Don’t make state’s children science-stupid
Ihave watched with dismay as Donald Trump and his administration have worked hard to turn the United States into the world’s laughingstock, but nothing has made me as frothing furious as the New Mexico Public Education Department’s proposal to make our students unemployable and to drag our state back into the dark ages (“SFPS board questions ‘troubling’ curriculum proposal,” Sept. 20). In a state that boasts renowned research laboratories, the Very Large Array, one of the world’s premier astronomical radio observatories, and coveted geological and archaeological university programs, the educational proposal aims to make our children ineligible to work in any of those fields. It is the PED’s job to teach our children how to think and to give them all the scientific information available to develop their own thoughts. It is not the state’s job to hide scientific facts and theories that do not comport with certain religious views. That is unconstitutional. Let’s not allow them to make New Mexico a Third World state guided by superstition. Dana Wisehart
Santa Fe
Talking about stormwater
Santa Fe is one of five cities nationwide selected by the Environmental Protection Agency to receive assistance with stormwater planning. A brainstorming session is happening from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26, at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. The issues range from small but important (dog poop) to huge (what happens after an unplanned watershed fire?). The risk comes from big intense storms, where everything in our streets, yards and watershed is picked up by the flowing surface water and deposited into the Santa Fe River. How can we keep the pollutants to a minimum? How can we reduce the destructive force? John Buchser
Santa Fe
For saving lives
In a recent letter opposing speed vans (“No fan of vans,” Sept. 18), Keith Higgins states, “It has been proven by highway studies that increased speed limits actually reduce highway accidents.” Higgins provides no supporting evidence for his assertion however, and even cursory research reveals that it is incorrect. A 2013 National Cooperative Highway Research Program report, for example, found that, “Increasing a speed limit from 55 to 65 mph on an average section of high speed road resulted in about a 3 percent increase in the total number of crashes and a 24 percent increase in the likelihood that a vehicle occupant would be fatally injured” (www.cga.ct.gov/2013/rpt/2013-R-0074.htm). Subsequent studies come to similar conclusions. The bottom line: Cameras in vans and at intersections are cheap compared to the expense of hiring and maintaining police officers. If their use would save even one person’s life, they’re well worth the cost. S.E. Fisher
Santa Fe
No truck stop here
I have lived near the top of the Turquoise Trail for 30 years. The Turquoise Trail is a National Scenic Byway, a popular route for tourists, motorcyclists, bicyclists. Recently, I witnessed dozens of bicyclists racing from Madrid to Santa Fe. Here, at the top of the trail, sits the scenic and popular Santa Fe Skies RV Park, New Mexico Public Lands Information Center, and the Turquoise Trail Business Park. How does a 24-hour Pilot Flying J truck stop and travel center fit here (“Another hearing planned over Pilot Flying J truck stop,” Sept. 15)? The answer is, it doesn’t.
Hundreds of semi-trucks a day will clog up N.M. 14 and impact commuters from Madrid and Cerrillos, as well as hundreds of residents in Rancho Viejo, students and faculty at the community college and people from surrounding neighborhoods. A truck stop belongs on an interstate, not on the historic Turquoise Trail. Lisa Burns Santa Fe
Three reasons
Hillary Clinton keeps writing volumes about why she lost the 2016 election, from strange ideas about Russia interfering to former FBI director James Comey and his timing for an update, Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, et al. None of those has any bearing whatsoever, but neither she nor the press will look at the situation squarely. I can explain the entire event in three short sentences. Most of America’s voters are not socialists. Hillary is a socialist. Donald Trump is not a socialist. End of explanation for election results. Don Omey
Alamogordo