Compassion owed to the family and fellow officers who lost one of their own — not the killer Re: “Killer of officer’s step toward early parole drawing outrage,” March 19 news story Raul Gomez-Garcia, did you think that we, the law enforcement community, would forget? Did you think that your despicable, cowardly actions would be forgotten? Your premeditated vengeful decision imprisoned our minds, our hearts, and our souls so that we could never forget! We will remember May 8, 2005, when Denver Police detectives Donnie Young and Jack Bishop were shot by you, Raul Gomez-Garcia. We will remember that Donnie Young died, as was your intent. We will remember his wife, Kelly, and her pain; we remember their children and their loss in our prayers. Raul Gomez-Garcia, all you had to do was leave the baptismal celebration you were not invited to attend. When it was necessary for two Denver police officers to escort you out, your vengeful decision was to arm yourself with a gun, return, and shoot the two officers in the back several times. It was a life-ending sentence for one officer. Raul Gomez-Garcia, as most cowards do, you ran back to your MS-13 gang in California and then to your own country, Mexico. You had to be pried out of your country by the district attorney dropping the death penalty before we were allowed to extradite you. That was your break, Raul Gomez-Garcia. You do not deserve another one. You do not deserve early parole through Colorado’s Department of Corrections program for juvenile offenders. Your egregious, calculated murder and attempted murder demand that you fulfill the consequences of your actions — the full 80 years. May God bless you as you continue your original sentence. He will forgive. It is still not possible for us to forgive you because we are locked up in this nightmare and reminded of your evil, intentional deed every time we hear of violence against police officers. For Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, national and Colorado state legislators and parole boards: We will never forget! David O’Shea-Dawkins, Denver,  Editor’s note: O’Shea-Dawkins retired as a sergeant after 35 years with the Denver Police Department. Get real about the endgame of DOGE, Musk and Trump Re: “Is Musk’s brutal DOGE a tragedy, or caused by one?” March 16 commentary Bruce Yandle’s piece shows the dangers of using traditional economic or political thought to shed light on our current situation. For example: does Hardin’s thought experiment of sheep and grass really have anything to do with the true “tragedy of the commons” of our day? Related Articles Letters | Killer of Denver police officer applies for program that could lead to early parole, drawing outrage Letters | Former Centennial gymnastics coach sentenced to at least 11 years in prison for child sex assault Letters | London court clears way to extradite Colorado mom accused of killing 2 of her children For decades now, some of us have used the world’s oceans as an open sewer, a dumping ground for waste, chemicals and plastics. The solution is simple: Close off the sewer pipe and let the oceans heal. In other words, a sane level of regulation for the common good. Next, the efforts of the Truman, Clinton and Reagan administrations toward governmental reform took place under the rule of law and with the cooperation and oversight of Congress. Not so with Elon Musk! But the most insidious part of the piece was the discussion of “human resources” spending. To reduce these programs to “pork barrel” spending is distracting, confusing and dishonest. Human lives are at stake! The real problem with Medicaid, Medicare, and VA benefits is the cost of American health care. Imagine moving in the direction of Medicare for all and recycling all those insane administrative costs and huge profits for insurance companies, drug companies, and hospital chains into money to actually help people. Make no mistake, the goal of Musk and his ilk is not efficiency but destruction. The idea is to hobble Social Security, for example, with cuts and layoffs, thus reinforcing our distrust of government by creating inefficiency. Then the billionaires can swoop in and privatize it after it “fails.” It should be the role of high-profile public servants like Yandle to help us see what is happening. It should not be to reinforce the illusion that what we are seeing is just another round of partisan politics. Edward K. Maier, Denver COVID-19 lesson: The perils of panic Re: “COVID-19: 5 years later,” March 16 commentary Does America need another central-planning disaster? Given what we know now about the COVID-19 debacle and the 99% survival rate of those afflicted, wouldn’t the nation, and the world, have been far better off had the responsible governing-happy morons at county, state, and national levels done nothing but allowed doctors to treat their patients as they saw fit? Should we allow those know-nothings to inflict more damage on America with their so-called ‘future preparedness programs’? Russel W. Haas, Golden Fleeing politics: The irony of moving abroad Re: ” ‘I don’t get why anyone would want to stay’,” March 9 news story Soon-to-be ex-Denverite Molly Burke has decided to leave the U.S. because she can’t stand the country’s political direction. It’s unfortunate that she feels the need to uproot her life over political differences. Are there no like-minded friends or communities here where she can find fellowship? Can she engage with diverse perspectives rather than retreat from them? Will New Zealand provide the ideological sanctuary she seeks, or will she encounter differing viewpoints there as well? And ultimately, will distance truly ease her frustrations, or will they follow her wherever she goes? Interestingly, others are reportedly moving to Mexico — quite the irony, considering the narrative around immigration. Some are eyeing Germany or Ireland despite challenges such as Ireland’s influx of Muslim immigrants and Germany’s soaring energy costs. Perhaps the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Jerry McHugh, Jr., Denver Conversion therapy ignores children’s needs Re: “Colorado’s ban on conversation therapy will likely fall at the Supreme Court,” March 16 commentary In all the discussions about protecting the rights of conversion therapists, something is blatantly missing. What about the rights of the kids? Who is deciding whether a child sees a conversion therapist, a regular therapist, or no therapist at all? If a child seems to be struggling with questions of identity and self-esteem, having them see a therapist can help them sort things out. A licensed therapist is equipped to help a child examine their sexual identity if that is what they want. I suspect that, in the case of conversion therapy, the people struggling with the child’s problem are the parents. In seeking conversion therapy, they are seeking to force the child to change for them. Though perhaps not as drastic, conversion therapy is akin to clitoral mutilation in that neither procedure is done with the needs of the child in mind, but rather, it is done to prevent the child from developing into their true self. True therapy does not involve trying to force an individual to be something they are not. Forcing a child to undergo conversion is a form of child abuse, and profiting from child abuse is not a right of free speech or anything else. A. Lynn Buschhoff, Denver Conversion therapies, in all their variable historical forms, are not and have never been about offering medical or behavioral health care. Instead, they are a tool to eradicate LGBTQ+ identity and culture. They are rooted in deep stigma and shame people for being who they are. According to Genocide Watch, “The practice of conversion therapy is rooted in the erroneous and prejudiced belief that homosexuality and gender-diverse identities are illnesses that must be cured. Such gender identities are often also seen as morally reprehensible or sinful.” This is not about a mental illness or disease, nor is it about a choice. People undergoing conversion therapy, where it is legal, are often forced into it by family members or others who are not willing to accept people for who they are. Conversion therapy can lead to increased suicidal ideation, substance use, and depression. The Supreme Court must uphold the Colorado law, and Krista Kafer should stop advocating otherwise. Mindy Klowden, Denver Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more. To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail. ...read more read less