Dear editor, I was driving this weekend coming back from Gallup and I drove past an NMSP officer who had a woman pulled over. I was passing as she was let go and she was crying.
I don’t understand why they have all these cameras all over the place and yet we still have CYFD falling apart and children being abused but sure go and pull over the girl who wasn’t hurting anyone.
We know there are Epstein people in New Mexico but NMSP is focused on people with expired registration tags. No accountability. Jacob Parker Albuquerque
Fix Our Forests is NOT the Answer
Dear editor, Americans across the country share grave concern about worsening wildfires and the impacts of climate change. The Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) is not the answer, however.
Despite its appealing title, FOFA relies on outdated assumptions about forest management and risks pushing us toward more aggressive logging rather than the science based climate solutions we actually need.
The bill expands “streamlined” thinning and commercial timber projects under the banner of wildfire prevention, but decades of research show that large scale logging often increases fire risk by removing mature, fire resilient trees and leaving behind drier, more flammable debris. FOFA also weakens environmental review, limiting the public’s ability to weigh in on projects that could reshape our landscapes for generations.
New Mexico needs investments in prescribed burns, cultural fire practices, watershed restoration, and community level fire hardening— not policies that prioritize timber extraction and reduce oversight. Healthy forests absolutely matter in the fight against climate change, but true resilience comes from restoring ecosystems, not accelerating commercial logging under the guise of prevention.
Even though I am not a constituent, I still urge Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray LujántorejectFOFAandinstead champion legislation that aligns withmodernclimatescienceand respects the ecological complexity of our forests. Hopefully, they listen to all voices.
Jennifer Normoyle
Expression
I’m happy to say that I’m transitioning in life. “Who cares?”, you rightly comment, but I can say that if you continue reading, I must assume that, on some level, you must. In any case, I only offer these thoughts publicly on the naive assumption that they may resonate with someone in this community. In any case, I’m here to report, my attitudinal proportions are changing in a satisfying direction. My trijoint ballast of despair, anger and amusement has tilted more toward amusement and anger—both highly energizing. Despair, I’ve found, goes nowhere but curled up in fetal position or reclined before an action movie hugging a bag of Doritos. Amusement and anger are much more fun. Neither require violence; and for all us raised on Hollywood and American foreign policy, I want to offer that assurance: ANGER DOES NOT REQUIRE VIOLENT EXPRESSION. It’s healthy to find humor in the grotesque hubris a four-year-old running the country. That part requires little embellishment. Just listen to the “man” speak. The anger part kicks in when the bullies, bimbos and billionaires back up King Orange. With their masked guns and batons, their tolerance for perverse twistings of the Constitution, they nourish despair. Add to that their disregard for human dignity, for the suffering of the 99% of humanity and the grotesque stuffing of their bottomless pockets. That’s when I get twitchy and start writing letters and talking, singing and standing up. But if feels petty good. I hope I’m not alone. Because now, a blind man can see that VIOLENCE ONLY REQUIRES OBEDIENCE. ICE, and the Orange Man’s neo-Nazi militia can recruit and nourish lost, misguided children. There, they’ll find people who act like they know what’s right to tell them what to do. King Orange blames our educational system for all that is wrong or misshapen in our society and works to ban and forbid critical thinking. It may be time to develop skills for non-violent expression of anger and amusement while you still have freedom to speak. We might enjoy each other more.
B. Johnson