A big thank you to the owner of Pete's Pets for making his building available for the Interfaith Overflow Shelter this winter! Thanks also to Holy Faith Episcopal and First Presbyterian churches for providing space until it's ready, and to The New Mexican for your coverage of the shelter's needs. Faith communities of all backgrounds are encouraged to take a week this winter to help with both food and volunteers.

People who aren't part of a faith community can gather a group of friends to help out. Even kids can help by making food. Caring for the homeless and the hungry is the mark of an ethical human being, regardless of age, class, or religious belief. And along with the Interfaith Shelter, please keep in mind the year-round needs of St. Elizabeth Shelter, the Youth Shelter, and La Luz.


Diminished career

The recent uproar about the health violations at the Tesuque Village Market makes me wonder how many of those writers are familiar with working in kitchens in Santa Fe. I was first a short-order cook when I was 16 and living in Connecticut, and had been off-and-on throughout my adult life.

While not low-skilled, it is low-paying and a fairly thankless job, and those who do it, do it for the love of cooking. I worked my last cooking job about eight years ago, as cheap immigrant labor took over most cooking positions in Santa Fe. The immigrants did not take the jobs that Americans no longer wanted; the Americans no longer wanted the jobs as the immigrants/owners were lowering the rates of pay/overtime, etc.

Just because someone can put out a plate of food for less money than someone else does not make them a conscientious cook. I've witnessed an overall ignorance and lack of concern for sanitation, proper food handling and temperatures and so forth, to the point where the profession no longer held any satisfaction for me.


Climate change rally

I was extremely disappointed that The New Mexican did not cover the International Day of Climate Action event here in Santa Fe on Oct. 24, where more than 500 people of all ages attended to urge our local, state, and national governments to push for a strong, effective climate treaty in Copenhagen in December.

Despite recent oil and gas company-funded advertisements to the contrary, scientists around the world now agree that we must act quickly to reduce our fossil fuel emissions in order to maintain a climate on Earth that will sustain human and other life into the future. The millions of people around the world who were involved in the events on Oct. 24 showed that the human community agrees that we need strong action now.

For more information on these events and the science behind them, please visit 350.org. For more information on the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, please see http://en.cop15.dk.


Greedy tricksters

This was my family's first Halloween in Santa Fe, and it was terribly disappointing. Wanting to take my children trick-or-treating with friends, I put out a nice large bowl of Kit-Kats and Reese's for kids along with a sign: "Please take one so there is enough for everybody," on my front porch.

No less than five minutes later, the bowl was empty, and a 9-year old boy was carrying a Wal-Mart bag containing the entire bowl's contents — with his mother following him down the street!

I asked them if they took it, and they shot me a blank stare as if they didn't understand what I was saying. So sad. After years of leaving candy out in good faith in other communities in which I have resided, I can no longer continue the practice, at least not in Santa Fe.


Older than 400

Let's at least be honest about the "400th Anniversary" celebration being funded with our tax dollars. The community currently known as Santa Fe is much older than 400 years. The shift that occurred 400 years ago was the arrival of the Spanish, an event that some of us don't want to celebrate. A real Santa Fe history event, that elucidates all of the shifts and swings of human occupation of this location would be of infinitely more value. Let's fund real education, not bigotry.