Amendment 48
empowers people
Amendment 48, the Personhood Amendment, is about empowering the voter. It’s about allowing the democratic process to make decisions currently made by special interest groups that use taxes for their own gain. It’s about catching our laws up to our science. It’s about restoring the intrinsic value of every human being, no matter what stage of development.
The Personhood Amendment doesn’t change the Constitution, as its opponents claim; it merely clarifies the definition of “person” or “persons” as beginning at fertilization. This clarification is necessary because when the original Constitution was written the biological information we now have available didn’t exist. This left an ambiguity that has been seized by special interests for their own purposes. The same special interests claim they want choice, but don’t want voters to decide this issue.
The Personhood Amendment isn’t an attack on women’s health care, as the scare tactics of its opponents would have you believe. Mothers also possess personhood and the amendment in no way endangers their well-being. It merely provides a common-sense foundation for making future decisions — decisions that protect the unborn, the sick, the disabled and the elderly.
The “No on 48” crowd stresses that 75 health-care organizations (no doubt including Planned Parenthood) oppose Amendment 48. At last count, over 80 organizations and medical professionals support personhood.
The proponents of abortion refer to newly formed persons as “fertilized eggs.” This is familiar strategy. They use the term “pro-choice” to shift the debate away from the ugly reality of abortion. The term “fertilized egg” robs the developing human of personhood, just as “fetus” dehumanizes developing babies.
Republican or Democrat, we’re all responsible to protect innocent life. Colorado voters have an unprecedented opportunity to do exactly that by acknowledging what we know to be true. Vote “Yes” on 48.
KRISTI BURTON
Initiative Sponsor
Peyton, Colo.

Politicians place themselves
above the common folk
I am amazed by the frequency with which our elected officials, politicians and public servants seem to place themselves above us common folk. Whether refusing a subpoena they deem inappropriate or not cooperating with an investigation they view as “tainted,” they certainly do not provide a positive example for the rest of us to follow.
It is hard to fathom how hard our local police department’s job would be, or how crowded our jail may become, if each of us were allowed individually to determine the validity of a subpoena or investigation.
JAMES HOFFMAN
Grand Junction

Economy won’t matter
if terrorists aren’t stopped
Through the eyes of a staff sergeant that has four Battle Stars on his service record during World War II, I shudder to think what the several hundred thousand brave men and women who gave their lives to have what we have today would think if they saw mostly young people flocking to see and hear a candidate running for president who voted not to fund our troops.
I doubt if he knows the difference between a garand and a grenade, then says he will tell the military how to run the war that we are in.
If the terrorists are not stopped now, you could see what I saw and it is not pretty. You would not have to worry about the economy and health care.
EARL E. DAWSON
Rifle

‘Poll’ turned out to be
effort to smear Udall
Recently, I received a call from an alleged “pollster” who began by asking generic questions about presidential and senatorial candidates. By the middle of the “poll,” every question was worded as an obvious smear of Mark Udall.
I didn’t know much about Bob Schaffer before, but he may be interested to find that after being on the receiving end of his political dirty trick, I now know Schaffer to be a slimeball.
AMY TALBOT
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 6:31 am and is filed under Printed letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.