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THE TAO OF FLATULENCE
My Zen teacher would comment how some people would come into their koan interview and simply pass gas. He would not mind if they came in and took a good dump but he had no patience for the foul smell polluting the air. Your article [Outtakes, May 4: "
"] by Nathan Dinsdale fits in this latter category. Noxious wind without substance.
It would be a shame if the clinic did not treat non-English speakers due to legal fears. Your article says they will if a translator is available. Why the inflammatory opening paragraph?
T Quinn Evans
Santa Fe
DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
While we were happy to see the Reporter doing a story on our middle schools [Cover story, April 27: "
"], we were very disturbed by the cover art used. Although your reporter noted that public school students have a standard dress policy, and the students she saw were dressed in khaki pants and polo shirts, your cover drawing depicted a young girl in very low-slung jeans, showing thong underwear, a tattoo and navel ring, plus a midrifff-baring spaghetti-strap tank top. Such outfits would never be allowed at our schools and your cover merely continues to promote the negative stereotypes that parents fear. We are constantly working at creating a positive image of our schools and our students. Ortiz Middle School, especially, has worked to create an environment of excellence and respect. Using such artwork did a great disservice to the administration and students at Ortiz Middle School and to the community at large.
Dr. Gloria O Rendon
Superintendent of Schools
Santa Fe
TWO THINGS…
1. Thanks for the SFR Talk with Nancy Laflin [SFR Talk, April 27: "
"]. She was the classiest lady on TV and I will certainly miss her.
2. The article [Cover story, April 20: "
"] was timely, interesting and the group is appalling! Maybe a smaller cover picture would have been better.
Sue Conner
White Rock, NM
CUT TO THE CHASE
After reading the article written by Julia Goldberg [Cover story, April 13: "
"] I found myself compelled to respond and tell the other side of the story…the side Rubén Martínez totally ignored. He probably did not tell it as he sells more books telling his version.
I was also born in LA in the '50s. I remember crossing the border hundreds of times since my grandfather owned land in Baja. Our family would go fishing every other week. Like Mr. Martínez, my family also owned a Mexican restaurant, only our emblem was a proud Aztec chief. The restaurant's name was La Tolteca.
Throughout my life I have lived in almost every border town in California, Arizona and New Mexico. In previous years there lived a different kind of Mexican immigrant…more honest, more humble, more dignified. This is where I cut to the chase and tell you who and what many of the Mexican immigrants are now.
First of all, "mules," or people who profit by aiding immigrants illegally cross the border, are always having shootouts to stifle the mule competition. Many of the people who make it across the border immediately buy phony IDs, birth certificates, you name it. Papa gets work; Mama gets welfare, Medicaid, free school breakfast and lunch for the kids and a job too. Brand new trucks are bought since you now have new ID. These new trucks are driven back to Mexico, sold, and the process repeats itself.
Then we move onto public housing where, since the phony ID is clean, Mama moves in with her four or five multi-age sons. Soon they are employed by the local drug cartel that sets up the young immigrants and drug business is in full swing. They all have cell phones and the new "lookouts" are strategically positioned on street corners. Many of them are as young as 9 years old. And since Santa Fe is considered a "sanctuary" for Mexican immigrants these activities are pretty much ignored by local authorities. Doesn't hardly fit Rubén Martínez's image, does it?
Richard Moreno
Santa Fe
BAD NUMBERS
I was dismayed by your lack of fact checking in your interview with Jennet Conant [Cover story, May 4: "
"], specifically by your unquestioning quotation of her statement: "And I understood very clearly that while my grandfather saw it as a wholly justified act, that there was always a certain moral ambivalence to taking 10,000 civilian lives even though it was in a calculation he thought would save many, many more." In fact, the US bombing of Hiroshima killed 80,000 people (mostly civilians) immediately and 200,000 eventually.
In Nagasaki, the number who died immediately was 74,000 with another 75,000 suffering injury. I am certain you have no desire to whitewash the effects of the United States' past use of nuclear weapons, but at a time when strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is under discussion at the United Nations your clarification or acknowledgement of the massive destructive power of these weapons would be in the best interest of your readers.
Vikki Darland
Santa Fe
WHICH WEST IS WEST?
We were somewhat disappointed in your recent coverage of the opening of the show at No Man's Land, Friday, May 6 [SFR Picks, May 4: "Go West Young Man"]. Now, I personally have not read the article, but my brother has and has reported to me not only the gross reporting errors, but how the general tone of the article was one of the "Wild West, yee haw" genre. Tsk, tsk, tsk....
First of all, Jordan West is most definitely NOT the son of Jerry West. He is the son of Russell West and a second cousin of Jerry's.
Secondly, as natives of Santa Fe we were offended by the tone of your writing. It seems to have been grounded in lack of information. Why did you write in terms of a "Wild West" thing…the West brothers ride into town thing…brother…
The West family does in fact have a long tradition of being the last of the "old cowboy" types, having settled in Santa Fe in the early 1900s with large ranches south of town. However, you needed to do a little more homework. Let's start with Hal West. He was one of the first artists to "colonize" Canyon Road. He had a gallery on Canyon Road when it was still a dirt road. And as for Jordan, heavens to Betsy…he's been featured in galleries in Amsterdam, Germany, New York, etc…ULTRA modern and about as far from the "yee haw, wild West" thing as you can get.
Anyway, I'm sure your article was not that bad. I'd like to read it for myself, but as the matriarch of our side of the West family, I felt compelled to at the very least, point out your error in lineage history.
Sue West
Santa Fe
Editor's Note: Jerry West is the son of Hal West, but Jordan is, in fact, the son of Russell West, Jerry's first cousin. This makes Jordan Jerry's first cousin, once removed. Jordan is second cousin to Jerry's son, Joe West. SFR regrets the error.
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