It could have been much worse

Dear Editor:

Jim Blanning was a silver miner all of his adult life. As such, he was very experienced in working with explosives.

I’m not excusing what he did on New Year’s Eve, but he could have done much worse.

Investigators will surely find stocks of dynamite and blasting caps at several of the properties he owned. Blanning simply could have rented a truck and done another Oklahoma City in downtown Aspen.

He did not do that, much less become a suicide bomber. I suggest that despite his bitterness and depression, he still kept some sense of proportion.

David Bentley

Aspen