Category Archives: Letters-to-the-Editor

Mark Twain got his start this way.

Cell Hell

We’ve probably all witnessed behavior similar to that which is described below: people being oblivious because of their cell phone addiction.

Of all the many bad examples, the ones that disturb me the most are like what I saw in the grocery today. A mother was on her cell phone. Her son pointed to a product and said something. His mom responded with “I’m on the phone!” Nice lady. God forbid you spend a moment in real contact with your child.

A few months ago, I saw a father pushing a cart around the store with his daughter riding facing him. He was glued to the phone. She was staring dully. Think she’ll remember fondly those trips to the store with dad?

If your kids hate you, won’t talk to you, or won’t get off the god-damned phone themselves, you only have yourself to blame. mjh

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Locals Worship Their Cell Phones

CELL PHONES have officially taken over the world, and nobody has even noticed yet. Mostly because they are all too busy talking on their cell phones. If only they could see the irony of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” playing as their ring tone.

I work at a local retail store, and the ratio of people that I check out who are on their cell phones during the entire transaction is two-to-one. I feel as if I need to call them in order to ask to see their identification when they hand me their credit card.

I drive home from work, which is only a few blocks from my house, and someone who is busy yakking away at their cell phones cuts me off at least twice a night. The obscene amount of cell-phone usage has reached the point of becoming an epidemic.

When people are having a conversation with an actual human being, they should have the decency to unglue their cell phone from the side of their face for five seconds.

When they get in their car, they should have courtesy and respect for others’ lives and call them back later. They are not the center of the universe. Their cell phone is not God. If they don’t answer it, but rather call the person back later at a more convenient (time), the cell phone will not smite them. They will not die. I promise.

ANGELA BINGHAM
Albuquerque

I oppose cell phone towers as dreadful visual pollution. I oppose most public cell phone use as auditory pollution. I oppose most public cell phone users as selfish loud-mouths.

Wireless Action Network, NM concerns itself more with the ill health effects of cell phones. If you want to give yourself a brain tumor, fine. But those nasty towers may be spewing poison to all of us.

Gotta go — phone’s ringing. [Kidding — everyone knows I hate all phones.] mjh

ABQjournal: Speak Up!

ABQjournal: Speak Up!

IT WAS amusing to watch the hypocrisy during the war protest. The protest was not about the war, but a rally for the hate-the-president crowd. If it is human life that is your concern, why weren’t you protesting the old regime in Iraq that murdered tens of thousands of its own— or do you think an American life is worth more than an Iraqi’s?— C.C.S.

I WOULD THINK a report of 1,000 people marching in Albuquerque would warrant being on the front page.— M.S.

White House shouldn’t cut funding for national parks

Letter: White House shouldn’t cut funding for national parks – Opinion

Americans, including New Mexicans, prize our national parks, but the Bush administration’s budget ignores pressing park needs by proposing a $100 million cut.

Despite continued budget pressures in an unstable world, this budget does not reflect the priority that Americans place on our national park system. It does not begin to meet the needs of our national parks. In fact, this $100 million budget cut likely means that Americans will pay higher entrance fees for fewer services in our parks this summer.

According to a nationwide Harris Poll announced a few weeks ago, national parks top the list of federal government services supported by the American people. More Americans voice support for national parks – 85 percent – than defense, at 71 percent, or Social Security and Medicare, each receiving 76 percent support.

This tremendous public support however, is not reflected in the administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2007, which provides only a small increase for park operations and cuts overall funding for national parks by $100.4 million compared to current levels.

Already, national parks operate on average with only two-thirds of the needed funds – a systemwide shortfall in excess of $600 million annually. …

Last year, the overall parks budget was reduced by approximately $76 million, after being subject to multiple across-the-board cuts. …

The bipartisan National Park Centennial Act would also provide important new funds to address the parks’ maintenance and natural and cultural preservation needs. Our national heritage depends on it.

Diane Albert
UNM student

Centennial Act

The National Park Centennial Act would make the National Park System fiscally sound by the 100th birthday of the National Park Service in 2016. It addresses myriad funding needs of the parks, including visitor center upgrades, preservation of historic buildings and museum artifacts, and the removal of invasive species. The National Park System suffers from a multi-billion backlog of maintenance projects and a crippling annual operating deficit in excess of $600 million-a condition the Centennial Act is designed to remedy.

[mjh: This link leads to a list of co-sponsors of the legislation.]

More of Jeffrey Gardner’s Nonsense

Regarding Jeffrey Gardner’s latest nonsense: No one

disputes that 9/11 happened. In fact, some of the strongest critics of BushCo include the families of those killed. Most of us realize

the terrorist threat has escalated dramatically thanks to our bumbling in Iraq. And all of us are aware that a free society will always

be at risk to unscrupulous scoundrels, domestic and foreign.

As a consistent critic of BushCo’s wrong-headed and ham-handed

response to 9/11, I don’t want a dime more money from Homeland Security in Albuquerque. Vast amounts are pouring into small towns all

over AmeriCo for security cameras in every corner — more corporate welfare. The lines between the police, the military and the spies are

all gone. I feel no safer than I did on 9/12.

I heartily agree with the Tribune that “the incompetence and ignorance of Homeland

Security and the Bush administration in addressing the real issues of homeland security is staggering.” mjh

[published 1/28/06 in The Albuquerque

Tribune: Opinions]

Home spun By Jeffry Gardner, Tribune

Columnist

Well, first and foremost is the fact that there truly is a terrorist threat. Ask the family members of the nearly 3,000

people murdered on Sept. 11, 2001. …

So, other than wanting money for money’s sake, why the beef with Homeland Security?

Clearly, it affords an opportunity for more Bush-bashing.
—–

mjh’s

Blog: Generous Jeffry January 7, 2005
mjh’s Blog: Everybody Knows Nihilists

Vote Libertarian November 4, 2004
mjh’s Blog: Right’s Wrong March 17,

2004

in a word, appalling

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor

Moving

Petroglyphs Deceitful

RE: “CITY Handles Rocks with All Due Respect” editorial

The Albuquerque Journal stated that

it is “hard to imagine … any greater measure of respect” by the city of Albuquerque in moving petroglyphs to make way for the Paseo del

Norte extension.

It takes great stretches of the imagination to conclude that wrapping these boulders in a blanket and moving

them during the quiet of the Christmas holidays constitutes “respect.”

“Tragic” might be a more appropriate

descriptor, for Mayor Martin Chávez has desecrated a nationally recognized cultural treasure and religious site in order to save

just 4.5 minutes of commuter time. . ..

“Deceitful” is another good option, for Chávez still has not

explained to taxpayers why he gave up federal funding for this project to avoid conducting an environmental impact

statement.

Rest assured, we will soon see major new cost escalations, like the new bridge over the Piedras Marcadas

Arroyo, done to avoid approval from the Army Corps of Engineers. Let us not forget that Mayor Chávez used to say

that not a single petroglyph would be impacted by the Paseo extension.

The Journal and Mayor Chávez have known for

over a decade the strong opposition to this road by every tribe in New Mexico and the National Congress of American Indians. To use the

word “respect” to describe the very act that desecrated this area is, in a word, appalling.

LAURIE WEAHKEE

Executive director
SAGE Council
Albuquerque