Officer should have seen
signs of intoxication
This is in response to the Feb. 26 article in The Daily Sentinel, “No signs of intoxication.” Are you stinking kidding me? How can anyone with a blood-alcohol level of 0.195 percent — twice the legal limit — not show signs of being intoxicated?
Sounds like Fruita Police Department officials are trying to cover their butts. The officers who pulled Samantha Loy over should find a different line of work. If they couldn’t see the signs or smell the smell, then it is pretty obvious they are in the wrong profession.
They could have saved this young life. Instead they will have to live with the fact they she died way before her time.
LINDA SIMMS
Grand Junction

Drunk-driving crashes
are not accidents
Unfortunately and sadly, this community has lost two more of our young people to drunken driving.
I ask the media to be vigilant about referring to these tragedies as “crashes,” not “accidents.” It is completely reasonable to expect that a person who operates a vehicle under the influence of alcohol can crash and kill.
Accidents are unintentional. Driving drunk is not.
MARGERY GRANDBOUCHE
Grand Junction

‘Spending’ bill
doesn’t help Americans
The letter to the editor from Kitty Nicholason should have asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi why $30 million was put into the stimulus (aka spending) bill to restore the habitat of a mouse in California, instead of helping a human such as the woman in Texas to whom she referred.
Or she might ask Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada about the $8 billion — yes billion — that he had put in the bill for a high-speed train from Disneyland to Las Vegas. That sure benefits the average American, don’t you think? Couldn’t that money have been better used to keep Americans in their homes?
The list goes on and on and it is very hard to find anything in this bill that actually helps struggling Americans stay in their homes. But if you find something that does, I am all ears.
KIRK ANSTAETT
Grand Junction

Media double standard keeps nation from healing
America is a “nation of whiners.” When Sen. Phil Gram of the John McCain team uttered those words he stepped down. When Attorney General Eric Holder says we are a “nation of cowards” he perpetuates racism. The media double standard continues to keep the wound from healing.
A hurricane somehow begets racism. By not voting for Obama, a colleague of mine says I’m racist. Never mind the fact that I have two adopted Ethiopian children. We were told the election was not about race. But after the results were in, it was all about race.
Banks that wouldn’t loan to “income challenged” individuals were petitioned racist. How can we discuss openly the issues as Mr. Holder would like us to do when there are people who will throw out the “you are a racist” bomb. Newsweek recently had a cover that stated, “We Are All Socialists Now.”  I would change it to “We Are All Fascists Now.” Isn’t that what is happening?
It’s akin to Al Gore saying the debate is over and if you do not believe in global warming, you are a Holocaust denier. When people scream out these racist or fascist epithets to the unsuspecting victim or victims there is no discourse.
What I see is a slow and ever increasing censorship on speech. The true origins of political correctness is cultural Marxism. Sadly, our educational system doesn’t teach these -isms anymore.  Therefore, most do not recognize these diseases when they infect. Finally, this former U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot is no coward. I may not pick up a sword anymore, but I do use a pen.
DETLEF HOFFMANN
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 6:47 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.