Why should the present customers be required to pay for an expansion to serve future customers?

Presumably the current rate structure was established to pay for operation and to pay for the purchase of the system from the Public Service Company of New Mexico in 1995. The cost of expanding water production should be covered by the utility-expansion charge paid by all new connections to the system.

Additionally, I read that the Wilderness Protection Act approved in the U.S. Senate includes diversion of 600,000 acre-feet of water a year from the Colorado River Basin to the Navajos and to the Gallop area. Recent publicity about the Buckman Direct Diversion project seems to emphasize that Rio Grande water is a sustainable source of water for the future of our city, but it comes from the Colorado watershed. That river is over-allocated, even without considering the droughts anticipated by those arguing for dramatic government intervention to "do something" about global warming. What chance will we have in a fight with Los Angeles over rights to water from the Colorado River?



As of this month, Medicare no longer pays for the annual physical exam for seniors. This means many elderly poor will lose their one opportunity for preventative care because annual exams often exceed $300.

Why is it we have all the money we need for bombs and guns and military incursion? Yet we, as a supposedly wealthy, caring nation, cannot afford to pay for annual physicals for the elderly who pay almost one hundred dollars a month in health care premiums. What kind of sense does this make?

We must write our congresspeople and demand that Medicare pay for annual physical exams.



On my way to taking my daughter to the pool, I stopped to see if I could assist two angel-strangers who were comforting a dog, a hit-and-run victim. This beautiful dying pet had a silver chain collar, but no tags. The stranger-angels took it to Smith Veterinary Hospital, where it later succumbed to its injuries.

Emergencies happen, so it's important for owners to tag their pets —even if they are house pets and are in a fenced yard. I want anyone missing a black dog along Quail Run to know that we loved their dog. Thanks to the angels and the men from Department of Transportation who blocked traffic for us.



A few questions on common courtesy: Did you glare at the woman that passed by with the same venom with which you scowled at the man? What gives you the right to be so disrespectful to a fellow traveler in this journey we call life? Would you like that interaction to be the last engagement you have with a fellow human being? The pain that you suffer, the challenges of this world that you so arduously endeavor to process, were not caused by him.

He didn't do it, I didn't do it. Arrogance and judgment manifest as perniciously self-indulgent diseases, and discourtesy is the manifestation of those sicknesses. So please, cut yourself and the rest of us a little slack, and try to be a little more courteous. Your world, all of our world, will be much better for it.



Other than Jesus, the only two individuals we have honored with a national holiday are Martin Luther King and Christopher Columbus. Dr. King and Jesus were men of peace and non-violence who tried to create a world that saw past skin color to the content of one's character.

In contrast, Christopher Columbus, on his second of four visits to America in 1493, began to enslave and slaughter millions of indigenous human beings. Countless more died excruciating deaths from diseases his men brought from Europe. He set the heinous standard for European explorers to follow.

In New Mexico, October 12th should be designated solely as a day that honors the contributions by American Indians to what our country is today. Columbus and his holiday should be relegated to the dustbins of history.


Finally, goodbye to George W. Bush, our worst president ever.