6-Opinion
6 Lone Tree Voice
October 3, 2013
opinions / yours and ours
We love letters, but stay within lines In an era in which readers are more likely to post comments at the bottom of an online article or on a blog or on Facebook, we believe there is still a place for the good old-fashioned letter to the editor. Unlike online commenting, letters to the editor must go through something of a vetting process before being published. Largely, this is in order to maintain a measure of civility that, sadly, is often lacking online. On our opinion pages, we aim to provide a forum to stir community conversation. We appreciate diversity of thought and do not pick which letters run or don’t run based on our viewpoint. If you’re wondering why your letter wasn’t printed or are hoping to have one that is, read what follows. These do’s and don’ts will make the process easier for you and our editors. Do: • Your homework. In other words, check your facts. We have a small staff and can’t
our view do this for you. If you’re unsure of something, look it up. If you include a nugget of information that is not widely known, include where you found that fact. • Express your opinion. Tell us what you like or dislike. We particularly appreciate it when you comment on our articles and opinion pieces regarding local issues. But state, national and world issues are also on the table, if they are of relevance to our readers. • Keep it short. Our policy calls for letters of 300 words or fewer. Sure, we try to be a little flexible, and from time to time, you might see a letter a little longer but still in the ballpark. If you must go way over the limit, it won’t run, at least not as a letter to
letter to the editor Business model is real ‘rubbish’
In response to “Claims about schools are rubbish”: Michael Wallace claims that schools should be run like a business, and businesses will listen to customers. I’d like to remind Michael Wallace that this BOE didn’t listen to their customers when they dismissed the negative results in their survey in 2012. I can’t help but wonder if this is the same survey company that called my house last week and hung up when I responded negatively! This BOE proceeds to ignore their customers. I also want to remind Michael Wallace that many businesses did not/do not listen to customers. This is how so many businesses fail! But Michael is only looking at things with his free-market, drown-allgovernment-in-the-bathtub, rose-coloredglasses. I am a customer and I will not vote for any current BOE. I want them all out! Their new product is loaded with profiteers who see an opportunity to make money on the backs of my kids and my neighbors’ kids.
I have no problem with reform, and there is room for reform. My two oldest went to a charter school for nine years each and I will always defend charter schools. But restore my fifth-grader’s PE class! Restore my fourth-grader’s exposure to geography to more than two days’ coverage, restore the high expectations for graduation. Capitalists and free marketeers are by their very nature … profiteers, they want to make a profit … profit off our testing, profit off tuition, profit off our children’s education and their future. By their very nature, profiteers want profits first, customer service is not their priority. I hate to break it to you Michael, it’s the same in the business world. But I am most mad about the vouchers. I personally would not be able to afford the $15,000-$20,000 to send my child to a private school, voucher or no voucher of $4,575, that still leaves me with coming up with the remainder. And I have four children. Rose Duhaime Parker
Too good for our own good Just even saying that we are “too good” at something is kind of like saying we are having “too much fun,” or “we have too much money.” None of these statements makes a whole lot of sense, as I can’t remember a time when I actually had too much fun and I never found myself saying that there was no more room in my bank account because I simply had too much money. However, I can look at times when I had reached a certain level of expertise or accomplishment at a specific skill or craft and can probably say that I had become “too good” at that particular skill. It’s not being good, great, or extremely accomplished at something that is the problem, it’s when we become complacent or even maybe careless because we start to operate on autopilot. I have met many extremely talented and skilled individuals and teams who are wonderfully accomplished. They never cease to amaze me with their capabilities and productivity. But even some of these folks have gotten caught in the trap of complacency or carelessness, cutting corners and taking shortcuts because they have been doing their job or fulfilling their role for so many years they forget to pay attention to the details. When this happens they don’t produce their best work, or they set a poor example for someone who may be looking to learn from that person as a role model or mentor. Always be willing to learn even more. No matter how good we believe we are, regardless of how strong, fast, accomplished or experienced we believe ourselves to be, there is always someone better, smarter, stronger, faster, and more productive than we are. Always. So we need to be willing to develop an attitude of being a constant
student of the game, especially when it comes to those things that we are most passionate about. Another good idea is to imagine that we are teaching someone how to do the very same thing that we do. Even if we are alone performing a task or utilizing a skill, if we place ourselves in the role of the teacher, and remind ourselves the importance of safety, productivity, quality, and value we will certainly deliver a product or accomplish something we can truly be proud of. I love the quote by Jim Collins found in his book, “Good to Great”: “Good is the enemy of great.” When we settle for just being good at something we give up on our pursuit of achieving greatness or excellence. So let’s not settle for just being “too good” at something, let’s focus on making sure that we remain diligent and proud of all that we do on our way to being great. If you believe that you just might be too good for your own good at what you love to do the most, send me an email at gotonorton@gmail.com and tell me all about it. And as we grow each and every day, it really will be a better than good week. Michael Norton, a resident of Highlands Ranch, is the former president of the Zig Ziglar organization and CEO and founder of www.candogo.com
the editor. Consider requesting a guest column instead — but we have limited space for these. • Email your letter to letters@ourcoloradonews.com. You can also email one of our editors, but it is more efficient to send your letters to the address specifically designated for them. • Let us know who you are. Include your full name, address and phone number with your letter. We won’t publish your digits, don’t worry. We just need to give you a call to make sure the letter was actually written by you. Yes, “letter-to-the-editor fraud” does happen. Don’t: • Put words in someone’s mouth. You can write in support — or opposition — of another person, such as a candidate for public office, but don’t assign any thoughts, opinions or actions to an individual that haven’t been publicly documented. If you do so, we may consider it a news tip and investigate the validity of your claim, but
we won’t run it as a letter to the editor. • Buy a stamp. “Snail mail” isn’t efficient when it comes to letters to the editor. As mentioned, we have a small staff and can’t take the time to retype your letter (which, we’re guessing, was written on a computer anyway). Email your letter to the address mentioned earlier. It will get to us faster, something you will appreciate if you want to see it published in the upcoming edition of the newspaper. • Inundate us with letters. By this, we mean from one person. We want everyone to have their say, so don’t expect to see more than two of your letters printed in any given month. • Be surprised if we edit for grammar or punctuation. We approach this very judiciously, however. A tip: DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPS or use a lot of !!! • Use profanity or call someone a word you wouldn’t use in front of your mother. Your letters really do matter. We look forward to seeing more of them.
Flies bring buzz-kill urge I have written a haiku for you today: I despise all flies McFly is OK, that’s it The rest are pests. Swat I hate flies. I am sure that I would feel the same way about jellyfish and cane toads, but I never see them in my neighborhood. I haven’t seen a single Gaboon viper either. Gaboon vipers have the largest venom yield of any venomous snake. No attempt was made to give flies a unique name, like butterflies and dragonflies. A fly is just a fly. It’s entry-level naming. “What does it do?” “It flies, that about it.” “We’ll call it a fly.” Sometimes you can’t even see them. They just buzz around the kitchen, and do one touch-and-go after another. Flies are completely useless. I guess lizards like them, and that’s better than nothing. Otherwise, they are no more than nuisances. Quite unnecessary, dark, flying specks. At least mosquitoes led to medical breakthroughs because of malaria. Flies? Nothing. “Some strains are immune to most insecticides.” There is fly fishing, and fly balls, and “a fly on the wall.” In the urban dictionary, “fly” means cool. But I am reaching. Flies are 100 percent irksome. There is one in the house right now. It’s in the kitchen. It may be a reincarnation. In fact, I am certain of it. I’m pretty sure it’s a former student of mine who once told me that she had a Mr. Smith doll that she put
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pins into every night after class. But something went wrong, I guess, because Esther spent the last four weeks of the semester in the hospital. I figure she wanted to come back as a daffodil, but goofed that up too, and came back as a fly. Flies are believed to have gotten their start 65 million years ago. It doesn’t look like they have evolved very much, does it? “They are capable of carrying over 100 pathogens, such as those causing typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis and anthrax.” Why are they here in the first place? Why do we have to have more pests? Aren’t Howard Stern and Jerry Springer enough? I have always been fascinated by the concept of a fly in an airplane. If the fly is flying, how fast is it going? Is it going the speed of the airplane? Flies have a life span of 15 to 30 days. I have found their carcasses in window channels. They were simply on the wrong side of the glass, and spent a portion of Smith continues on Page 27
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