MUY CONTENTA
Regarding your airport road piece [Cover story, May 18:
] I am amazed that your reporter wasn't mugged, shot, mutilated and left bleeding to death in the gutter while the scum of Santa Fe passed by without giving a shit. I've lived on the south side of Santa Fe since 1996 and never had a problem. As a matter of fact I've made some good friends and had a lot of good times. It's convenient, has lots of parks for the kiddies and has a median home price well below the bogus $340,000 quoted by your reporter who doesn't seem to understand that the 30 percent of homes built in this city are built in Tierra Contenta and sold directly by the developers so the sales price never hits the MLS and doesn't figure into those numbers. The absolute disservice of pieces like this to the overall community is astounding. Do you really think that the real Santa Fe exists only on "the other side of St. Francis" in $600,000 homes on three acres complete with fake vigas and kivas? I can hear the kids' mariachi band practicing across the street on Sundays and we carpool the kids to school every morning (Turquoise Trail Charter School is excellent). It's a real community and has real opportunities for home ownership.
Joe D'AlessandroSanta Fe
ROAD TO RUIN
Nathan Dinsdale's story on Airport Road neglected driving down Airport Road at 7:30 am on a weekday. If he had, he would have noted how you sit through three cycles of every traffic light on the way to Cerrillos at that hour. There is no way that this already congested road can absorb the traffic from another 4,000 homes in Tierra Contenta.
Kevin FichtnerSanta Fe
ADVOCACY?
Reporter Nadra Kareem needs to review the difference between reporting and advocacy. Her report [Outtakes, May 18:
] on federal medical funds for illegal aliens-not immigrants, immigrants enter legally-since it lacks any trace of opposing opinion, is an editorial, not reporting. It wears particularly thin in an era when journalism is superseded by propaganda on all fronts. Federal funds for emergency rooms merely remove accountability and hide costs in a bureaucratic maze rather than in full view at local hospitals and increases overall costs through administrative expense. And, despite depictions that these funds are equal to manna from heaven, they come out of taxpayers' pockets, a point lost on Kareem and, sadly, politicians eager to appease a nation outraged by its hemorrhaging borders. No one should be denied medial care, but those who profit from illegal labor should bear the costs, not benefit from taxpayer subsidies of their shady activities.
Kathleene Parker
Rio Rancho
RUSH TO JUDGEMENT
Despite defining himself as a "gay-New Age-metaphysical-alternative- spiritual columnist, who chants Hindu mantras," Robert Ransom Odom [Walk Your Talk, May 18] does nothing more than ape that bombastic, iconoclastic, purveyor of gross stereotypes, Rush Limbaugh. Though Odom attempts to portray the piece as a lament of the emasculization of men he does nothing more than spend a page vilifying "the radical feminists" for being at the helm of that emasculization. He paints a mighty nasty (and mighty stereotypical) picture of "those" radical feminists with nothing more than anecdotes. So, I am left wondering this: Just WHO are those radical feminists at fault for ruining millions of manhoods? Name them. Please. According to Odom "those" radical feminists (whose names I anxiously await hearing) "scream down anyone who challenges them," and are entirely responsible for the "payback time" of man-abuse we're living in. Odom apparently knows this because he's "been around THEM and" he can "assure us that the matriarchy they are preparing us for is far harsher than the old patriarchy they seek to supplant." Hmmmm. What's the difference between Odom decrying "radical feminists" or Limbaugh lambasting "feminazis"? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. This article begs for a lengthy refutation strictly based on logic. It begs again for a refutation of Odom's points based on looking at feminism as a cultural phenomenon made up of VASTLY different women and communities of people-most of whom defy stereotyping. How can Odom, in good conscience, take the time to define himself ad nauseum, hyphenated designate after hyphenated designate, and then dismiss an entire group of people out of hand based on nothing more than gross stereotypes? Substitute Jews, gays, quadriplegics, Hispanics, unmarried mothers or Christians for "radical feminists" and it becomes apparent why this type of reactionary, self-righteous ranting is so insidious. From the Left or from the Right-it's all bad. Goodness. As a human race we still rely so heavily on finding a group of "others" to vilify. We vilify based on stereotypes painted with broad strokes and we do it regardless of what "minority" or hyphenated group we cast our own lot with. It is utterly futile and ultimately destructive. And yet Odom, despite all those hyphenated identifiers, does it just as deftly as Limbaugh. Oh, the irony. Perhaps Odom needs to add another hyphen and designate to his list: -hypocrite.
Georgia De KatonaSanta Fe
PIMPS AND HO'S
No matter what the Reporter dishes up, it's always served with a little whine. Your weepy stories about hot dog wars [SFR Talk, May 11: "Got Beef?"] and again with the story about that facist reporter [John] Huddy [Outtakes, May 18:
] made me puke. The Journal Publishing Co. has already spent a lot of money on lawyers defending Huddy, a reporter who acted like he worked for the government. When Huddy was more facist than the fascist publisher and the fascist Pfeffer, the paper bounced him. Huddy, Goldberg and Pfeffer: media whores and pimps.
John CoventrySanta Fe The Reporter welcomes original, signed letters to the editor. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to specific articles in the Reporter. They may be edited for clarity and space. Include address and phone number for verification purposes; these will not be published. Mail to Letters, Santa Fe Reporter, PO Box 2306, Santa Fe NM 87504, deliver to 132 E. Marcy St., fax to 505-988-5348 or e-mail (editor@sfreporter.com) .
