Re: “Welcome to Colorful East California,” Dec. 8 Jon Caldara column.
I really understand Jon Caldara when he says, “More than ever Coloradans want to make decisions for other people and engineer how others live.” This certainly appears to be what’s happening with the so called “gentrification” in Denver and elsewhere. Perhaps we should go a little deeper with this line of thinking and try to imagine how the Native Americans must have felt (and still do) when the Europeans appeared on this continent and began to make decisions for them and engineer how they lived on a much larger scale. Their ancestral lands were forcibly taken, they were put on reservations, their children removed from their families and sent away to boarding schools, and a serious attempt was made to destroy the very fabric of their culture. This happened right here in what we now call Colorado as well, of course. Compared to this, the so-called “gentrification” of Colorado seems like a rather minor and insignificant irritation.
Neil Haverstick, Lakewood
I fully agree with Jon Caldara that Colorado was a less stressful place to live decades ago. But his piece in last Sunday’s Post was not about quality of life, it was about politics. Fifty years ago Colorado was a politically deep red state until wealthy Republicans, who owned most of the land in Colorado, started selling to developers. The rush began and the newbies brought their own values to Colorado. Enough newbies arrived to change the political climate, and that is what Caldara is whining about. He should stop whining and get used to it.
Roy Legg, Highlands Ranch
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