Individual property rights

Giving local control over noise limits may create a negative quality of life for more Colorado communities, as it has had for hundreds of families for the past two concert seasons under the variance, aka “local control”, given by Mayor Yemi Mobolade and our police chief.

Local control for the amphitheater is code for corporate control. The recent CO Supreme Court ruling is under siege largely from the venue that was told by the court to run their business within the Colorado state laws. Quite the collection of people have rallied against this ruling – some who have had protection under the NAA for 5+ decades and who are now feigning damage with keeping in place, some paid in “billable hours” to be supportive, some not impacted at all by the harmful noise levels of open-air concerts in their respective residential areas.

State laws are not as easily manipulated as local decisions, so eliminating state law is the new, urgent imperative behind SB26-098. This issue is not about liking music or the amphitheater. It is not about having to restore the ability to reduce noise levels – that ability already exists in the current state law.

The core issue is individual property rights vs. corporate power and profits. It is about businesses being able to raise noise levels anywhere in Colorado, as they and local leaders see fit. Our state lawmakers are currently considering whether, as Senator Larry Liston’s bill and recent Gazette article propose, there is a need to “restore communities’ local authority” to raise limits for noise levels here and in neighborhoods across the state. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of excessive noise coming into your home and evenings, now is the time to contact your state and local representatives with your thoughts.

Sheryl Hobbs

Colorado Springs

Something worth celebrating

I moved to Colorado Springs from an East Coast neighborhood below the Mason-Dixon Line. I thought everyone in the southern United States waves at everybody else. I gave it a try while walking the dogs.

Nobody waved back, and I stopped after a day. I didn’t want anyone to think I didn’t belong.

Then Covid moved in and it suddenly became scary to be within six feet of another person, not to mention my family, who, despite every precaution, ended up giving me the bug.

I recovered, took the dogs for a stroll, and realized I had something in common with everyone I saw, regardless if I knew their names, what they did for a living, or if they were driving too fast on a residential street. Somehow, all of us had beaten the most dangerous plague in recent memory. With so many other bad and terrible things happening every day, we still have every opportunity to live happily ever after.

And that was worth celebrating, or, at least, remembering: no matter how isolated, different, or estranged we may feel. Sooner or later, we get moments when being alive can be enough. Sometimes, more than enough.

So, if you wonder why I waved at you, it’s that we’re both alive. Whether you wave back and or continue on your way, it’s great that we’re still here.

Bill Kent

El Paso County

Making life-saving donations

April is National Donate Life Month — and for me, it is deeply personal.

I was born with kidneys that never fully developed. For years, the underlying cause went undetected. By the time doctors identified what was happening, I was facing End Stage Renal Disease and a transplant waiting list.

On July 24, 2019, I received a life-saving kidney transplant that changed my life. I was 27 years old, and I had my life back.

That experience changed everything. I became an Advanced EMT here in Colorado Springs and am currently working toward my paramedic certification. I went into the medical field because of what I went through and because I know firsthand what it means to be on the receiving end of someone else’s generosity and compassion.

Before my diagnosis, I had no clear sense of purpose or direction. Kidney failure and transplant gave me that. It pointed me toward a career dedicated to helping people through their hardest moments. I now also volunteer with Donor Alliance, encouraging people to consider registering as organ, eye, and tissue donors — because I also know what it means to wait, and to wonder if the call will ever come.

Right now, more than 1,300 people in Colorado and Wyoming are waiting for a life-saving transplant. One registered donor can save up to eight lives.

I am one of those lives that was saved. I show up every day because someone made the decision to give. Please make that decision too. Register today at DonorAlliance.org.

Tess La Fera

Colorado Springs

Catholic faith is not interchangeable

I didn’t know that Ruben Navarrette is a baptized Catholic, “A revelation: God is great, man not so much” (Opinion, March 11). I purposely said “is” and not “was.” Currently, Ruben attends an “evangelical Christian church” near his home. Ruben misunderstands his Catholic faith. Once a Marine, always a Marine. Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.

All adherents of other Christian religions are interchangeable among themselves. You can church-shop “forever” without formally entering or leaving one denomination for another, usually without any concerns for doctrine. The Catholic Church is worldwide, one-of-a-kind and rock-solid in its doctrines. The Catholic faith is not interchangeable with the other Christians religions.

Navarrette stopped going to Mass sometime after the Boston Globe’s 2002 explosive investigative story exposing immoral Catholic priests and the cover-up. Still, don’t violate the Third Commandment (a serious Catholic sin). Any bad clerical behavior has nothing to do with our religious duty to attend all Catholic Holy Days of Obligation.

The Catholic Church teaches it’s a mortal sin to miss a Holy Day of Obligation without good cause. Biblically, Christ teaches us what to do in cases of bad scribes or Pharisees (today, priests or bishops) in Matthew 23:3, “so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.” This is New Covenant teaching also. Catholics: Stay in the Church.

Daniel Pryor

Peyton