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.
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS
The Reporter is still practicing its cheap brand of pseudo-intellectual dishonesty. How ironic that the letter of Oct. 11 [
], in response to my letter of Sept. 20 [
], is a prime example of liberal failure in time of war: wildly irrational exaggeration, unfounded false accusations and the undemocratic venom of censorship. Is liberalism the new Nazism?
The Oct. 11 writer took one of my statements, which was precisely and judiciously worded in order not to provoke, but instead to frame the issue and invite reasonable dialogue, and launched a personal attack based on his own imagination.
I wrote, "We fight an enemy who all-too-knowingly exploits our greatest vulnerability-our reluctance to reassess outmoded notions of freedom in time of war." Nothing was said about fundamental Constitutional guarantees, which I have spent my adult life defending. I was accused of being an "enemy of freedom" who trashes all fundamental rights, and told to move to North Korea-before the US becomes "Jack Nixon's police state."
One week after my letter was published, the US Congress, in response to a Supreme Court ruling in June, voted to expand the rules for detention, interrogation and military prosecution of terrorism suspects, limiting "enemy combatants'" rights, as our country has done in every war since the Revolution. Thirty-four Democrats joined in support of the measure. On the same day, the House of Representatives voted to give the administration the highly limited authority for warrantless wiretaps of calls between the US and other countries. A similar bill is before the Senate. Democracy in action; outmoded freedom properly reassessed in time of war.
Yet the Oct. 11 writer chose to distort my statement and to slanderously suggest that I consider the whole Constitution an outmoded notion, a distortion the Reporter endorsed by publishing his partisan hatred. How ironic. My letter was a criticism of leftist press censorship of the right, a fact which both writer and publisher ignore, yet personify.
In the interest of truth, however, I can only reply: 1) If the writer had read my letter without emotional stupidity, it would be obvious that I emphatically support fundamental Constitutional rights. 2) Benjamin Franklin, who the writer falsely paraphrased, actually wrote, "They that give up essential liberties to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Correct words matter; truth even more so. 3) North Korea is a leftist totalitarian state. (In fact, the greatest murderers and censors of the 20th century-Stalin and Mao-were leftist dictators. This is what we should remember.)
As for the Reporter, if this is the only response you could muster to my wakeup call for finding common ground and working together, next time don't send a blockhead to do your dirty work. Liberals still don't get it.
Jack Nixon
Santa Fe
WORKING TO LIVE
In response to the Oct. 18 letter
by Elias Martinez: Mr. Martinez, I don't really care if you oppose the living wage, but the solution you propose is unacceptable. "If they can't afford life, let them move somewhere else." Did you selfishly forget that most people who can't afford to live here have the last name Martinez? Or am I making a gross assumption about you being local because of the name? Are you just as "off the bus" as the next Gerald Peters?
As a proud local, I am NOT going to move somewhere else. In true New Mexican tradition, I will continue to work as many jobs as it takes. But I'd like to remind you that the cost of living here has skyrocketed in the last 20 years. For example, rent here now equals rent in big cities where people can easily make $15 to $20 an hour without higher education.
Furthermore, I'll say to you what I said when I testified on this issue before the City Council: I am the ONLY one of my college-educated local peers who has moved back to Santa Fe. The rest of my childhood friends know they can't make enough money here with master's degrees and PhDs to even pay off their student loans, much less to consider buying homes and raising children (things people often like to do in their hometowns). Congratulations, they have moved somewhere else and Santa Fe is that much less a town of locals. Is this the Santa Fe you and your descendants want to live in?
Sialia Rieke
Santa Fe
FRAMING URANIUM
***image1***
Several truths of the uranium matter conveniently didn't make it into the six-page article
by Laura Paskus [Cover story, Oct. 11]-some of which I'd like to take this opportunity to address.
In situ recovery mining is far from "experimental," as the article states. It's a proven technology that's been in use across the globe for more than 30 years. And last time I checked, bubbled oxygen and household baking soda were not toxic "chemicals." Furthermore, the portion of the aquifer HRI plans to use isn't a "pure drinking water source"-it's already unfit to drink due to naturally occurring uranium deposits. In fact, HRI's operations will put a monitoring safeguard in place where one currently doesn't exist. As long as the uranium has been around, this undrinkable water source has existed-so why only recently has it become an issue of concern?
The article also states that "community votes are being ignored." If anyone's votes are being ignored, it's those of the Navajo allottees. They've tried explaining their position to their elected representatives but were denied that chance and left to protest outside the chambers because they weren't allowed in. They weren't even allowed to have a representative speak before their own tribal council-yet non-Navajo uranium opponents got to make an hourlong presentation. Time and again, the opposition groups have failed to persuade the NRC and other agencies because their "factual" evidence is scientifically unsupported. Yet the public continues to accept these same arguments based on their emotional clout. We want people to know the difference between the hard facts and the rampant fallacies, and we want to work with the community in this process-not against them. Only with an open dialogue amongst all parties can this issue be resolved-so long as everyone is equally willing to listen with open ears…
Craig Bartels
President
HRI Energy (aka Hydro Resources, Inc.)
Crownpoint, NM
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.
