Prevent tragedies going forward

I am urging Senator Cory Gardner to co-sponsor S.3036. Children should not be separated from their parents at the border; atrocity is not a partisan issue. This is an ugly stain on the history of this country and if the Senator does not oppose this policy, it stains Coloradans as well.

As a voter in this state, I expect Senator Gardner to do the right and moral thing. S.3036 will prevent these tragedies moving forward. Represent those of us in this state that will not put up with inhumane policies that target any families, including immigrants and those seeking asylum.

We are better than this. Our elected officials need to stand up and state that, unequivocally.

Nicola Vera

Colorado Springs

Bringing shame to America

No political party can claim to be pro-family, pro-life, or pro-Christian while accepting a policy that locks up children after separating them from their parents. Quoting the Bible to justify such a policy is disgraceful.

This policy amounts to crimes against humanity! These children are being abused by our government. Innocent children are certainly being emotionally abused and very likely physically abused as a result of the living conditions under incarceration and the lack of parental protection.

This policy is bringing shame to the United States of America, especially shame to any government official who does not act immediately to stop it.

Janet Geisz

Colorado Springs

Alarmists go to extremes

The June 14 article about the melting of Antarctica’s ice sheet shows the extremes to which the alarmists wil go to make it look like the oceans are rising at an amazing rate. Quote: “melted into enough water to cover Texas to a depth of nearly 13 feet”. They may have used this statistic because people think of Texas as being really big! Actually Texas represents less than 14 hundreths of a percent of the earth’s surface.

The article then states that the oceans rose by 3 tenths of an inch in the 25 year period of the study.

Instead of creating an image of a flooded Texas, they should have pointed out that the 3 tenths of an inch raised the average depth of the oceans (calculated in 2010) from 12,080.7 feet to the amazing new depth of 12,080.725 feet.

Philip Meinert

Colorado Springs

Live and let live advice

Re: “Colorado Springs man claims he shot himself while trying to shoot raccoon” (June 13

It was a wise man who said, “Karma moves in two directions.” The Colorado Springs man who told police that he fired a bullet into his leg while trying to shoot a raccoon on a utility pole, at midnight and reportedly with a handgun, found that out the hard way.

There are any number of humane ways to discourage raccoons: tightly seal garbage cans and put them out the day they’re picked up, cover compost bins, place netting over fish ponds and feed companion animals indoors. Raccoons can also be evicted with bright lights and radios tuned to talk-radio.

But the kindest recourse is to let them live in peace.

Raccoons have learned to coexist with us. We should do the same.

The first step is simple: Put down the gun.

Craig Shapiro, PETA Foundation

Norfolk, VA

Legal and illegal immigration

I worked as a paralegal in immigration in the 1980s and have continuously followed the issue. I sincerely hope that City Councilwoman Yolanda Avila will not support a resolution that would make the Springs a ‘sanctuary city.’ I do not believe Jerima King understands the matter.

There is legal and illegal immigration. Both impose many local, state, and federal costs on taxpayers in the form of education, welfare benefits, healthcare, police, etc.

Even lawful immigrant households receive significantly more welfare, on average, than U.S.-born households. The United States accepts more legal immigrants than any other nation, by far.

Illegal immigrants cost Colorado taxpayers upward of $1,450,500,000 annually (2013 figures). Total taxes paid by those illegal immigrants in Colorado is estimated at $61.8 million, leaving a net annual cost to Colorado taxpayers of $1,388,700,000.

With a state population of 5.3 million and 1.9 million households, the net cost to the average household is over $730 annually.

Terrorist organizations are using our weakly-enforced immigration system to their advantage; meanwhile, the UN plays a large role in choosing refugees for the U.S. The UN should never be permitted this authority, as our U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land.

For someone to say that our citizens don’t sufficiently ‘care’ about immigrants is certainly unfair, when we actually bear considerable financial costs plus security risks for an historically large host of foreign arrivals.

How much additional ‘sanctuary’ would some people demand from our fellow citizens? And when do we get a vote?

Janice Taylor

Colorado Springs