May. 24, 2002 - 18:00 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Should I Think ?

I see the headlines in The Rocky Mountain News this morning, "DENVER'S AIR QUALITY GETS AN 'A' Below the Headline is, "EPA about to declare city in compliance."

Yeah, uh huh, sure, do I believe that ? About as much as I did the hype put out by the EPA about the Shattuck cleanup. Whatever anyone says will be met with copious reasons why their words are mistaken.

Not a plea for pity but a means for comparison, I have COPD and live near two heavily traveled arteries. The allergies I had as a kid, Russian Thistle, Burning Bush don't affect me any more but pollutant smog and particulates do.

The year 1990 in June I retired. I had been working north of Denver on land higher than the Denver Basin. When coming home from work at 7:30 AM the smog was not too noticeable out there. Cresting the last high ground with Denver laid out before my eyes, the sight would be stomach turning. I would have the feeling, "Me go down into that lung destroying mess ?" It was unbelievable unless witnessed.

Heather and I have been moving around the Denver Metro Area quite a bit recently at different times of the day. What we see does not jibe with what the EPA says, neither does what we breathe. Not to our way of looking at it anyway. There are times that the foothills are not discernable from town. There are times that smog (Or whatever fancy term is used) is easily seen in town at ground level.

And the building of residences and commercial buildings is going full blast - of course it adds to the pollution. Does any body move here and not drive a car ?

Why is it during the height of the morning rush and evening rush it becomes more difficult for me to breathe ? Why is the brown cloud getting more blinding ?

Of course the defenders of the status quo will strive to encourage those of us who have breathing difficuties to move out of town where the air is pure. Yeah, away from doctors, drugstores, grocery stores and filling stations as well as being far, far away from hospitals. Move out to where the snow gets too deep to drive in until the plow comes by.

Here where Heather and I live it takes us five minutes or less to get to any of those. Five minutes to get to our clinic. Ten at most to a hospital. I have lived a time or two out in the boonies and saw how difficult things were for someone having physical problems. So damned if we do and damned if we don't and double damned if we vacillate.

Do I have a solution ? Not one that anyone would accept nor would I. It just seems to me that all power and brains available should be centered in cleaning up the air -- rather than blowing smoke in our eyes with phony headlines. I read the articles and look out the window and move about town, what Should I Think ? . . . . . . . .

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