A meal can make a difference
I want the kids in our community to thrive. As a board member at Citizens Project, proud auntie, and a once free and reduced lunch recipient, I know a meal can make a world of difference.
Being raised by a single mom who worked as a hairstylist in Colorado Springs, I saw firsthand how a slight bump in income could lead to a drastic drop in assistance. This, often referred to as the “benefits cliff,” left me and countless of my peers worrying, “Is today the day I shrug off my hunger and go without?”
No child in Colorado Springs should have to worry about the cost of lunch, or skip a meal because their family can’t afford it. But two out of five families in Colorado struggle to put food on the table — and, for many children like me and my sister growing up in D11 and D49, breakfast or lunch at school is the most nutritious meal they’ll eat all day.
Because of the successful Healthy School Meals for All Program, Colorado schools provide more than 600,000 free, nutritious meals to students across our state every day. Students from all walks of life, backgrounds, and income brackets come together to enjoy breakfast and lunch, without shame attached.
All of our kids deserve access to healthy food. They deserve to learn, grow, and prepare for the future without the same hunger pangs felt by previous generations.
As someone who once benefited from free school meals and now has the opportunity to give back to the community that raised me, I urge you to vote yes on LL and MM so every child in Colorado can focus on what really matters.
Onnastasia Cole
Colorado Springs
Deceitful conservatives
Election season is upon us, once again. And, while we experienced a brief period of harmony in opposition against the degenerate ideologues of the left, the despotic imbeciles of our party couldn’t subdue their cravings for power.
Advocacy groups manipulated primaries. Unknown candidates were given the “Kamala pass”. Tenderfoot political careerists encouraged nominees to alienate allies. “Pious” elected officials have, on several occasions, run to pastors to spread falsehoods about others they’ve despised simply for asking hard questions. And, for the fourth time in as many days, I’ve personally seen messages from those I once regarded as friends demanding blind obedience by voting for full slates.
In short, they’ve become like our opponents – thinking we’d consent to their schemes because we share political inclinations. It wasn’t OK when the leftists were deceitful – it isn’t ok when so-called “conservatives” are.
However, it’s apparent these antics are from one (or some) pulling the strings.
To those who think they’re in charge: you’re not. We don’t answer to you. You don’t control us, nor dictate how we vote. You don’t get to make decisions and then demand obedience in the name of “unity.”
We will draw our own conclusions and choose our own path. You pompous, self-serving fools who are begging for scraps from those who hate you are the reason we’re losing ground. Shape up or step aside — we’ll win this fight without you if we must.
William Sawvel
Colorado Springs

Alinsky’s influence on today’s radicals
After reading the letter, “Educational articles” (Oct. 12), I reread the Sept. 28 article by David Harsanyi, “How Saul Alinsky mainstreamed the radicalism seen on the left today.”
Harsanyi is spot-on concerning Saul Alinsky’s (underlying) influence on today’s political radicals. Alinsky is the 20th century template for radicals who rail against any current traditional establishment or conservative government. Alinsky’s first literary work, “Reveille for Radicals” (1949) reveals: “The American dream…could never have been realized in the cold, clammy tomb of conservatism.”
Harsanyi often refers to Alinsky’s 1971 book, “Rules for Radicals.” Missing from the lengthy article is a quote from “Rules for Radicals” that reveals Alinsky’s undeclared mentor: “The first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment, and did it so effectively that at least he won his own kingdom – Lucifer.” In Harsanyi’s article is an Alinsky quote, “One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils are on the other.” One who cannot accept traditional or conservative values is certainly on the side of the devils.
In “Rules for Radicals,” Rule # 5 is “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.” Witness today’s political radicals as they label conservatives as “haters,” because conservatives (generally) insist on maintaining traditional continuity with the moral norms that have existed for centuries.
Daniel Pryor
Peyton
Sad state of affairs
The Saturday October 11 front page almost made me laugh but I couldn’t.
The photo showing a banner with the pledge from our president with the words “American Workers First” under the headline “White House: Job cuts have begun”
There’s an unbelievably sad state of affairs in the USA.
Carol Thomas
Colorado Springs