Letters: Christopher Rufo’s destructive work goes beyond Harvard

Rufo’s destructive work reaches grade-schoolers

Re: “Rufo’s CU visit and the meritocracy myth” Jan. 21 editorial

The editorial board was right to call out culture warrior Christopher Rufo for hypocrisy. His claim that conservatives aren’t opposed to diversity as long as academic hires are qualified is laughable. The racist overtones of the push to remove Harvard President Claudine Gay were clear.

But the board shouldn’t stop there. They should examine Rufo’s destructive work at the K-12 school level, where his baseless claims that critical race theory was being taught in U.S. schools played a role in the development of Hillsdale College’s 1776 Curriculum, which emphasizes American exceptionalism and downplays racism, according to the American Historical Association.

Colorado tax dollars are supporting Rufo’s favored curriculum at nine of the state’s public charter schools, including Golden View Classical Academy and Ascent Classical Academy. The schools are part of a nationwide push by Hillsdale leaders, Rufo and other ultra-conservatives to take control of public education. Their efforts have met resistance in red-state Tennessee but, interestingly, are ignored in our blue state.

Here’s hoping The Denver Post editorial board will take a closer look at the work Rufo and others are doing to undermine traditional public schools and replace them with right-wing thought factories.

Karen Francisco, Littleton

I attended Christopher Rufo’s presentation (virtually) from the Bruce Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization. I found that Rufo fit nicely with the duplicity of the center’s name and its long string of conservative countermeasure pedagogues. To equate the center’s purpose with a study of Western Civilization is as fraudulent as calling Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) a product of the extreme left.

After the disaster of John Eastman and the hit job on Claudine Gay, a more accurate identity for the center and Rufo would be the “Study of Conservative Paranoia.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that …

Steve Eddy, Arvada

Beware the demands for recusal by justices

Re: “Clarence Thomas must recuse himself from Colorado’s Trump case,” Jan. 21 commentary

Doug Friednash wants Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from the U.S. Supreme Court hearing of Trump being disqualified from the Colorado Ballot. His stance is that if any American exercises their free speech and free association rights that do not conform with his own, then that is enough to disqualify a Supreme Court justice from hearing a case. Let’s call this what it is: the unrelenting attack on the judiciary’s independence and authority.

What if Justice Thomas did recuse himself? This would only open the door for more widespread demands for recusal. This game would be played by both sides of the political spectrum. The founding fathers recognized this when they created an independent judiciary. Mr. Friednash and his left-wing cohorts pretend to respect the Constitution.

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How about starting with respecting the authority of the courts and ending this unrelenting attack on judicial independence?

Jeff Jasper, Westminster

Uranium rights shouldn’t have been a shock

Re: “Fremont County: Residents face exploratory uranium drilling,” Jan. 21 news story

Uranium exploration in the Tallahassee area of Fremont County is certainly nothing new, as your article points out. As a Fremont County Commissioner in 2008, we dealt with significant opposition to exploration by Black Range Minerals. So, I was surprised to read that recent landowners were stunned to learn that more prospecting was about to take place.

Was the 70-year history of uranium deposits not disclosed to them when they purchased their property? Did they not do their due diligence to learn who owned the mineral rights?

When our board allowed exploratory drilling to commence in 2008, we required baseline water well monitoring of both test wells and private wells by an independent water consultant. That data was preserved by Fremont County, the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS), and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. We believed that baseline data was vital to track any possible migration of groundwater contamination for decades to come.

As far as a threat to wildlife from exploration, it was a non-issue 15 years ago and still is today. The elk herds around South T-Bar could care less what happens at a drilling pad. Ten years ago, Black Range officials estimated the market value of the Tallahassee uranium deposits at $8 billion. As long as the uranium is there, the market will dictate if and when someone will go after it. The data collection we initiated should prove valuable for years to come to both DRMS and Tallahassee landowners regarding any future permits for exploration or mining.

Ed Norden, Cañon City

Wyoming community “still has a long way to go”

Re: “Angst over LGBTQ+ stories canceled show,” Jan. 21 news story

The story reported the cancellation by school officials in Wheatland, Wyo., of “The Bullying Collection,” an anti-bullying play including a character who confronts another student about bullying a gay student who takes his own life. Twenty-five years after Matthew Shepard’s murder, the cancellation of the play demonstrates that work remains to make the community a place where all are accepted for who they are and truly belong.

This is not the first time school leaders have displayed antipathy toward the LGBTQ+. Fourteen years ago, Wheatland’s school district displayed an anti-LGBTQ+ bias toward ADL’s No Place for Hate initiative.

In 2008, two Wheatland schools began participating in the initiative. Its mission is to “empower schools to promote respect for individual and group differences while challenging prejudice and bigotry.”

Schools successfully participating in the initiative receive a 3’ X 6’ banner bearing the No Place for Hate logo and names of sponsors. In its early years, the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado was a major sponsor. In 2010, trustees of Wheatland’s school district were so offended by the words “gay” and “lesbian” that they decided banners could not be displayed with those words. Then-ADL Regional Director Bruce DeBoskey made clear bigotry would not be tolerated and removed the district from the initiative.

The unwillingness to display the words “gay” and “lesbian” or to allow students to produce a play that includes the consequences of bullying a gay student demonstrates that Wheatland still has a long way to go to be no place for hate.

Scott Levin, Denver

Editor’s note: Levin is the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States regional director.

“Arbitrary, irresponsible power”

Re: “Ballot issue: The Trump decision,” Jan. 21 letter to the editor

The composer of a letter appearing last Sunday might’ve better written from Moscow or Minsk, Beijing or Pyongyang, or maybe Caracas. That is, where a counterfeit constitution speciously establishes (servile) congress to ratify laws and (carefully vetted) judiciary to adapt them for The Leader of a Great Nation to enforce. Where, in fact, the president is the government, the entire government. His will is law and justice; His critics, criminals to imprison — or liquidate if they cannot be bullied by show trials and harsh verdicts. There is government of the people, by the president, for Himself and His family, for “citizens” and “patriots” loyal and obedient to His every wish. Constitutionalism? Codified legality? Hah!

Nevertheless, from Littleton, we read that “A member of Congress or a cabinet member may rebel against the government, but the president cannot rebel against himself.”

This makes sense only if a president is as described above — of a fake republic. We in the USA have had a true republican government, tripartite, three ideally balanced independent branches defined by Articles I, II, and III in the US Constitution of 1789. If any branch exerts arbitrary, irresponsible power, one or, ideally, both of the others will check it.

Constitutional presidents aren’t the whole tree; try though they might to splinter its other branches. Unfortunately, we suffer an ex- and wanna-be president who envies China’s Xi Jinping, idolizes Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and would emulate Belarus’ Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko.

Victor Castellani, Denver

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