Mail letters to Letters, Santa Fe Reporter, PO Box 2306, Santa Fe, NM 87504, deliver them to 132 E. Marcy St., fax them to 505-988-5348 or e-mail them to the editor.
Hey Honey
Nice of Zane to say something about bees. He forgot to mention the beekeeping program at Ecoversity, which was set up by Les Crowder some years ago, and now two of his young students, Talon VanHowten, with the help of Robert Sturm, are teaching the course. Zane complains about the costs ($1,300) [of the course at the Permaculture Institute]. However, if Zane wanted to do something more affordable, Ecoversity is charging only $325 per person to become a beekeeper, and we have a few openings. Ecoversity's seasonal course starts on Saturday, March 28. Enroll on line at ecoversity.org or call 424-9797.
Willem Malten
creative director of Ecoversity
Barn Learnin'
Thank you Seth Biderman for your courageous and unflinching account of the slaughter of a female lamb for food. The connection between living, breathing animals and the commodity we casually call "food" is a rare one. I think your experience and subsequent story will inspire many to take a good look at what is on their plates and make more conscious decisions about how daily choices greatly affect the lives of others, human and non-human alike.
I also liked the use of "murder" in the title of the article, but make no mistake, there is no dignity or respect in murder.
Christopher Willett
HSUS, ASPCA, PETA Member
SFASHS Clinic Volunteer
President and Founder of
The Home for Wayward and Geriatric Cats
Bunny-Hugger Extraordinaire
Santa Fe
Problems solved
Zane's World characterizes the housing transfer tax defeat as a triumph of private interest over public [March. 11: "This Is Also That"]. However, perhaps it was a vote of no confidence in opaque city government, which could have won if it had worked as hard as its opponents to convince us of the merits, with credible detail.
Zane's la gente posture runs off the rails when he equates our current economic plight with the greedy attitude presumed of the transfer tax's opponents. It was not "tax cuts and a lack of social spending [that] have cornered us into a nightmarish economic catastrophe," but a lack of balanced regulation of financial institutions.
Zane's philosophy is sound—save up in the good times and spend it in the bad. However, a restricted governmental budget equals restricted political influence. Furthermore, our "security" state takes 60 percent of federal discretionary spending; axe its power and our problem is solved. Legalize, regulate and tax soft drugs, and money is transferred from violent criminal enterprise to state coffers (among other benefits, including the survival of Mexico); that's a tax we can agree upon. The obvious solutions stare us in the face, but these two constituents appear too powerful and entrenched for any politician to confront.
Barry Hatfield
Santa Fe
Wasting Space
How about that love letter to Alex Maryol? It is by far the worst article the Reporter has ever printed. Ignoring that the writing itself was weak and uninteresting, this letter said nothing about Alex or his music. There are enough hip slang conversation terms to drown a camel. "I actually don't know what it's like to be busy or famous. Or cared about." Get this boy a mother. Or wait, get him a personality.
Santa Fe is a small, quiet town. But there [are] enough interesting things happening to cover, and I hope there are better writers out there to do it. Please don't ever waste print space on such trash ever again.
David Solomon
Alexis Brown
Santa Fe
Correction: As the result of an editing error, the poke spring rolls at Mauka were incorrectly described as pork spring rolls [Food, March 4: "State of Confusion"]. SFR regrets the error.
The Reporter welcomes original, signed letters to the editor. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to speci?c articles in the Reporter. They may be edited for clarity and space. Include address and phone number for veri?cation purposes; these will not be published.