LETTERS

Bradley’s brew of confusion

We read state Rep. Brandi Bradley’s column (July 14, 2023), “Being Pro-America is not about hating anyone,” and came away with a particularly strong sense of intentional misdirection and disingenuity.

e core misdirection is the portrayal by Bradley that the concepts of Hate, Religion and Freedom are somehow innately bound together, and not the result of conscious personal choices on her part.

Reinforcing this false construct is not new or even original. It’s disingenuous. If it was new or original, we wouldn’t see the same string of fake moral panics espoused across the country … anti-LGBTQ, anticritical-race-theory, anti-public education. And there is little doubt this well-covered list will see new triggers as time goes on, because the goal is to keep us divided and o -center with disingenuity.

Let’s Not Confuse Hate, Religion and Freedom ... let’s not confuse truths with triggers.

HATE evolves out of every individual’s moral decision-making, reinforced by the choice of group associations. When an elected ofcial makes a decision, it’s reasonable to push back in the name of democracy, especially when ocenter ideology enters the frame. e personal choice to publicly huddle with ideological trigger organizations like Colorado Parents Advocacy Network and far-right think-tanks shows true personal motivation.

RELIGION is a personal choice until a local politician makes the decision to pull it in as a narrow set of convenient governance principles, to serve as a crutch for deeper motivations of exclusion and worse. en, religion becomes a political trigger. History is full of bad outcomes when religion falsely serves as the basis for public decisions, leading to exclusion and even hate. ere are many in our community who hold their religion in the highest order, but most are not engaged in religion as political cover. By the way, the Colorado Constitution disallows the mix of religion and public governance.

FREEDOM is the foundational concept to our American democracy. “All men are created equal” — we still have much to do to deliver the promise. Once thing is clear. rough our history, when public o cials confuse their own self-righteousness with “God-given” power to de ne freedom — that’s a trigger. Friends, we would do well to understand the triggers, the purposeful rede nitions, for what they are — ideological misdirection and disingenuity coming from politicians and their associations.

Lloyd Guthrie Roxborough Park

Bradley seeks to divide

State Rep. Brandi Bradley wrote a column titled “Being pro America is not about hating anyone.” If this is true, I question why the representative chose to call the LGBTQIA community “groomers” in her Fourth of July post. Ms. Bradley could have simply posted about America’s birthday without including derogatory statements towards marginalized groups. If anything, this statement was the complete opposite of being pro America, a country founded on freedom and a melting pot of people from all di erent backgrounds. A record number of bills aimed to limit the rights and freedoms of LGBTQIA people were introduced this year including a couple of Rep. Bradley’s own bills. If Ms. Bradley feels that Pride month has become amplied and is an attempt to elevate the LGBTQIA community, maybe it is because this community is so under attack. Are Bradley’s bills and social media posts the words and actions of someone who touts being pro America and loving Christian? Having a representative use their platform to amplify the narrative against the LGBTQIA community is not healthy for our community and only seeks to divide further. Douglas County and HD 39 deserve better.

Margaret Furlow Highlands Ranch

The decline of Castle Rock e rate of growth approved by some on Castle Rock Town Council is stunning, especially when you consider that most of the new buildings are nothing more than overpriced apartments that aren’t a ordable by most people who work within the city. ese massive apartment complexes, which are being approved by the Planning Commision and Town Council, are a windfall for developers, but do absolutely nothing for the equity position of the renters. Were these approved to increase the pro tability, and cash ow, of the developers, because there is absolutely no way these will help the renters gain a foothold within this community.

As an example, the new 300 apartments by Sam’s have an approximate price of $1,800 for a one-bedroom, $2,400 for a two-bedroom and almost $3,000 for a three-bedroom. How does this foster community inclusion when the average teacher make $4,500 per month before taxes, and the average retail worker makes $17 per hour?

e master plan calls for 140,000 people at full build-out with 80,000 by 2030, however the town is pushing that number right now, e infrastructure lags behind signicantly, with I-25 backups constantly including exits, terrible accidents on the frontage roads, and very limited parking in downtown, which is detrimental for longstanding traditions such as the Starlighting, the Oktoberfest, Music at Festival Park, and the summer Farmers Market. Were the residents of Castle Rock, and the downtown businesses, really considered by the elected ofcials, especially considering there is no transit system in Castle Rock.

Dave Martin Castle Rock

Speak out about drag

Last summer Castle Rock Pride held a highly sexualized “PrideFest” at our taxpayer-funded Douglas County Fairgrounds. Videos of the event shocked the good people of Douglas County. A bearded man in shnet tights and sexy spangles danced and waggled his exposed butt cheeks in front of small chil- dren a few feet away. Another bearded fake woman on a swing aggressively exposed his fake plastic breasts plus nipples. e Pride group later issued an “apology” claiming a “wardrobe malfunction.” And the three Dougco commissioners bought it, even though the performer laughed onstage about showing his “girls” and the leopard-clad MC mockingly added, “this is supposed to be a family friendly event” as an on-stage poster claimed. Another performer went into the audience including children, serenading: “Sex is in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it/ sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me.” omas and Laydon said they believe seeing sexualized drag shows will improve the mental health of kids who think they may be LGBTQ and could attempt suicide. Whoa. Could it be these kids are sexually confused or suicidal partly because the LGBTQ lobby targets children at drag shows with bearded men dressed as women — during children’s most vulnerable time while they’re su ering the typical emotional/mental turbulence of pre-adolescence? Could they be depressed because as they’re guring out their identity, the LGBTQ promoters/performers act out their own adult sexual confusion? Children don’t know the di erence between fake but very realistic breasts and the real thing. Even small children know that mommies have breasts and daddies have beards. What does the child think seeing “women” with beards: is this a combination of mommy and daddy, or an entirely new being with physical characteristics of both? How does sexual confusion help a child?

Unsurprisingly, celebrating sadomasochism before children is frowned upon by most Douglas County citizens. Yet the commissioners at their May 9 meeting failed to protect children from the next sexually explicit drag show. ey ignored speakers, including me, who asked the August event be adults-only.

SEE LETTERS, P27