Mail letters to Letters, Santa Fe Reporter, PO Box 2306, Santa Fe NM 87504, deliver them to 132 E. Marcy St., fax them to 988-5348, e-mail them to editor@sfreporter.com, or use our online form.
ENDANGERED ACT
Thank you for your recent story [Cover story, Feb. 1:
]. The article did a great job of laying out the bevy of attacks being brought against the Endangered Species Act. It also clearly explained how politics can get in the way of sound science, open public debate and informed decision-making. Unfortunately, we've been dealt another political blow.
The president just released his budget for 2007 which includes major cuts to programs that fund conservation on private lands, as well as cuts to the endangered species recovery program. It's hypocritical of this administration to preach the need for incentive-based programs to conserve our nation's imperiled wildlife, then turn around and make significant cuts to these very programs.
I would also like to point out that several family farm and rural community advocates including the National Family Farm Coalition, American Corn Growers Association, and the Rural Coalition banded together with conservationists in the fight to stop Pombo's bad ESA bill last September. Landowners and conservationists aren't always on opposing sides. In fact, we share many common goals, including protecting wildlife habitat and farmland, biodiversity, water, air, soil and rural life.
Lisa Hummon
Albuquerque
CAVIAR VS. MANURE
Your Valentine's issue hit a new low [Cover story, Feb. 8:
]. "The Sex Whisperer" and "That's the Spot" belong in the National Inquirer, not a family newspaper. I didn't find anything worthwhile in the issue-please spare us the gay, self-righteous rantings of Robert Ransom Odom. Your paper is a piece of trash and gets worse by the issue. There is NOTHING of substance. Ever.
I am a longtime friend of Richard McCord, founder of the Reporter. The difference between the quality reporting he did then and the garbage you print now is the difference between caviar and horse manure.
Santa Fe does not need the likes of you.
Nancy Wood
Santa Fe
LOVE SAVAGE LOVE
Thank you, thank you, thank you for making my day! I could not believe my eyes when I saw "Savage Love Premiers!" on the front page of this week's Reporter! I promptly opened to page 69 and read the column aloud to a friend just like I used to do 10 years ago in San Francisco. I will now look forward to the Reporter every week; no more having to read Savage Love online or only when I am in San Francisco. It is about time Santa Fe is getting on par with other fabulous cities in the country. Please, please, to all the people who write negative letters to the editor complaining…yes, this column can be raunchy and offensive, and that is just a little of what is wonderful about it. Please, if you don't like it, don't read it, but let it be and let the rest of us have our pleasure.
Samia van Hattum
Santa Fe
NO JOKE
I am the Richard Gonzalez that you wrote about [Outtakes, Jan. 11:
].
You wrote, "Gonzalez, whom C'de Baca says lives in the Las Vegas area, could not be reached for comment." Now if C'de Baca, my boss, told you that I live in the Las Vegas area, you could have easily found out how to reach me for comment. Did you even try? Or is that just the standard press jibe I always read? My comment is this: Will you give the other side their voice? You MUST, since you say you are an alternative newspaper!
It did NOT take five days for the school's administration to respond. They responded immediately the same day. When I met with Laura LaCour-Johnson, the secretary to the President of Highlands University, she told me that her phone was "ringing off the hook." Laura said, "They want to know who this Richard Gonzalez is and where you work. They want you fired." And she added, "If you were my employee I would fire you, but your supervisor has said nothing but good about you and he doesn't want you to get fired." That same day LaCour-Johnson issued an apology from the President's Office to the whole university. Your statement, "It took the school's administration five days to respond" should really have been stated, "It took the school's administration five days to respond in the manner that conformed to those that were whining."
Two days before I sent the e-mail, my immediate supervisor, Steve Macho, informed me that my contract had been extended until May 2006; therefore my contract did NOT run out at the end of last year. I was indirectly fired through maneuvering. When Mr. C'de Baca summoned me to his office and told me some weasel words as to why my contract was now off, I told him that it was because of the e-mail that I sent. Mr. C'de Baca neither denied nor confirmed my statement. He simply said, "Check back next year."
I was not part-time; I was hired as a full-time interim employee.
My statement, "The Jewish people rejected Jesus as the Messiah and had him crucified and to this very day still deny and reject Christ thus denying God" is pure fact and taken directly out of HISTORY, the Holy Bible. Those who do not read the Holy Bible are the ignorant and uneducated or do not want to admit the truth, period.
You slander me by writing, "A passage from a KKK handbook?" NO! These are passages from the Holy Bible!
No joke and no religious extremist group here. If you want a hope to be saved from the eternal fires of Hell, I beg you to visit
, the only voice crying for the Holy Catholic Church, outside of which no one can be saved.
Richard Gonzalez
Las Vegas, NM
EDITOR'S NOTE: SFR found no listing for Richard Gonzalez in Las Vegas, NM through either telephone or online directories. In response to Gonzalez's Feb. 9 e-mail letter, SFR e-mailed him on Feb. 10 in another attempt to speak with him and had received no response as of presstime.
At the time of reporting, José C'de Baca, Gonzalez's supervisor at New Mexico Highlands University, told SFR Gonzalez was a part-time employee whose contract ran out at the end of last year. Highlands Human Resources Department told SFR this week Gonzales was an interim fulltime employee on a three-month contract from Oct. 17-Dec. 16, 2005.
INFLAMED
Isn't the Reporter supposed to be a publication for the community? Why do you continually publish inflammatory stories that just rile up people but have no constructive solutions to the problems that exist in our community?
Publishing hateful letters [Letters, Feb. 8:
] with no facts to them does more harm then good. All you are doing is perpetuating biases and reinforcing prejudices.
Annette Strom
Santa Fe
KNOW THINE ENEMY
Regarding Mr. Morris' wonderfully fundamentalist rant in the "Love & Sex" issue-thanks for printing his letter. It's always important to know where the fanatics are coming from, and in this case, where they live. Is anyone surprised that he hails from Truth or Consequences? I guess Hellfire and Damnation, NM was too hot for him and Love Thy Neighbor, NM was full of bleeding heart liberals.
Oh well, at least we know that your readership south of the "Mesón-Dixon" line are looking out for the rest of us here in good ol' Gomorrah. Or is it Sodom? I can never tell the two apart.
I'm sure this page is loaded with letters similar to Mr. Morris' just hawking a different god, and spewing a different flavored venom. Go for it-you all deserve each other.
Now just where IS that killer asteroid?
Kelly Walsh
Santa 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. Please include address and phone number for verification purposes; these will not be published.
