What we need to do to keep kids safe

Rick Gonzales (“Jumping the gun,” Letters to the editor, March 19), suggests a host of regulations and prohibitions to be aimed at law-abiding gun owners in order to make our children safer, arguing that since some good people go bad, none of us can be trusted. I’ll take that a step further.

Since the No. 1 cause of unintended deaths of children is car crashes, and since we cannot know which good driver will turn rogue (DWI, texting, inattention, speeding, other moving violations) in spite of licensing and mandatory insurance, perhaps we ought to ban the private ownership of the more lethal cars, as well.

I suggest that no one be allowed to drive anything bigger than a Prius, that all cars be required to have soft bonnets and smart technology, and major parts of cities be no-car zones, as in many European nations. This way, when the good driver turns bad, he or she cannot do the damage that results in nearly 40,000 Americans lying dead on our streets each year.

Dead is dead. If we are to be trusted with either cars or guns, there have to be higher, enforced standards of citizenship. Enough with the myopic focus on one tool alone. Khalil Spencer Santa Fe

Save the Tongass

I am writing to express my appreciation of our Sens. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. Udall is currently the ranking member on the Senate subcommittee for Interior Department and environment appropriations, and Heinrich is a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Public Lands, Forests and Mining Subcommittee. The environment is high up on their priority list, as mine, and our senators are some of the few standing up to the Republicans in Washington, D.C., on a timely issue.

Congress is trying to privatize the majestic Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska. Republican Lisa Murkowski, Alaska’s own senator, is pushing legislation into the upcoming budget bill that would allow clear-cutting of old growth. This forest is the largest national forest in the U.S. It is one of the last remaining temperate rain forests in the world. Let’s show our senators support. I believe this fight is crucial. Noreen O’Brien

Santa Fe

Dems, don’t get lost

As a Democrat, I found The Washington Post editorial (“Big tent, big results,” Another View, March 17) interesting. Just one quick question — what good does it do to invest time, energy and money in electing Democrats who then go to Washington, D.C., and vote with the Republicans? It’s not about purity; it’s about standing for something, for our core values.

Case in point: Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., who famously beat Roy Moore. He recently voted with some dozen other “Democrats” to help Republicans roll back regulations designed to protect consumers from fraud and lending discrimination, and prevent Wall Street from treating us to an encore of the 2008 financial debacle.

I’m all for being inclusive, but let’s not make the tent so big that our most important principles get lost inside. Judith Hendricks Santa Fe

Howling mad

It is just so obvious that without the release of captive-bred juvenile and adult lobos into the Gila, wolves don’t stand a chance of making a successful comeback. It has been 20 years since the Mexican gray wolf was reintroduced to its historic range in southwestern New Mexico after near extinction from bounty hunting on behalf of ranching interests. All these years and dollars invested in seeing the wolves restored to their rightful place in the wild will be down the drain if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish can’t act more swiftly in the lobo’s best interest. They need genetic diversity. Also, wolf killers need to be prosecuted instead of protected. I’m howling mad. It’s time to get serious. Evalyn Bemis Santa Fe

Forging paths

I know Andrea Romero (“Group to dock former director’s pay,” March 17). I know her as a friend and as a talented smallbusiness owner, working to turn her passion into progress and her ability into action, toward the end of bringing good-paying jobs to Northern New Mexico. I was there when she convinced a group of seasoned entrepreneurs to buy into her idea for an ostrich farm, winning the second Startup Weekend in Santa Fe.

Andrea searched tirelessly for programs and services that could help her in her journey. She was part of business accelerators, gave pitches, participated in panels and pitched again. She fought for the right to be believed and is trusted with the capital of labor, time and commitment. Andrea built an ostrich farm in the high rolling desert of Northern New Mexico. Think of that — that grit — of what that takes and entails.

I know the Andrea Romero who started an ostrich ranch in New Mexico. I know the Andrea who is fair, industrious and intelligent, who forges paths and gets callused hands building fences, and watches the sunrise and set over land she is cultivating to make more prosperous the soil she calls home. Sean O’Shea Santa Fe