E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Letters
Travel Plan Will Reduce Forest Ruin
MOTORIZED RECREATION, less than 4 percent of forest users, has left a wake of destruction in the Jemez. Less than a decade ago, it was not only possible, but easy to find places of solitude. The wonders of the natural world were available and close to anyone who wished to sample them.
Then came the motorized tide. Suddenly, our mountains became a glorified motocross track, destination for every manner of unlicensed machine. The word for the day was speed, and with that speed came noise, dust, fumes, and a local extirpation of elk, deer and other once common species.
In less than 10 short years our historic trails, founded by the Anasazi, expanded by Spanish and American settlers are in ruins. Motorized groups regularly ignore the boundaries of private property, trespass into the few nonmotorized areas and destroy barriers designed to keep them out.
The result is a legacy of damage that compromises water quality, destroys cultural sites, drives off wildlife, removes traditional use from large areas and fosters this drive everywhere type of behavior that has proven itself completely unsustainable.
Travel management, if it works anywhere close to its objective, will reduce this assault on our wild land, and it is well past time for this to occur. No doubt, those addicted to machines cry loudly that they are being closed out. The truth is that some uses are inappropriate for our wild lands. Roaring, speeding machines do not exist congruent with healthy land and wildlife.
The forest is not being closed down. It is being opened up again to the processes of the natural world, the same processes that deliver clean water, fresh air, a diverse biotic community, stable climate, and the million and one small contributions to human existence that few ever consider.
MIKE KADISAK
Jemez
Martinez Typical GOP Politician
I AM APPALLED that Susana Martinez, a district attorney charged with law enforcement in Doña Ana County, is making sweetheart deals with her staff to funnel taxpayer money to the staffer's private, moneymaking business.
Why doesn't this self-proclaimed "guardian" of ethics follow the laws of New Mexico when she is spending tax funds?
It's easy to smear someone else with innuendo, but evidently too hard for Martinez to avoid the cronyism that she is so quick to accuse others of. Just another case of a politician saying do as I say, not as I do.
Republicans like to lecture us on the "rule of law." They stop the lecture when the rule of law applies to them.
Martinez paid a staffer more than $60,000 to buy office supplies from the staffer's private business. Where are the records of this? How much did the staffer profit? Why can the Secretary of State's Office not locate such a record?
Martinez has pledged "transparency" in all official government dealings. Now's the time for her to put her money — or the taxpayer's money, I suppose — where her mouth is.
Release all records relating to this private deal with her staffer. Let's have transparency. Unless, of course, transparency is like the "rule of law" — 'tis for thee, but not for me.
DAVID HARWELL
Santa Fe
Governor Has Made Excellent Choices
In a recent UpFront Journal article, Aug. 14, by Thomas J. Cole, he depicts Gov. Bill Richardson as Santa Claus giving American Recovery and Reinvestment monies to various programs statewide.
The beneficiaries, which he himself lists, are very worthy — example: $250,000 for shelter services for children in crisis in Doña Ana County. That the discretionary fund must be spent before October 2011 might mean Mr. Cole gets to attempt to make our governor seem to be a spendthrift person. However, in this period of our economy, with so much suffering and need, the funds are conscientiously and morally utilized when needed, not saved merely to allow someone else to allocate 5 or 6 months in the future. Again the needs are now, and the educational, transportation and Medicaid programs that benefited. Mr. Cole should be thanking the governor for his excellent choices he has made.
JOHN T. ROVER SR.
Mora
Social Security Needs Adjustments
This month our nation's most successful social program turns 75. Social Security was enacted in 1935 under Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration.
Social Security helped my mother when I was a teenager and my mother was widowed in her 40s. It has been a steady reliable source of income for millions. It not only provides for monthly cash benefits but it provides support for widows and widowers and children of deceased Social Security beneficiaries, including those with disabilities. It helps keep millions of Americans, mostly women, out of poverty.
Here in New Mexico 213,959 retirees receive Social Security; another 55,815 people with disabilities get assistance; 29,048 widows and widowers get help; 30,210 children are aided; and 18,944 spouses receive assistance.
Social Security pumps over $344 million into New Mexico's economy each month. The average monthly benefit for a New Mexico Social Security recipient in 2009 was $990.78.
Social Security makes up half the family income for half of New Mexicans age 65 and older.
There are efforts in Washington, D.C., to reduce the budget deficit. Those efforts should move forward independent of Social Security, which does not add a dime to the deficit. It needs to be strengthened for future generations.
Social Security is not in crisis, but it does face a long-term shortfall. Absent changes, Social Security will be able to pay full benefits until 2040, and after that, incoming revenue will be enough to pay over 70 percent of benefits for decades to come. However, that is not good enough now or for future retirees. In fact, nearly half of all 65-plus Americans, especially women and minorities, will fall below the poverty level if Social Security is not strengthened.
Modest adjustments can be made to ensure Social Security is strong for our children and grandchildren. We owe it to today's generation and to future generations to make sure this highly successful program continues to be critical to everyone's financial security.
STAN COOPER
New Mexico State Director, AARP
You also can send comments via our comment form
|
|
