Category Archives: Letters-to-the-Editor

Mark Twain got his start this way.

other voices

meet an atheist

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It seems that most people don’t really know any atheists, so it isn’t

surprising that there is misconception about atheism.

I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I do want to respond to Kaitlyn

Rice’s letter-to-the-editor.

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor

‘Under God’ Supplies Purpose

RECENTLY IN one of my classes, we had a

discussion about taking “under God” out of the pledge of allegiance. The majority of the class agreed that God should be left in, but

there were a few who disagreed. One believed that by saying “under God,” students who did not believe in God were being

ostracized.

I think it is sad that people believe we were randomly put here for no reason at

all, that we have no purpose and it doesn’t matter what we do with our lives because after we die that is just the end.

It doesn’t make sense to me that some people believe that what is right and wrong is a standard made by man. … I guess if

you believe that there are no eternal consequences for your actions, you wouldn’t think that there is anything wrong with teen

pregnancies or drug abuse. I find it depressing that people have so much pride that they believe they have accomplished everything on

their own, and that God has had no hand in their life. …
KAITLYN RICE
Albuquerque

I

understand that you attribute much that is good in human beings to god. Your mistake is in assuming that without god, I can’t recognize

good and evil in human beings. Worse, you insult me by assuming you know what I must believe if I don’t believe in god — a condition

you can’t grasp.

After I am dead, I will not enter heaven or hell. My energy and molecules will gradually move out into the

surroundings, in a sense returning to the beginning. It really doesn’t matter to me, because Mark Justice Hinton will no longer exist.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about how I live or how I affect my world. I care because I am a part of it NOW. Hereafter

means nothing to me.

Much of what you attribute to god, I attribute to good fortune and chance. Indeed, a lot in life is random.

But some of it is cumulative — we end up where we are after many steps involving lots of influences, good and bad. I’m pretty certain

I’m a decent human being. I’m confident that much of what has lead me to this point has not been solely my own doing. I don’t believe

in self-made people — we’re all connected and interdependent. But our connection is life itself — which connects us to everything

else, as well. It is our humanity, our capacity for empathy and sympathy, that connect us to other human beings. We don’t need a god for

that.

Specifically on the matter of the pledge, I think we should stop saying it altogether (as I did many years ago). America is

a great nation; one should not need to be programmed to see that; one should not ever be coerced into group-think. But, if we need a

pledge to hold the nation together, so be it. “Under god” is a small part of what’s wrong. Schools (and churches) full of impressionable

children conditioned to see no evil and only good in their country — and to equate one administration and one party with all that is

good — that’s the problem. Invoking god helps glorify the state.

I would advise your classmates who dislike “under god” to stop

saying it — and ask themselves why they say any of the other words. Part of what makes this a free nation is a willingness to refuse to

join the majority and the majority’s tolerance of those who so refuse. At this very moment, some prayerful faithful rage that I am

corrupt and ‘the real problem’; their anger and hate is as obvious as their bibles or prayer rugs; some of them are willing to kill for

their god. How is that good?

peace, mjh

other voices

This Week’s WTF

The following is from a real uniter, not a divider. Like all children, he

imitates the adults he hears, including the President and Vice President.

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor

Ignore Enviros,

Drill ANWAR

NOW THAT Congress has shown that it is full of pansies and lily-livered cowards, instead of going

ahead and voting to drill in ANWAR, they drop it and guarantee higher prices for oil and our future dependence on other countries.

They should be voting for the drilling and for the restriction of environmentalists nuisance lawsuits whenever a nuclear power

plant is to be built, or a new refinery or the opening of a new oil field. These cause the price of construction to go way up to the

point it is not profitable to build or do any drilling. Then you have those that ignore new sources of energy or any lines of pursuit

that may allow independence from the Middle East.

Our government, instead of listening to the majority and using common sense,

listens to special interest groups. This includes the mealy-mouthed, two-faced liars that go by the name of Democrats.

RALPH E. ZECCO
Socorro

How is one supposed to take this viciousness? Turn the other cheek?

Respond in kind? Ultimately, it is up to other less boneheaded conservatives to talk some sense into idiots like Zecco. Good luck with

that.

peace, mjh

other voices

GOP Deserts Moderates, Ideals

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor

GOP Deserts

Moderates, Ideals

DURING THE recent Albuquerque election, I received several fliers from the office of the chairman of the

Republican Party.

None of them promoted the Republican candidates or their records. None of them contributed to informing the

public about current political issues. All of them slammed the Democrats. They did not sit well with me. I think it was

just the final straw, and they caused me to vote for a Democrat, something I haven’t done for years.

Since the

takeover of the Republican Party by the conservatives, I have slowly realized that there is no room in the party for

moderate-thinking members [mjh: the Radical Right calls moderate Republicans RINOs]. The party has abandoned traditional Republican values such as small government and balanced budgets.

They have introduced new standards of government that are based not on public need but political payback. The image of that ignorant FEMA

chief still gives me heartburn. …

The Republicans have taken the U.S. to record trade deficits. … They have cut the

effectiveness or are attempting to cut the effectiveness of all major environmental laws including those that protect our water, our air

and our public lands. No consideration is given to protecting the public. …
J.W. TANNER
Albuquerque

other voices

Soapbox Survey

Several interesting letters Tuesday in the ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor. mjh

I give a hearty second and amen to Patricia Carpenter’s suggestion

for a live tree as the National Happy Holidays Tree. I agree it is awful to butcher a grand tree every year. New Mexico’s tree was 85

feet when selected and then trimmed to 65. What a dumb ritual.

Bob L. Easley of Placitias says Ojito is a “playground for the

urban pseudo environmentalist.” Since most people use “environmentalist” as an insult, what kind of insult is “pseudo environmentalist”?

I thank Brittmarie Perez for her thorough trashing of Dimdahl’s latest dreck.

Over in ABQjournal: Speak Up! (why is this separate on the Web?), I

almost agree with:

THE CHRISTIAN right and evangelists are no better than the Muslim terrorists. They are trying to

turn our country into their view of the world.— P.B.

Though it may be easier to live here with

our extremists than theirs.

On the other hand, I give an exasperated WTF to

this:

LET THE PARTY begin! Now that more than 2,000 have died in Iraq, the Democrats and their allies can move full-

speed ahead with their seditious agenda. Ultimately, though, their actions will destroy this country.—

M.W.C.

Letters-to-the-Editor

Mainstream Media (MSM) – Can’t live with it, can’t really be free without it

To me, journalism is a mechanism for delivering information, including

interpretation, analysis and opinion. Above all, Journalists should be considered the loyal opposition, another check in our system of

checks and balances. Journalists should question those with power, liberal or conservative.

The Radical Right has done many things

very well. Among those, they have simultaneously discredited the “liberal” Media while building a very powerful conservative Media. (This

assault on the media began as it helped topple a conservative president.) Don’t believe what you read, unless you read it in a

sanctioned place like the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fox, or the Bible. Bias is everywhere, but Truth belongs to God’s

Party. Don’t dare to question the Righteous Authority — that would be disloyalty, anti-patriotism, and socio-communo-atheo-homo-

feminism.

This was a sensible tactic when the leaders of the far right were ignored as a small band of extremists. Indeed, they

were left out of day to day culture, as kooks often are. But they never gave up; they never let down the attack. Unfortunately, the

attack involved poisoning the well. By undermining the role of the Free Press to protect all our freedoms while developing a Sanctioned

Media to advance and defend their cause, they have weakened the entire System. Even this possibly accidental fallout advances the avowed

goal of destroying the Federal Government, through legislation and bankruptcy.

So, what’s a liberal to do with MSM? Eschew it?

Trust it? Use it? Are we to imitate those who successfully captured the flag by closing our minds to all but the One True Word as spoken

by our own Limbaughs and Roves? Will Liberal Blogs topple the King?

We need a free and antagonistic National Media. As important

as local media is, it can’t defend the Nation anymore than your local NRA chapter can. So, we need MSM — MSM we don’t trust without

question, but which we can trust more than advertisers, marketers, spin-doctors and king-makers. We need to challenge the value of

separate and unequal media that simply tell you what you’re supposed to hear. True conservatives, not the Radical Wrong, believe that,

as should true progressives.

It was a recent pulse in the blogosphere that got me to thinking about this this way. But that

discussion was about local MSM more so than national MSM. Local MSM has all the burdens of national and more, while having fewer

resources. It is the job of the Albuquerque Journal, et. al., to inform us about national issues and local, and, maybe, even to connect

the dots between the two levels — corruption and reform move in both directions.

We’ve recently seen “The Media” perform well

nationally and locally with Katrina and the Gulf Coast (not a band). Thanks in large part to MSM (yes, yes, I read the local blogs, too),

we saw what was happening outside of our community and we have heard much of how our own community was affected and reacted — dots were

connected. Key to this was a large number and diverse group of unembedded journalists in the area, including many from communities all

around the country. We’ve also seen the old adversarial Media reappear, asking questions those with power, from President down to Mayor,

would rather not have to answer. (When did we last discuss Race and Poverty as a nation? Just before the Radical Wrong began their

march.) This performance was so much better than the Media’s handling of Iraq (far away & embedded) and 9-11 (overwhelming pain and

passion crushing all discussion). Until Rove shot back, the issue lacked the knee-jerk “you’re with us or you’re against the troops”

spin, where the administration claims it is the nation. We’ve all seen failure and suffering on a massive scale at home, where it is

harder to ignore than “over there.”

Great storms leave more than destruction. They recharge and reinvigorate, they sweep clean and

make room. Perhaps we will remember Katrina and its victims less for supposed harm to petty players soon to be forgotten and more for

restoring our vital, aggressive, alert, adversarial Free Press to its rightful role and honor. mjh

Letters-to-the-Editor

It’s Hard Work!

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Jim Villanucci, whose claim to fame is he is a talk-radio host, has a love letter to the Bush

Administration in today’s Albuquerque Journal.

After spending a day in a situation that cult deprogrammers call “love bombing,”

Villanucci wants us all to know that BushCo is full of smart people. This is important because smart people can relate to everyone, smart

people are never arrogant or distant, smart people never lie and, above all else, smart people are never wrong (so never admiting a

mistake is appropriate behavior for smart people). Not that Villanucci said it that way, he just said they’re really, really smart and

lets you fill in the blanks. Just as he is sure you’ll see the connection to cops killed in Albuquerque — keeping us safe is all one

big job, from street corner to Iraq.

Among our shepherds is the young Bryan White, one of Bush’s “good people doing hard work.”

He got up at 5:45am! Now it’s 7:40pm! and, gasp, “he’s still working, talking to New Mexico, getting out the message.”

Indeed, that’s what it’s all about: getting out the message. The smart guys of BushCo are all spin doctors. The most

important thing Villanucci says here is: “This administration is the first to effectively utilize talk radio.

From administration officials’ standpoint and the standpoint of many Americans, all of the news coming out of Iraq is bad news, and

the only fair shake the administration gets is on talk radio. And they want to get out their side of the story.” On

every matter, including science, BushCo has “their side of the story.” And, more frightening, they know how to get their version of the

truth directly to willing listeners. Notice Villanucci is proud of his part in the process.

It is completely appropriate to ask if

Villanucci actually wrote this piece — many “articles” and videos praising BushCo are actually produced by the marketing department. It

is also appropriate to ask if Villanucci was paid for this or his cozy broadcast among the stars from the Pentagon courtyard (where,

you’ll be glad to know, “you feel really safe. You realize our defense budget is money well spent.” You are getting sleepy, your leaders

are great, no graft or even waste here.).

Of course, every regime depends upon a large number of unpaid lackeys, willing dupes,

and fools. Perhaps Villanucci is simply one of those. mjh

ABQjournal: Listen Up: Some of the Nation’s Best Are

Talking By Jim Villanucci, KKOB-AM talk show host

other voices

It’s Hard Work!

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Being President is Hard Work!
ON 9/11/01: GEORGE BUSH reads “My Pet Goat” while

the towers burn.
12/26/04: George throws a mondo-bucks party while the great tsunami inundates the Sri Lanka area.
9/28/05:

George takes a month’s vacation, flies around the western United States, rides his bike in San Diego while Katrina devastates the South.

He did, however, caution people to take shelter and stay out of the way of the storm.
9/30/05: George cuts his month’s vacation

short by two days to see about releasing some of the oil kept in reserve.
What a guy! No wonder he said being president is hard

work!
SALLY C. SANCHEZ
Albuquerque