The Most Patriotic Town
Dear editor, The City of Gallup, New Mexico, was named 'The most patriotic small town in America,' by Rand McNally in 2013. I would invite Rand McNally to come to Grants and Milan, New Mexico on Veteran's and Memorial Day and rethink this declaration. I am always amazed and privileged to be able to celebrate our Veterans for the sacrifices they made for our beautiful country. This past Monday at the Grants High School, Billy Griner and his young musicians put on a great show to celebrate Veteran's Day. There were beautiful handmade quilts that were carefully crafted to honor and given to some of our Veterans. This is done every year. We also have hundreds of Veteran bikers come thru Grants and Milan on the way to Washington DC every year for 'Run for the wall'. They stop at Milan Elementary and drive thru the round about with hundreds of children shouting, 'USA, USA!!
On Tuesday, November 11th, Veteran's Day, the Milan Elementary School put on a breakfast to thank our Veterans! Later that morning, at 11:00am, There was the yearly Veteran's Day Memorial and wreath laying service at Veteran's Park in Grants. It is always well attended as we heard from some of our Veterans. Representatives of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion Posts 60 and 80 were there to express their gratitude. From this memorial service, there is a walk to Fire and Ice Park.
Veteran's Day is a reminder to me that freedom is never free. There is always a cost paid to protect our freedoms. Our brave men and women step up in times of conflict and answer the call of our country and are prepared to lay their lives down on the altar of freedom if called upon to do so. For evil to triumph, requires only that good men and women do nothing. May our gratitude for these sacrifices never falter and may our love for our country always burn bright within our hearts. Having said all this, I would call Grants and Milan, New Mexico 'The most patriotic small towns in America!
Robert S. Windhorst Milan, New Mexico
About the Grants Animal Care Center
Dear editor, In your coverage on Nov. 12 of an update on the Grants Animal Care Center, city officials were cited as declaring the Center had 'undergone sweeping improvements,' and they went on to enumerate said 'improvements.' For this I call them out in that they were merely presenting a biased perspective reflecting the official party line of portraying their decisions as positive for all concerned. Putting a good face on superficial changes while not addressing serious underlying problems is a blatant example of 'putting lipstick on the pig.'
If one examines the changes at the Center from an animal welfare perspective, however, things look quite different. The purported focus of the facility, as reflected in its name, Animal Care Center, is being ignored.
No actual 'care' in the true sense of the word is being delivered to the sentient creatures housed there. They are instead submitted to mere incarceration in less than salubrious conditions. For example, it was discovered that during the 'improvement' period in October dogs were being fed only one cup of food per day. I'm sorry, but the anorexic look of Versace runway models is generally considered to be starvation. Furthermore, their resultant abiding hunger led to severe withdrawal in the smaller animals and outright aggression in the larger ones. Yes, at the time of your article no euthanasias had occurred, but one is now being planned for just such aggressive behavior. I have no doubt more can be expected if things don't change.
Looking at things on balance, number reduction has occurred thanks to transports by Best Friends and Rezdawg, as has some cleaning and policy reviews; but these things in no way reflect the degree of care these animals need and deserve. Oh, but to be fair, they did paint the facility a lovely lilac--what a nice shade of lipstick on that pig!
Respectfully, Katherine Elkins