Printed letters, May 4, 2012

By Staff
Thursday, May 3, 2012

The Recent exoneration of Robert Dewey for the murder of Jacie Taylor in 1994 is a considerable substantiation in the argument for eliminating capital punishment. We can be thankful that he was acquitted of first degree murder by the jury in favor of felony murder then sentenced by the judge to life in prison without the possibility of parole, making his release possible.

Capital punishment is irreversible. A life sentence without parole allows us as a society the opportunity to find and admit an error while release of a prisoner is disallowed until resolution is attained in court. There is no possible recompense if a mistake is made by executing the condemned.

ALAN METCALFE

Delta

Kathy Jordan made a difference in our community

Making a difference in one’s community is not easy, but Kathy Jordan made a difference in Grand Junction with hard work and persistence.

The North 7th Street National Historic District was her idea. It celebrates this grand residential boulevard marking the entry into downtown Grand Junction and the site of her family home which, because of its unique group of historic homes and its landscaped median, is of national significance. This was followed up this year, with the city of Grand Junction’s action to adopt standards and guidelines for North 7th Street as part of its land code, led by Kathy Jordan. These actions were the result of two years of neighborhood workshops, revisions and compromises.

Kathy believed that historic buildings reflect the character of a community and its people. She worked hard to protect the Handy Chapel, St. Joseph’s Church, the Old Spanish Trail, the Driggs Mansion, the Dugway trail to Glade Park and other notable landmarks in Grand Junction, the county and western Colorado. She was respected statewide for her work in historic preservation.

She served on the city’s Historic Preservation Board and on the state of Colorado Historic Preservation Board. Through her weekly column in The Daily Sentinel she shed light on the history of our city and the characters and buildings that represent its heritage.

We will miss her sharp sense of humor, her dedication to our community and her efforts to protect our history.

BENNETT BOESCHENSTEIN

Grand Junction

 

Sentinel provides the news readers want

Many readers likely agree with reader H. Wayne Currey’s recent letter, which assessed media coverage of Mitt Romney’s dog and President Obama’s dog meat culinary habits as “pathetic.”

In defense of friends in the local media, I suggest that, like any business in our free market, media organizations must deliver to customers what those customers desire if the media outlets wish to stay in business. Part of the job is to attract readers, and I suspect the media aren’t guessing when it spends time on issues such as treatment of pets, dating habits of movie stars or the draft position of the Denver Broncos.

Should surveys indicate the public no longer cares about reading such stories, we won’t see any more ink dedicated to dogs or the Broncos. No one wants to drive away customers.

For those who argue the media have a responsibility to cover more important issues such as true unemployment, foreclosure rates, congressional approval and the price of gasoline, I suggest they look beyond the dog stories. They might be amazed to see stories and guest columns dedicated to such issues in nearly every widely circulated daily paper, sometimes two to three times a week.  Those would be found in such obscure places as the first three pages of a paper, in the editorial section or in the business news. If Mr. Currey’s papers are missing these pages, I suggest he call the editor and ask who stole them.

MICHAEL MORAN

Grand Junction