8-Opinion
8 Parker Chronicle
September 20, 2013
opinions / yours and ours
Planning, packing pivotal to preparedness Fire is far from our minds with last week’s rains. But we just left a summer with the worst fire in Colorado history. The Black Forest Fire took down nearly 500 homes, and the state required federal disaster aid. At the same time, the state was dotted with lesser blazes, including the Lime Gulch and Royal Gorge fires. The number of evacuations was dwarfed by the news of the number of homes lost, but it was a big hurt to many other people, their health, pets and livelihoods. And now — after what had been a relatively calm start to the month — we suddenly experience flooding and rainfall enough to have caused several deaths. So
our view it’s not difficult to be mindful of Emergency Preparedness Month in September — the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) initiative started in 2004 that involves a few simple projects. First develop an emergency plan. It’s easy. • Decide a group meeting place in case of emergency or disaster. Choose one near home and one farther away. • Identify an emergency contact person
and assign responsibilities to each family or group member. • Make some decisions about where your family should go if forced to leave the area. And make plans for the pets. Second, assemble the supplies you will need. And group everything together in a kit. Here’s a recommended list from FEMA. • Battery powered or crank radio • Weather alert radio • Extra batteries • First aid kit • Sanitary napkins • Dust mask • Water for drinking and sanitation • Water purification tablets
• Waterproof matches and a butane lighter • Crank flashlight • Plastic sheeting • Non-perishable food for at least three days • Disinfectants and medications • Medical information for entire family, including instructions about medications and health history information. We never know when Mother Nature or a man-made disaster will make us all shake in our boots. So it’s not a bad idea to go through the steps of being prepared for disaster. We hope the exercise simply amounts to an educational experience. On to fall and winter.
How time flies … What’s your favorite or slows, or reverses thing about fall? question of the week
As summer officially ends and fall begins, we asked several people in the Highlands Ranch Town Center what they like best about the season.
“The weather, the clothes, the heartier, more savory food, Thanksgiving, rain and snow. And then of course, the leaves changing color.” — Kaitlin Clark, Denver
“Football and Thanksgiving.” — Thiago Harvey, Denver
“The leaves changing. But football first.” — Kenneth Harvey, Denver
“Cooler weather and the changing of the leaves. But the snow can stay in the mountains.” — Jackie Walsh, Highlands Ranch
letters to the editor Forum blatantly one-sided
In response to “Despite candidate conflicts, DCSD forum is a go”: Despite his position as the Douglas County GOP District Captain, David DiCarlo could at least attempt to appear impartial in his role as Douglas County School District Accountability Committee chairman. In the video of the Aug. 13 DAC meeting, Mr. DiCarlo said of his efforts to reach possible school board candidates about a candidate forum, “I just started today, so I’ve reached out to six. As I hear back, I’ll email the rest of the DAC with potential dates, potential places.” Surely if Mr. DiCarlo was able to contact six potential candidates in one day, he could have found the time to contact the other six that were registered at that date, sometime in the next day or two. Instead, he waited three weeks, until Sept. 2, to inform the other candidates of a set date, with no similar opportunity to weigh in on “potential dates, potential places.” I must question Mr. DiCarlo’s integrity when he then states, “all candidates were given the exact same notice.” Furthermore, his excuse of “availability of the venue” is simply ludicrous as there were only eight days in September and October that the Douglas County High School auditorium was booked as of Sept. 9. Conveniently, the candidates he contacted on Sept. 2 just happen to be those he opposes, while the GOP-endorsed candidates remarkably could attend. This is a blatant attempt to provide a one-sided forum for the candidates supported by Mr. DiCarlo, and it is a flagrant misuse of his authority as DAC chair. I encourage all citizens of Douglas County to put an end to these forms of deliberate, calculated, and unethical behaviors within our school district by voting for Barbra Chase, Bill Hodges, Julie Keim and Ronda Scholting in the upcoming Board of
Education election. Meg Masten Highlands Ranch
Claims about schools are rubbish
Regarding the Rev. Frank R. Morris’ guest column of Sept. 5: Rubbish. The existing board runs the school district according to capitalistic theory? Rubbish. If so then when do I get a dividend in the form of reduced taxes? The board runs it according to Dr. Friedman’s economic theories? Rubbish. If so, where are the universal vouchers? As a result teachers are no longer respected professionals and ... become classroom supervisors? Rubbish. Supervisors aren’t respected professionals? Teachers are no longer professionals or is it they are no longer respected? One can’t tell from your sentence. Of course neither is true as anyone who watches board and teacher interaction can easily tell. Or spent any time talking to or listening to board members (Disagreeing is not disrespect.) In the business world one does not allow non-business people to tell them how to manage? Rubbish. I am hard-pressed to identify any segment of society that is more open to input regardless of source. Think about it, the business world welcomes input from academia, from the consumer, from regulators, from philosophy, from theology, and, in the United States at least, from foreign cultures. This school board is replacing a mid20th-century educational model with one that puts the consumer in charge by allowing the parent to choose between a traditional model, a charter school model, a private school model, an online model and a home school model. That is true reform and an increase in individual liberty. Michael Wallace Highlands Ranch
I have attended football games all over the place. Lincoln, Norman, Ann Arbor, Pasadena, Berkeley, Palo Alto, Tempe. None of them ended in slow motion. I have attended Major League Baseball games in at least five states, and none of the games ended in slow motion. But every time I watch a football or baseball movie, it ends in slow motion. Is it a requisite? “Must end in slow motion.” Maybe the director has to stretch the movie out because it didn’t take up enough time. That must be it. He’s got 10 minutes to go, and he doesn’t have 10 minutes worth of action and dialogue. I know better about slow motion. It is used to add drama to drama. I don’t think I have ever seen a football or baseball movie end in real time. Or basketball. Have you seen “Hoosiers”? Jimmy Chitwood goes up ... up ... up. It takes 20 seconds and there are only three seconds left in the game. Directors can manipulate time all over the place. There are flashbacks and flashforwards. Some movies have both, so you have to pay attention. “Back to the Future” starts in 1985, goes back to 1955, and returns to 1985, after Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) tinkers with events. I like Fox. He is going to star in a new television series. He’s an inspiration. There is film that was famously shot in nearly real time. It’s “High Noon,” starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. I look at clocks in movies. Most of the time they don’t change during a scene. In “High Noon,” clocks are shown throughout the
Parker Chronicle
movie, and they are all ticking down the minutes until the bad guy, Frank Miller, gets off the train and comes gunning for Will Kane (Cooper). It takes place in Hadleyville, in the New Mexico Territory. The film is #27 on the American Film Institute’s list of great films. Some movies start way in the past. They are called period films. I am not crazy about period films, like “Pride and Prejudice.” Mr. Darcy doesn’t do much for me. Most period films are humorless. There has to be a little humor, doesn’t there? Not always. There weren’t a lot of oneliners in “Schlinder’s List.” A film came out in 1968 that was set in 2001, “A Space Odyssey,” and it seemed very futuristic. We hadn’t even been to the moon yet. Now 2001 has come and gone. Sometimes time plays tricks on us. It takes forever to wait 15 minutes in line at the pharmacy or on hold on the phone, but 15 minutes goes by much too fast when you are with the one you love. One of my favorite manipulations of Marshall continues on Page 9
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