Where are the environmentalists’ organizers?

The Women’s March was an immense success. It showed female power in numbers — estimates are 500,000 people strong. Why hasn’t it become a template for other gatherings in Washington, D.C.? Why didn’t 300,000 environmentalists gather to protest the recent massacre of public lands or the proposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? At least a million Americans protesting the tax bill? I’m a writer, not an organizer, but where are the organizers? We’ve signed petitions, we’ve sent letters and we’ve called Congress. That’s clearly not working. People say we’re exhausted and confused by so many challenges. Come on, folks — let our numbers show. I’d go.

Rosemary Zibart

Santa Fe

Add visuals

The New Mexican’s articles and editorial (“Vote different, Santa Fe,” Our View, Dec. 26) about ranked-choice voting have been informative, but I would suggest that a picture of a sample ballot would be more informative to many readers. Such a sample ballot could be published weekly until the election. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand votes. As for my vote, candidates running for mayor or City Council who oppose ranked-choice voting probably won’t get it. While ranked-choice is not a perfect system, clearly some do not get the populist (and frugal) message of the majority who voted for this simple runoff system.

Bill Stern

Santa Fe

Age of madness

In time, the fog will roll back out to sea. Though it means witnessing an utter poverty of civility, be grateful that we are awake and alive to see these days; so that when the fog finally does fade away we may work with new purpose to ensure that this never happens again on our watch. Do not give into despair, even when 700 employees leave the Environmental Protection Agency, because it is dangerous to give up your joy. Pain and pleasure are not mutually exclusive.

Bear witness. Speak out. Rise up. Love larger and without fear. Be grateful, every day, that we are born with a capacity for that very gratefulness. Smile at the sherbet soaked sky at sundown and drink up the color like warm maple syrup. Then stay out, even in the cold, until the fog clears.

Deborah Klezmer

Santa Fe

Cats are good

Grant Sizemore’s polemic against freeroaming cats (“Free-roaming cats can cause harm,” Looking In, Dec. 26), warns against catching toxoplasmosis from cat litter. How often do people change litter boxes for free-roaming feral cats? Nor is the disease a threat to those with normal immune systems. Personally, I love birds, and I don’t enjoy their being killed by cats, other birds, giant wind turbines or kids with BB guns. But cats are good for people. Go ahead, Google it.

A recent 20-year study by the University of Minnesota Stroke Institute found that those who didn’t own cats were significantly more likely to die of heart attack and stroke than cat owners. Another study showed cat owners having lower blood pressure and stronger immune systems. I love birds, but I love people, too.

Bruce Moss

Santa Fe