Letters to the editor: Traffic deaths; juggling political jobs; policy decisions; Constitutional protections

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Alexey Davies: Cars: Lax punishment for traffic deaths is a disgrace

The recent lax sentencing of drivers convicted of killing people on our streets, with limited license suspensions, sends the message that using a car to kill someone is pretty much okay.

A felon loses their right to a gun for life. But a driver who kills a person with an automobile typically only has their license revoked for a year unless there is a history of such violence. Vehicular Homicide does not require a mandatory jail sentence.

This inconsistency is a disgrace to our legal system, and an insult to the nearly 43,000 other people killed in 2021 by traffic violence in the U.S., their families and their hundreds of thousands of loved ones. It also calls into question the values of the justice system and our state statutes.
We must have stricter minimum penalties for the negligent killing of someone on our streets. At the least, taking a life should mean never being allowed to drive again. And while jail time won’t bring people back, it could deter other drivers from not paying attention or driving excessively fast on our public streets.

Alexey Davies, Boulder


Elizabeth Black: Representation: Boulder doesn’t want leader who is juggling political jobs

I too urge Junie Joseph to resign her City Council seat. The optics are not good. Most of the people who voted for her and who knew that she was on Boulder City Council at the time, assumed that she would resign her council seat if she were elected to the state Legislature. We want a full-time state representative, not someone juggling two challenging full-time political jobs plus a private law practice.

Elizabeth Black, Boulder


Jim Welker: Pandemic: Only elected leaders should make public policy decisions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, health decisions were made by unelected state and county health officials with only a nod from elected officials.

These decisions should be reserved for elected governors, state legislatures, mayors, city councils and county commissions.

They can weigh all the factors: health, economic, spiritual, ethical, etc. and make the correct tradeoffs between public health and well-being.

Going forward, our state constitution and city/county charters need to be amended to clearly state that public health officials are advisors only and that all public policy decisions, including those affecting public health, will be made the appropriate elected public officials at each level.

Jim Welker, Loveland


Jack Moody: Democracy: The Constitution protects us from tyranny by the majority

In an effort to insulate the president from the inevitable corruption of partisan politics, the Constitution provides for the person in that office to be selected by the Electoral College. The popular vote for president is really just a popularity contest. I personally think it would be better if it were not taken, because it just confuses people.

The main job of the president, Senate and the Supreme Court is to control the House of Representatives so we won’t end up with a tyranny of the majority, which a pure democracy will always turn into. In efforts to secure election, they will destroy the national treasury and put us ever deeper and deeper in debt and bankruptcy.

I fear we are headed down the same path that the Weimar Republic took in the 1920s, which led to a despotic government when it became capable of no other. Just as Benjamin Franklin in his wisdom warned us about in his speech to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Jack Moody, Loveland

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