Letters - Tuesday

FREEDOM OR LICENSE?
Authorities correct in probe of polygamist organization

I am appalled at The Gazette's position that the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints' practice of polygamy should be tolerated in the name of religious freedom ("Abusing the weirdos, again," Our View, April 27). Polygamy was declared illegal in the United States for good reason. It is an unjust practice that is disastrous to individuals and to society as a whole.

In all cultures that practice polygamy generationally, little girls are indoctrinated into a system of sexual slavery. These girls become pieces of property, passed between cronies and relatives for personal gain and sexual convenience. Women who have escaped the polygamy of the FLDS culture have told story after story of abuse, being coerced into marrying old men who already have several wives, and of living in a state of perpetual pregnancy, poverty and fear. Is this not evidence enough for Texas to investigate?

Boys and girls are born into the world in numbers roughly equal to one another. The proportion of girls to boys at the Yearning for Zion ranch is 85 percent to 15 percent, way outside the normal statistical range. Many adolescent boys are thrown out of FLDS compounds for minor infractions of social rules, apparently in order to reduce competition for marriageable young girls. These boys are becoming a significant problem in many places, and a drain on social services, as they have insufficient education and no life skills or support structure.

I applaud Texas's efforts to right this great wrong. It is sad that lives of already victimized people must be disrupted to solve this problem. Had authorities done their jobs generations ago, we wouldn't be facing this growing problem today.

SuZett Estell, Colorado Springs

GOVERNMENT ADRIFT
Next administration must plot new course

One in three children born in the U.S. today is illegitimate, including two of three within the black community, putting millions on the road to poverty, prison and gang activity. We are 300 million people breaking down along class, religious, ethnic and racial lines. Free trade is sucking the guts out of our industry, destroying our dollar and plunging our country into permanent dependency and unpayable debt.

America is in desperate need of leadership that can review and place in perspective our foreign policy encroachments that have spawned the terrorist phenomenon, leadership that can bring a practical end to an ill-conceived and mismanaged war, leadership that can halt the invasion from Mexico that threatens to destroy our independence and sovereignty.

It's puzzling and alarming that our ship of state has drifted so far off course. The record suggests that the Bush administration is politically, constitutionally and ideologically rudderless. Of those aspiring to take up residency at the White House next year, we can only hope we choose the one best possessed of the skills that can pull our nation back from the brink of disaster, and prevent America's fruited plain from becoming a cultural and intellectual desert.

Harlan E. Nimrod, Colorado Springs

CONSTRUCTION CHAOS
Major road projects need better signage oversight

The construction at Union Boulevard and Austin Bluffs Parkway is the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. My family spent 30 minutes in the northbound lane on Union recently. Traffic was reduced from three lanes (warning provided) to two, then to one (no warning provided).

When we finally got to the intersection, I noticed a second lane could have been opened, allowing traffic to make a right turn, but it was not. Yes, there was a ditch carved out of the right lane a 100 yards from the intersection, but the remaining lane was usable.

This is another example either the construction crew or the sign subcontractor putting up and leaving up lane closure cones without justification. Another example was on Vickers Drive between Union and Academy boulevards. The westbound right lane was closed for three days during the week, but no work was ever done in the cordoned off areas.

Traffic in the city is bad enough without the city management being either inattentive or just indifferent to citizens.

John W. Gillham, Colorado Springs

BREAKING OUR WILL
Republicans use power to help buddies, not people

How can Republicans claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility? We have had eight years of pure, unregulated trickle-down policy designed to promote business growth, but the only place the profits have trickled into is the pockets of CEOs and executives. Now the economy is a disaster because of their greed and corruption.

If the rich account for 25 percent of American spending, and they break our backs, then 75 percent of the economy is also broken. Our base is what supports those elite. Eventually our hardship will affect the rich, because we won't be able to buy their products. Their businesses will fail.

There needs to be a mutually beneficial balance of profit distribution which pays decent wages and allows reasonable profits. The current imbalance has been exposed as a shell game that eventually fails. Balanced, responsible capitalism is the basis of our success. Greedy, corrupt, self-indulgent capitalism will be our destruction.

Barb Felton, Guffey

OFF TRACK
U.N. fails in responsibility to come to aid of victims

James J. Amato decried the United States' lack of support for the United Nations, and claimed that if we gave our fair share we would suddenly become friends with the rest of the world ("U.S. could boost standing by paying U.N. dues," Letters, April 19). My question is, when has the U.N. accomplished anything of value?

It sent numerous warnings and sanctions to Saddam Hussein, with nothing ever being accomplished. The U.N. goes into countries run by despots to help the poor people who are starving to death, and end up letting the dictatorial government take the food for themselves. It even stands by idly while victims are being murdered by the inhumane government from which the U.N. is supposed to be protecting them. It is a pathetic joke to call them a peacekeeping force.

Obviously, Amato is one of those liberals who believes the U.S. owes an apology to the world for our existence.

John H. Kettle, Colorado Springs

OPEN BOOK
Lamborn's mailings show representative's record

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn has accomplished more in his short time in Congress than his predecessor did in the previous 20 years. I appreciate the mailings Lamborn uses to inform of us of his voting record and actions. We know for a fact, then, how he votes and stands on the issues, so we can make informed and rational choices when we vote in the primaries and in November.

Shame on The Gazette, and his opponents Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn, who choose to make this venue of information a negative forum against this fine and honorable gentleman.

Chuck Bergsten, Calhan