Dear Editor:

I made two mistakes a few years ago: voting for Mick Ireland and investing in Bernie Madoff.

I was angry, but also amused, by Mayor Mick’s comments in the paper yesterday that Aspen has to attract a new tourist base … “not just the Bernie Madoff victims” (“The great unwashed welcome in Aspen?” March 26).

---

---

I wonder if Mayor Mick knows that many of the Madoff victims have lived in this valley since the late 1970s and early ’80s and that they have contributed generously to the Aspen Music Festival, the Aspen Art Museum, Dance Aspen, and numerous other cultural, entertainment, educational, athletic, and civic activities in the valley. One even established the David Karetsky Music Lawn at the festival, guaranteeing free lawn seating in perpetuity to anyone who wants to enjoy our gorgeous music in the summer.

I think what our mayor meant to say was that Aspen doesn’t want the Ruth and Bernie Madoffs of this world ” the overly rich, selfish, greedy amoral people who sometimes come here, too. Rather, we want good people, and we want them to know that this is a great place, in part because of our Bernie Madoff victims.

---

---

I won’t vote for Mick Ireland again, and if he loses by only one vote, I hope it’s mine, and like me, he’ll find out what it feels like to be Madoffed.

Gerri Karetsky

Aspen