Mark Kiszla fans

Re: “40 years of Mark Kiszla,” Oct. 15 sports coverage

I sometimes “glance” at the other sports writers’ columns, but I always READ Mark Kiszla’s.

— Larry McLaughlin, Aurora

Reading the retrospective on Mark Kizla’s 40 years with The Denver Post brought back so many great memories. My family moved to Denver in 1963. My dad was a huge sports fan and a newspaper junky, and we always took The Post and the Rocky Mountain News. I remember my kid brother playing football with Dave Logan at Wheat Ridge High School, and going to games at Folsom Field in Boulder and Bronco games in the winter when it was so cold you couldn’t feel your feet, hands or face.

As a young adult, I remember the only season tickets available back then were in the notoriously rowdy South stands at Mile High. I remember going to Nuggets games in the ’70s and wondering if then-coach Larry Brown would be wearing his velvet bell-bottom suit or his bell-bottom bib overalls. I remember making Orange Crush pie in honor of the Bronco’s defense and those heady years in the ’90s with back-to-back Super Bowls.

Now there are new memories in the making with the Nuggets, Avs and Buffs. Through the last four decades of Denver sports, I have always found Mark Kiszla’s columns to be well-written, interesting and usually spot-on. He takes a lot of heat and makes me laugh out loud when he prints the snarkiest reader comments in “Kickin’ It with Kiz.”

Great coverage of his 40th anniversary with the paper. And Kiz, job well done. Thanks for the memories.

— Cathy White, Montrose

Proposition HH will provide relief

Re: “Prop HH is a money grab,” Oct. 15 letters to the editor

Regarding the letters in last Sunday’s Open Forum, I plan to vote for Proposition HH and hope the majority do the same. I have no idea what the situation might be with the writers of the anti-HH letters, but for me and a lot of other homeowners, the assessed value of my home is skyrocketing next year (over 60%). That means that, all else being equal, my property taxes will also skyrocket to the point where they may become unaffordable. My appeal for a reassessment went nowhere, as it did for most other people in Arapahoe County. My only hope is for some help with Proposition HH.

With all due respect to the lovers of TABOR, I’ve always believed that it should never have been passed, as it short circuits the way our democratic republic is supposed to work. We elect people to represent us with the hope that they will make the best decisions for us. TABOR often hamstrings their efforts to do things quickly and effectively. If enough people do not like the decisions their elected representatives make on their behalf, they can be tossed out in the next election. That is how our system is supposed to work.

I hope Proposition HH passes.

— Paul Ruzicka, Aurora

About our borders …

Re: “Colorado’s fentanyl problem is getting worse. We need to fight back.” Oct. 15 commentary

Matt Stoneberger points out that the fentanyl problem is a “multinational manufacturing and trafficking enterprise” and that the “typical chain is that raw materials are shipped from overseas sources, generally China, to cartel-operated manufacturing sites in Mexico”… after which “it is smuggled across the border and then distributed … throughout the U.S.”

He then goes on to say that more dollars are needed to “work in providing law enforcement and community health organizations with the tools they need to fight back and save lives.” He doesn’t, however, mention addressing the source of the problem by securing the border to limit or eliminate the smuggling of dangerous drugs across the border or sanctioning China and Mexico that are abetting it.

I understand that there is already enough fentanyl in the country to kill every living person in the United States, but more ingress should be limited and hopefully prevented. Yes, government at all levels needs to address this, and all federal legislators, representatives and senators, across all the states and the nation must call for the Biden administration to enforce all immigration laws and secure the border to protect the country’s populace. This will also address the potential problem of terrorists slipping undetected into the country but not that of terrorists that may already be here.

— Steve Lloyd, Cheyenne, Wyo.

Protect book choice

Re: “Colorado libraries: Challenges to books, programs increasing,” Oct. 15 news story

Elizabeth Hernandez wrote a well-researched article in last Sunday’s Post.

Parents concerned with the choices their child is making for reading material should use their time to share the reading of that material with the child. Heather Zadina of Wellington has the right idea: Patrons of libraries should be able to choose their reading materials.

— Priscilla Rice, Centennial

Students are products of their teachers

Re: “Universities must stand against extremism,” Oct. 15 commentary

In his article, Eric J. Gertler rightfully chastises university leaders, faculty, and students for their response to the tragic events in the Middle East. However, he does not seem able to connect the dots. These students, who have “lost sight of the values that have moved the world forward,” are, in fact, the product of their leadership and the teaching of their instructors.

This is particularly ironic, as these institutions and students proudly proclaim to the rest of the world their moral superiority regarding racial inequality, language diversity, the evils of colonialism, and LGBTQ+ rights.

— Francis Wardle, Denver

Grocery store customers deserve choice … and clerks

At one time I only shopped at King Soopers — back when they did a marvelous job of being a grocer who supplied the community with lots of variety in a great environment with good help. I enjoyed it.

Now they want to control the food chain, not just supply foods from long time and new manufacturers. With their own (lower quality) label constantly expanding, they advance their ability to control and dominate the products. Choices of brands have gone down, and thus, the quality is down. In addition, the staffing is down. If they eliminate Safeway’s competition, we will have the equivalent of the company store.

King Soopers may be vying with Costco/Target/Walmart, but they’ve thrown away their hard-earned reputation as a great grocer providing the best variety of brands. They have lost this customer. The last time I was in, they had only one cashier (and six self-serve with only one other staff) with five or six customers waiting to check out.

Don’t take Safeway away from us; we need competition, and we need better choices on all levels of food production. Beware, if Safeway is absorbed, prices will go higher, and you can say goodbye to the labels you’ve come to rely on for great quality — and those manufacturers will lay off workers.

— Sharon Routt, Louisville