Rapid response to request

I wish to say, “Way to go Commissioner Carrie Geitner and your staff”. You completed my suggestion to make the intersection at Meridian Road and Falcon Highway into a “full four way stop”.

I understand, it takes awhile to clear this type of change, but, you and your staff and the El Paso County Traffic Management Offices made the intersection of “Meridian Road and Falcon Highway a more safer and controllable area”. The two extra stop signs installed, that were installed on or about Nov 20, 2025, sure came in good usage, especially on snowy days such as: Nov. 23 and the morning traffic on Nov. 24, 2025.

Again, thanks to all those involved in making our “El Paso County roads, much more safer.

Will Shipley

Falcon

Unrealistic expectations

I am writing as an educator who loves my students deeply, but who is growing increasingly concerned about the unrealistic expectations placed on schools today. We are held to rigid standards that assume all students arrive at school on the same playing field and should all achieve at the exact same “grade level” benchmarks by the end of the year. Anyone who has spent even one day inside a real classroom knows how impossible that expectation truly is.

Students do not enter our rooms as blank slates. They come to us at 25 different academic levels, with widely varying backgrounds, learning needs, home situations, traumas, languages, abilities, and experiences. Some come in reading several grades above level, others several grades below. Many need specially designed instruction, individualized goals, accommodations, or modifications. Yet we are told to guarantee that all of them will somehow end up in the exact same place by June.

On top of that, schools today serve as far more than academic institutions. They have become the safety net for nearly every social service a child might need. On any given day, students may be pulled from the classroom for multiple reasons.

Some students are pulled out of class multiple times a day, every single day. Teachers often joke that we need revolving doors—but the truth is, the constant movement is disruptive for students and makes it extraordinarily difficult to deliver consistent instruction.

Teachers absolutely want students to grow. We pour our hearts into our work. We differentiate lessons, reteach concepts, create targeted small groups, and collaborate with specialists. We stay late, take work home, and spend personal money to make up for gaps. However, even with all of that, we face a major challenge: our students are simply not in the classroom enough to receive consistent instruction. .

The truth is simple: schools cannot keep adding responsibilities and services without removing others. Schools cannot be everything to every child, every moment of the day, and still be judged solely on test scores that fail to reflect the complexities of real learning, especially when students are leaving the classroom to receive so many additional supports.

If society wants schools to continue serving as the hub of mental health support, therapeutic services, social work, and academic intervention, then it is time for policymakers to adjust expectations and recognize what is humanly possible.

R. Bennett

Colorado Springs

Protect the Arctic Refuge

This Thanksgiving, as we pause to appreciate what we value most, including family, community, and the natural world that sustains us, we must also recognize what is being put at risk.

Despite decades of scientific consensus telling us we must change course on fossil fuel dependence, federal leaders continue to promote policies that ignore science and reward short-term industry profit. The recent House vote on a procedural bill to expand oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the latest example. The bill bypasses environmental safeguards and ignores the long record of failed and costly Arctic leasing efforts.

America’s Arctic is one of the last places we should gamble with. The Arctic Refuge is home to the Gwich’in people, the Porcupine caribou herd, polar bears, and migratory birds that many of us see in our own neighborhoods during spring and fall. It is also one of the fastest warming regions on Earth. Allowing drilling operations to begin this winter would cause irreversible harm to wildlife, to Indigenous communities, and to our shared climate.

This Thanksgiving, many Americans are giving thanks for clean air, clean water, and the wild landscapes that define our national identity. People across the political and cultural spectrum, including scientists, veterans, faith leaders, and everyday citizens, are uniting to say enough.

We must urge our members of Congress to permanently protect the Arctic Refuge. Gratitude means little if we do not act to preserve the places and communities we are thankful for.

Ford Young

Thronton

All-in for Ukrainian victory

“The Trump Administration’s 28-point plan for Ukraine is a total capitulation to Putin.” I agree completely with this statement from the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Europe.

I also agree that what Ukraine, Europe, the United States, and the world need is for this war to end. It must end, though, not on the aggressor’s (Russia’s) terms and wishes. It must conclude with a lasting peace that honors the suffering that the Ukrainians have borne and guarantees their security. This can only be done through Russia’s total defeat on the Ukrainian battlefield.

And that goal will only be reached when America stands united with Europe and goes all-in for Ukrainian victory. Yes, that will mean the potential commitment of American and NATO troops in Ukraine (or at least the credible threat of such action). As a retired soldier and father of one, I do not make this statement lightly. But true freedom (and peace) is neither free nor easy.

As a first step, I recommend that Congress pass a resolution condemning the current “peace plan.” Congress should also resolve that restoration of Ukrainian territorial integrity is a top priority of any future peace initiative.

For the near future, let us hope that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy sticks to his guns and does not accept this 28-point plan of appeasement.

President Trump, playing the role of former British Prime Minister Chamberlain in 1938, would very much like to chalk up Ukraine as another brokered peace “victory” (if you can count Gaza, India/Pakistan, etc. as such). Let us hope that he doesn’t end up echoing Chamberlain’s infamous phrases: “peace with honor” and “peace for our time.”

Randall Grant, LTC, USAR (Retired)

Widefield