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.
CRISIS OF HEALTH
Thank you for your recent cover story on the failure of our health care "system" to meet the needs of Native Americans [Dec. 13, 2006: "
"]. This is a crisis that has been brewing under the radar for years; hopefully your well-researched article will help spur much-needed action. There is, however, one other element in the mix.
The "urban Indian" community in Albuquerque-which is one of the largest and most diverse in the country-should have another resource for health care beyond what the Indian Health Service currently provides: the University of New Mexico Hospital. In 1952, the federal government signed a contract-not a treaty-with Bernalillo County under which land held in trust for Native Americans was ceded to the county for the purpose of constructing and operating a hospital that would serve the county's indigents, as well as all Indians. The hospital, in turn, would be reimbursed by the federal government for all expenses related to Native American patients. That hospital was subsequently turned over to the state, and is now what we know as the UNM Hospital. This contract is still intact and acknowledged by the university. The hospital is obliged to provide comprehensive health care services to Native Americans. UNM Hospital must keep its contractual obligation and begin to alleviate the lack of access to health care currently endured by Albuquerque's more than 50,000 Native American citizens.
As your article pointed out, the health care guaranteed to all Native Americans is not a gift, nor charity, nor even what we would now call an entitlement. It is a prepaid health care plan, an ironclad obligation to provide comprehensive cradle-to-grave coverage, secured by the transfer of more than 400 million acres of land from recognized tribal entities to the federal government. It's way past time for this country to pay its mortgage.
Homer Robinson
Staff Attorney
New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty
Albuquerque
NOT DEFLECTING
Thank you, Patricia Sauthoff, for the lovely article about the local band The brilliant Dullards [
, Dec. 20, 2006]. But it should be noted that the name of the album is
The Defector
and NOT
The Deflector
.
Alexis Brown
Santa Fe
BALANCED VOICES?
Recently, you printed a letter by Robert Samson, a local writer, expressing his disappointment with Cormac McCarthy's inattention to his unpublished manuscript, including a veiled insult to McCarthy's character [Dec. 13, 2006: "
"].
McCarthy is generally considered the greatest living American novelist. Although he and Samson both live in Santa Fe, it is more or less ridiculous for Samson to feel this should grant him access to McCarthy's time and professional consideration.
Mr. Samson's struggle to get published and his anger toward a perceived lack of generosity from a literary icon are his business. For you to publish this outburst was a bad call and makes the SF Reporter appear hopelessly provincial. I'm sure you can find a more balanced way to give local writers a voice.
David Wagner
Santa Fe
HIDDEN HOMELESS
Thanks for informing our community that a minimum of 700 children and youth in Santa Fe experience homelessness each year [Cover story, Nov. 22, 2006: "
"]. The correct number to reach the SFPS ¡Adelante! Program for Homeless Students, Children and Youth is 467-2571, and our e-mail is gherling@sfps.info.
Our homeless students live in unstable, tenuous situations, whether they are sleeping on the floor of a cramped, one-bedroom apartment occupied by two families, or they are couch-surfing from place to place, residing with a grandparent or other relative, staying in a shelter or in a car. Many of our students have a parent in prison, they may be dealing with domestic violence and other traumas and they rarely have enough private space to complete homework or be with friends. Our students become sick more often than other children/youth; live in chaotic, transient situations; consistently underachieve in school; don't have sufficient warm clothing or jackets or even bedding for the winter; about 40 percent don't have enough food on a regular basis; and they usually switch schools when changing residence, which can be five times or more per year. Many of our students and their siblings are old before their time. Lots have dropped out of high school, with no sense of hope for the future and a feeling of being betrayed, even marginalized, by their own community.
¡Adelante! provides a range of services, from school supplies to school uniform clothing, a food pantry, case management, advocacy and linkages with other providers. We conduct a weekly evening program, "Juntos los Jueves," that provides a hot dinner, donations of books, groceries and clothing, art classes for the children and parent education classes. ¡Adelante! maintains a small emergency fund for our families and provides transportation for students back to their original school when they move. We receive no guaranteed funding and operate solely on grants.
Children and youth are the "hidden homeless," with no voice, and the public is rarely informed about their struggle for food and a safe, stable place to live. Their struggle is monumental, since they're also in the midst of dealing with school, family and peer issues, as well as seeking a way to find hope for the future. It is common to say that "the children are our future." However, first we need to ensure that they can look forward to one themselves.
Please call me to volunteer time or make a tax-deductible donation to the YouthWorks Homeless Fund for the ¡Adelante! Program.
Gaile Herling
Santa Fe
PHONE DRUNKARDS
It should be the story of the year [Cover story, Dec. 20, 2006: "
"] that people driving and using cell phones (hands free or not) are driving drunk. Yes folks, according to Time Magazine's end of the year issue, if you use your cell phone while driving, your reaction time and your peripheral vision are like driving with a .08 percent blood alcohol level. You have a 30 to 40 percent higher accident rate as well. We need laws to protect us from what I am calling technological drunk driving, with stiff fines and loss of driving privileges; this is no joke. Smarter and more informed states (New York and Connecticut) recently instituted what I'm calling for, and why not? You'll be injured, or die just as dead, whether it's a phone-drunk or an alcohol-drunk driver.
Robert Francis Johnson
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.
