Letters to the Editor

Cover, March 13: “The Foilies”

THE GREATEST FOILIE OF ALL

The Reporter should stick around in its own back yard for the “The Foilies: Recognizing the worst in government transparency.” IMHO, it’s all small potatoes compared to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) with their ~$60 billion program to expand production of plutonium pits, the critical (pun intended) cores of nuclear weapons. NNSA has no credible cost estimates for its most expensive and complex program ever. It has not conducted public reviews as legally required by the National Environmental Policy Act. Pit production will create more contamination and more radioactive wastes. New pits can’t be full-scale tested because of the international testing moratorium, which could erode confidence in stockpile reliability. Worse yet, it could prompt the US to return to full-scale testing, which would have serious global proliferation consequences.

Transparency? NNSA heavily redacts LANL’s “Performance Evaluation Report” on how taxpayers’ money is spent. Years go by before Freedom of Information Act requests are honored. And yet LANL and the NNSA are all too eager to lead us into a new nuclear arms race that could end civilization overnight.

Jay Coghlan

Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Santa Fe

News, March 13: “SFR’s Next Era”

Via Facebook:

Thank you for so many years of providing excellent journalism! Good luck on the sale.

—Judy S. Eckhart

Many thanks to Julie Ann Grimm for such a good job over the years

—Vicki Holmsten

Wow, big ups to JAG and Julia!

—Joe Fatton

Thank you JAG! You have enriched our city (and love The Fork)!

—Jim Nagle

News, March 13: “Troubled Water”

STEP UP, SANTA FE COUNTY

There seem to be three possible sources of the PFAS contamination of La Cienega, and all three are government-owned and operated: a National Guard airport, a municipal airport and a municipal sewage treatment plant. It is intolerable that the citizens are expected to pay for PFAS testing and for the installation and operation of treatment systems.

The county should compensate the citizens for these expenses and then seek reimbursement from the government(s) ultimately held responsible.

The county MUST also provide a way for citizens to dispose of any PFAS the treatment systems remove from the water. Otherwise, we may simply move the PFAS from one spot to another.

Kudos to the Reporter for publishing this article.

Devin Bent, PhD

Santa Fe (Nambe)

News, March 13: “Primary readiness”

DON’T FORGET DISTRICT 43

I thought I should point out that in discussing local candidates for the Legislature, people often forget that NM House District 43, represented by Christine Chandler of Los Alamos, also includes a portion of Santa Fe’s South Side, north of Airport Road out near the bypass, plus La Cienega. People on the south side often complain of being neglected—we shouldn’t ignore them in this also!

By the way, for politicos like me, it’s really quite notable that Chandler will have no Republican opposition (though there are two Libertarians running). It’s amazing how Democratic Los Alamos County has become of late after decades as a strongly Republican island in northern NM!

David Thompson, 2nd Vice-Chair

Democratic Party of Santa Fe County

The Fork, March 7: “Things we learned about food and New Mexico from online maps”

OK, WE WON’T STOP

I just moved to Santa Fe after a decade of visiting at any available excuse, like “hey, I just swallowed a bug, let’s go to Santa Fe!” I’ve been hooked on SFR since my first reading. I guess it’s better than an addiction to chicken porn, but…whatever. Anyway, this week’s Fork was even better than usual. I laughed hard enough to literally drive off the road. Kidding, I was sitting at a table. From the Denny’s fake-out sandwich to the Chizza, I was LOL! Please, whatever you’re smoking? DO NOT STOP!

Paul Herendeen

Santa Fe

3 Questions, Feb. 28: “With Author/Educator/Social Worker Amy Wong Hope”

MUSHROOM TESTIMONY

Microdosing mushrooms capsules has put my depression, insomnia, autism, ADHD and anxiety into remission. I tried many different medications to get here, all of them failed with bad side effects or simply stopped working after a week. I’m so glad I tried this! I feel like myself again!

Yababa Aliya via Facebook

News, Feb. 21: “Rust Armorer Trial Begins”

MISS-TAKE?

I started reading your article, and when I came upon the word “Miss” before [Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s] name, I stopped and couldn’t finish the article. You do know that the word “Miss” has been replaced with “Ms.,” right? The reporter was quoting Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey, who in my opinion, is very disrespectful and an insulting human being. She thinks the only way to win her case is to put innuendos and insults out in the community with her loud mouth. I find her a ridiculous person. She is in the courtroom as I write this worried and doing the same thing with insults to witnesses. There is no need to do this sort of communication to win cases although today it seems the younger generation thinks it is. Theater plays no role in courtrooms anywhere. I can see now why I was enraged. If it wasn’t a woman saying it I might not be as outraged but it was a woman.

Mikel Parkhurst

Red Oak, Texas