Proposition FF is right choice for our kids
To the editor:
Ballots are arriving in our mailboxes for this year’s midterm election. One ballot issue, Proposition FF, stands out — and I think we should vote “yes.”
Now, I could tell you I want us all to vote for FF because, as a teacher at our high school, I know my students are more focused and ready to learn when they’ve eaten breakfast before coming into my classroom.
I could tell you that students are less disruptive, more eager to learn and engage with one another, when they know that lunch is a certainty before classes resume in the afternoon. I could quote Abraham Maslow and continued research indicating the value of meeting basic needs (like food!) before learning, and how I see that play out daily in my classroom, but I don’t think I need to.
I could tell you that FF is funded not by a tax increase but by imposing a cap on certain deductions taken by taxpayers who make more than $300,000, how eliminating those high-income deductions would raise roughly $100 million a year, reimbursing districts for provided meals. But I don’t think I need to.
I could also tell you about how last year, when the federal government implemented a program allowing schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all public-school kids regardless of household income during the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity rates declined dramatically —the “Household Food Security in the United States in 2021” report shows the lowest rate for food insecurity for both individuals and children since records began.
I’m not sure I even need to tell you that.
Because when it comes down to it, passing Proposition FF would quantifiably reduce child hunger in Colorado; if that’s not enough to get a “yes,” I don’t think I’d need to say anything else.
Pierce Gillard
Indigenous People’s Day was a good start
To the editor:
Manitou Springs recently honored Native people in a historic event. Mayor John Graham’s part was remarkably heartfelt. Although he gave credit to others, his emotions spoke about deep empathy for the history of Native people in Colorado.
Event participants and representatives were often difficult to distinguish throughout the two-day program. The planners did a nice job … but were they well-positioned to write another chapter of the same story?
Native riders entered Garden of the Gods in 1912 for “ceremony” in the original storyline. No claims can be made for the reason riders took part. But for Spencer Penrose, it was a theatrical undertaking that he organized, promoted and paid for.
Penrose’s event was based on economic calculations and was merely another one of his masterful tourism promotions, giving rise to The Broadmoor hotel and his other properties. Good business. But Penrose did little more in 1912 than to cast Native people in a circus of his own making, and he recruited his “own Indians” for the task.
By listening to real Native comments last week at the Indigenous Day closing potluck, I heard no interest for similar schemes to be repeated again. Comments made there were in good humor, but they were no joke.
It would be nice to honor and better understand the long-held traditions of Colorado’s Native people. But you can’t do that at an annual banquet.
The mayor seemed to have been given the nod to rebuild a new foundation in the spirit of truth for Manitou’s Native past … and future. The role of promoters and advocates could become inclusive.
I speak only for myself. But, it seems history was made in Manitou Springs on Indigenous Day 2022 and many more are needed in a larger circle to write a new storyline of truth and legitimate sharing.
Dale Latty
Natives were given warm Manitou-style welcome
To the editor:
On behalf of the Manitou Springs Indigenous People’s Day Committee, we would like to thank the community for the warm and enthusiastic welcome you gave the Native people during the weekend of Oct. 8-10. One hundred and ten years after the original dedication ceremony for the Ute Trail, the welcome was carried out with vigor and passion in true Manitou style.
As the Host Nation, the Utes were the most conspicuous, but we had representation from many other tribes, including the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Apache, Comanche and Shoshone.
The success of the day was a team effort. Foremost, the Manitou Springs Arts, Culture, and Heritage Committee should be recognized for providing a critical grant to get the project underway. Without the MACH support, we would likely not have undertaken the effort.
Additional generous support — both financial and in-kind — came from SunWater Spa and the Smokebrush Foundation. Jason Wulf and his family provided the horses. Without their help, we could not have had the special touch that the horses brought.
Only one place on Earth lies on this Ute migration route, sandwiched between the majesty of Pikes Peak (“Tava” in Ute) and the beauty of the Garden of the Gods, and graced with mineral springs.
It was home to the Natives and they’ve been welcomed back. We should all be proud to live here.
Manny Pulido, Michael Aku, Don Goede, Michael Howell, Lyn Ettinger-Harwell and John Graham