Letters to the editor May 7

Why keep denying problems with Wi-Fi?

| The New Mexican

5/7/2008 - 5/7/08

Regarding the April 30 editorial, "Are we ready for Wi-Fi? Council can expect earful":

Would you so readily call former Norwegian Prime Minister and once World Health Organization Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland (who is also a medical doctor by profession and a self-professed electro-sensitive) something as deliberately bashing as a "woo-woo" if she were here in town as a guest?

And your paper's editor's remark about someone "showing up with a crystal capable of absorbing the worst of the waves" displays a deliberate and close-minded bias in even wanting to consider that there might be more to this issue than the psychosomatic delusions of others backed up by new age crappola.

It's a known phenomena that people can't be objective about their kids or about something they're making money from; the same goes for today's wireless technologies, including people's cell phones and their attitudes toward Wi-Fi.

Richard Dean Jacob
Santa Fe

Different strokes
If legislators would only learn to listen to educators, we could have avoided the shameful waste of time and billions of dollars devoured by Reading First.

"Scientifically based" reading instruction, from the beginning, was nothing more than a profit scam for a few select publishing companies. If we truly want children to make academic progress, get rid of the commercial scripted programs and start teaching children based on how they actually learn. It's quite simple. But then the simplest things are often the hardest to do ...

Priscilla Gutierrez
Santa Fe

Peace on the prairie
I live on Zia Road across the street from the Capshaw Middle School football and exercise field. The manner in which the prairie dogs and students cooperate in the mutual use of that field is a one-of-a-kind example for us all.

The students come out to the field for their classes, and the prairie dogs go underground. The students leave, and the prairie dogs return. The traditional "mounds" have been leveled and caution cones placed near the holes.

The lesson is one of tolerance, acceptance, respect for animal life and so forth. I am ever thankful for the lesson from the folks at Capshaw and for the attitude of Santa Fe that permits this.

Joseph Magrath
Santa Fe

Numbers game
Regarding "Stopping the exodus" (April 30): Using the quality of analysis in your recent article on workers who couldn't afford housing in Santa Fe, I could prove that the city is losing $2.5 billion a year by not allowing cows to graze on the Plaza.

It's true, the couple who couldn't afford the mobile home here doesn't spend money in Santa Fe, but the people who did buy it do, and since they could afford the mobile home, they are likely to spend more here than the other couple would have. The only situation in which the city loses revenue is when residences here become vacant in large numbers. This hasn't yet happened.

I am all for paying teaches and cops enough to allow them to live here, but do it in a straightforward manner and without using silly statistics.

Peter Amacher
Santa Fe

Pro-education plan
Regarding your April 26 editorial, "Tying schools to cars? Draconian, but ...":

Education is badly served when the editors of The New Mexican don't understand the governor's proposal to link grades to a student's ability to obtain a driver's license.

A license to drive is a privilege, not a right.

As for getting to work: There is the bicycle, bus, thumb and feet. If employers understand the need for education, and I think they do, they will cooperate and help to solve the transportation problems.

Education improves our earning ability. Though it is in great need of attention, let us not disparage it but work to improve, encourage and enhance it for all.

Shirley Smith
Santa Fe

Hats on to Pecos
I enjoyed reading "Red Hat revelations," the article about the Red Hat Society in the April 30 Taste section, but we in our chapter of the Red Hat Society in Pecos felt left out.

We are a relatively new chapter, having come into existence in January. At present we have 11 active members and are seeking more. Our name is Las Picosas Rojas. Our next get together is scheduled for May 31. I am the chapter organizer, or "Queen Mother."

Dolores "Dolly" Vigil
Pecos

Luján's the answer
A recent letter asked, "Why have environmental organizations all endorsed Ben Ray Luján?" Ask any of the persons active in the Sierra Club, Conservation Voters, WildEarth Guardians, Think New Mexico or other groups which of the candidates for Congress has been active and effective in advancing progressive issues.

I asked, and based upon the answers, I will vote for Ben Ray Luján as the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, District 3.

Richard D. Ellenberg
Santa Fe