Impacting our lives in positive ways

Ifully support Pecos High School student Carlos Cordova and assistant coach Dominick Baca, featured in a wellwritten human interest feature in The New Mexican and penned by James Barron (“A home and a bond,” Nov. 23). The article hit close to home for me, and reminded me that there are very few people who will step up and take a risk, sharing their lives, their homes and their families with others who are in desperate situations.

It’s pretty amazing to realize all of the positive ways someone can impact your life when given the chance. In my opinion, these are traits that should be supported and championed by our society, not punished.

With that said, I fully support Carlos, Dominick and Pecos High School sports. I understand that the New Mexico Activities Association had a duty to investigate. The agency would have been remiss if it did not at least look into the situation. Carlos Padilla Santa Fe

Greater together

Regarding the Entrada, Don Juan de Oñate, the monuments controversies, etc.: May our calmer intelligent minds, wise hearts, sweeping vision and great-souled understanding prevail over these contentions.

I, and many of us, have mixed blood of Native and Spanish and “other,” and I believe that the “purity of our blood” is multiplied and enhanced and that we are far much greater than the sum of our parts. We should build a “super monument” to what we have become and are becoming.

Let us advocate for, and achieve, peace and conciliation in the great spirit of our God — given pure sacred blood, of which far too much has already been spilled, and yet sanctifies and raises us up always. David Fernandez Taos

Low-rent looks

However lovely the small rooms and common spaces might be, I believe the Legacy at Santa Fe building itself is an eyesore (“High-tech Legacy,” Dec. 5). It is striped yellow and brown, with all the charm of a second-rate motel. It squats on the ridgeline, ruining Aldea’s very natural landscaping. The few small plantings placed around the property are pathetic.

At night, all exterior and interior lighting are set to stun, ruining the dark sky the Aldea Homeowners Association works hard to protect. The unpainted guardrails surrounding the parking lot reflect maximum light day and night.

The Aldea Homeowners Association has tried to work with Legacy, and many of us homeowners have written independently to Legacy but have received no acknowledgement.

The county should insist that Legacy take steps to blend this behemoth into the landscape, return the planting density to preconstruction levels, paint the building a blending brown, and do something about the expanses of glittery sheet metal. Painting the cheesy white downspouts, air-conditioning covers and window frames would also be a nice touch.

This building is exactly why neighborhoods fight such projects. Paul Groh Santa Fe

Caring for all

How many readers plan to leave their kids more than $5 million? Repeal of the estate tax in the federal tax legislation benefits very few. But the legislation will cost New Mexico hundreds of millions of dollars of mineral revenue, negatively affecting all New Mexicans.

Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce voted for this bill. Once House and Senate versions of the bill have been “reconciled,” Pearce has another opportunity to vote for or against.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concludes that taxes go up for people making less than $100,000 per year, while the 0.1 percent benefit bigly.

But Pearce intends to vote for the final bill. It increases the deficit by mroe than $1 trillion, throws 13,000,000 people off health insurance and cuts Medicare.

Call Congressman Pearce, post on Facebook, tweet — tell him that if he wants to be governor, he needs to care about all New Mexicans, not just the 0.1 percent. Leslie Lakind, D.D.S. Santa Fe