No improvement on city streets

The City Administration has been touting that CSPD has made significant increases in the numbers of police officers to improve the important goal of public safety. Witnessing what is happening on the city streets does not show any improvement. There is excessive speeding, tailgating, road rage, red light running and many other infractions. There are no signs of increased enforcement anywhere.

Our neighborhood has witnessed several very dangerous incidents on the road behind our neighborhood.

They are as follows:

1. A speeding car destroyed a fire hydrant, street sign and wiped out all the bushes and trees in the way.
2. An out-of-control car side swiped a car going the opposite direction and continued to bounce off the neighborhood retaining wall and damaged the curb and landscaping.
3. In the latest event, a car hit a three-level cement block retaining wall knocking three big blocks off the wall. One of the car’s wheels ended up on the ground behind the wall.

There is still speeding and reckless driving going in the area. This last weekend motorcycles and cars were driving up and down the street at a high rate of speed. The City Administration needs to take actions (not words) to back up their statements.

Lynn Dougherty

Colorado Springs

Energy isn’t free

A recent letter reminded me of the widely held but grossly inaccurate opinion that wind or solar energy is “free”. The energy isn’t free unless you’re a green plant.

Sure, sunlight falls and wind blows without our efforts. But to get sun or wind energy into usable form and get it delivered to where it’s needed requires investments in technology development, mining and refining of materials, large-scale manufacturing, and (except for single home systems) long-haul distribution lines and transformer stations and so on.

All of that implies pollution mitigation for mining and factories, and all the equipment requires routine maintenance and periodic replacement for wear. Additionally, energy customers pay for dismantling legacy power stations and cleaning up their locations. And for dismantling and cleaning up after “free energy” equipment that wears out or becomes obsolete (for most of which we lack viable recycle technologies).

Coal was free energy – all we had to do was dig it up. Yeah, right. It wasn’t and you know that. So, don’t fall for the free energy baloney. Free energy isn’t free at all.

H. Wayne Hall

Colorado Springs

Turning off reliable power

Re: Perspective: The Crazy Train to Energy Oblivion. This article was spot on. We have the means to produce energy for decades. Clean energy. Steady energy. Sean Paige is right that China and other foreign countries are laughing at us for thinking we can change the climate by turning off reliable power like coal and natural gas, and they will use it as a tactical advantage.

The progressives trying to drive this state into the ground are simply ‘stupid is as stupid does.’ Progressives rely on the benefits of steady state energy, but complain that everyone gets to use it. Let’s do the opposite of what the progressives think we should do and see how prices come down and power generation increases for the benefit of all, instead of the entitled few.

Joseph Ford

Colorado Springs

A lack of response

During January, I dispatched two detailed letters to Rep. Jeff Crank
concerning the shocking shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by
Homeland Security agents. On-the-scene videos tell a very different story
than those provided by DHS.

Regarding Good’s shooting, I noted videos “clearly reveal” when Good’s
shooter stopped videoing and stood near the driver’s side of her SUV. As
Renee Good turns her steering wheel to the right and starts to slowly drive
away, the shooter pulled his gun and fired. The first shot struck the bottom
corner of Good’s windshield. Then, two shots are directly fired through
Good’s driver’s side open window as she drives away. I sent Rep. Crank a still
photo of the shooter, with an extended arm, “standing next to the left front
driver’s side door while shooting directly at Good.”

Regarding Pretti’s, shooting, I noted:

1-Pretti never “brandished” a weapon,
2-A gun was never in Pretti’s hand. He was not threatening or aggressive,
3- A gun was removed from Pretti’s waist area just before he was shot. (and)
4-Pretti, unarmed, was shot in the back while on his hands and knees.

I also pointed out brazen DHS lies, e.g., “An individual approached US
Border Patrol Officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. (and) The
officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted
violently.”

Crank’s response letters reveal absolutely zero interest in Congressional
oversight. He is perfectly content with an investigation of DHS officer
involved shooting deaths “by DHS.” Crank noted blindly, it’s “DHS policy.”

Let’s remember his professional dereliction next November.

Richard Bursell

Colorado Springs

Congress must intervene

I am sickened by the violent tactics used by ICE, this should not be permitted to any person, US Citizen or not. ICEs tactics are not what I’ve seen from law enforcement personnel, who are trained and generally professional.
People are harmed and brutalized by ICE every day in the course of pursuing the President’s anti-humanitarian immigrant agenda. Don’t take my word for it, watch citizen videos of ICE arrests posted on YouTube and other social media. It will make you sick.

This is what America sees every day — Trump-inspired, violent arrests of bystanders, citizens, anyone who gets in ICE’s way, anyone who has brown or black skin. This is not the America I grew up in, and it must be stopped.
I’m ashamed of what this country has become. ICE is Trump’s Gestapo, and their tactics are more reminiscent of Nazi Germany than they are of the great democracy that was known as America.

Congress must intervene and make this right. Abolish ICE, they are rotten to the core and cannot be reformed.

Cyndy Kulp

Colorado Springs

Not a time to withdraw support

With Russia attacks on Ukraine’s power grid during harsh winter conditions we must ask ourselves if appeasing the aggressor will stop the horrific war or embolden them. Will it give other authoritarian regimes a green light?! This is not the time to withdraw our support for Ukraine, a courageous nation. The US must stand alongside our NATO allies in order to bring global stability. By doing so we will protect our own country and future generations.

Larysa Martyniuk

Colorado Springs