Congress: Give us a leader who is just

To the U.S. Congress: Although you may have legislative differences, when will you summon your collective moral courage to use the constitutional power entrusted to you to once and for all silence the continuous flow of embarrassing excrement from the mouth and fingers of our president that stains the fabric of our democracy? It is time to wipe, wash and bleach it out before our ship of state flounders in the maelstrom of world opinion to become just another piece of flotsam on the shore. Give us a commander-in-chief who is capable of steering us out of this storm and setting the course of our ship toward a future of hope and justice for all. This is your duty. This is your responsibility. Terry Knickerbocker Santa Fe

Protecting wolves

Until we recognize that the recovery of any endangered species, especially the nearly extinct Mexican gray wolf, depends on them having sufficient habitat in which to thrive, and protection from interference by humans, we will continue to see inadequate game plans such as the one just released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“Feds call for comment on wolf plan,” Feb. 17). To limit the wolves’ range to below Interstate 40 (because this was their historic territory) doesn’t factor in the disturbances by man to wild areas. The same is true for setting artificial numbers to deem the species recovered. Apex predators most likely will need protected status as long as humans remain in charge of their recovery. Evalyn Bemis Santa Fe

Thanks, Forest Service

Thanks to the people of the U.S. Forest Service in the Pecos district, the New Mexico State Forestry Division and all the others who are and have been involved in getting the funding and the manpower together to create a fuel break here in the La Cueva area of Glorieta. It has been a long road, and I am grateful that you all persevered.

This fuel-break project is at the beginning of our road and treats a noncontiguous block of the Santa Fe National Forest. Our heavily forested neighborhood has only this road for ingress and egress, which would be problematic in the event of a forest fire, both for residents trying to evacuate and firefighters coming into the canyon. I am thankful for this project as a resident of La Cueva, concerned for my animals and my safety as well as the safety of my neighbors and first responders in the event of a forest fire. Christie Harslem Glorieta

Wait for choices

I agree with Maria Perez’s My View (“Santa Fe should use ranked-choice voting in ’18,” July 2), that ranked-choice voting is good for Santa Fe.

However, it was made clear in the City Council meeting (“Council delays rankedchoice voting,” June 29) that candidate packets had to go out at the beginning of September but that software technology wouldn’t be certified until Oct. 1, if it were operational. It was quite clear that there was no process in place for scoring errant ballots; no one could explain how the cost of software dropped from hundreds of thousands to $40,000. It was also made clear that the traditional polling locations might not be the venues for voting because of the technology. The city clerk indicated that she might need upward of a dozen people to support this process.

So, the council did vote responsibly, because it favored more time to prepare the election system and the electorate for ranked-choice voting. I also want to point out that only six councilors voted on this issue — two were absent. Perhaps it would be wise to postpone important votes until the full council is present. Michael Harkavy

Santa Fe

Don’t wait

One argument made for delaying implementing ranked-choice voting is needed voter education (“Council delays rankedchoice voting,” June 29). However, voters are easily educated in ranked-choice voting, and use it successfully even when not educated. In San Francisco’s first ranked-choice voting election, 99.6 percent of voters cast valid votes despite over 30 percent not knowing they would rank candidates. The other main argument for delay is the chance that Dominion Voting Systems will not meet the schedule for software certification. However, Dominion could miss by a couple months and still leave time enough for implementation. Elections administrators successfully implemented ranked-choice voting for first use in a statewide election in North Carolina in only four months. The City Council should reconsider its delay in implementing ranked-choice voting. John Otter

Santa Fe