Re: Incorrect photo caption in 2021 Holiday Guide

Thank you for trying to be so inclusive with your Nov. 17 article, “Decorative holiday symbols add to seasonal celebrations,” but your caption for the photo is wrong. You show a lovely family not with a menorah celebrating Hanukkah but one with a Kinara holding the Mishumaa Samba and celebrating Kwanzaa. Next year, if you wish to depict a Jewish family celebrating Hanukkah I am fairly certain that I can get one of my children to volunteer their services. It is nice that your article demonstrates that while we may be different in the holidays we celebrate, during this holiday season we all celebrate the same thing: peace and our efforts to live equally among one another. We need to do that all year long.

Harvey Epstein, Monument

Editor’s note: The Tribune regrets this egregious error. The photo caption has been corrected online and a print correction is published on page 2 of this publication.

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Letters to the editor are published on a space-available basis, first-come, first-served. Email letters to michelle.karas@pikespeaknewspapers.com. The Tribune reserves the right to edit to reject any submission and to edit submissions longer than 250 words. Letters should have the author’s full name, address and phone number for verification purposes.

Thanks for making CC-V Veterans Day Assembly a success

On behalf of Cripple Creek-Victor Junior/Senior High School, I would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all parties that ensured this year’s Veterans Day Assembly was a very successful and meaningful event. Thank you to American Legion Post 171 members Colt Simmons, Shannon Taylor, Kathy Friel, David Donatto, Dean Winn and Rich Ingold for their invaluable assistance in organizing the assembly, as well as acting as Honor Guard to open the event.

Thank you to Bill Martin for offering a stirring Invocation and Benediction, and to Keith McKim for an incredibly inspiring telling of the story of Roy Perez Benavidez, a true American hero. Additionally, thank you to the following entities that sent representatives to attend the event as guests: American Legion Post 171, CC-V School Board, Teller County Courts, Teller County Sheriff’s Office, City of Cripple Creek City Council, the Office of Rep. Mark Baisley, Newmont Mining Co., and Teller County Veterans Services.

Most importantly, thank you to all of our veterans in the CC-V community (both staff and families), and veterans everywhere for your service and sacrifice. The fundamental importance that military service plays in our very way of life cannot be understated. We appreciate you more than we could ever express.

Annie Durham, CTE Coordinator, Cripple Creek-Victor School District, Cripple Creek

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Thank you for a successful Trunk-or-Treat in Cripple Creek

Cripple Creek Parks and Recreation would like to express a huge THANK YOU to the members of our community. The last two years have been rough for all of us. The children of our community have been troopers and have hung in there. Our community stepped up a notch and gave the youth of our community a great Trunk-or-Treat event. We would like to thank the 23 “trunks” that were decorated and the three ladies that did not have trunks that were all socially distanced safely handing out treats to over 300 costumed goblins.

Congratulations to the top trunks:

• Most Creative — Taylor Built
• Scariest — Cripple Creek Fire Department/SWTCEMS
• Judges Choice — Hardcastle Heating and Air
• Honorable Mention — Vicki and Izzy Burke
• Kid’s Choice — American Legion Post 171

A special thank you goes to our trunk judges, Joe Douglas, Archie Torres and Connie Dodrill.

We had some amazing sponsors for this event, and we would like to thank them as well: Doc’s Prescribed Comfort Food/Cripple Creek Hospitality House; Triple Crown Casinos; Double Eagle Hotel & Casino; Century Casino; Pikes Peak Rotary Club; Cripple Creek Ace Hardware and Supply; Two Mile High Club, Cripple Creek Elks BPOE 316; Pioneer Take & Bake Pizza; Hardcastle Heating & Air; Victor-Cripple Creek American Legion Post 171; Larry & Maryanne Meyer; Pikes Peak Workforce Center; Community Banks of Colorado; Sanborn Western Camps; Gold Mine Tours; Connie Dodrill; Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad Co.; Victor’s Gold Camp Artists Co-op; Cripple Creek 21st Century; Teller County Sheriff’s Posse; and our Cripple Creek Marketing and Events Department.

We would also like to express a huge THANK YOU to Wildwood Casino for their contribution to help make this a great event.

Dawn of Hope Ranch & Ministries also played a generous role in our event on top of their Fall Festival which was held in conjunction with Trunk or Treat.

Without everyone’s help and input this event would not have been possible. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

Archie Torres Jr., on behalf of Cripple Creek Parks and Recreation staff, Cripple Creek

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A salute to law enforcement who battled Jan. 6 attackers

America recently honored our veterans and rightly so; Ben Franklin said the founding fathers had given us a democracy — if we can keep it.

A government where people can elect their rulers and rule-makers is preferable to a system where a single person is allowed to determine the future of America, or groups of its people, or selected individuals at whim. And for almost 250 years, the people in our armed forces and our national services have ensured that no foreign entity has been allowed to alter the way we are governed or do essential business. Our veterans respond without hesitation and do their best to fulfill the needs of our country regardless of risk or hardship. We should learn what we can of their feats, appreciate their courage and sacrifice, and honor them for their commitment.

But not all threats to America’s freedom and culture are foreign. Organized crime, political corruption and unscrupulous corporations tear at the fabric of what it means to be American, and what America stands for. Various law enforcement agencies are tasked with confronting sinister actions and protecting our interests and values. So I am standing to recognize an obvious but overlooked and underappreciated action taken by a vastly outnumbered and desperate but resolute and determined group of defenders of America, her people, and what it means to be American.

138 officers of The Capitol Police and Washington, D.C. police were injured defending the U.S. Capitol from a gang of more than a thousand attackers on Jan. 6. 15 officers were hospitalized. Three policemen were dragged down a flight of steps into a crowd and beaten with sticks, clubs, pipes and flagpoles. Other officers were hit in the head with various weapons plus had stun guns and chemicals used on them and lasers pointed into their eyes. Three policemen were hit in the head by a thrown fire extinguisher. One officer got two cracked ribs and two smashed spinal disks for defending the Capitol. One lost an eye. A policeman was stabbed with a metal fence stake and another lost three fingers. One was hit six times with a stun gun, beaten with a flagpole, lost a fingertip and survived a heart attack. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died of blood-clot caused strokes the day after he helped prevent Congress members from becoming casualties or captives. Five months after the assaults, 17 officers were still unable to report to work due to their injuries.

We quite possibly owe our continuing democracy to these men and women.

What do you think these militants who brought clubs, communication devices, personnel restraints, and pipe bombs attached to 60-minute kitchen timers had in mind when attacking the Capitol? They believed they could put their man in the oval office no matter the people’s vote. Donald Trump told them the vote was stolen and that he had documentation to prove it. I do not believe that Trump is stupid. I believe that if he had evidence the election was illegally altered, he would not have let more than 60 cases be dismissed or thrown out of court for lack of evidence. He is not the gullible one in this instance. Most likely his supporters do not care because they are convinced he is the best American for the job. He tells them they are exceptional, and our country’s problems are the fault of other, less perfect Americans, because the other side is always ultimately evil. This is the same kind of talk and attitude that made German people let a man throw away their democracy in favor of becoming a tyrant who got their country bombed to rubble and killed millions.

I believe Trump had several good policies along with some bad ones — but he is simply unfit for the office of President. I am not in favor of a bullying, mob boss-like, wanna-be dictator forcing his way into the White House. I am a democracy-loving kind of patriot. Thankful that a band of American police resisted with sacrifice, an attempted takeover of our American government. Hats off to them all.

Richard Allee, Florissant

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A partial list of President Trump’s attacks on America

(A response to Nov. 17 Johnson letter.) Former President Trump’s response to the “Unite the Right” rally at the University of Virginia: “Very fine people on both sides.” Many of these people were carrying flaming torches and chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” Also heard was the Nazi slogan “blood and soil.” Trump’s response to this rally gave moral equivalency to white supremacists and Nazis willing to come out into the open.

In January, Trump had encouraged and then refused to stop the attack on the capital where a hanging noose was waiting for his vice president, Mike Pence, congressmen were threatened and the installation of the election results, fully sanctioned by both parties, were temporarily stopped because of the onslaught.

Throughout his presidency, Trump’s systematic attacks on the courts, the press and Congress, are all historic moves that have been made by autocrats who want to dismantle institutions that constrict their power.

The lewd caught-on-tape comments that Trump made about women characterized his campaign style. He used every tool, legitimate and illegitimate, fair and unfair, true and false, to destroy his opponents and their families.

These are not personal characteristics that an American president of a free democracy should have.

The above statements are based on eye witness accounts, personal and government records — not “corrupt” media.

Agnes Mika, Divide

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Letters to the editor are published on a space-available basis, first-come, first-served. Email letters to michelle.karas@pikespeaknewspapers.com. The Courier reserves the right to edit to reject any submission and to edit submissions longer than 250 words. Letters should have the author’s full name, address and phone number for verification purposes.

Republican heroes

It is about time we recognized the true heroes of the Republican Party. They are not the dopey louts who rampaged through our nation’s capital and the moral cowards who still cover for them. They are not the ranting demagogues exploiting the emotions of the resentful. They were the unsung people not seeking attention, but doing their jobs: from poll workers to police officers. They were Republican state legislators and governors who did not bend to pressure to overturn the elections in their state. They were Republican judges who did not allow mere allegations unsupported by credible evidence to deny votes that happened. They were a vice president who stayed loyal to the Constitution and the rule of law above any man. They were Republican congressional representatives and senators who did not fear to try and hold their own president accountable, and dared to stand on their conscience instead of follow the majority in their party. They did not win. But they showed more bravery than the majority in their party who did.

It is Republicans like those who could save the soul of the party from being lost to a band of fascists, if they find the nerve to do so. My father was a lifelong Republican who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the sacrifices that generation made to defeat fascism, I’m glad he was not alive to see his party dishonored by America’s Mussolini.

James Tweed, Ocean City, N.J.

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Letters to the editor are published on a space-available basis, first-come, first-served. Email letters to michelle.karas@pikespeaknewspapers.com. The Cheyenne Edition reserves the right to edit to reject any submission and to edit submissions longer than 250 words. Letters should have the author’s full name, address and phone number for verification purposes.