Letters to the Editor

News, July 19: “Wet Noodles”

Not Me

A friend of mine says that he buys all of his adult stuff online and this store would be a waste of space. According to my friend. Did I mention that my friend said this and not me?

Johnny James Gabaldon
via Facebook

Think of the Children

Not in that location, near a family neighborhood, and right across from Indian School. This is the last thing we need right now as we work collectively towards mutual respect and dignity for all people, respecting indigenous cultures, and ending the objectification of women and girls that contributes to violence against them.

Cynthia Fulreader
SFReporter.com

Totally Gross

Disgusting. I just opened my business in that neighborhood. There's a park and a school there, wtf? Expect a fight from this family neighborhood.

Cindi Desiree
via Facebook

News, July 19: “The State of the Forest”

Zoinks, Scoob

A few years ago in December I was with some friends and we were harvesting Christmas trees from one of the approved areas on the Las Vegas side of the mountain. ... We passed through a lot of clear-cut forest. Coming back with our two permitted trees, we were stopped by unfriendly armed forest service (rangers?) for the purpose of checking our permits. Unfriendly means they pulled into the center of the gravel road blocking our way forward, and told us not to get out of our vehicle. We showed them our permits, and they inspected the back of the truck. They got a little less persnickety when the two dogs in the back of our truck growled and bared their teeth. I went away with the feeling the ranger dudes were there more to protect private logging interests than to serve the public.

David Steele
SFReporter.com

Heck of a Job

The Forest Service has come a long way since the first Forest Plan was put out. Their interest in returning low-severity fire to large areas of our national forest is excellent and overdue. We'll see if the Trump team slashes their budget and puts a stop to this work, endangering communities. The Forest Service also needs to begin to phase out cattle grazing on our national forest as cattle are extremely destructive to watersheds, plant communities and they fill our public lands with feces and flies. Buy-outs of allotments would do this job, but Congress must approve. Finally, it's great to see the Forest Service working so well with the National Park Service who manages the Valles Caldera and Bandelier.

Thomas Ribe
SFReporter.com

Letters, July 19: “But They Have Casinos”

Left Field

Of all the rationalizations for Santa Fe's annual [Entrada de Don Diego de Vargas], I wasn't expecting the justification of the Spanish Inquisition which Mr. Maestas expressed in his letter in the July 19 issue. Will so-called progressive Santa Fe now celebrate the destruction of multicultural Andalusia, the original reconquista, along with the reconquista of Santa Fe? Will the fiesta include a re-enactment of the torture of Muslims and Jews?

Marc Bedner
Eldorado

Cover, July 19: “A Moral Choice”

Thanks Doc

Thank you, Dr. Boyd, for your interview and your mention of the National Organization for Women and other organizations providing support to women. Most of all, thank you for your endless strength in providing abortions. Women need to know they have control of their bodies. We will continue to support women's reproductive and sexual healthcare.

Rebecca Langford
President, Santa Fe NOW

A Query

How many are asking when does spirit/soul enter the fetus, and does it matter?

Richard Dean Jacob
Santa Fe

[sic]

Here's what I waz tawt: From the "other side" a consciousness exists that iz ready to make the choice uv reentering third-dimensional Earth. Based on the best available parents for the growth uv itz Soul in the next lifetime. We choose our parents, for this reason. At anytime during the woman's pregnancy the being may choose to not "come in" for itz own reasons. It then "signals" the pregnant lady to abort. It may come in at a future time that iz more desirable.

If you want to honor the "baby," HONOR the consciousness, not the fetus.

Michael Kolman
Santa Fe

Letters, June 28: “Local Gadflies”

Be Nice, Dude

I am troubled by Jonathan Hayden's letter on several counts.

First, in mocking various critics of the Forest Service, he fails to explicitly identify himself as an employee of that agency, which he is.

Second, that he would publicly mock not only these two individuals' letters to the Reporter, but also their input at official Forest Service meetings, is a gross failure of professionalism.

Third, his letter is pure ad hominem attack, with absolutely no substantive rebuttal.

Finally, to imply that the Forest Service operates according to "scientific consensus and historical fact," as he does, is pure joke. In truth, it operates according to political and economic influence, as does the BLM, the EPA, and every other federal and state agency in this nation. Were it actually operating according to the science, it would, for instance, have ended the ecological scourge of below-cost public lands cattle grazing in the American West many decades ago. Similarly, dwarf mistletoe "management," tree "thinning" in lieu of natural fire, and countless other ecologically unfounded practices on this and so many other of our national forests.

Craig Jolly
Santa Fe

Santa Fe Reporter