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.
POLARIZED
This letter is in response to KC Mosier II's opinion on the cover story "Teen Out" [Letters, June 21:
]. I always find it so fascinating that people will visit (and move to) Santa Fe and hear it be referred to as "the City Different" and not understand what it means. What makes Santa Fe a desirable place to live is the diversity of people who coexist here. And although we may not agree with everyone's beliefs or lifestyle, there is a fundamental acceptance of all the people who live in our beautiful city.
Our paradigm is changing and we are awakening to a new vision of unity. We must all try to see ourselves in everyone else, because in essence we are the same.
Politics have made it popular to polarize ourselves from all things different. It takes so much more energy to hate, isolate, fight and point the finger at somebody different than to love and accept someone for their creative expression of being who they are. We are all children of God.
My heart goes out to KC, and I hope that someday he can open his heart to what the spiritual teachings really mean.
Alex Alexiou
Santa Fe
BRONC' BUSTER
I appreciate Gwyneth Doland's uncritical and easy-going attitude in being "only too happy to be schooled" about the rural lifestyle [Total Pig, June 21:
]. As open-minded as she professes to be, I'm sure she will listen to another perspective of keeping animals. For a couple of decades I have trained horses, run a dairy and been an animal wrangler for films.
Horses are probably the most sensitive, gentle animals on the face of the earth. Watch a dressage event sometime, where the signals given to the horse are so subtle, they are hard to see. Then ask yourself, "Why is it necessary to ride bucking horses in the rodeo?" Some people will tell you the horses are trained to do it and enjoy it. One of the rules of riding a "bronc'" is that the horse must be raked from one end to the other with spurs. Does this sound enjoyable for the horse?
Do "hot guys in chaps" performing sadistic, brutal, life-endangering acts really excite you? Does watching a calf at a full run get roped and jerked down by its neck and sometimes paralyzed turn you on? Do you encourage cat torturers too?
The most "dangerously useless" event has to be bull-riding, which serves no purpose whatsoever but for the man riding the bull to risk his health and life to entertain you.
Dear sister, Gwyneth, please consider appreciating the manhood of those who have the strength and patience to understand animals, to treat them gently and to respect their own life and that of others. This country is choking to death on the idea that violence is manly.
Athena Khalsa
Santa Fe
HOME-OPHOBIC?
I am looking at page 55 on your June 14 issue. In the ad for The Screen, which was showing
A Prairie Home Companion
, it is written, "HELD OVER-Santa Fe's BIGGEST HIT-Breaking ALL house records!"
On page 53, in your feature, "The Grid," Entertainment Weekly, the New York Times, Roger Ebert, ReelCom and LAWeekly all give this film the highest rating available, while the Reporter gives it the lowest.
It was this huge disparity of ratings that led me to actually read the review of Felicia Feaster to see what rationale she could possibly have for her opinion [Movies, June 14:
], which differs so greatly from the public of Santa Fe and the reviews of the country's best papers. (I saw the film, loved it, as has everyone I've spoken to in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.)
What I read was dismaying. While appearing to be "intelligent," this person
just didn't get it
. I am at a loss as to how to explain this: Is it the mindset of the Reporter, which seems to glorify whatever is ugly, sick and sensational and dismisses anything that has heart? Is it an adolescent compunction to put down whatever the rest of the world likes? Is it some sort of anti-Midwestern snobbery? What is the average age of your staff? Who is your target audience? Do you have a mission statement? A philosophy? What comes across is that you are over-aged adolescents who delight in putting down what you imagine the mainstream probably likes. This is not good journalism!
It seems to me that a city with the talent of Santa Fe deserves an alternative paper that does more than indulge in personal, ignorant ego trips. But perhaps you get what you pay for. The Reporter is free, so I'll continue to pick it up to check the times for movies and then use it to line my garbage can.
Sophie Light
Madrid
BELL TOLL
The letter you printed by Marc Choyt [Letters, May 31:
] regarding Las Campanas does not deserve a response. It is so vindictive, prejudicial and inaccurate that it borders on ludicrous.
What does bother me is why any publication, especially the Reporter, would publish such garbage. Are you trying to "stir the pot" and incite more community division?
I know all about freedom of speech; however, there is a difference between free press and responsible press.
Letters of this nature are truly divisive and I would like to think your editorial staff would use a little more discretion.
Donald Tusk
Santa Fe
ARTS SMARTS
The María Benítez interview [SFR Talk, June 28:
] delivers some of the best firsthand testimony about life in the arts I've ever read. Artistic survival is a harder struggle than most outsiders can fathom. Thank you, María, for telling it like it is. Thanks also to Farren Stanley for communicating María's no-nonsense message without fluffy distortion. It's a refreshing change to hear Santa Feans describing the arts as a blood and guts commitment rather than as a new agey fantasy.
Gene Peach
Santa Fe
OH, POO!
Lamentably, your article on sewage floods [Outtakes, June 28:
] omitted the one simple, positive step homeowners can take to protect themselves from the financial consequences of sewage backups-no matter whose pipe, whose negligence or whose mischief causes it: Make sure that your homeowner's insurance includes a rider that covers such damage. You will have to ask for it separately, and it will cost a little extra, but it can save you considerable grief.
Frank Katz
City Attorney
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.
