Opinion

Hannah Hayes

In Colorado there has been a fierce and sustained effort by the military to expand Fort Carson. Massive expansion through one of the military’s boldest land grabs would wipe out dinosaur prints, primitive cliff drawings, countless wildlife, local ranches and several small towns. The southeastern corner of our state must not be allowed to fall victim to the Army’s insatiable need to train in ever-wider landscapes.

Hannah Hayes

There’s a longstanding trend to expand voting rights as demonstrated by these amendments — the 15th bans race-based voting qualifications, the 19th extends suffrage to women, and the 26th enfranchises 18-year-olds. Choosing our leaders is fundamental. An election decided by the Supreme Court is contrary to U.S. standards. The image of a team of hired protesters banging on Florida’s election room door to stop a hand count still bristles.

As I wrote several weeks ago, I’ve been working with Gov. Bill Ritter and a bipartisan group of legislators to craft a rigorous education reform bill to prepare Colorado’s educational system for the challenges of a new global economy. That bill, called the Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids (or CAP4K), was formally introduced last week.

Hannah Hayes

It’s hard to wrap your mind around $720 million a day, and $500,000 per minute.

After five years, the Iraq war is much more than a titanic financial burden. Civilian deaths are over 1 million, another challenging number, but these are lives, mostly of women and children. Iraq now has 5 million internally displaced people and refugees.

If you’ve been to Summit or Grand counties lately, you’ve seen the effects of the largest and most catastrophic pine beetle infestation in decades.

As the Rocky Mountain News recently reported, “Every large, mature lodgepole pine forest in Colorado and southern Wyoming will be dead within three to five years,” based on projections from the U.S. Forest Service. The Rocky further reported that the outbreak, which began in 1996, has infested 1.5 million acres of trees, culminating in an unbelievable 500,000 additional acres in 2007 alone.

Evergreen Middle School technology teacher Chet Andes is working to turn family misfortune into societal good, and his colleague J.R. Dunn is using it to teach his students about their responsibility to help others and their ability to influence the public.

Hannah Hayes

Grassroots democracy was the big winner at Democratic caucuses. In that spirit, here are some impressions from those who participated.

It’s a little too early in this election year to declare democracy the big winner in 2008, but early returns are certainly encouraging.

The stunning turnout by Democrats at Jeffco’s party caucuses Feb. 5 — 10 times the turnout during the last presidential campaign in 2004 — is an indication that long-apathetic voters are beginning to dip their toes in the puddles of populism that have somehow survived the last eight years.

And in many precincts, the puddles overflowed.

Hannah Hayes

The survival of our planet depends upon a large-scale shift in consciousness. Increasing the number of miles per gallon a car is required to achieve isn’t going to create enough change. If you are not already embracing a responsible 21st-century lifestyle, the journey might be uncomfortable at first, but it’s absolutely necessary. Reversing global warming and gearing up for sustainability requires steering outside of those double yellow lines and parking in an entirely new spot.