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these will not be published.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).
HOT PURSUIT
I was very pleased to see [Outtakes, July 13:
]. I have long been concerned about the many "lost" dogs I see in the Lost & Found column of our daily paper. A number of years ago I came across a book called Sherlock Bones by John Keane-Tracer of Missing Pets. One of Keane's suggestions on finding your pet is to word the poster and/or ad in the following way: REWARD: $XXX FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO THE RETURN OF THIS DOG (include photograph on poster if you have one). You then list the name, type, sex, age, weight/height (approx.), color(s), identifying features (type tail, ears, etc.), collar (if wearing one) and where and when pet was lost. I suggest those who lose their pets follow this suggestion. This way if the dog is tied in a back yard and a neighbor sees it, he can know he will get the reward when the animal is recovered.
John Keane is listed on the book jacket as "the country's first and only professional pet detective" (in San Francisco). I notice on the Internet he is still in business and am thinking there may be some person in Santa Fe who might like to become Santa Fe's first pet detective…how about it, somebody?
Geri Aron
Santa Fe
PADDLE THE BOARD?
In your article [Outtakes, June 29:
], Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education Member Marcy Litzenberg states she believes the group Citizens for Better Schools has a political agenda. Speaking on my behalf only, not on behalf of the CBS folks, indeed my agenda would be for "Transparency in Actions by Our Elected Officials."
As a person walks into the board chambers for the school district at 610 Alta Vista St., right up above their head they will see a sign that proclaims quite boldly that our school district is a CHARACTER COUNTS district. The first two elements of that CHARACTER COUNTS program are trustworthiness and respect.
The "Transparency Agenda" that I would like to see implemented is related to trustworthiness. For example: Dickie Montoya's "Transamericano" deal with the school district. There was no transparency in the original vote, and definitely no desire to revisit the issue, even though we have a board member who received a rather substantial sum from Dickie Montoya when he ran for City Council and another board member who suffers from a convenient case of amnesia when asked who his campaign contributors were. Both voted for the deal.
Respect...ah yes, RESPECT. A board member gave me the finger at the School Board Candidates Forum in late February in the board chambers, not 15 feet from the CHARACTER COUNTS sign, but when I brought that up also at the April 5 board meeting, it was met with stony silence. I even supplied three board members with the name of a witness of unimpeachable credentials, and one of you followed up on that (not Litzenberg). When I talked to Litzenberg after a recent board meeting, she said, "What do you want the board to do? That's not the person I know! I didn't see it happen!"
The teachers and counselors who are a part of the Citizens for Better Schools that I have been so fortunate to meet are the kinds of individuals that I want to be the primary influences in my daughter's life, people with the raw courage to confront a dismal administration (and lackluster school board). I certainly wouldn't want her major influences to be any of the majority of our current school board.
Fred Flatt
Santa Fe
JUBS GALORE
As a past resident of Santa Fe, I heard that Wal-Mart is planning to open a Superstore in your area [Cover story, July 13:
]…congratulations. We have one here in Asheville, NC that opened up five months ago. It's a lovely store: 221,000 square feet of squat, more low-paying jobs than you can count on the whole town's fingers and toes.
It seems that the poll in the New Mexican shows almost 46 percent favor its presence.
Just goes to show you: The people know what's best for them.
And to the rest of you: Give Wal-Mart a chance, huh, guys? The Waltons are just good hard workin' folks from Arkansas. Pay some taxes and provide JUBS (Just Under Broke) for the community. So what that if they are driving everyone out of business, eliminating competition and providing a new base standard for working poverty? They are just smarter than the rest. It's just business, free enterprise, true American ingenuity. A true example of entrepreneurial spirit that has made us the leaders of the "free world," and the envy of the downtrodden masses of starving people globally, and the target of every terrorist group in the world.
Edward Krasner
Swannanoa, NC
WAL-SMART?
I confess I was quite astonished to learn that a Super Wal-Mart could be described as an amenity.
Better said, it is an obscenity…what with misogynist policies, sweatshop products, inhumane hours, inadequate pay and deliberate attempts to drive local businesses into oblivion.
As someone who has lived in Agua Fria Village for some years, and who remembers when the nearest grocery store was a 14-mile round trip, after Romero's store here closed, I understand the sense that folks in the Tierra Contenta so-called "affordable" community have that life ain't like that on the east side. But that a Super Wal-Mart, dedicated to the attraction of a huge marketing basin-from Alamosa to Las Vegas, maybe?-is going to be an amenity for the residents of Tierra Contenta is difficult to accept.
I believe the problem is that people would like to have a handy market, a grocery store, nearby. Who would have considered Wal-Mart a grocery store five years ago? I find myself wondering what nutritional value outweighs the chemical composition of the long-shelf-life items that qualify the former dry-goods store as a food store. Yes to amenities, yes to a grocery store, yes to a business center. NO to a Super Wal-Mart, which makes the rest LESS likely.
Do the folks in Tierra Contenta know that the apartments next to the Wal-Mart parking lot on Rufina Circle were for years the hottest spot for police calls in the city? Is that the kind of amenity they are looking for?
The whipping up of anxious citizens with biased propaganda is part of development plans these days, I guess. It's disheartening for anyone who believes in democracy as the exchange of rational dialogue between equal participants, with a mutually agreed upon resolution.
Olivia Tsosie
Santa Fe
WHAT THA…?
Where did you find the word "clusterfucks" [Cover story, July 13:
]?
Mark Anthony
Pojoaque
Editor's Note: The term "clusterfuck" can be found in a variety of dictionaries, including wiktionary and Urban Dictionary. Wiktionary's definition can be found under the definition for "Charlie Foxtrot" (military): "Cluster Fuck, as expressed in the NATO phonetic alphabet." Urban Dictionary concurs with: "Military term for an operation in which multiple things have gone wrong."
