More cops won’t solve ABQ’s problems
Television is currently flooded with ads for Albuquerque mayoral candidates. Their top priority, stated repeatedly, is obtaining more police for the high crime and violence. What is really needed is a broader, more critical-thinking approach. Adding more police is like putting a small Band-Aid on a large, bleeding cut. Increasing police presence will not impact the root of the problem. Until serious improvements are made to education, behavioral and mental health care, parental skill training, and after-school programs and resources, it won’t matter how many police are present. Let’s work on the real problem and make a long-term difference for Albuquerque and New Mexico. Gayle Kenny
Santa Fe
Greedy and gullible
If Donald Trump is anything, he is a puppet of a successful military coup right here in the good old land of the so-called free and home of the greedy and gullible. Former senior adviser Steve Bannon is right about “identity politics” and the knee-jerk liberal left epitomized here in Santa Fe. He is also correct about “economic nationalism.” If you want jobs in this country, start by not buying Chinese products and stop buying everything you own online. If you have and obsessively use a smartphone, you already have been pacified and, in a real sense, neutralized. Revolt, rebellion and revolution are foreign words to the aging and wealthy elite “leaders” of the Democratic Party. They are cowards. Donado Coviello
Santa Fe
Save the trees
I am overwhelmed with grief, sick to my stomach. After spending years planting trees on our public lands, now it feels like they are disappearing. We breathe with the trees, from the ancient firs to the young saplings growing at their base. I feel them breathing, purifying the air as I walk under their canopy. These are about to be cleared by unfeeling bureaucrats. For what purpose? Who will profit from the wholesale removal of our heritage? Tell the U.S. Forest Service to stop this madness. Protect now and don’t destroy what we love. Emmy Koponen
Santa Fe
Don’t miss out
Wow — what a fantastic day for the first annual Santa Fe Theater Walk. Hundreds of people got a chance to learn about the theater taking place in our city on Saturday (Sept. 16). Kudos to the board of Theater Santa Fe for making such a great event happen. It was also a tremendous opportunity for actors, directors, playwrights and producers to show off our stuff to standing room-only audiences — actually, it was often so crowded, there wasn’t room to stand. Which goes to show theater is alive and growing in Santa Fe and there’s a lot of interest among potential theatergoers. If you missed the event, you can still sign up at www.TheaterSantaFe.org to get weekly postings on all sorts of theatrical events. Don’t miss out again. Rosemary Zibart
Santa Fe
Living in America
I sympathize with the plight of the children and teenagers under the threat of deportation. But, on the other hand, why do they not wish to go back to their beautiful countries of origin — Mexico, Guatemala or wherever? Is it because at home, the people have little right to private property? Legally, they are landless peasants; essentially, owning nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Coming to the United States of America, they gain the right to work and to keep what they earn. They can buy a car, start a business and, most importantly, buy a home and receive a registered deed to the land on which it sits. They can become capitalists. The answers to the problems of Latin America are private property and private enterprise. The immigrants know this. They vote with their feet. Les Crane Santa Fe
Bravo, PNM
Despite Donald Trump reversing environmental regulations, New Mexico’s hometown company, Public Service Company of New Mexico, is lighting the way to a brighter New Mexico future. PNM took a responsible, strategic and environmentally proper path to exit from coal. PNM will close two of four coal units at San Juan by the end of this year.
This will cut PNM’s water usage, haze and carbon emissions by half. PNM’s long view is the complete closure of San Juan coal station by 2022. PNM will be coal-free by 2031. I applaud utilities like PNM for making decisions that are good for consumers, good for the environment and good for the public interest.
Under Trump, PNM could play fast and loose to see if coal-friendly policies would generate benefits. Instead, PNM strategically has looked at the numbers, considered the environment and listened to customers. PNM will provide environmentally friendly, reliable and affordable energy for the New Mexicans they serve. Bravo, PNM. Denise Vasquez Santa Fe
Calling Saul?
Once again, life imitates art. On the back page of Section A of The New Mexican on Aug. 31, there was a full-page ad for trial attorneys in Colorado offering representation for alleged injuries to nursing home and rehabilitation center patients. I guess the trademark restrictions prevent them from using the slogan, “Better Call Saul.” James Dowling, Ph.D. Santa Fe