Conductor will be missed

Sunday afternoon was the farewell concert for Colorado Springs Symphony’s conductor Josep Caballé-Domenech, and it was a memorable one. Preceding the concert, the conductor was awarded Conductor Laureate status, an award not given in the 97-year history of the symphony.

Pamela Shockley-Zalaback and past board dignitaries gave the award, and the family of Caballé-Domenech joined him on stage.

Mahler’s Ninth Symphony was chosen, reportedly often selected by conductors as their farewell concert to the audience and to a city. It is a complex work completed before his death, and it is often thought to be concerned with last things. And the Adagio was something to behold. It is remarkable that a mass of violins can hold a note for seemingly forever and still sound as though they are one instrument.

Caballé-Domenech had said before beginning that he did not mean any disrespect but he would like to exit the stage at the end, quietly and silently. As the last soft, dying note ended, the conductor stood silently facing his musicians for several minutes. You could have heard a pin drop in that packed hall. He stepped off the podium and left. Then the audience gave the orchestra numerous, and thunderous, standing ovations. Josep Caballé-Domenech will be greatly missed in our city.

William Nolan

Colorado Springs

Why hasn’t bridge been repaired?

Re: The Platte Ave. bridge that was hit by a truck a while back. I live in that area of town. There has been nothing done to fix this bridge since the incident and it’s been more than two years.

This is an outrage that should not be tolerated.

Mayor John Suthers, you obviously don’t feel this situation warrants high priority. If you lived here, you would have fixed it. Anyone planning to go north in my area must go to Wahsatch instead of the convenient shortcut through Willamette.

Hopefully, our new mayor listens to his constituents and will direct his people to fix the bridge.

John G. Wood

Colorado Springs

Consider it urban blight

The election is over, not only the mayoral runoff, but the past races for mayor and city council. Candidates, winners and those that also ran, now let’s put as much energy in taking your signs down as you did in getting your name out.

The city is inundated every election cycle with what seems to be a yard sign on every plot of grass and billboards galore.

At this point of the game, I consider it urban blight. Do your neighbor a favor, take them down. I believe there is a city ordinance requiring this.

David Stevens

Colorado Springs

‘Liberal’ isn’t a bad word

In the recent campaign for mayor of Colorado Springs the losing candidate called the winner a “liberal”, as if that word were somehow a bad thing. Even left-wing Democrats don’t use that word, preferring to be called “progressives.” I don’t understand why.

“Liberal” is a perfectly good word and should be used in a positive way. My Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines liberal as “tolerance of others’ views” as well as “open-mindedness to ideas that challenge tradition, established institutions etc.” Liberals oppose bigotry, intolerance and oppression, something that conservatives don’t always do.

Liberal legislators have made the United States a better country. They enacted civil rights legislation to protect the freedoms of racial and religious minorities and of women. They legislated environmental protection to give us clean air and water. They made laws that demanded workplace safety and fair wages and hours. They passed laws that required honesty in advertising, banking, the stock market, product labeling. They insured that Americans would be secure in their old age. These are just a few of achievements done by statesmen of the L word persuasion.

Republicans in some cases fought against these reforms. Many GOP (group of phonies) members now advocate deregulation, wanting to take away the advances that liberals worked to bring about. This cannot be allowed to happen.

So don’t be afraid to use “liberal” in a positive way. Am I a liberal? You bet I am and proud of it!

David J. Baker

Colorado Springs

Dumb and dumber

Re: The Tuesday article on the Colorado Education Association adopting an anti-capitalist polemic, reminds me of the famous quote from the movie “Dumb and Dumber,” and I paraphrase:

“Just when you think it couldn’t possibly get any dumber than Drag Queen Story Hour for our grade school kids, Amie Baca-Oehlert and the CEA goes and does something like this …. and totally redeems themselves!”

Mike “Klute” Cloutier

Colorado Springs

Government hoops to jump through

A simple observation about our state representatives pushing through a costly requirement for legal adults to take a drivers course before getting a driver’s license. All these representatives are saying is you as Colorado state citizens must comply to our demands, but any other citizen with a license from any other state can drive here, but our young people cannot without more government hoops to jump through! I suppose the message from our government is, you’re not good enough than the young people from the 49 other states! Hypocrites rule in Denver!

Fred Little

Peyton