Concerning the Carlos Fierro trial beginning this week: The citizens of Santa Fe are watching very closely. The accused, Carlos Fierro, should not be allowed to get off on a technicality (blood drawn with an improper needle indeed). He was, say police, drinking and driving, and William Tenorio's blood ended up all over Guadalupe Street as Fierro sped away.

The governor has made headlines with his initiatives to crack down on this drinking and driving, czars have been appointed, tax dollars are being spent and yet people are drinking and driving. Carlos Fierro should be held accountable no matter how politically connected he is. The evidence, as reported by eye witnesses, The New Mexican and other news outlets makes this as clear as day. If this man walks, something is very rotten with our criminal justice system.


In Sunday's paper, above the fold on the front page, there is an article ("Trial revisits fateful night") about the upcoming trial of Carlos Fierro, the person charged with the killing of a pedestrian while DWI and fleeing the scene.

The article opens up stating that Mr. Fierro is a 12th-generation New Mexican; a lawyer who worked in D.C. and New Mexico; whom the State Bar of New Mexico named as its 2007 outstanding young lawyer.

What do you say about the victim, William Tenorio? A few paragraphs later, you state that he was from the pueblo and had been drinking the night he was struck. What's that about? Back on Page A-7, there is a description of Mr. Tenorio: father of three children; a large man with a gentle, kind spirit; a community leader and youth sports coach; University of New Mexico student; catechism teacher. Why didn't you reference any of this above the fold on the front page?


Parsing the Tea Party

Several Sept. 19 letters to the editor ("Tea Party deserved coverage, respect") claimed The New Mexican ignored the "huge crowd" of patriots protesting at the state Capitol on Sept. 12.

Is that like the 70,000 who became 2 million in Glenn Beck's fevered brain? Why aren't demagogues called demagogues any more? What is Fox News trying to foment? And that nice lady with the necklace saying we should overthrow Obama? Isn't that fomenting violence? I'm sorry, but that is demagoguery.

That is a story that needs to be reported. Or is another corporation without a conscience simply making more money by any means possible?


I would like to extend a greeting to all of the newly minted social activists who attended the "Tea Party" in Santa Fe. Showing up and participating is an important part of civic responsibility.

Even more important, however, is checking facts. President Barack Obama has done nothing to limit our rights and freedoms. Worried about the illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens, or the unconstitutional expansion of executive power, or the suspension of habeas corpus? Then protest at the homes of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Where were these protesters when this dyspeptic duo squandered our nation's economic surplus?

I am aware of my patronizing tone. I feel the same impatience with conservatives who howl about elitist intellectuals, as I do with teenagers who rail against the rules of their parents. Just because a person might wish to be fully grown (or in the former case, fully informed) doesn't mean that he or she actually is.




Local "Tea Party" activists were protesting at the Roundhouse on Sept. 12: Really?!

Where were they when President George W. Bush led the United States — and the whole world — to the brink of economic disaster? Where were they when Bush and his cronies were spending enormous sums of money on and sacrificing our precious children in a war in Iraq that he lied his way into?

Where were they when President Bush and his cronies were data mining innocent Americans' personal information and listening to Americans' personal phone calls without warrants?

Where were the Tea Partiers when President Bush and Dick Cheney were systematically dismantling the Bill of Rights?