Students, families deserve better

The controversy in District 11 shouldn’t be over teacher Stacy Adair’s T-shirt, worn on a day when no students were present. The controversy should be over the school administration’s actions and the school board’s failure to take responsibility.

An adult wearing a shirt stating a biological truth is not a threat to another adult. There were no students in the building that day, so the claim that she violated policy prohibiting dress that will “disrupt the educational environment” is completely fallacious. The actions of the administration are simply bullying, and the evasion of the school board members demonstrates a failure of nerve by leadership that will continue to keep D-11 at the bottom of Colorado Springs school districts.

Our students and families deserve better than administrators who cannot tolerate facts and board members who avoid their leadership responsibility.

Joseph Odell

Colorado Springs

Great job at track meet

A big shout-out to Cheyenne Mountain High School Athletic Department for their management of the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede Cross Country meet on Saturday. As a grandparent of a runner, I spend a lot of time observing before, during and after the race. The organization of the whole event was noticeably outstanding.

One female runner came across the finish line and started vomiting. In a split second, two CMHS females were at her side, providing a drink and pouring water on the runner.

Good job, Cheyenne Mountain High School!

Joy Brown

Colorado Springs

Losing trusted caregivers

Families across our communities are already struggling with the rising costs of healthcare, childcare and aging and disability care. At the same time, our country faces serious shortages of workers who provide this essential care. Yet instead of investing in care and stability, immigration policies are putting these workers—and the families who depend on them—at risk.

Losing trusted caregivers can deepen workforce shortages, disrupt care for children, older adults, people with disabilities, and patients, weaken local economies, and increase costs for families.

Dreamers and TPS recipients are nurses, nursing assistants, child care providers, home health aides, teachers, parents, and neighbors. They are essential to the workforce and to the communities we all rely on every day.

Congress must act now to protect Dreamers, the 1.3 million TPS holders, and their families from detention, deportation, and family separation. Passing the American Dream and Promise Act would provide a pathway to permanent protections, allowing these essential workers to continue caring for our communities.

Protecting immigrant caregivers means protecting the people our families depend on, strengthening our communities, and building a stronger economy for everyone.

David Ulery

Colorado Springs

Plant better seeds

Views are sharply mixed on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as the movement gains increasing attention. Conservative critics in particular, with some credibility, call the DSA agenda hopelessly utopian, unaffordable, and discredited by history. Liberals and moderates have their own skepticism, but they tend to see merit in DSA “progressive” priorities such as a greater balance of power between workers and corporate managers, capping how much money can be allowed to buy elections, making healthcare more affordable for all, and building an economy that values people and not just profits.

But these kinds of priorities are in comparatively short supply today. DSA proponents, also credibly, see much that has become inequitable and undemocratic in present-day America.

For instance, in the U.S. the top 10% of households collectively own more than two-thirds of all wealth. Legislators pass a bill that makes poor people poorer and rich people richer, and they call it beautiful. Millions lose healthcare coverage to finance tax cuts primarily for the wealthy, but money is apparently available for architectural vanity projects, ill-advised military adventures, and maybe payoffs to insurrectionists. Our Supreme Court protects business interests more so than citizens’ rights and dilutes voting power that people might wield to effect change. Americans of ordinary means see our Constitution-defying president exploit his office for unprecedented personal enrichment.

Such conditions diminish people’s confidence in the American system and threaten social stability. This plants the seeds of socialism. Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said it well: “We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

We also see individual rights and liberties being eroded, in some cases reversing hard-won gains for historically underserved citizens. We erase even mentioning the diversity, equity and inclusion we once prized as egalitarian American virtues. Discriminatory practices we previously outlawed are being newly allowed. In nearly Orwellian fashion, government more than ever controls the information we get. The long-admired welcome inscribed on our Statue of Liberty is effectively canceled, replaced with violent (and often illegal) attacks on immigrants. The Department of Justice is now being used as a weapon of political vengeance.

Given all this, is it any wonder why the DSA agenda draws support, even with its flaws?

If we wish to stop planting the seeds of socialism, I suggest we demand integrity in our government with servant leaders who are faithful to our democratic (small ’d’) principles. Let’s also work to restore an America of broadly shared opportunity and secured individual rights. A nation that promotes the well-being of its people first and foremost, with policies and practices that are equitable, inclusive, supportive, and compassionate. These are priorities we once fervently embraced but have now noticeably strayed from. But they have always been key to our exceptionalism as we’ve aspired to include all in the American dream.

It is time to live these ideals again. They are the kinds of better seeds we need to plant.

Ken Burrows

Colorado Springs