Letters to the Editor

Cover story, April 10: “Practice Run”

Just a walk in the park

Fine article on and interview with Katie Arnold. One comment—you referred to a 100-mile marathon as being super human. Not exactly. Just four regular marathons back to back. I was an Ultrarunner back East. In 13 years I completed over 50 Ultramarathons, and 25 “regular” marathons. In 1987 I came in 14th in the 100 Mile National Championship at Shea Stadium. There were only 15 finishers, most of the field, including many elite runners and record holders, dropped out. It reached 100 degrees that day in June. I finished in 21 hours, a respectable, but not super human time. Just a walk in the park. If anything, I was the grunt of my Brooklyn Ultra team. Like Katie Arnold, I let my mind carry me thru the physical challenge.

Jerry Grabel

Santa Fe

Web, April 15: “Meow Wolf to cut 165 jobs across multiple states”

Taking care of business

Thank you so much for that article on the Meow Wolf union. It was interesting to learn more about the inner workings of the union. I had no idea that Meow Wolf even had a union. As someone who has relatives and friends in the United Mine Workers Union, I have a great respect for what unions can do. If you have ever learned the history of the Ludlow massacre in Colorado, you can see what unions were up against in those days and what they were trying to do for their members. I have to say though that after the disgraceful performance of the employees of Meow Wolf in Santa Fe in regards to the Matisyahu concert, simply walking off the job with no warning and crashing a concert that many of us were looking forward to in order to defame a performer based on his ethnicity, I’m having a hard time seeing the resemblance of the Meow Wolf union to many of the other noble lineages of unions that fought for the rights and lives of the union members and their families. I still believe in the value of unions, but I don’t see why modern-day union members, (e.g. Meow Wolf, Starbucks) feel like they should use their unions just to play a game of popular politics. That is not, in my experience, what unions were meant to be used for and I find little sympathy for unions that want to draw me into those kind of popular culture war politics. In addition, no one in my arena of friends or family has visited Meow Wolf since that incident, so maybe the reason Meow Wolf finds itself in poor financial straits can be laid directly at the feet of their union employees.

Elaine Struthers

Santa Fe