Shelter should provide crates for pets

As an advocate for the homeless, I was pleased to read the article in the Sunday paper entitled: “Boulder’s camping ban does not live up to our values,” by Gary Garrison. It is true that we need to be more compassionate and less restrictive. As a volunteer for Streetscape on Friday afternoons, I see a number of people with pets who are very dear to them. Unfortunately, there are rules that keep pets from entering shelters. A formerly homeless person suggested that crates could be used to keep pets and humans safe. I would hope that the shelters could work with our own Humane Society to provide collapsable crates so that those with pets could be sheltered and near their beloved animals.

— Susan Stephens, Boulder

Ecosia should be the Earth’s favorite browser

Are you tired of Google selling your data? Don’t you wish you could offset your carbon footprint? Well, you’re in luck!

Ecosia is a free to download tree-planting search engine. Launched in Germany in 2009, Ecosia has expanded globally to 20 million users, planted over 220 million trees, and built multiple solar farms. It is the world’s largest not-for-profit search engine and is generated by solar energy. Unlike Google and Bing, your data is protected, you can read the company’s monthly financial reports, and your searches will direct you to more planet-friendly organizations.

When it comes to tree planting, Ecosia works with local communities, they only plant diverse forests, and they monitor the trees for decades. Their efforts are helping endangered species thrive, ending desertification, restoring the Amazon rainforest, supporting regenerative farming, increasing literacy rates and financial independence among women, fighting the palm oil industry, and so much more! In a study conducted by Bentley University, we could plant 300 billion trees a year if Google users switched to Ecosia.

Ecosia offers its own desktop browser, or you can choose to set up Ecosia on Chrome, Opera, Safari and other browsers. You can also download the Ecosia app for free on any iPhone and iPad.

— Katrina Stroud, Boulder

Social Security vs. our life expectancy

RFK Jr. has been criticizing the American health system for many years and now may get seated as head of Health and Human Services as Trump’s new favorite for the job. One health measure — life expectancy — has been declining since the adoption of Obamacare, and Kennedy sees this as an indictment of the system. Certain conspiracy theorists point to the fiscal breaking point of Social Security as a clear incentive for the government to collude somehow in having people die sooner, especially men, whose average Social Security check is about $500 more than a woman’s. Lo and behold, men now live an average of 74.8 years and women 80.2. If Kennedy wants people living longer, then he and Trump will have to deal with the Social Security equation in a method that doesn’t raise red flags for Alex Jones.

Although all health data gets channeled through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which has trillions of dollars in potential health liabilities hanging over it and thus carefully manages its information array before disclosing it to the public, the CDC can’t seem to fudge the life expectancy numbers merely by adding more musical chairs to the annual $4.5 trillion AMA, Big Pharma, CDC dance. This is because Social Security has to balance its books every year and so they are an automatic cross-check on the life expectancy number.

On a personal note, I’m now two years away from my expiration date and yet haven’t used a penny of my Medicare (knock on wood), which tends to cost about as much per person as Social Security. I’m considering starting a group called Live Another Dayers (LADs) for older men with low-cost health care secrets and perhaps some other wisdom worth staying alive to share.

— Tom Anthony, Longmont