Clinton belongs in jail

Why hasn’t anyone put forth the question about where are all the correspondence that Hillary Clinton was required to keep of her time in office? If, as she has said, she didn’t use her private email for official business, then where are the records of every single piece of official correspondence she sent and received, including records of her inaction in Benghazi? And why is she not already behind bars for contempt of court, for destruction of evidence and for obstruction of justice?

We can throw a little Christian clerk in jail for following her conscience, but this treasonous witch can still walk free?

And just for the record, Kim Davis belongs in jail, just as Martin Luther King, Gandhi and any other conscientious objector belonged in jail for standing up for what is right.

Steven Rauch

Colorado Springs

High costs of immigration policy

Thank you for Byron York’s piece on the relative welfare costs of native versus immigrant populations. It spurred me to go to the website of the Center for Immigration Studies and print out Steven Camarota’s study titled “Welfare Use by Immigrant and Native Households.” Until now, I have been a huge fan of legal immigration and a foe of illegal immigration. Camarota’s data shows that the welfare costs of our current immigration policy are insupportable and a detriment to our country. As a nation, we find ourselves unable to afford to maintain our infrastructure or our military. So, immigration policy has reduced spending on at least two of government’s foremost responsibilities – public works and national defense – to pay for a giant increase in a poorly educated and low-paid influx of current and future welfare supporters. What a rotten deal.

Quinton Ellis

Colorado Springs

Something needs to be done

Thank you for your succinct and eloquent editorial on Sept. 6, “City must solve loitering issue in downtown area,” regarding the sit-lie ordinance.

As the owners of Lane Mitchell Jewelers on the corner of Pikes Peak and Tejon, we greatly appreciate the support and understanding we have received from the community. Unfortunately, support and understanding do not pay the bills.

We also want to thank the mayor and City Council for trying to come up with a solution, but also make it clear that we do not agree with the ordinance in its current form. But something has to be done in order for us and other business owners to stay downtown.

Although many of the “solutions” for the homeless downtown involve much-needed long-term changes, something needs to be done immediately. Anyone who denies this is not being realistic or looking to the future of our city. While the problem is not going to go away on its own, the business owners, locals and tourists will. The locals and tourists who spend money and the businesses that pay taxes help support the services needed for the homeless.

We ask everyone who is against the ordinance to agree with us that something needs to be done long term and immediately. Then we can work together to find a solution that is not only respectful of the homeless, but also shows respect for us and the other local small business owners downtown who are working long hours to make a living and are paying taxes to the city to support a vibrant, diverse and beautiful downtown Colorado Springs.

Lane and L’Aura Williams

Colorado Springs

Trying to make homeless invisible

I wish to voice my opposition to the law currently being considered by the City Council that will prevent citizens from sitting on sidewalks and planters downtown. Not only do I think that proposing and enforcing this policy is a ridiculous waste of my tax dollars, but I think it is disgraceful for our mayor and City Council to support such a policy. It is clearly aimed only at the homeless (no matter what else is claimed), and these men and women are citizens of our city regardless of whether or not they contribute to our bottom line. And where do you propose they sit instead? If they sit on benches or in Acacia Park, they are criticized as well. Let’s use our minds, money and creativity to support our homeless population rather than try to make them invisible to the rest of us.

Additionally, “the rest of us” taxpayers who frequent downtown need somewhere to sit as well! There are only a handful of benches, so we have no choice but to sit on planters, or even curbs, when we need to get off our feet or enjoy a beverage or snack. When I am downtown, I always see various citizens sitting down wherever they can find a spot. Do you really intend to require our police officers to fine or arrest people for sitting down? If this law is put into place, it will apply to all of us – or it had better. Taxpayers and the homeless should be treated equally under this law. Don’t our fine officers have better things to do?

Finally, in regard to business owners claiming that homeless people sitting near their businesses decrease their profits, I don’t buy it. If a citizen wants to purchase something in one of the stores, I’m quite sure that he or she does so. The homeless have become so invisible to us that we have no problem ignoring them, stepping over them or not seeing them at all. If someone is put off by a homeless person sitting down (where the rest of us actually have to see and deal with them), then can’t he or she simply brush it off and move on?

Please consider the many negative messages this law sends and do not put a policy in place that reflects so poorly on our community. It is just plain embarrassing.

Traci Mullins

Colorado Springs

Start relying on other options

In response to Dale Gray’s letter concerning the Drake power plant, there’s a huge component that he has overlooked. While he admits that “coal may not be the cleanest,” he fails to admit that our public health is at stake. Fuel-fired power plants emit millions of tons of air pollutants each year, and while certain technologies such as scrubbers may help eliminate some of these pollutants, they simply aren’t innovative enough. A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives came to the conclusion that living in the same ZIP code as a fuel-fired power plant increases your chances of asthma by 11 percent, acute respiratory illness by 15 percent and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by 17 percent (Vol. 120, Issue 6). There are several alternatives to fuel-fired power plants (such as hydroelectric, nuclear, wind and solar) that provide energy without air pollution. Coal is bad for our health and our air quality, and if better alternatives exist, we must start relying more on those options.

Jordan Bresson

Denver