled on big deficits.

The richest 5% of people in the U.S. now possess two-thirds of the wealth. The richest U.S. man invested $290 million in the 2024 campaign and now has control over removing subject experts in the government, even those responsible for investigating his corporate malfeasance. Billionaire families invested over $2.5 billion on the 2024 campaign. Their investment returns come in the form of tax cuts, reduced inheritance taxes, the carried interest loophole, and control over regulators.

Insanity describes this administration’s actions on several fronts. In a democracy, the citizens are expected to require a course correction. Will we stop the madness or just keep staring at our Instagram or TikTok feed? The choice is ours.

Bob Schultz, Carbondale

Documentary screening confronts censorship and genocide

On June 5 at 7 p.m., Ceasefire Now RFV will host a screening of “No Other Land” at the Glenwood Public Library — a crucial opportunity to witness a documentary that exposes Israel’s violent, ongoing expulsion of Palestinians from their community in the occupied West Bank. But this film hasn’t just been ignored; it’s been censored because it reveals truths that Israel and its allies would rather suppress.

Co-directed by Palestinian journalist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, “No Other Land” documents Israel’s systematic destruction of Palestinian homes, armed settler attacks, and military brutality against civilians. It won the Best Documentary Award at the Berlin International Film Festival — yet in Germany, screenings were canceled after Israeli lobbyists pressured venues.

Why such extreme efforts to silence this film? Because it shatters the myth that Israel is a benevolent democracy and instead shows its reality: a settler-colonial state actively erasing Palestinian life. Since October, Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed over 15,000 children — a number greater than all the children in Garfield and Pitkin counties combined. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Palestinians in Masafer Yatta face forced removal at gunpoint, their homes bulldozed as a part of the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians since the Nakba in 1948.

This isn’t just about a movie; it’s about whether we’re allowed to see the truth. When documentaries like this are suppressed, when U.S. politicians smear Palestinian solidarity as “antisemitic,” and when our tax dollars fund this violence ($3.8 billion annually to Israel), we must ask: Who benefits from our ignorance?

Our screening is an act of resistance — against censorship, against genocide, and against the dehumanization of Palestinians. I urge you to attend, to bear witness, and to join the movement for a permanent ceasefire, an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, and justice for Palestine.

The truth will not be silenced.
Get tickets at: https://qrcodes.pro/XIrQ6Z

Stacy Adler, Basalt