ASPEN TIMES WEEKLY
Volume 125 • Issue Number 16 • 2 Sections • April 17 & 18, 2004 • Free
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How Susie
and Joe
Krabacher
save young
lives in
Haiti
ASPEN TIMES WEEKLY
Cover Story
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Aspenites
focus their
philanthropy
in the
hemisphere’s
poorest
country
Susie and Joe Krabacher run the Mercy and Sharing Foundation from Aspen and put much of their own
money into the operating budget. Aspen Times photo/Devon Meyers.
S
By Scott Condon
Aspen Times Staff Writer
usie Krabacher remembers looking in the mirror
when she was a little girl — distraught after being
sexually abused once again — and vowing to someday be in a position to help kids.
She suffered so much pain while growing up in
Alabama that she’s always felt a special calling to help
children survive tough times. For the last 10 years
she’s paid off her childhood promise many times over,
dedicating herself to helping kids trapped in conditions
that are nearly incomprehensible to most Americans.
Krabacher co-founded the Mercy and Sharing
Foundation in 1994 with her husband, Joe Krabacher, an attorney and successful businessman in Aspen.
Their nonprofit foundation provides education, medical care, food and shelter for almost 2,000 abandoned, orphaned, terminally ill and otherwise needy
kids in Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world.
Susie Krabacher has received national notoriety
for her philanthropic endeavors. Many of the stories
focus on how the former Playboy centerfold ventures through some of the grittiest and deadliest
slums of Haiti on her goodwill missions.
Usually lost in the recounting is how Krabacher’s
personal suffering as a child cemented her determination and will. Sexually abused by her maternal
grandfather from age 4 to 8, she recalls swinging on
a cattle gate as an 8-year-old, telling herself the
abuse would never happen again.
It didn’t. But other family issues landed her in a
foster home by age 12. Conditions there were even
worse. A girl in the foster family was carrying the
child of her own father, according to Krabacher.
School wasn’t a priority for Krabacher during
childhood. Starting at 12, she lied about her age to
get jobs. At 17, a friend sent photos of her in a
swimsuit to Playboy magazine, and Krabacher was
invited to Hugh Hefner’s famed mansion in California. She became a cover girl in March 1984 and
continued as a model for several more years.
Krabacher landed in Aspen 15 years ago and
hooked up with Joe when he handled her divorce
from her first husband. Joe and Susie were married
soon after they met, and they discovered a shared
desire to do something meaningful with their lives.
Religion had been part of Susie’s childhood; she
and Joe are members of Aspen’s First Baptist
Church congregation. They aren’t caught up in
dogma, pomp and ceremony. Instead they try to
apply the Bible as they understand it.
Joe said he and Susie aren’t building points for
entry to heaven. They’re doing it because it is God’s
will, he said.
Life-changing experience
That application of the Bible indirectly led Susie
to Haiti. With no children of her own, she
was preparing to visit Mongolia and help children
there when another member of the Aspen congregation implored her to visit Haiti with him. He
convinced her it made little sense to help
■ continued on page A10
A10 The Aspen Times • Saturday-Sunday, April 17-18, 2004
On one of an estimated 100 visits to the morgue in Cite Soleil, Susie
Krabacher cringes while looking for a child’s body. When a child dies in her
absence, Krabacher or one of her employees locates the body and arranges
for a proper burial. “I do right by my children,” she says. Photo courtesy
Mercy and Sharing Foundation.
Why we ran the photos
Susie Krabacher doesn’t just run a foundation; whenever possible she
personally cares for “her” children. Photo courtesy Mercy and Sharing
Foundation.
■ continued from page A9
children in Asia when such poverty existed
just 500 miles off the Florida coast.
Krabacher went to Haiti and was
immediately hooked. “I can’t even tell
you how deeply that changed me,” she
said.
Her first work was in the abandonedinfant-care unit at the only public hospital in the Haitian capital of Port-auPrince, where in fact “care” was a euphemism. Overwhelmed doctors and nurses
had little time to do anything for the 200or-so kids. The heads of some of the
babies were actually growing around the
explained the situation to him. He told
her to find property for an orphanage.
They would figure out how to pay for it
later.
A foundation was born with a tremendous leap of faith.
“God doesn’t give you anything
you’re not tough enough to handle,”
Susie said.
No shortage of needy
The Krabachers purchased a $111,500
house in Port-au-Prince and moved 47
infants into it from the hospital. Susie
hired a staff and discovered, on her
This week’s edition of the Aspen Times Weekly contains two unusually graphic
photos — one of a child with a spinal deformity, and another of a Haitian morgue.
Anticipating questions and complaints, we decided to explain our reasoning for
running the pictures.
The horrific reality of life in Haiti is part of any story about Susie and Joe
Krabacher’s efforts, and in many ways photos can tell the tale better than words.
Thousands of Haitians suffer from deformities and diseases brought on by hunger,
malnutrition and poor health care. One of our photos shows a child with spina bifida, an all-too-common malady.
When these unfortunates die, as many do, they’re typically thrown into morgues
that look to American eyes like meat lockers; from there, most are buried in mass
graves.
We are publishing a picture of such a morgue. Susie Krabacher has visited this
hellish place many times, to retrieve the bodies of children she was not able to
save. This is not a gratuitously graphic photo of an out-of-the-ordinary incident or
photo-op. We think it’s a reflection of everyday life (or death) in Haiti, and a compelling illustration of Krabacher’s dedication and courage.
Human Development
Life expectancy
at birth
“I have a reputation. Never, even if you put
a gun to my head, will I pay you a bribe.”
- Susie Krabacher
(years)
2001
Infant
mortality rate
(per 1,000
live births)
2001
Haiti
Mexico
United
States
49.1
73.1
76.9
79
24
7
50.8
91.4
99
50
5
—
45
69
100
49
95
100
Adult literacy rate
iron bars in the cribs because the children
hadn’t moved in so long, according to
Krabacher. In some cases, live babies
shared cribs with dead ones who hadn’t
been removed.
“I wanted to help kids in pain. I had
never seen so much pain,” Krabacher
said.
She started visiting the infant-care
unit every day, feeding the kids, applying
bandages and medicine to their open
wounds and simply holding them. After a
month, hospital administrators ordered
her to stop caring for the infants or move
them elsewhere. They were used to the
kids dying — not living and consuming
valuable space and resources.
“I was causing the kids to live, and
they didn’t have any room for them,”
Krabacher said.
It was the first of many gut-wrenching
ironies she and her husband have faced
in Haiti.
Susie called Joe in Aspen and
return to Aspen, that Joe was already
creating a nonprofit foundation to oversee the orphanage. He made his first trip
to Haiti about a year later and understood
why Susie felt compelled to act.
“There is so much need down there.
It’s hard to focus your attention,” Joe
said.
Through necessity and opportunity the
Mercy and Sharing Foundation began to
grow. The foundation contracted with the
hospital to work with recently abandoned
or orphaned infants. In many cases the
infants are terminally ill. A separate
orphanage, Mercy House Orphanage I,
was created to handle their unique needs.
Still another, Mercy House Orphanage II,
was created for infants who overcame
their medical conditions.
Numbers in the orphanages vary
widely from month to month, with anywhere from 30 to 60 children at a given
time.
■ continued on page A15
(% age 15
and above)
2001
Undernourished
people
(as % of total
population)
1998/2000
Population with
access to an
improved water
source
(% Rural) 2000
Population with
access to an
improved water
source
(% Urban) 2000
A personal
awakening in Haiti
By Kathleen Carlson
For as long as I can remember, I’ve
felt that I was meant to ease other people’s pain. Yet somewhere along the
line, I grew up, got a job and forgot.
At the age of 24, I had the good fortune to reawaken to my calling.
I was a staff writer for the Aspen
Daily News when my friend and fellow
photographer, Stef Deutsch, and I traded the local mud season for a few days
in a Third World country. Our mission
was to reveal the dismal conditions that
Aspen resident Susie Krabacher battles
to help the poor and abandoned children
of Haiti.
The very first day changed my life.
At the Mercy House Orphanage,
which was then home to about 30 handicapped and terminally ill children, I
met a young boy named Lee who
latched onto me and became my companion for the afternoon.
There are a few split seconds in my
life that I’ll never forget, and this was
one of them. As we pulled away, I
turned around moments before the
Mercy House was out of view. I saw little Lee banging his hand on the balcony
railing, crying.
Silence permeated the van as we
drove away, pondering the suffering we
had witnessed. I tilted my hat down,
trying to hide tears that I couldn’t hold
back.
Saturday-Sunday, April 17-18, 2004 • The Aspen Times A15
tors, nurses, administrators and others
The foundation has also started or working at the foundation’s nine orphantaken over six schools that provide edu- ages and schools. Only natives are hired.
cation up to the sixth grade. The founda- The jobs are coveted, Susie said, because
tion’s largest school has about 850 chil- they include health-care benefits.
dren, though the schools typically number between 200 and 250 students. One
Not a glamor cause
of those schools provides hope for 100
Celebrity status and beauty opens doors
students in Cite Soleil, one of the most for 40-year-old Susie Krabacher, but raisdepressed slums outside Port-au-Prince.
ing funds for the foundation isn’t easy.
In addition to the finest education in
Initially, Krabacher said, wealthy
Haiti, the students at all schools receive potential donors would meet with her
one meal per day and clean water — vir- because, knowing she was a former Playtual luxuries in Haiti. Mercy and Sharing boy model, they wanted to give her “the
Foundation provides books and uniforms, good ol’ head-to-toe” look. More often
although students can no longer wear than not, those meetings didn’t yield contheir uniforms home because parents will tributions. None of the contacts she made
often sell the clothing to raise cash.
in the Playboy mansion, including HefnJoe admits the foundation has grown er, has helped.
larger than he ever imagined. “Once you
“The celebrity gifts have not come at
take the kids you can never turn back,” all, at least partially because Haiti is black
he said.
children in a country where people are
And he remains confident it will con- known for killing each other,” she said.
tinue to flourish. “If God is with you,
She recalled pulling at the heart
who can be against you?” he asked.
strings of a group in Aspen with a presThe foundation’s annual operating entation that showed the plight of chil■ continued from page A10
Kathleen Carlson. Aspen Times
photo/Devon Meyers.
use that notion to see heroes in all of us,
to recognize the positive in anyone,
regardless of the other elements that
shape their character.
I believe the greatest heroes are the
most compassionate toward others. I
see compassion as a great act — a
moment when nothing else matters but
I see compassion as a great act — a moment
when nothing else matters but the loving
connections between people.
I scarcely felt like a hard-nosed
reporter.
At that point I began to distance
myself from my journalistic goals and
began a quest for my own life of service. Little did I imagine that I would
become a volunteer for the same
woman who started with nothing and
now has nearly 2,000 Haitian children
in her care.
After my first journey to Haiti, I left
Aspen searching for similar nonprofit
work that the Mercy and Sharing Foundation provides. I didn’t find a vocation
as fulfilling or rewarding as my work
today with Mercy and Sharing, but I
learned an important lesson along the
way.
I met a man who espoused the belief
that prophecy has nothing to do with
predicting the future. He showed me
that prophecy for him is a way of life —
of mending the present, healing the
wounds, and fostering a future of
human connectedness.
His mission had a profound affect on
me, and my desires for a life of service
shifted. I no longer want giving or sacrifice to be my driving force. I want to
work outside myself and somehow help
lift people toward peace.
Having experienced life in Haiti, I
know I may never attain that goal, but,
in trying, I pray I am able to bring people together, offer hope, love and perhaps a little peace.
When I was a child I idolized people
whom I respected; I thought they could
do no wrong. I was constantly crushed
when my idols proved to be mere
humans. Only as an adult did I realize
that heroes have human flaws. At first it
was a bittersweet understanding. Now I
the loving connections between people.
During the seven months that I’ve
been a volunteer for Mercy and Sharing, I’ve seen compassion in the most
unlikely places. I’ve seen an enormous
thug hold a tiny bottle in the palm of his
hand, tenderly feeding a dying baby. I
didn’t think much about his criminal
past during that moment. I’ve seen toddlers so emaciated from starvation that,
though their bodies may grow long,
their thighs never become wider than a
coffee cup. Despite their struggle to survive, they bravely flicker their eyes
toward me as I hold them.
Haiti is one of the most corrupt
countries in the world and the poorest
country in the Western Hemisphere.
People live in devastating conditions.
The poverty seems insurmountable and
the environmental degradation is shocking.
Despite all that, a woman from
Aspen has faced numerous obstacles to
brighten the existence of thousands in
Haiti. Other organizations feed and
clothe the destitute and sick Haitian
children, but there are few like Mercy
and Sharing that take the holistic
approach of raising the child through
education, nourishment, and moral and
spiritual leadership.
Susie Krabacher doesn’t want to just
see these children beat death, she wants
to see them flourish and live a fulfilling
life, one that hopefully includes giving
back to their brothers and sisters, their
communities, and restoring their country. So far, she’s quite a success and a
true hero.
Kathleen Carlson is the U.S. director
of the Mercy and Sharing Foundation.
Susie Krabacher comforts a young child with spina bifida. Deformities and
retardation are common in Haiti, due to pervasive poverty, malnutrition and
lack of health care. Photo courtesy Mercy and Sharing Foundation.
“I wanted to help kids in pain. I had never
seen so much pain.”
- Susie Krabacher
budget is about $320,000. The Krabachers provide about one-third of that
amount from their own pockets. Susie
devotes her time in the United States to
raising funds and supplies.
To keep the operating budget under control, many goods must be donated. For
example, the foundation goes through
6,000 diapers each month, the cost of
which would be prohibitive. So Susie
works with companies to get them donated.
Joe noted that the funds raised by the
foundation stretch a long way in impoverished Haiti. Land prices are surprisingly high, but construction is cheap and
wages are low. The foundation’s first
school cost $14,000 to build, he said.
All cash contributions to Mercy and
Sharing go directly to the children. All
administrative costs are paid by the
Krabachers, Susie said, which makes the
foundation unique. Kids from the
orphanages are put up for adoption, but
the foundation doesn’t profit from the
adoptions.
There are 152 Haitian teachers, doc-
dren in Haiti. A well-known local man
(who she refused to name) followed her
presentation, urging the group to help
him provide golf clubs for disadvantaged
local youth. The group contributed to the
golf project, Krabacher said.
She can only laugh at the story now.
After more than a decade of hard
work, tangible results and favorable coverage in publications from the Wall
Street Journal to People magazine, the
foundation is gaining clout and funding.
“People have come to not focus so
much on the fact that I was a centerfold
for Playboy,” Krabacher said.
The small contributions the organization receives are as meaningful to the
Krabachers as the big gifts. A local child
told Susie recently that her mom cleaned
an extra house so she could donate to the
Mercy and Sharing Foundation.
While the Krabachers keep seeking a
deep-pocketed individual or organization
to help start an endowment fund, they
have also launched a new fund-raising
■ continued on page A16
A16 The Aspen Times • Saturday-Sunday, April 17-18, 2004
SuLynn was born three months early, weighing a
little more than 1 pound. Six months later, she’s
growing into a healthy, alert child. Photos courtesy
Mercy and Sharing Foundation.
■ continued from page A15
Trying circumstances
effort to appeal to people of any means. Donors can pay for
all the needs of a Haitian child for $50 per month in the
Guardian Angel program (see related story, page A17).
Working in Haiti is far from a Caribbean pleasure
cruise. Krabacher’s life has been threatened on several
occasions, most recently in February when rebels were
preparing to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
She works the trenches
What makes Susie Krabacher unique among philanthropists is her willingness to work the trenches for her
cause. While she spends her time in the United States
shmoozing potential donors and giving speeches to
focus attention on the plight of Haiti’s children, she also
regularly visits the infant-care unit at the hospital in
Port-au-Prince, holding the deformed, retarded, malnourished and terminally ill kids.
Initially she wore a mask and rubber gloves at the
hospital, but realized it scared the infants, who crave
human contact.
“I will not touch those kids with gloves any more. It
breaks their hearts. It kills them,” she said.
With her fair skin and long, blonde hair, Krabacher
cannot help standing out in Haiti. But she’s just as comfortable traveling the streets of Cite Soleil as she is hosting an Aspen cocktail party. She used to visit Haiti
every month; after 10 years with the foundation, she still
spends a couple of weeks there every other month.
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“If God is with you, who can
be against you?”
- Joe Krabacher
As the country slid toward possible civil war, the
foundation’s Haitian director, Stanley Joseph, reported
to the Krabachers that one of their campuses had been
surrounded the night before by men with automatic
weapons and stockings over their heads. They threat-
ened to kill the children if the land wasn’t turned over to
them.
Susie booked a flight and immediately flew to Haiti
despite a U.S. State Department advisory against travel.
In a recent speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Krabacher described how she, the foundation’s volunteer U.S. director, Kathleen Carlson, and
Joseph were stopped at a barricade.
“I opened the passenger door and started to step
down from the truck when one of the men pointed the
gun at my chest while another put a gun to the window
of the back seat where two of our staff sat,” Krabacher
told the Press Club in a speech broadcast on CSPAN. “A
man who appeared to be the leader ordered the men to
shoot. Mr. Joseph, with his hands in the air, began
shouting back that we take care of the Haitian children
while I was shouting, with my hands above my head,
that we respect them and only want to go to our orphanages.”
Joseph eventually convinced the armed men to let
them pass. “To this day I do not know why they let us
go,” Krabacher said.
And that’s only the most recent confrontation. The
Aristide government was extremely corrupt, both
Krabachers agree. High-ranking government officials
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Saturday-Sunday, April 17-18, 2004 • The Aspen Times
A17
How to help
You don’t have to be a big spender to help the
Aspen-based Mercy and Sharing Foundation save
the lives of children in Haiti.
The foundation has new a “Guardian Angels”
program that provides medical and dental care, education, school supplies and, in some cases, food for
kids for $50 per month.
Lots of organizations have similar programs, but
they often pay only a fraction of the cost of helping a
kid, noted Susie Krabacher, the founder and leader of
the Mercy and Sharing Foundation. The $50 per month
in the Guardian Angel program pays for everything
needed by the kids in the foundation’s programs.
“Anybody any day of the year can
save a child. Take the initiative,
walk to your phone or computer,
take three minutes of your time.”
- Susie Krabacher
In the neighborhoods around her orphanages, including this one in Cite Soleil, Susie Krabacher is wellknown to both adults and children. Kathleen Carlson photo.
have tried to extract bribes by threatening not to renew
operating licenses for the orphanages.
Local gang leaders have also tried to extract money
from the foundation. But Krabacher said she’s earned
their respect and trust. Parents know she is helping kids,
so they pressure the gangs to leave her alone.
“I have a reputation — never, even if you put a gun
to my head — will I pay you a bribe,” she said.
Joe trusts Susie’s knowledge of Haiti and the respect
she’s earned among locals to survive during times like
the ousting of Aristide. Joe knows he couldn’t have
stopped her from going to Haiti once she heard the kids
in the orphanage had been terrorized.
“She is a relentless advocate for the children,” he
said.
Conditions in Haiti have stabilized since early March,
when Aristide fled, and an interim government was created and peacekeepers including U.S. Marines came to
the country. Both Krabachers feel Haiti’s prospects are
significantly brighter under a new government.
The foundation’s highest priority was to restock supplies after Aristide loyalists raided a warehouse and
stole food, diapers and supplies. A donation from the
Houston-based Medical Bridges organization will provide the Mercy and Sharing Foundation with two 40foot containers of rice and beans.
The Krabachers’ current project is to establish a clinic to support pregnant women and their unborn children.
The first orphanage established by the foundation is no
longer large enough to care for all the kids, so it’s being
transformed into the prenatal clinic. If all goes as
planned, it will open in June.
Susie said it marks a step in a new direction for the
foundation — preventing birth defects and problems
rather than addressing their results. The clinic will also
offer family-planning advice.
One massive problem in Haiti is babies born with a
lack of folic acid. In the United States the problem is
easily solved, according to Krabacher, but in Haiti it
goes untreated and leads to horrendous deformities. The
ill health of the mothers also leads to problems like
retardation.
“In the beginning, if I had known this was such a
huge problem, it would have been my focus,” she said.
Rotary International has given the foundation
$30,000 to buy rehabilitated medical equipment that
will be used in the clinic. The Krabachers are raising the
$60,000 needed for annual operating expenses.
There is virtually no end to the list of projects the
Krabachers want to tackle in Haiti. The more success
they have, the more they seek to do.
“It is not impossible in any way, shape or form to
change the world,” Susie said.
More on the Mercy and Sharing Foundation is available on the Web at www.haitichildren.org.
Scott Condon’s e-mail address is [email protected].
Krabacher said 100 percent of contributions go directly to aiding the kids in Haiti. All administrative costs are
covered by Susie and Joe Krabacher themselves.
She said she isn’t trying to convince people not to
contribute to other similar causes. She would like
donors to add the Mercy and Sharing Foundation to
the groups they aid.
The Guardian Angel program is a good way for
people of any income level to get involved in philanthropy. Donors will receive photos of the kids they
save, as well as occasional letters from them. More
important, they can help the foundation save lives in
one of the poorest countries in the world.
“I don’t want any kid to die,” said Krabacher.
“Anybody any day of the year can save a child. Take
the initiative, walk to your phone or computer, take
three minutes of your time and save a life.”
A form that can be used to become a Guardian
Angel is available at the foundation’s Web site at
www.haitichildren.org.
General contributions can be made by people who
cannot commit to $600 annually as a Guardian Angel.
Krabacher said she appreciates the people who give a
few bucks as much as those who donate $100,000.
Contributions can be sent to The Mercy and Sharing Foundation, 201 N. Mill St., Ste. 201, Aspen,
CO 81611.
— Scott Condon
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Saturday-Sunday, April 17-18, 2004 • The Aspen Times
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of The Associated Press.The AP alone is entitled to
re-publication use of local news in The Aspen Times.
LETTERS POLICY
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and must include an address
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author (for verification, not
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Because space is limited,
only letters less than 500
words long will be published.
A23
EDITORIAL
A tip of the hat to hardworking philanthropists
Look out your window, Aspenites.
Chances are it’s stunningly beautiful
out. Spring is in full swing, the snow’s
melting, the bushes are budding and the
grass is up and green. The change of seasons in the Roaring Fork Valley is a
source of joy and wonder.
Every Aspenite knows this. Most of us
moved here for the air, the sky, the views,
the mountains. But there’s a drawback to
this Rocky Mountain bliss. We all know
at least one Aspenite who lives in a state
of arrested development, someone who’s
been blissed out for too many years skiing
powder and worshipping the sun, who’s
all but forgotten about the world outside.
That’s why the people on our cover
this week, Susie and Joe Krabacher, are
doubly impressive.
A successful Aspen couple, Joe and
Susie have almost everything a person
could want. How easy it would be for the
Krabachers to rest on their laurels, buy a
big house and a big car and live the
Aspen dream.
To some degree, they do live this way.
Most of us do.
It’s what the Krabachers do with the
rest of their time that makes them an
inspiration. From Aspen, the glitziest of
mountain resorts, they run a foundation
dedicated to easing the suffering and
saving the lives of children in the poorest
country in the Western Hemisphere —
Haiti. Today, there are some 2,000 children in their indirect care, receiving
food, shelter, medical care or education
in one of the Krabachers’ schools or
orphanages.
Lest anyone assume that the Krabachers are absentee benefactors, read the
story and take a look at the photos.
Susie, especially, is a hands-on angel of
mercy who doesn’t shy away from the
streets, slums and even morgues of that
destitute, underdeveloped country.
The Krabachers’ dedication is more
than admirable. It’s heroic — especially
coming from a well-insulated Shangri-La
like Aspen.
It’s all too easy to forget that Aspen is
part of a much larger and much harder
world. Susie and Joe Krabacher show
that we can all be active, caring, committed participants — not just here, but anywhere.
LETTERS
Signs are cheaper
Plenty of guilt to go around
Dear Editor:
(This letter was originally addressed to
the Aspen City Council.)
I was not able to attend [Monday]
night’s council meeting, as I am in a class
at CMC in Glenwood Springs. However, I
do want you to hear my thoughts on the
issue of moving the visitors center to the
Main Street location under consideration at
this time.
I am well aware of the underutilization
of the visitors center through conversations
with ACRA board members that have
served on my World Cup Press Room
committee. The main theme has always
been that tourists have a difficult time
finding their way to our visitors center.
I am, however, perplexed that the City
Council wants to remedy that situation so
quickly and at great expense to the public,
without first attempting to see if a lowcost fix might just be the solution we
need.
I am talking about adding visible signage at both entrances to Aspen, which
will better guide tourists to a visitors center that is more than adequate to serve our
needs. How much could that cost, perhaps
$1,000?
Even if the cost ends up being 10 times
that amount wouldn’t we, the public, be
better served than by having council rushing to spend $1 million of taxpayers’
money relocating this facility to a potentially troubling location?
I urge you to take some more time and
see if additional signs can make the facility
that we have become a more useful site to
the tourists we are trying to attract. I really
don’t think the community wants to see
RVs clogging up a busy Main Street intersection, while they attempt to run inside
for information that can be had at leisure,
and with adequate parking, at our current
site.
Sue Geist
Aspen
Dear Editor:
Mayor Klanderud and her citizen group
will hopefully be thoughtful in their deliberations on our relationship with Bariloche.
A few points to consider:
• The key question is the character of
Bariloche today — not more than half a
century ago. Is this a democratic city that
rejects the appalling and criminal behavior
of its own citizens and those of other
nations in the past?
• If we are to single out Bariloche for its
past behavior, then what about Chamonix?
Can we be certain that no members of the
Mallise (the French Gestapo in Vichy,
France, that rounded up and murdered
Jews) were welcomed there?
• Or Garmisch — can we be certain that
no Nazis were ever accepted or harbored
in this German city?
• Or Davos — are we confident that no
Swiss bankers there were ever involved in
the expropriation of Jewish assets?
• Or Shimukappu — is it certain that no
perpetrators of the Bataan Death March or
the Rape of Nanking ever found welcome
in this Japanese city?
It seems the best course in the Sister
Cities program is to use the relationship to
advance and foster our own ideals of
democracy and tolerance. That is hardly
accomplished by breaking off relationships
based on long past behavior — and if we
are to use that standard then we will likely
find no Sister Cities at all, since there is
plenty of historical guilt to go around.
James DeFrancia
Aspen
Thanks, voters
Dear Editor:
At this time I would like to thank the
Basalt voters. Thank you to all my family,
friends and neighbors who gave me
encouragement and support during my
campaign. The results of this election
prove that community, neighbors, friends
and family are important. Basalt is about
people working together for the good of
the whole.
In order to represent you, it is important
to share your ideas and concerns with me,
fellow councilors, or town staff. Communication is essential to the success of any
representative in government.
Thank you for the opportunity to build
upon improvements and projects which
have been started and expand on the successes that make Basalt the best place to
live.
Leroy Duroux
Basalt
Support for Dr. Gerson
Dear Editor:
You haven’t heard from me in four
years, but I must raise my voice and show
my support for Dr. and Mrs. Gordon Gerson as so few of my friends did for me and
my husband when we were pilloried in the
Aspen papers.
Aspen should thank its lucky stars for
having such a fine doctor and his family in
our community. We credit Dr. Gerson with
saving my husband’s life. I have had many
good conversations with this couple and
have entertained them in our home.
I believe there are people at AVH who
have been threatened by the Gersons’ serious approach to medicine and the concept
of holding employees responsible for their
actions. It’s a new concept for AVH and
anyone who has experience out there
knows what I am talking about — lost
records, lost tests and a lot of excuses.
I am shocked and disappointed that the
best this town can do after two days of
front-page stories telling of silly charges
and nonsense, that only two letters of support in one paper have been printed.
“Evil flourishes when good people do
nothing.”
Gail Stanger
Aspen