If you have ever read my blog before, you may know what I think of John Dendahl, aka Dimdahl. In spite of his puckish & jovial manner, he is one nasty character. It is not remotely possible, in his mind, that he is ever wrong. Worse, his opponents are not simply misguided, they are “insipid” and not to be trusted in the least. To Dimdahl, any public money spent for any cause he doesn’t love is socialism. To Dimdahl, global warming is a naturally occurring phenomenon to which human contribution is nil. Ad nauseum.

So, we might all wonder about the temperature in Hell when I sit down to write a defense of Dimdahl. What set me in that direction is the following letter to the editor:

ABQjournal: Letter to the Editor
Dendahl Should Exit New Mexico

JOHN DENDAHL’S columns are obviously anti-Hispanic and now anti-Spanish language. … New Mexico is bilingual, as our county is becoming, and what is wrong with that.

The most successful democracy in the world which avoids wars and according to a worldwide poll was found to have the most satisfied citizenry, has three official languages. The United States, on the other hand, has one recently declared “national” but not official. We are the only country in the world which sends ambassadors around the world who don’t speak the language of the country to which they are assigned.

Dendahl is an unhappy separatist influence in the most ethnically stable state in the union. Why doesn’t he go some place where Hispanics will not irritate him.

MIGUEL ENCINIAS
Albuquerque

Encinias, like all of us, is entitled to his opinion and the free expression of that. I would not try to silence him or the odious Dimdahl. However, I think Encinias goes too far (right) with this. His conclusion is nearly identical with the old right wing battle cry of the 60’s: Love It or Leave It. It is painfully close to the bigot’s “go back where you came from.” Ironically, Dimdahl comes from New Mexico. Now, I have met home-grown bigots in New Mexico (and everywhere I’ve been). I don’t know whether Dimdahl is a bigot, but his argument for English, which I do not agree with, is not sufficient proof. THIS is not the reason to run Dimdahl out of town.

Still, before I could compose my defense of Dimdahl (I had a lot of bile to suppress), I saw him again on The Line and hated what I saw so much I could hardly follow through with this (everyone laughed at him when he cited Michael Crichton, fiction writer, as THE authority on global warming — kinda like worshipping L. Ron Hubbard). Is Dimdahl a bigot? I don’t know. Jackass — without question. But he is New Mexico’s own and it would be wrong to export him — the rest of the world has its own problems. mjh

PS: Keep reading for another letter to the editor that illustrates a clearer instance of a bigot in public. Every time a bigot opens his or her mouth, they prove their ignorance. And yet, somehow, it keeps getting passed on because, at its root, it’s all human nature.

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
An Express Trip To Prejudice Land

BECAUSE OF ALL the talk about immigration lately, there are individuals who have begun to feel that common decency and good manners are not necessary when dealing with illegal immigrants or maybe someone who they perceive to be an illegal.

Case in point: My mother ran into the grocery store. When she was done finding her items, she went to the checkout counters and found only the express aisle on her side of the store open.

Because of her physical limitations and counting 12 items in her cart and seeing no one else in line, she thought it might be OK to get in the express line. Regardless of how you feel about someone with too many items in the express lane, no one should have to deal with what happened next.

A woman came up behind my mom and said loudly to her friend, “These people should learn how to read before they cross the border.” The woman pointed at the sign indicating 10 items or less, as if my mom couldn’t be made to understand if spoken to in English.

My mom has never been to Mexico. Never even set foot outside the United States. Her parents were born and raised in northern New Mexico and her grandparents were born and raised in what was the New Mexico territory.

But because of how she was perceived, she was subjected to the prejudice of this woman. …

YVONNE HAWPE