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.
PHELPS PHREAKOUT
I am very disappointed in the Santa Fe Reporter for writing a cover story on the infamous Fred Phelps [Cover story, April 20: "
"]. Why feed the megalomania of this sick and destructive person? I would have liked to have seen a cover story on the gay community and their tremendous contribution to the city of Santa Fe. Too bad!
Nancy C Childs
Las Vegas, NM
IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Why would the Reporter give publicity to a man who is a bigot and zealot? Your front page story was just what Phelps wants: publicity. The best method would be to ignore him and his followers.
Barbara Lenssen
Santa Fe
IF CATS COULD TALK
What were you thinking? This evil so-called grandpa selling and giving away evil, coming to town and you fill a big portion of your issue this week with his nastiness, in essence giving him credibility.
Best thing is to turn one's back on him and his group. Ignore him.
My best advice is don't try and line your cat's litter box with this week's issue of SFR-the cats are saying they won't use it…'cause it would be redundant.
Palestar
Santa Fe
BRAT BEAT
I guess SFR had to be its bratty self and fly in the face of the community's call to ignore Fred Phelps & Co., but was it really necessary to give these opportunistic losers a cover photo, seven pages of feature space, and cute family pics? SFR's idea of cool and ironic-maybe-but why give these folks the time of day, let alone exactly what they want: media saturation. I didn't learn anything new about the hate-baiters from Kansas, except perhaps that "Staring at Fred Phelps in the eye of a sermon is like staring God in the face." Really? And I thought he was just a semi-literate, cowboy-hat-wearing, screw-faced, fag-hating imbecile.
Kate Moses
Santa Fe
COVERING ISSUES
We in Santa Fe have been encouraged to ignore the arrival of Rev. Phelps in order to make him a non-issue. Your advertisers should know that by placing Phelps on the cover of your paper, the Santa Fe Reporter succeeded in making last week's issue a non-issue as I didn't even get past the cover.
Stacia Roum
Santa Fe
LET IT SHINE
Brilliant idea to send a crew to Kansas for the Phelps piece. You'll get lots of flack, no doubt, for giving him all that publicity, but shining a light into dark corners is part of a newspaper's job. It was an illuminating coup that did the Reporter proud.
Robert Mayer
(Former SFR Editor)
Santa Fe
SILENCE IS DEADLY
I would like to commend the Santa Fe Reporter and its staff for continually reporting on important and often controversial issues facing the community, most recently your in-depth and chilling story on the inner workings of the Fred Phelps family. I believe the media has the responsibility to cover difficult but pressing topics, help educate the community and inspire creative solutions.
I am deeply troubled by the amount of hostility directed toward SFR since this story was published. While I understand and agree with the no-show strategy at the rallies, I do not believe that anyone-except people who preach hate-benefits from ignorance or silence. I am grateful that the Reporter trusts its readers to understand that the nature of hate (such as that espoused by the Phelps family) is complicated and therefore demands a complicated response. Misdirected anger is divisive and only gives power and fuel to the Phelps' hateful movement.
Santa Fe needs courageous, truth-telling media. Thank you SFR for your contributions to a well-informed public.
Sandra Wechsler
Santa Fe
CURBED ENTHUSIASM
In your article [Outtakes, April 20: "
"] there were some important facts that were conveniently left out. On or about 1999, the Santa Fe City Council passed a resolution making Santa Fe a "Safe Haven" for undocumented workers (illegal immigrants), which was prior to the 9.11 disaster and, in my opinion, not abiding with our federal immigration laws. Since that resolution's inception, there have been numerous incidents outside and, in some cases, inside the Department of Labor Office, almost on a daily basis.
For the approximately three years I have been working out of the Department of Labor Office located here in Santa Fe I have had some major concerns about not only my own safety, but the safety of: 1) the DOL employees that work in this building; 2) individuals, including Veterans, who visit our office; 3) tourists; 4) kids and young adults; and 5) those undocumented workers that congregate in the street directly in front of our office building.
There isn't a day that goes by when I don't have to dodge either undocumented workers and/or the employer's vehicles that stop in the middle of the street to pick them up. I am deathly afraid that one of these days I am going to run over one of these workers because they have the bad habit of darting out right in front my vehicle when I turn the corner from Guadalupe onto DeVargas Street. This situation occurs with each and every vehicle that turns onto DeVargas from Guadalupe Street.
It is a shame that our DOL employees, tourists, kids and young adults have to deal with this situation on a daily basis while our city leaders are procrastinating (hoping that this problem goes away on its own) because they are more concerned about the economic impact that any action on their part may have on the city with little or no regard for those individuals whose lives are affected by this situation.
J Martinez
Santa Fe
MIXED BAG
I'm a local landscaper, and like every other landscaper in Santa Fe I run a seasonal business, so I hire seasonal employees. The park across from the Department of Labor is a good place to find workers. Like any other labor pool, it's a mixed bag; some are good workers, some are not. Overall it works. I have never been intimidated, stolen from or cheated by any of these guys. Their difficult lives have made them tough, but rarely have I encountered a bad apple. They are respectful of my customers, many of them women, and they usually appreciate the work, hard work that you don't see American citizens clamoring to take. Of course some may fear them out of ignorance or feel repugnance. But sometimes I wonder if it was divine intervention that gave America a long insecure border to the south so that we would never completely lose touch with the fact that most of the planet lives in poverty.
John Denton
Santa Fe
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