News, Jan. 7: “After-Work Plans”
Angered by Inaction
In New Mexico taxing Social Security benefits undermines the purpose of the Social Security Act, which was designed to lift seniors out of poverty—not to fund state government. Social Security should always be exempt from state taxes…
As always, other sources of income should be taxed for government programs. Yet you have New Mexico Voices for Children and Retake Our Democracy mistakenly supporting double taxation of Social Security for dubious reasons using skewed statistics. I have supported these organizations in the past. However, on this issue they are 100% dead wrong. The state Legislature and the governor should end this unfair tax now on New Mexicans and join the 37 states that don't tax Social Security. I am angered by the inaction of the New Mexico Legislature.
Greg Lennes
Las Cruces
A&C, Feb. 5: “The Struggle”
Shared Histories
Navajo artist Remy has described his anti-Israel mural as an expression of solidarity between Native American and Palestinian Arab experiences. Remy's views, however, ignore history and facts. Native Americans and Israeli Jews have much closer parallels based on shared histories of genocide, massacres based on blood libels, and the anguish of being driven from ancestral lands.
The Trail of Tears, for example, is paralleled by the "ethnic cleansing" of Jews from 16 Arab countries. The Arabs expelled 900,000 Jews with nowhere to go but Israel—a country so small it would take 592 Israels to equal the territory of the Arab world. And yet the Arab world, which includes Palestinian Arabs, begrudges this small land to the very Jews it expelled while inciting Palestinian Arabs to murder Jews, desecrate holy sites and promote terror while unjustly blaming their dysfunction on Israel.
Concrete research of verifiable facts might allow Remy to move towards a future of peace and mutual respect rather than hatred based upon dangerous ignorance.
Brian A Yapko
Santa Fe
