Readers weigh in on the 2024 Summer Games
Re: “Richardson rallies U.S. women in 4×100; men shut out again Olympic,” Aug. 10 sports story
After I enjoyed watching Sha’carri Richardson and the rest of the U.S. Olympic women win gold in the 4×100 relay on Aug. 9, I was disappointed to read reporter Eddie Pells’ AP story in The Denver Post the following morning. Pells gave Richardson and her teammates a brief congratulations. However, before finishing the glowing details of the women’s race, his 2nd paragraph read, “Afterward, she (Richardson) moved aside to watch the U.S. men do what they do best in the 4 x 100 relay – find a way to lose.”
Granted, any of us who watched the men the night before were disappointed, but the printed statement felt like bullying. If the men had won and the women had been disappointed, would he have included the nasty comparison, calling the women those who would “find a way to lose?” Insert candidate names, racial or social identities, or even names of other countries in place of the U.S. men’s team, and the writer’s statement would have been seen as unnecessarily aggressive, if not worse.
I felt as if I were reading political sparring, by far my least favorite sport, and definitely unworthy of the Olympics.
Bullying is never appropriate in sports, in life in my opinion, and I was sorry to find it on the Sports page.
Mary M. Bartek, Centennial
Break dancing? Wall climbing or racing, or whatever the heck that is called. Skateboarding? 3×3 basketball? Maybe I am late in chiming in since I am more of a Winter Olympics guy, but what has happened to the Summer Olympics?
If break dancing is a medal event, then why not ballet, tap dancing, and trapeze performances? We might as well throw in zip-lining. I didn’t realize racing up a wall is considered a sport. Are they nuts? The summer Olympics are bordering on farcical. It begs the question, Why?
Walter Bonora, Erie
The Olympics are exciting to watch and follow. However, the Paris Olympics this year provided some negative aspects:
• Paris had ample time to ensure the Seine River was fit for the different events.
• Restricting the visiting tourists’ access to various parts of the cultural areas of the city was frustrating to them.
• Businesses and restaurants suffered losses due to the restrictions on tourists’ availability to move through the city,
• The surfing competition was in Tahiti, separating the Olympians from each other by many thousands of miles.
• The swimming pool was not the typical depth as in the past, causing some concern with the athletes.
• Breakdancing as an Olympic sport is questionable and confusing.
• At the opening ceremony, the Olympic flag was accidentally raised upside down.
• The skit that was performed in the Opening Ceremony was in bad taste.
The Olympic Committee needs to be aware of issues such as these to ensure that the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles are more enjoyable for tourists and athletes.
Michael Hult, Arvada
Did Congress learn a lesson from the Olympics? I hope so. The lesson I saw repeatedly was more than good sportsmanship. The Olympic athletes put their bodies in danger for many years, hoping to go for the gold and win it.
How many footraces (for example) did you see leaving the also-rans stretched out on the track gasping for breath, but only after they graciously congratulated the winner? Can Congress do that?
Can our fractured politicians put aside their party politics and work for the greater good of the American people? I suspect I am not alone in praying that they would put their bickering aside and allow all of us to win gold.
Howard Amonick, Aurora
50 years later, a lesson on resilience from Watergate
I am writing in anticipation of the recognition of President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation as president of the United States 50 years ago, on Aug. 9, 1974. I served as one of the president’s lawyers on the Watergate legal defense. Our team of a dozen young lawyers was headed by special counsel James D. St. Clair and by Jack Chester.
It is inevitable that the turbulence surrounding the resignation of President Joe Biden as a candidate for re-election and the tribulations of former President Donald J. Trump — including his two impeachments by the House of Representatives, the subsequent acquittals by the Senate, and his criminal proceedings — is compared to that which existed in 1973 and 1974 with respect to Watergate. The overall atmosphere of divisiveness is common to both eras, although few know or remember that President Nixon was never charged with a crime, never impeached by the House, and never convicted by the Senate of an impeachable offense.
What is the most important legacy of the Watergate experience on today’s political-judicial events that are often declared by both political parties and the mass media to be the most important in the history of the United States?
In my opinion, the biggest lesson of Watergate is that our country possesses the continued resilience and ability to address, defuse and conquer inevitable national crises.
I am proud to have been an integral part of a historic legal team. I am much better for having stepped forward to help in 1974.
James Prochnow, Denver
Casa Bonita’s fare not to everyone’s taste
Re: “Casa Bonita — Worst to First,” Aug. 7 feature story
Lily O’Neill’s article describing the food at Casa Bonita in today’s Denver Post was long overdue. If people want to eat decent Mexican food, there are countless fine Mexican restaurants in the Denver area waiting to serve them. If it’s good, clean entertainment that’s wanted, Casa Bonita is the place to go. If folks want both, they should expect to pay for it. Casa Bonita definitely is not for them. If they are so smitten by their ads and can’t wait to stand in line, I would love to get their names so that I can offer them some outstanding oceanfront property in Nebraska.
Bill Shefrin, Denver
Supreme Court “swings are cyclical”
Re: “Biden just taking first step to fix Supreme Court,” Aug. 7 letter to the editor
President Joe Biden making threats to “fix SCOTUS” is actually all about right vs. left, contrary to the letter writer’s assertion. The Supreme Court is, just like it always has, issuing rulings that are in alignment with our laws as they are written. The facts are that some laws do leave room for interpretation and a bias leaning one way or another. I can fully assure everyone that if SCOTUS was interpreting their rulings as favorable for the left, as they have for a very long time prior to 2018’s affirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the left would not now be beating the drum for new tactics of how to change the balance of opinions that every SCOTUS justice innately brings with them. These swings are cyclical, and it is merely the right’s turn presently to benefit from the rulings of our Supreme Court.
We would all be better served if the left would learn to share instead of stomping their feet and throwing a fit just because they can’t have everything their way always. Everything in moderation.
Mark Klosky, Denver
Kamala Harris’ talking points
Just when things were looking good for the Kamala Harris campaign, she pulled a Hillary, got too full of herself and said something stupid: an echo of former President Donald Trump’s call for no taxes on tips.
Elon Musk says stupid things, JD Vance says stupid things, and Trump is the grand master of saying stupid things over and over, but these don’t matter in patriarchal America. A woman running for president simply cannot say stupid things without immediate condemnation, and conservative AM talk radio is all over it like dogs on a bone.
I don’t know if she listens to advisers, but please stick to important issues. Talk about Project 2025, talk about the concentration of wealth and corruption of money in politics, the Supreme Court, and social media, talk about the environment, global warming, and wildfires, talk about a future different from that proposed by the Republican agenda. Make the Democratic Party relevant.
This is her election to win or lose.
Robert Porath Boulder
This is getting to be bizarre. Vice President Kamala Harris has avoided interviews and town halls. She just reads the same scripted message from the teleprompters. So, how is this supposed to work? Are we just supposed to vote without knowing what the candidate’s views are?
I have to say that I’m not a Donald Trump fan, but at least he’s out there. Joe Biden ran while in his basement, but he could at least blame COVID. Perhaps the problem is that Harris remembers having to drop out of the presidential race before the 2020 primaries. Or, maybe she remembers her unfavorable ratings as vice president? So here we go, a candidate who keeps wanting us to remember “the steal” and a candidate who just wants us not to remember anything.
Michael Scanlan, Arvada
Convinced yet that rental assistance doesn’t work?
Re: “2024 bringing record evictions,” Aug. 11 news story
In my Oct. 21, 2023, Open Forum letter, I wrote, “Rental assistance has never achieved good results anywhere it has been tried, and that’s for the simple reason that more dollars chasing the same supply of rental housing causes rent inflation.”
Ten months and tens of millions of rental assistance dollars later, we have record-breaking rental evictions. How much more eviction carnage do we have to endure before we’re convinced that rental assistance doesn’t work?
Rental assistance is rocket-fuel for rental demand, but we aren’t suffering from too little demand. We’re suffering from too little rental supply.
Rental units are made artificially scarce via government edict. You can’t build here. You can’t build too tall. You can’t build too small. You can’t build too big. You can’t build too dense. You can’t build multi-family units here. You can’t build here because it doesn’t fit in with the character of the neighborhood. You can’t build because it blocks someone’s view. You can’t build unless you have an unaffordable number of parking spaces and build to an unaffordable green standard. You can’t build unless you subsidize a certain number of “affordable” units. You can’t build unless you dedicate land to the city for parks, open space, or schools. You can’t build because of traffic or sprawl.
There is so much red tape, it’s a wonder anything gets built at all. Because of the red tape, mostly what gets built is only what the well-to-do can afford.
What’s needed to make rents affordable again is to cut the red tape and build, baby, build!
Chuck Wright, Westminster
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