Bring back the Frisco fireworks
Our family has been full-time residents of Frisco for five years. When I saw in the March 19 Summit Daily that the town council had decided to cancel the annual July 4 fireworks I was really shocked, and to understate it, disappointed.
The fireworks display over the lake has always been a highlight of the summer for our kids of all ages, not to mention it is a quintessential American event. The reasons given for the cancellation: too much traffic, because our big brother town Breck has canceled their display so we can expect hoards from there and wherever to make Frisco miserable for the evening of the fourth are inconsistent with other projects and activities in Frisco.
Why are we underwriting up to $6 million in bonds to upgrade the Frisco Marina? Better be ready for a major promotion by the town to encourage massive use of the new marina by the party boat set with their diesel duallies to service that debt. Never mind the traffic that will bring. And same for the June barbecue event. Cancel that. It brings more and more people every year and just shuts down Main Street for two days and clogs traffic. And then do people do stupid and illegal things? Sure. So you wonder, council must have considered, that when people are camping or just hanging out having hot dogs after enjoying the old fashioned town parade, and such, maybe without a community fireworks display, there will be a huge uptick in those who decide to set off their own bottle rockets, fountains and black cats in the woods or in town that may just result in the need for fire suppression like we have not seen.
There is also a blatant inconsistency between what spokeswoman Vanessa Agee says and what Fire Chief Jeff Berino says. Ms. Agee says that the display should end so we do not have a tragic fire event, but Chief Berino says wildfire is not the real danger. And you have to suspend disbelief to believe that the ice castles in Dillon caused a traffic clog in Frisco, as indicated by Ms. Agee. And then there is that annoying Breck again with their snow sculptures which is another culprit for, according to Ms. Agee, more of Frisco’s traffic problems. That is not credible. And then there is the bumper-to-bumper ski traffic all winter. Then there is the money of course: $50,000 to put on the fireworks. And compare that to $6 million for the Marina? What about the business that is brought in to Frisco and the whole county when people come here for July 4 or otherwise?
I would expect the town tax receipts around the fourth might come close to offsetting the fireworks display cost. So it is just ridiculous that council has carte blanche and decided “it just does not SEEM doable” to hold a 30-45 minute display of fireworks over the lake. I would request that council reverse their fireworks display cancellation. And maybe people will just not come at all for the hot dogs, old fashioned town parade and concerts without the fireworks — or at least not so many.
M. Stephen Peters
Frisco
Liddick and Pelosi
agree on something
Politics does make strange bedfellows as we find Liddick in bed with the spineless and pandering Nancy Pelosi. Following are excerpts of interviews from DemocracyNow.org (March 8, 2019). Gideon Levy is a Jewish journalist and a columnist for Israel’s oldest newspaper, the Haaretz. He defends and praises Congresswoman Omar:
“What is happening now is that some kind of fresh air, some kind of new voices are emerging from Capitol Hill, raising legitimate questions about Israel, about America’s foreign policy toward Israel and about the Israeli lobby in the States. Those are very legitimate questions, and it is more than needed to raise them. But the Israeli propaganda and the Jewish propaganda in recent years made it as a systematic method, or whenever anybody dares to raise questions or to criticize Israel, he is immediately and automatically labeled as anti-Semite, and then he has to shut his mouth, because after this what can he say?”
Also defending Omar is Phyllis Bennis, Jewish-American woman and member of Jewish Voice for Peace: “So many of the articles, so much of the discourse in recent days, has not been based at all on what she actually said. So, in fact, the congresswoman is being attacked for anti-Semitic statements she never made, for anti-Jewish prejudices that she doesn’t hold, and for a kind of hatred of Jews that she never expressed. She was being accused of something she never talked about.”
I encourage the reader to view the segment, “Ilhan Omar in Her Own Words: I Know What Hate Feels Like,” also on DemocracyNow.org (March 8, 2019). So once again, you will see that Morgan Liddick is misinformed, dishonest or unable to accept a black immigrant, a proud Muslim woman who wears her hijab in the halls of Congress, a young progressive who is changing the demographics and the politics of Congress — ditto Nancy Pelosi.
Cesar Munoz
Silverthorne
Never been a better time to go vegan
With crippling storms hitting our country in past months, we look forward to the first day of spring, balmy weather and a superb second chance to actualize those New Year’s resolutions favoring more exercise and healthy eating.
The shift toward healthy foods is everywhere. Popular fast food chains like Chipotle, Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell and Wendy’s all offer plant-based meal options. Food websites tout vegan recipes. Global Meat News reports that nearly half of consumers are reducing meat intake.
The financial community is betting on innovative plant food startups like Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods. According to Gallup, sales of plant foods grew 8.1 percent in 2017 and exceeded $3.1 billion last year. Britain’s prestigious The Economist declared 2019 the “Year of the Vegan.”
The reasons are ample. The World Health Organization has linked consumption of processed meats with elevated risk of cancer. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend reduced meat consumption. The media keep exposing factory farm atrocities. And animal agriculture is the chief culprit in climate change.
Every one of us can celebrate spring by checking out the rich collection of plant-based food options in our supermarket’s frozen food, dairy and produce sections. An internet search on vegan foods offers ample recipes.
Schuller Newcomb
Frisco