GOP senators define hypocrisy

Remember Merrick Garland? He was nominated by President Barack Obama to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court in March 2016, more than seven months before the presidential election that year. Republican Senate leaders declared that because Scalia’s seat had become vacant during an election year, the Senate would not even consider a nomination from the president. Now we are only six weeks away from the presidential election, and the Republican Senate wants to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg? Definition of hypocritical: saying that you have particular moral beliefs but behaving in a way that shows these are not sincere.

Susan Ellenbogen Santa Fe

Listen to the call

I volunteer for my political party of choice. Why? For one, to help others exercise this important right of our democratic republic. But it’s also selfish. I want to avoid post-election regret: shoulda, coulda or woulda.

As a volunteer, I call people to ask them questions, the most important of which is to volunteer. Since COVID19 has relegated campaign efforts to virtual outreach, my ask is to help me and my colleagues replicate our outreach efforts: calling, texting and other means of participation. Mostly, the answer I get is that they don’t have time. But that’s not why I’m writing. I’m writing because it’s the other reaction I frequently get that is upsetting — those who scream at me to take me off the list as if I’m selling a second-rate product. Or that they’ve been called too many times and they are tired of the calls.

So I want to say this: When you hang up before I’ve introduced myself and/or after I’ve introduced myself, you are really saying this: Let things happen. I can’t help you. In other words: It is what it is, as our president has recently said. Let the chips fall where they may. If you are happy with the last four years, then keep your fingers off your phone. And no whining for the next four years.

Cindy Papst Santa Fe

Real solutions

While the intensity of political rhetoric and misinformation ramps up along with continued climate change effects of wildfires, flooding and severe drought, the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine and now the mourning of the loss of a beloved Supreme Court justice, take the time to clear your mind with a real solution for New Mexicans’ ability to have a better future. Go to aflep.org and discover how a New Mexico Public Bank can improve all of our lives through economic and environmental development and so much more. If you like what you see, support this effort in our 2021 legislative session. No New Mexican should be denied a better future.

Marcia Wolf Santa Fe

For RBG, back women

Many people have reposted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s last, most fervent wish in their tributes to her — that a new justice not be installed in her place until a new president can be elected. But, even more important than that wish, it seems to me, is that when she was asked, “When will there be enough women on the Supreme Court?” RBG famously said, “When there are nine.” While many people were shocked, she pointed out, “But there have been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”

Friends, Sen. Tom Udall, Sen. Martin Heinrich, representatives in the House, in this year of action, where our commitment to equality has taken a public outcry and turned it into an even greater movement, please consider honoring RBG’s legacy and her fight for women’s political parity and gender equality by co-sponsoring The Girls’ LEAD (Leadership, Engagement, Agency and Development) Act (S.2766/H.R.6626) in her honor. This important legislation has been sent to both the House and Senate committees on foreign affairs and aims to support women and expand the political leadership and civic engagement of adolescent girls around the world. Let’s make this legislation our generation’s legacy, in an unmistakable, tangible tribute to a trailblazing legislator and long-serving Supreme Court justice.

Kate Nash advocate, The Borden Project Santa Fe

Consider the animals

The “In Brief ” article of Sept. 4, “Livestock ship carrying crew of 42 sinks amid storm off Japan’s coast,” has been on my mind these past two weeks. It was not until the last paragraph that we learn that 5,800 cows were being transported, supposedly for the meat market. In these days when many of us are reflecting more deeply on what is truly important to us, and how we and our institutions may need to change, I would like to suggest that both humans and animals alike may benefit when we take time to consider the intelligence and emotions of the animals that our society regularly consumes for food. I recommend Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina as a good place to start.

Jenny Harland Santa Fe