Corey Johnson
NEWS, NOV. 6: "ACCESS DENIED"
JUST SAY NO
I worked in a juvenile substance abuse therapy for many years. It is amazing how naive people are about weed. It is not all peace and love. It is a mind-altering substance that can wreck havoc on families and innocent bystanders (try driving while under the influence of weed). Once your 10-year-old tries weed for the first time because it is now legal and ends up a heroin addict by 16, maybe people will then rethink their decisions.
SCOTT
GROW UP
This federal law about the plant cannabis has to change. Who is it harming to grow a couple of plants? It actually helps people, and is a beautiful flower. Tell me why they are pursuing this with adult medical patients!
MELISSA LARSON
TUNNEL-HEADS
The Feds speak about not having tunnel vision, but it's exactly what they have. Go forward and potentially violate a citizen's rights, regardless of clarifying circumstances. No flexibility or desire to learn the complete truth: Heck, that's my definition of a tunnel-head!
VIN
COVER STORY, OCT. 30: "BLACK IN SANTA FE"
WHITE PEOPLE
Refusing to allow members of an ethnic group to speak for themselves is the cornerstone of euro-centric thinking. What Marcus T [Opinion, Nov. 6: "White Lies"] is grappling with is that "white" people have no philosophical equivalent for this; you may get looked down upon for many things, but not for being white. America has come a long way in understanding that racism by definition implies division; now it just needs to work on that division part.
PABLO THACHER
NO EXCUSE
Marcus T seems to see the article [Opinion, Nov. 6: "White Lies"] as race-obsessed, and his closing remark that "the only thing grosser than this article was your last annual review of evil whites" suggests that he has taken offense. The article describes that there is an unusually low percentage of black people in Santa Fe, and having interviewed some of the few black people here, Darryl [Wellington] meticulously illustrates what it feels like to be in such a minority. He also describes a great deal of local black history, most of which was completely new to me, including the story of the townships of Blackdom and Vado in New Mexico.
If Marcus T's point is that we are all fully integrated and just Americans so why label people as black and white, then that does not excuse a tirade against a well-written and scholarly article, just to make his point.
The movie critic David Riedel's review of 12 Years A Slave catalogs some of the contemporary events that illustrate that there is still racial conflict in this country, but Darryl is not suggesting that is manifest in modern day Santa Fe.
I would like to compliment Aron Kalaii for the excellent accompanying cover art to "Black in Santa Fe."
TONY BEGG
EQUALITY?
I think, Marcus T, [Opinion, Nov. 6: "White Lies"] that you are naive if you think that minorities having "the talk" with their kids, or gravitating toward friendly faces of the same color, are racist or threatens you in some way. Anyone who is of a minority race has had some pretty bad experiences dealing with the majority, so cautioning your kids to be careful makes sense. Remember Trayvon Martin?
Although I "look white," I am the child of a man who felt that he needed to leave the country in the 1920s because discrimination against a Black/Native American/Caucasian man living in Oklahoma was unbearable. He was a brilliant thinker and gentle soul, he returned to the US to enlist in the navy for WWII and passed for white for the rest of his life and to his great regret. He never wanted his own children to go through what he did—he taught all his daughters to fight if attacked and to know that only your family really cares what happens to you. And if you think for a minute that the same kinds of antagonism present in my dad's era are not present today, and yes here in Santa Fe as well, then you are wrong. Folks have made some pretty amazing remarks around me because they think that I am not one of "those people."
As for remembering when you were young and everyone thought they were equal "everyone" has never believed that everyone else thought they were equal; but they hoped so.
CATHLYNN GROH
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