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Letters to the editor

Bob Parker

On behalf of both myself, and my family, I’d like to thank the people of Vail for what was apparently a fine turnout for the dedication of Parker’s Green in Vail on July 3. Friends tell me that lots of old friends and associates attended. I only wish I could have been there!One of my granddaughters reports that this new, miniature park is a “cool place,” for which I thank Vail Resorts, Charlie Penwill and the planners working with them. Now I hope in a most urgent way that the Vail community will find a way to revive, and make significant Seibert Circle, at the upper end of Bridge Street and arguably the “center” of Vail. Too much has been made of Vail’s other early pioneers, but anyone who was there in the beginning knows that Pete Seibert was the heart and soul of Vail, and that he, and he particularly, deserves to be memorialized meaningfully by the community.Thanks again to all who attended the dedication on the 3rd, and to all who made it happen. Happily, my son Guy and daughter Katherine, real Vail natives, were able to fill in for me. Isn’t it great that the next generation can be on hand for events of this kind? All the best from a forever” Vailite to all the real Vail pioneers.Bob ParkerSanta Fe, N.M.Protecting ownYou published two letters in your Tipsline this past week that were critical of Israel being “unleashed” and I feel they deserve a reply.First, Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and she has been a bulwark against communism and now, Islamic fundamentalism, for more than 50 years. Second, the only “unleashing” that Israel has done was to protect her citizens and preserve her country, as she was forced to do in 1948, 1967, 1973 and the recent infaltada. After all, the primary purpose of any nation is to protect its citizens and preserve its country.Israel is surrounded by despotic nations, such as Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinians, who all have a written stated policy of destroying Israel and its citizens. How would we react if Canada and Mexico had such a policy toward us?Third, Friday’s letter sarcastically talks about supplanting an indigenous people, meaning the Palestinians. Well, when Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem and looked up, he didn’t see any mosques. However, he did see the Jewish temple. My point is that, if any people are indigenous to Israel, it is the Jews.The cause of the Palestinian refugee problem was the despotic neighbors that did not allow them to be absorbed into their huge and rich areas. The reason was they wanted them to stew in their dirty, crowded camps to breed hatred that eventually would destroy Israel. How come Israel was able to assimilate millions of refugees in its tiny area and the Arab countries were incapable of doing the same?Perhaps the writer of Friday’s letter would like to give some of his property to the indigenous Native Americans, who were treated so badly and they were never even out to destroy the United States.William PintzowEdwardsJust make it fitWe wrote a letter that we never sent in response to Kaye Ferry’s article of July 6. However, recent letters and comments in your paper aroused us enough to now add our two cents.The question is not “old, new guards split.” we have yet to meet an old-time resident of Vail or senior citizen who would not like to see a “new Crossroads.” In fact, all with whom we have talked would welcome a new movie theater, multi-entertainment facilities, and new shops.So what is the problem? It is the proposed building!Let’s face it. Some people like to live in the city, i.e. New York, big buildings, etc. Some people like to live in the suburbs, i.e., Vail, alpine village, etc. That’s why we in Vail paid more to live here.We want a new Crossroads building, but one that will “fit in” with our community.Roberta and Ernest Scheller, Jr.VailHas it come to this?Finally, that was it, I’d had enough. I kicked open the door of the library in great anger by the fact that I’d been denied again, the second day in a row, by a lady from the local library staff, as if I were some vagrant off the streets or a pubescent punk trying to pull a fast one.No, I’m rather a 36-year old local, usually of casual nature, that’s tired of being treated purposefully rude. What has become of our ever growing valley’s demeanor that’s made us so short on patience and compassion? I remember the library staff of all ages who loved to be in this educational environment and saw to it that the people that were there were being coddled in bettering themselves.Perhaps the Internet is to blame. Could the free Internet infiltrating these once quiet learning centers across the valley be the fuel behind the ladies’ frustrations? Apparently, this learning and information tool brings in some bad apples. I must confess, this was the reason I was there, to use the free Internet, but I promise there are no worms in my core. It’s true that it has become rather annoying when sitting in these pods of computers that a vast majority of them are being used by kids playing games and talking and going about their business as if they’re in their own living rooms. I sense the librarians have become incensed by this, believing that if you have forgotten your wallet with your library card that surely you must be some rogue infiltrator that is looking to steal something, like some time on the computer. I apologized politely, explaining my situation and if she could give me my library number so that I could log onto the computer. Snidely, she replied, “Sorry, too many people have been stealing library cards.” I stared for a moment in disbelief, knowing that she was absolutely steadfast on her decision and no amount of promises that I was an upstanding citizen would coax her from her stance. So I accepted her position and figured I’d just have to wait for the next day to see if a renter had deposited his money into my account to make sure that my bills were covered, an operation that would take me less than five minutes on the computer.Now just a couple of weeks before, I had been on my way to work and decided to cut through a quiet corridor, in a stairwell of a building I’d cut through a couple of times before. I’d always waved and smiled to the lady sitting looking lonely at her desk behind a window as I skipped a step climbing the stairs, thinking it was a welcomed break in her day. Her office door was open on this day when she yelled through it not so politely, “Excuse me, where do you think you’re going?” Feeling the tension that this was a no no, I stated rather obviously and now embarrassed, “Uh, just upstairs.” She then demanded exactly where, as I now felt like I were being reprimanded like a grade school kid running through the halls. I responded that I was on my way to work, and after further prodding on her part, where I worked. She finished me off by admonishing, “I never want to see your face in here again!”Whoa, so much for a friendly face. She proceeded to call my manager to tell him that no one else was to cut through her corridor and that she was also not amused by my parting remark of “Sorry, mom.”I’m 36, man! Why should I or anyone else be treated this way?So, back at the library the next day, Sunday, I strolled in at 4:35. With the library closing in less than a half hour the computer is fixed to not let library card holders onto their terminals so that they can close down on time. I of course wasn’t aware of this decree and thus asked the librarian if she could help me log onto the computer. She was short with me, quickly responding before I got my last word out that “there’s less than a half hour left till closing.” Foolishly, I then set her up to really piss me off and send me into the embarrassing, childish frenzy that led to kicking my way out of the place.”But I only need a couple of minutes to check my bank …”She cut me off again somewhere in the middle of my sentence with a phony “sorry.”Has it come down to this? Has this frenetic, fast paced Internet world of impolite pop-ups and spam reduced us to these same rude interruptions? Has my face become the monitor screen for people with a position to slam the door shut on basic friendly communication? I’m astounded by our lack of fundamental human decency. It used to be the norm that when strolling past a stranger was always greeted with a “good morning,” or at least a friendly nod and a smile.I now wish I would have attended that lecture earlier this month on “patience and compassion” by the Buddhist monks after all. Perhaps it could have saved me from embarrassing myself.So here are a couple of suggestions I think might make our valley a friendlier environment. First, we hold monthly refresher courses on “patience and compassion” to get our Zen on. And, secondly, like the caddies that were corralled to a swim time from 3-3:15 p.m. in the classic comedy “Caddyshack,” perhaps the kids visiting the library computers should be assigned to such a ridiculous time slot. I’m all for it, at least then the feisty librarians could concentrate their policing to a fixed group at a fixed time. And this way I probably wouldn’t be registered to such punk status in the library.Matthew V. LiposkyVail, Colorado


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