Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Letters to the editor

It takes a village to say what makes a village

EDITOR:

Ron Salazar's call for agreeable or differing opinion about his concern for the unplanned rapid growth and development of the "village" of Los Lunas reveals the high degree of responsibility, which I respect in a citizen.

A village, town or city's growth and development are pretty much like that of a person. A person makes decisions about a course of action based on the desire or expectation of a positive evolvement. Later, we realize that such decisions have negative impact with which we have to live until such time better resources, information and knowledge to afford us the opportunity for correction. But sometimes we have to make a supreme effort to change direction or circumstance or face disaster. Growing pains are always present and nothing will stop them in our human condition or under our form of government. Do we want it differently?

Aristotle observed that direct democracy would not work if population in the city exceeded 10,000 people. (That's) the reason representative democracy was created. Likewise, a village cannot be a village if it exceeds 10,000 people, which was the estimated population when I first moved in 1999. Some demographers and actuaries will set the number lower. The time for planning long passed and it was the day the ribbon was cut on I-25 in the Los Lunas surroundings. It is now time for the "village" to move diligently to address the infrastructure problems before they become prohibitive. We will have to live with the burden of higher taxes.

Past letters on this op-ed (page) lead me to believe that the NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude of many citizens was very powerful in preventing the implementation of the measures then needed to avert what is now lamented. Interstate highway construction is a portent of many things. While many citizens fail to realize its meaning, builders, developers, contractors and investors salivate over these events. They are also the assiduous attendees to the village council meetings and make it a point to be heard and to talk to the big guys. Special dispensations are usually obtained in cases when some of the community's politicians are also the special interest. They only have one guideline, get in when is cheap and propitious. Communities will later have to address the problems thus created, at whatever cost.

Mr. Salazar's favorite grocery stores were not built west of I-25 because the executives of those corporations probably decided the demographics did not warrant it; now that it does, Wal-Mart exists. Communities should take note that Wal-Mart moves at lighting speed building its business empire. It requires a high degree of risk, which it seems they are willing to take. This should be a lesson to all. From my perspective, the business practices of Wal-Mart vs. others are only different in scale. Employment practices and employee treatment also follow the same pattern. Corporations will take full advantage of all that local, state and federal governments will permit. It is there where we should be seeking the redressing of these problems. Keep in mind that businesses are as successful as we allow them to be.

Six years ago or so, I was at the local Staples store and overheard two gentlemen from another community discussing an impending city council meeting where the agenda was the construction of a cell-phone transponder. From their conversation, I gathered that these gentlemen did not understand how cell phone communication worked and were going to oppose such plans even though both had cell phones clipped on their belts. The "cell" is a prominent part of such technology.

Demagogues, who make political hay of our fears, often exploit NIMBY attitudes. Well-informed citizenry is the best preventative of such conditions. Sometimes there are those who, once in power, will do the expedient. To be prepared for the replacements is our responsibility.

Martin Ortiz
Los Lunas

Congratulations on AYP to all at Century High

EDITOR:

I would like to congratulate the students, staff and faculty of Century High School for making AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress), as announced in the Aug. 5 edition of the News-Bulletin. I was told that Century was the only non-traditional high school in the state of New Mexico to reach this goal. And, as you can tell, making AYP is no walk in the park.

First, the students made a commitment to their own success by dedicating themselves to doing well on the test. Second, the faculty and staff went above and beyond to work with students to make certain that their proficiency was at a level that would produce the desired outcome. And, finally, I would like to offer a special thanks to Century's principal, Buddy Dillow, who worked tirelessly during the campaign to ensure that, when the battle was finally joined, the students of Century High would emerge victorious.

Well done, Century High School.

J. Reid Mowrer
Los Lunas

Having an accent doesn't mean you won't succeed

EDITOR:

This is a rebuttal to a letter to the editor by Martha Thomas (Aug. 9, 2006).

... This is America, the land of the free. Obviously, you are not aware that the native tongue in New Mexico is Spanish. I am Hispanic, born and raised in New Mexico, have spoken Spanish all of my life and speak English with an accent. I have been very successful in the workplace. My accent never hindered me from competing in the labor market. I retired after 30 years of service from the government with performance and dedicated awards.

Take a good look around you. Many Hispanics have fought our wars and are still fighting them. Sad to say, our nation gives them their hard-earned citizenship after they are killed in combat. Our accents do not hinder us from progressing or serving our country.

Also, our great nation was built by immigrants from all over the world. They did not speak English when they arrived here and, needless to say, all spoke with heavy accents and many foreigners still do.

I, myself, speak Spanish every day and, if someone does not like it, too bad. Many of our great leaders, educators, doctors, police officers, actors, actresses, musicians and singers speak Spanish and English and many with an accent. That has not held them back.

Live and let live! We are not on this earth to judge. We only have one judge, who is God Almighty. He created all of us equal.

Mary Lee
Martinez Serna
Rio Communities

Wiretaps without warrants are illegal

EDITOR:

Disinformation abounds in recent letters to the News-Bulletin. Here are a few facts:

1. The forged documents about yellow-cake uranium and Iraq were disproved by British and Italian intelligence before the invasion of Iraq. George Bush knew that (and he lied.)

2. U.N. inspectors on the ground in Iraq testified to Congress that there were no active programs to produce weapons of mass destruction. The few barrels of recently found bio-weapons were defunct when they were buried 10-plus years ago.

3. George Bush and Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby and Robert Novak each committed treason when they conspired to reveal Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent ...

4. George Bush had nothing to do with capturing the London bomb plotters (though he took credit for it). He was told of the plot on Friday and advised further on Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, the GOP spinmeisters flooded the weekend talk shows with propaganda calling the Democrats "weak on terrorism," as a diversion from the Connecticut primary. In addition, Bush pressured Britain to make and announce the arrests on Monday for the same reason. (And the British police are upset because the early arrests weakened their legal case.) Ned Lamont beat Joe Lieberman anyway.

5. Wiretaps are legal, inside the FISA provisions. Wiretaps without warrants are illegal, data-mining is illegal and any evidence obtained that way is useless in court proceedings. In any case, Judge Taylor is correct in finding that warrantless wiretaps violate various laws besides the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution — all are felony crimes.

G.E. Nordell
Belen

Don't put words in her mouth, please

EDITOR:

Enough already! I deeply regret having written that letter to the editor concerning language being an important tool for advancement. It has been misinterpreted and misunderstood. I'm not apologizing for what I wrote, however; I stand by my letter. I did not intend nor want to respond to this discussion and carry it on further, but I feel forced to do so now, after still more letters attacking my point of view were published in today's paper.

An important paragraph from my original letter was edited out and did not appear in the newspaper. I regret that happened and should have spoken out sooner about it. I don't have a copy of my original letter as I submitted it to the newspaper, but as I remember that brief paragraph, I wrote that the same principals of good language apply to African-American youths, Italians and others as well. I wasn't zeroing in on the Spanish-speakers alone. Without that deleted paragraph, that's how the letter appears.

About a year ago, the respected comedian, Bill Cosby, took the black youth of the inner cities to task for the way they butcher the English language. He told them to stop being jerks and learn to speak correctly so they would be able to go to a job interview and be understood. Special classes were established for these high school seniors so they could practice being interviewed and learn proper responses. Perhaps some of you remember that.

In no way did I indicate that people who speak with an accent are less intelligent than those who do not. Please do not put words into my mouth or meanings to my words which were clearly not intended. I'm not going to read through all the responses and reply to each individual one. I haven't the time nor patience and the newspaper hasn't the space.

I stated in my letter that I understand the important of culture and of heritage and of speaking one's language. Yet people continue to bombard me with overlong letters of explanation and history, doubting that I do understand that. They lecture me, question my beliefs and insinuate a prejudice which I do not feel.

Do those of you who wrote those letters understand this? Your heritage may be Spanish and you certainly have a right to be proud of that and should be proud of that. Should you not be equally proud to be an American? And, as an American, should you not learn to speak the English language as well as you do the Spanish language?

Martha R. Thomas
Rio Communities

(Editor's note: The sentence left out of the letter was: "This same principal also applies to African-American youth, of course, and to any other people who resist speaking proper English.")

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