Dear editor, How are we supposed to feel safe anymore? A dad can’t even set up soccer goals for kids without getting jumped at a public park. And the police are too busy showing off drones to respond. Drones. Little robot cameras flying around like that’s going to fix anything.
This is progress? “A fleet of drones that can reach a crime scene in 90 seconds.” Cool, so they can watch it happen faster now? Because from where I’m standing, that’s not safety. That’s surveillance.
These flying cameras come from China, by the way. So we’re literally letting foreign-made tech fly over us, recording us, while the actual people hired to protect us sit back behind a screen somewhere. What happened to showing up? What happened to earning trust?
This city has lost it. We’re okay with being watched but not defended.
Jacob Parker Albuquerque, N.M.
Keeping Grants Clean
Dear editor, On Saturday, October 11, the City of Grants had their Fall Cleanup from 8 am to Noon. We had a wonderful turnout, in spite of the rain and cold weather! The volunteers were working very hard at the Amphitheater at the Riverwalk Park. Weeds, trash, elms, were cut, picked up, and discarded properly. GPD Police Chief, Maxine Monte and Grants City Councilman George Garcia were there the whole time and contributed greatly to making our park cleaner and safer. Denise Hanson, Marketing Director for the City of Grants was there with her husband. They brought a big trailer and cut and loaded all the elms onto it. Shannon DeVine from Special Projects was there to take pictures, hand out bags and collect the names of the volunteers to help the city get more grant money for future cleanup projects. Terry Fletcher, who is a constant presence at our cleanups, worked on Lobo Canyon Road collecting trash. We had teachers from the Middle School and students from both the Middle School and High School helping out! Dylan Patricio and his Dad from P&P Landscaping, Gallup, NM, drove down and helped us out a lot! Trish Gillespie and Mrs. Rodriguez and many others, including our city employees, volunteered their time, on a Saturday, to make our community better! Thank you to everyone that participated!
We had roll-offs at the Grants Police Department and Matt from the City of Grants was there to operate the loader. I just got the tonnage report and we collected 12.90 tons of trash and tires from our city! That is 25,800 lbs of trash, junk and weeds and tires!
The Village of Milan had their cleanup on the day before and it was very successful! Mayor Felix Gonzalez and Village Manager, Candi Williams were there with their staff and other employees! The Village looks beautiful! Thank you!
When we all work together, we can make good things happening. In this troubled world it is important to know that there are good people and good things happening every day to make life better for everyone.
Robert S. Windhorst, Code Enforcement Officer, City of Grants