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.
ODD OUT
I've lived in Santa Fe for 2½ years. In the past, I have tried to explain to my Bible-belt Christian friends in South Carolina just how strange it can be here. Since my friends have undoubtedly been indoctrinated by "historical Old West" Santa Fe, it's hard for them to grasp the reality of today's Santa Fe.
Your latest cover article [Cover story, June 14:
] should do the trick, as well as enlightening me. After 2½ years here, I finally get it. You celebrate weirdness!
"Outside the box" Santa Fe-ers are literally screaming to the world (or in the case of your cover girl, megaphoning), "I'm weirder than you, so YOU OWE me extra tolerance."
Thanks for helping me out.
KC Mosier II
Santa Fe
BLAME GAME
I met George Swansea 10 years ago in East Africa where he was working in response to the AIDS pandemic. Back then-witnessing friends suffering with AIDS without access to even an aspirin, 9-year-old girls marrying 70-year-old men, babies dying of starvation/malnutrition in their mothers' arms, George and I trying to keep our hearts and minds from breaking-those were intense times. So we hiked-a lot.
Now I read about George hiking near Bishop's Lodge and skeet shooting occurring on the trail [Outtakes, May 31:
]. With this situation, there was the attempt to blame and shame George. That's a theme we know well here in the States; we are challenged to take responsibility for our actions. I do it everyday. My insecurities, hurt feelings, myriad limitations, lead to me blame others and to throw some shame and guilt in as needed. I think we all do it. When we see that we are doing this, though, we get to say, "I'm so sorry." It is an awesome feat to be able to do that. Hike on, Brother.
Lori Moody
Santa Fe
IN RANGE
I'd like to thank the Santa Fe Reporter for taking the time to write and research "Off Target." The purpose of the article was to leverage Bishop's Lodge into posting warning signs about their skeet range. They posted signs the very next day; cheers to the press.
I found the responses to "Off Target" pretty off-target [Letters, June 7:
"Shot Down"; "Lost in the Woods"; "Skeet Sleet"
]. An overview: A friend of Dave West's with a doctorate degree saying I intentionally drew fire; I guy who misreads the article and thinks I was lost (I wasn't-that was a misread of the dramatic "taken a very wrong turn"); and finally a man who takes his wife on a birthday horseback ride and is seemingly nonplussed at their both being shot at because metallic skeet sleet. Wow. All I was looking for was some accountability on Bishops Lodge's part for a potentially hazardous situation. When I called David West after receiving his recreational shelling, he called me stupid for walking into gunfire. Only in America could someone be considered ignorant because they didn't recognize sharp popping noises to be birdshot. Of course, a bunch of Americans like to jog and hike with their iPods, so I wonder how effective their gun smarts are then. Despite the insistence of David P Greneveld, PhD, my experience of David West wasn't genteel and friendly, nor did I feel that his control of the situation was safe. Perhaps that day he was out with friends or wasn't keeping a tight rein on his "paying clients," but on that day his people were shooting straight toward the "Upper Mesa View" trail, outside what appears to be Bishop's Lodge's well established safe zone. I welcome the letter writers and anyone with the time and interest to hike the "Upper Mesa View" trail near the skeet range and see for themselves. I have no beef with Bishop's Lodge; they have a beautiful space up there. But David West's idea of compassion was to outline the impact range of birdshot into harmless, damaging, and fatal categories (think Dick Cheney). If you remember that I had to "negotiate a cease fire" with him from the trail, you'll appreciate how close I was to those rifles, well within the merely damaging 90 yards. The fact that they could hear me from the trail suggests that at least one of them was stationed in the wrong place to begin with, away from the clay pigeon tower, shooting toward the trees where I was hiking. After trying to reason with David West on the phone about putting signs up and just being safer in general, he hung up on me. My only recourse after calling 911 and talking with (sympathetic) rangers was to tell my story to the Santa Fe Reporter. I hope that the readers of those vitriolic responses will read between the lines and realize that something unsafe and out of place happened out there. Please don't fall for a cover-up, nor let the truth be watered down with rhetoric.
George Swansea
Santa Fe
HOME DEFENSE
After Reading Felicia Feaster's review of
A Prairie Home Companion
[Movies, June 14:
], I can only conclude that she knows little of Minnesota or Midwestern German-Scandinavian culture. And, I would guess that she knows little of Garrison Keillor. Minnesotans do not have to "suspend disbelief to buy Keillor." They can relate just as easily to his corny, "over-stated caricatures" as they did to what the Coen brothers created in the movie
Fargo
. I hope Ms. Feaster does her homework before berating another movie or such a distinguished director as Robert Altman.
Tom Thompson
Santa Fe
GLASS IS FULL
The radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" is one of America's few remaining national treasures, featuring some of the sharpest, funniest and most sophisticated satirical writing in any medium. The movie version deserved better from you than to be handled by a reviewer with zero appreciation of and so little familiarity with the show that she actually compares it to
Hee Haw
. Her inappropriateness for the job is evidenced in the glaring incongruity between her review and every other one in your "cocktail glass" chart. It would behoove you not to send such ignorant writers on important assignments like film reviewing. Thank you for listening.
Karen Stern
Santa Fe
NO GAMBLE
I am writing concerning the article [Cover story, May 24:
], particularly concerning Kandace Blanchard, Paul Blanchard's wife.
The New Mexico Council on Problem Gambling has and does help numerous gambling addicts. I am a licensed New Mexico psychologist and certified gambling counselor. I have been doing therapy with gambling addicts, paid by the New Mexico Council on Problem Gambling, for 3½ years. No agency, insurance company, PPO or anyone else other than the NMCPG will fund psychotherapy for the necessary number of sessions to help a gambling addict recover. It takes time and work to overcome addiction (I have worked with alcoholics and drug addicts for 47 years). Kandace Blanchard, LCC, has set up a very unique and extremely valuable program.
I have no doubt that if the politicos allow the NMCPG to be taken over by a state agency, the number of sessions will be slashed, the procedure to get sessions for therapy will be very cumbersome and the gambling addicts will be very shortchanged.
Elizabeth C Stirling, PhD
Santa Fe
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