We can bridge the rural-urban divide in our state
Re: “Why rural Coloradans feel ignored — a resentment as old as America itself,” Aug. 24 commentary
Years ago the Colorado Humanities Council (as it was then called), sponsored a marvelous program called the Five States of Colorado. The divide we have is a regional one, as different areas of the state look at issues differently. In order to celebrate that diversity, especially with Colorado’s upcoming 150th birthday, we ought to reestablish a sister cities and town program in which a variety of communities adopt each other during 2026.
Community leaders can exchange visits, gifts, and events to celebrate not only our unique differences but also common interests that bind us together as a marvelous state.
I think it would be a much better bridge to build, rather than one across Lincoln Street.
Sam Mamet, Denver
As a child of the suburbs and a denizen of cities for almost 70 years, I am compelled to write that I have never in my life felt any antipathy to people who live and work on farms. Nor do I romanticize agricultural life, or urban life for that matter.
Reading this article depicting this divide between urban and rural leaves me with sadness. Here we have yet another example of a divide that separates us. And yet, as the article infers, the divide has been with us since the first cities were created thousands of years ago.
Let us strive to find the connections between us. Let us celebrate our interdependence. My intuition tells me that we will want to rely upon one another more than ever as we address the issues that beset our planet — our shared planet.
Evan Siegel, Westminster
I don’t buy the class comparison of urban people looking down on rural people. I have traveled all over rural America. I have great respect for farmers and ranchers who tend the earth in a sustainable way. The fact is, city-bound corporations are running industrial farming, including livestock raising, relying on chemicals, hormones, feedlots and scarce water for low-value crops like alfalfa for cattle feed. Eating beef the way Americans do is becoming unsustainable for Earth’s climate and water supplies. It is treated as a delicacy for much of the world.
Yes, our fossil fuel consumption is an even greater threat to the planet (and to agriculture). Climate change is creating havoc on agriculture worldwide. But we need to address greenhouse gases across all sectors.
I’m also tired of the wolf debate being framed as urban vs rural. Superficially, that appears to be the case, but lots of Western Slope voters voted in favor. The ranching lobby is still powerful and spread fear of death to our children and ruin of livestock. Many Western Slope ranchers run grazing allotments on public lands that belong to all of us, including urban voters who want to see healthy ecosystems. CPW has removed problem wolves and there is a generous compensation plan for the relatively few animals lost.
Don’t kid yourselves, Trump doesn’t care about agriculture unless he can cut subsidies to fund tax cuts for the rich or to detain migrant workers and send them to foreign prisons.
Karl Ford, Longmont
In her commentary, one of the examples Kayla Gabehart provides is a demonstration of the very real potential for misunderstanding. Regarding the “Meat Out Day” in 2021, she writes, “Typically, gubernatorial proclamations …go largely unnoticed. … And in Denver, Colorado’s metropolitan center, this one did too.”
Perhaps Gabehart should have made clear what “largely unnoticed” meant, since one interpretation could be that no one in Denver that day went without eating meat. And isn’t that, in actuality, what the rural Coloradans wanted?
In this instance, it’s too bad both sides got so caught up in the media spectacle of political sound bites.
Ken Valero, Littleton
While I agreed with many points Kayla Gabehart made in her column, she lost me when she said, “Trump might be their last hope.”
My partner is originally from North Platte, Neb., and we attended her 55th high school reunion. I can say with total certainty that out of all the people that attended the event, we were the only two liberals in the room. This did not surprise me because Nebraska, with the exception of Omaha and Lincoln, is overwhelmingly Republican.
What did surprise me was that these people have voted against their own self-interests. They are facing a crisis where many rural hospitals will be forced to close because of Trump’s policies. He is hurting the agricultural economy with his thoughtless and random tariffs, forcing Nebraska and other rural states to lose valuable international markets for their crops.
I agree with many of Gabehart’s points, but saying that Trump might be their last choice is categorically wrong. Trump cares nothing about the farmers in this country. All he cares about is turning our now fragile Democracy into an authoritarian state.
I just hope rural America realizes this before it is too late.
David Shaw, Highlands Ranch
Good riddance, Dodgers and Padres
Re: “Rockies fans should root for MLB realignment,” Aug. 24 sports commentary
I’ve been reading everything about realignment, and Sean Keeler’s is the first column that makes sense. Most New York papers hate realignment because it would put the high-payroll Yankees, Mets, and Phillies in the same division. A San Francisco sportswriter was upset that realignment would break up the Giants-Dodgers rivalry. Let them have the Dodgers — and the Padres too, whose GM A.J. Preller has a way of orchestrating deals for the top stars.
The Rockies and Diamondbacks have nice stadiums that don’t look like those other ones. So will Las Vegas. So will the new one in Salt Lake City if it happens. I love those four together. The fresh faces of the MLB.
Listen to Mr. Keeler.
Adam Silbert, New York, NY
There are renewable energy options for DIA
Re: “No reason to hate on DIA’s nuclear reactor plans,” Aug. 24 commentary
I can help Krista Kafer, who thinks DIA should study using nuclear power for future energy uses. Wind, solar and batteries would work and be cheaper. A study by energy think tank Ember showed that Las Vegas could be powered 97% of the time by 6 GW of solar and 17 GWh of battery storage at 57% of the cost of nuclear. That’s at today’s prices. Costs are not in for new nuclear tech.
Las Vegas is sunnier than DIA but the study did not include any wind generation. It’s probably windy enough at DIA. Instead of spending $1.25 million on the study, DIA could pay $500,000 to fact-check the Ember study and start building tomorrow — saving $ 750,000 and being ready years ahead.
Nuclear power will face problems with technology and cost because the SMRs are still being developed. Then they must win public opinion in a world where facts and science are not important. Then they need to produce a reactor that meets the current lofty predictions. I would not volunteer to be the first taxpayer for that project.
David Stewart, Aurora
One thing Krista Kafer failed to discuss is that there has been no solution on what to do with the radioactive waste that is produced by nuclear reactors. Because this waste can last for tens of thousands of years before it becomes safe, there needs to be a solution to this problem. Understandably, no one has wanted it to be dumped in their area.
Terry Scott, Greeley
Democrats are facing the consequences
Re: “Democratic Party is facing crisis over voter registration,” Aug. 24 news story
The Democratic Party had two opportunities to show us that they put individual rights and economic reforms favoring ordinary Americans at the forefront of their agenda when they briefly controlled the legislative and executive branches under President Obama and again under President Biden. They failed in both instances.
The successes they touted, the Affordable Care Act and the Economic Recovery Act, though well intentioned and nominally successful, were band-aid solutions that failed to address root problems facing Americans: out of control price increases in health care, housing and post-secondary education; a growing disparity of wealth between the rich and everybody else; and, a rogue Supreme Court, hell bent on paving the way for a new American style feudal system. Biden and the Dems could have blunted SCOTUS excesses by increasing the number of justices when they had the power. They didn’t, thus showing me they weren’t serious reformists.
I fully understand why many have left the Democratic Party. But they will get nowhere with the Republicans either, which puts many voters like me, who are fed up with both parties, in a dilemma. To not vote is to make our republic meaningless, but to continue to vote for the same two parties is to continue to perpetuate an increasingly failing system, answering the age-old question of what insanity is: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Gerry Camilli, Englewood
Thanks be to God! The Democrats are nuts and want men in women’s locker rooms and vice versa, they want men in women’s sports, they want children to be allowed to be mutilated sexually, and they want children to decide whether or not to take hormones to change their gender. Anyone who believes these things is nuts. God help us if the Democrats continue on this insane path.
Dee Walworth, Brighton
‘Raw hatred unleashed’
Re: “Trump ran on promise of revenge, is making good on it retribution,” Aug. 24 news story
The inner essence of President Donald Trump’s character has never been more vividly revealed than in his accelerating revenge campaign unleashed against anyone who dares question him. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this revenge is the acquiescence of his support base and the GOP representatives to the raw hatred unleashed by our Emir of Evil. I find myself apologizing to foreign visitors on our Colorado hiking trails for this national collapse of moral character, and shamed by the silence of those in his party during a national time of trial.
Ronald L. Puening, Centennial
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