UP! SPEAK !?!

Speak Up Rules

If you want to gripe, grouse, whine or bellyache about a generic topic, submit your message at www. abqjournal.com/letters/

speakup. The same goes if you want to dish out praise or thanks. Either way, you have to do it in 50 words or less. You can’t identify anyone you criticize. Keep it clean. No cursing, please. We don’t need your name, just initials. And it’s cheaper than therapy.

WHY DID the Republican Senate skip all committee hearings to rush through a tax-break bill filled with hand-written corrections without allowing Democrats time to read it? BF

WE JUST elected a progressive — i.e. liberal — mayor and a majority progressive City Council. They took office Dec. 1. Now, less than three weeks later, they are discussing the need for “revenue enhancements.” As Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!” BG

RUSSIA HAS been banned from the 2018 Olympics. This will allow them to focus more effectively on the 2018 U.S. elections, where they are still apparently welcome. CK

RE: THE coyote-killing contest. Mark Twain said, “Of all the creatures ever made, he (man) is the most detestable … he is the only one that possesses malice … he is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain.” CS

WE LOVE the beautiful and fun outdoor Christmas lights! A great gift to neighbors and friends, and especially strangers going by! Thank you ALL! Wish I’d thought to drop a Christmas card into your mailboxes! For this year and past, thank you for your hard work and generosity! May you be blessed! VSL

“THE RICHEST 1% of Americans now own nearly twice as much wealth as the bottom 90% combined.” That should have been the front-page headline of the Dec. 17 ABQ Journal. Instead it was buried at the bottom of the back page section B. After reading that astonishing fact, I asked myself, why are the 90 percent, or actually the 99 percent, still paying property, sales or income tax? I hope a progressive Democrat will think seriously about the issue. Obviously the new Republican tax law simply makes the 1 percent even wealthier. WM

HOLLY HOLM, go back to boxing. You were good at that. Or retire; but quit getting the crap knocked out of you. EWF

I USED to see coyotes a couple of times a month out where I live. Since the beginning of summer however, I’ve seen only one. It’s nice to look up at the stars at night and hear them yipping off in the distance. Why not just leave the animals alone? JC

I WONDER if (Mayor Tim) Keller’s inter-“faith” family celebrations go beyond worldly trappings of candles, trees, presents to teaching his children about actual faith and the beliefs that underlie such celebrations? Or is he satisfied with superficiality — like his proud renaming of “war zone” to “international zone” even as underneath it remains a war zone? BAB

WHEN I read about the plans for New Year’s Eve celebrations in our state I was reminded of the differences between New Yorkers and New Mexicans. While revelers in the Big Apple were cautioned to bundle up in anticipation of temperatures in the teens in Times Square, the City Different planned to provide heaters and bonfires in the Santa Fe Plaza. Can’t beat that Pioneer spirit! BL

IF WE learned nothing else from the last presidential election, we found out who the haters and intolerant really are. That alone makes it all worthwhile. RDH

GUNS ARE efficient and effective instruments of death. Evil men with guns are best stopped with guns in the hands of good men. How disheartening that the only defense that good men can have against evil men is to be at least as well armed as they are. JCG

MORE THAN a third of Americans still support Trump — an aspiring dictator who is dismantling the federal government, destroying both long-standing international relationships and our national security, and generally making a mockery of the presidency with his incessant lies, hypocrisy, incompetence, and childish Twitter taunts. How on earth could any decent, rational American still support someone who is clearly so unfit for office? DG

WHY ARE the citizens asked to contribute money for school supplies for Albuquerque Public Schools when APS has the funds to have recently given away FREE TABLETS to students, at taxpayers’ expense? And now they claim they need more money? Never! SA

FOR ALL the income tax “know-it-alls,” keep in mind that the Republican tax bill will have no impact on your 2017 tax return, which we will be filing this spring. The final results will be known when we file for 2018. GG

I’LL BELIEVE in trickledown economics when Walmart uses its corporate tax cut to pay their employees a living wage so they don’t have to rely on SNAP to eat. CM

SO EVEN a doctor can become a bureaucrat! Working up the step system can be terrible for the patient who is in misery, when his doctor, the trained medical expert, prescribed a new solution. Of course, the health care bandits don’t want more regulation! Interview Canadians who left for better care. VH

IT’S GREAT to have an alpha male in the White House for a change. TK FAKE PRESIDENT blows off 59,000 opioid deaths with lip service, but no funding. Let them eat oxycontin! Fake president blows off campaign promise to respect states’ rights and sics fake attorney general on peaceful non-violent users of non-lethal marijuana. Shame on you, fake president! AC

TRUMP ALWAYS brags about how many people voted for him. What he and the media didn’t consider is how many voted for what they considered the lesser of two evils only to find out that pomposity and a lack of common sense in a brain infected with tweet mania may have become the greater evil and danger. Hopefully, barring God intervening as our only out, we can survive three more years. DJ

THE UNDERPAID, overworked, underappreciated Albuquerque Police Department has plenty to do — and (is) doing a great job — given the high crime rate and real problems in this city, so should not be expected — or allowed — to police or issue citations arising from the poor traffic engineering associated with Albuquerque “Rapid” Transit. BP

SO SOON after passage of the GOP tax law that will add trillions to our swollen federal debt, a prominent conservative proposes a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. His point: “Now that the wealthy and corporations have plenty more, we’ll force restraint on you majority folks. Such hypocrisy! PSW I HEAR that since all three news anchors on NBC’s “Morning Show” are now all women, some feminist said “At last, real diversity.” Can you believe that? RJP

TO OUR smart U.S. senator. Walls are an inanimate object, therefore cannot be immoral. Only people can be immoral. CM

WHAT’S WITH the newly proposed legislation to lower payday loans? New Mexicans will be capped at 175 percent, but state employees will be limited to 30 percent. Where is the fairness to all New Mexicans? This is appalling. GLD

I READ today that Trump claims that he’s so smart that he never bought a textbook in college. I believe that, except that I believe that the surrogates he hired to take his classes are the ones who bought the books. RLE

ACCORDING TO the “so called” experts, the reason New Mexico has major issues is because the legislators are not paid a salary. Personally, I call BS on that thought. The reason New Mexico has major issues is because the Democrat Party has been in charge of the Legislature for over 60 years! JEH

A HILLBILLY said you can’t clear up the water until you get the pigs out of the creek. Why do we keep electing the same people giving the same promise every few years? Clear the water. JS

IF YOUR only means of getting other people to notice you is a loud exhaust system, then you’re a pathetic individual. SW BTW, MR. Ed was a “stable genius,” too. JB WHAT ARROGANCE. MVD is willing to text you with a reminder to get an emissions test, but is unable to print the reminder on your registration notice as it has done in the past. So we now have to keep book on a test. Come on MVD, you want the test, then you keep book and stop messing with vehicle owners. Is that not what our tax dollars are supposed to be used for, or do you delight in (messing with) owners? GWT