McCartney statue brings shame to my alma mater

CU is allowing a statue of Bill McCartney to be placed on campus. This brings shame to my alma mater and the Boulder community.

McCartney advocated for discrimination while wearing his CU attire and surrounded by CU emblems on campus. His Promise Keepers’ rallies treated women as subservient second-class citizens. He openly used CU and the football team to proselytize his religious beliefs.

He never made a sincere effort or attempt to rectify or reconcile the damage caused by his unconscionable actions.

This feels like Alabama erecting statues of George Wallace and pretending he never exhibited racist behavior.

When you contact CU about this, they send out a mass-produced form response stating that a decision has already been made.

It is never too late to reverse a decision that creates an “abomination.” This statue should not be promoted on CU’s campus.

— Bev Nelson, Boulder

Encourage everyone to take advantage of what we have

I just got back from a 25-mile B360 loop around Boulder on my class 1 e-bike. Based on the July 3 guest opinion from Marjorie Woodruff: “The slippery slope of e-bike access,” perhaps I should not be riding an e-bike on the trails because by enabling me to go further, I’m wearing down more trail. And pollution: “E-bikes pollute less than gasoline motorcycles. However, a human-powered bike doesn’t pollute at all — unless one counts heavy breathing.”

In my neighborhood, e-bikes are replacing car trips. Parents have multi-racks that allow them to ride, rather than drive their children to school. I have deep panniers which allow me to haul 20-50 lbs of groceries, again, reducing my need for a car trip. I ride, rather than drive, many places I wouldn’t on an analog bike, thus reducing pollution. And I have solar panels on my house, so charging my bike is not burning carbon. But I don’t disparage the person who uses an electric scooter or motorcycle to save car trips where they can.

I realize her article was largely tongue-in-cheek, but I do note that there is a certain bike police nature to people who hate e-bikes. “They can go too fast on a multi-use trail!” Yet who passed us today? People in spandex riding very fast on their analog bikes…

I suggest all of us should reduce our carbon footprint where we can and enjoy getting out on the trails in our beautiful city as much as we can. We live in a glorious place where we can get out so easily and use trails instead of streets for our biking. The Vision Zero changes have made the streets safer to bike on. I think we should encourage everyone to take advantage of what we have!

— Erika Webb, Boulder

“Who can we hurt today?”

Somewhere in our present federal government, there must be a person in a high place who wakes up in the morning and reflects, “Who can we hurt today? Who can we subject to cruel and unusual isolation in a concentration camp far from family and friends and legal services?”

They reflect that they have already hurt immigrants and their employers, and brown and black people, and LGBT people, and pregnant women, and rural and urban people needing health care, and veterans, and hungry adults and children everywhere, and watchers and listeners of public media and music, and many judges, and members of the other political party, and future generations with a drowning debt around their necks. “So, who did we miss. Who can we hurt today?”

“How about people who don’t wear red baseball caps? Our police could sell them for $50 a piece, or fine people $100 if they refuse to wear one. How about that?”

— Don Bryan, Boulder