Give Obama
a chance

People in Montrose are talking in hushed tones about the changes President-elect Barack Obama is going to wreak.
He is going to end all the oil and gas production on the Western Slope and put thousands of people out of work. He is going to socialize our country, Marxist that he is. He is going to take away guns and tax us into abject poverty. Will he be everyone’s president, or will he favor just a few?

These thoughts and concerns are the same ones spouted by the conservative talking heads on radio and Fox News. The radical, right-wing rantings of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly are laced with lies and exaggerations. They tell you what they think you want to hear.
I wonder if any of these naysayers and doomsday predicters have ever really listened to what Barack Obama says. I suggest they take off their blindfolds, remove their earplugs and open their minds. Listen to what he is saying. Watch him interact with his family. Observe how he truly cares for people, all people.

Did you pay attention to how well he networked and organized his campaign? He is no fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants leader. He is intelligent, educated, sensitive, concerned and caring. He thinks things through and plans ahead.

If you, who are so worried about the future under President Obama, will give him a chance to show his mettle, he may just surprise you with his ability to run this country and turn the economy around.

HOLLY VON HELMS
Montrose

Delta should reconsider slow-growth plans

Two of the purposes written into the proposed, controversial revisions to the Delta County subdivision regulations are the protection of agricultural land and operations, and the implementation of the goals and policies of the county’s master plan. The current draft of these revisions, however, disregards most of the master plan, including the very goals and policies intended to protect agriculture. These revisions would eliminate less-costly minor subdivisions and family splits.

The proposed revisions were introduced to the public on April 10 by the county commission chairman as a means to “slow down growth.” Growth has slowed down. No further measures are needed.

The rest of the world is currently working to stimulate growth and create jobs. Meeting a recession head-on with public policy intended to slow down growth is certainly an unorthodox approach.

Our county planner, in a presentation of these proposed regulations to the planning commission July 10, explained that while the economy had taken a downturn, it would, “come back up again.” Well, it hasn’t. Some economists predict a 10-year downturn. Our planner should revisit areas of the master plan he chose to disregard when drafting the revisions, specifically Goal 5, Policy B: “Recognize that economic development planning requires different skills and experience from land use planning.”

Rather than drive our local economy over a cliff, taking land values, construction jobs and the real estate market with it, our planning department, planning commission and board of county commissioners should perhaps reconsider this plan to slow down growth.

KEN SCHUM
Cedaredge

Feds should stay
out of local issues

My son told me how excited and proud he is about the Riverside Parkway. He sees a big difference between this road and a bridge to nowhere. The Riverside Parkway is being paid for by the community. Residents took the financial responsibility for building it.

My son sees how communities should grow from the inside through local government and that federal government should stay out of local and state affairs and concern itself with matters of all our citizens. The feds should stick to the big stuff, like homeland security, immigration, Social Security and defending our country. It should not meddle in local issues and responsibilities such as a telescope for a Chicago museum or a study of bear-mating behavior in Montana.

I just know our federal government would do a better job of fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities if it would focus on those responsibilities and stop trying to involve itself in things that are our local or state responsibilities.

ARTHUR S. GARDNER
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 6:22 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.