OPINION: Talk of the Town

Homeless people need access to bathrooms

The purpose of this letter is to address the lack of bathroom facilities for people experiencing homelessness. We provide food, clothing, medical care and even work to find housing for those willing to follow guidelines that make housing possible (such as no drugs or alcohol). We are eager to feed, educate and clothe — but we fail to meet one of life’s most basic needs: access to bathrooms.

Why can’t we at least provide portable toilets, like those used on construction sites, scattered throughout the community until more permanent facilities can be established? Every time we complain about human waste yet do nothing to solve the problem, we act inhumanely. At the very least, these facilities should be available for the children in our community.

Furthermore, it is my understanding that Albuquerque Public Schools has more than 3,500 homeless children in its system. We must do better.

Margaret Branch

Albuquerque

Heartening column for seniors

Great "Local Column" from Jonah Bearden on Jan. 13 regarding poverty and affordable housing. I am a retired senior and am heartened to know that younger people are addressing this ongoing issue with research, facts and recommendations for action. 

June Krumpotick

Albuquerque

Legislature should address health care system

I am not happy with the medical system in New Mexico. I have been trying to get a new primary care physician for the last several years and have been spectacularly unsuccessful. My doctor went out of business. I could not find another office accepting new patients. And some offices don’t even have doctors on staff — just nurse practitioners.

As an elderly retired person, I travel quite a bit and spend time in another state, where I am able to get medical care. The problem is, the doctor told me that I can’t contact him from New Mexico without jeopardizing his license. I cannot schedule when I am going to need medical care in order to be in another state, and my only options here are urgent cares, which solves the immediate problem with no follow-up, or the emergency room with a similar outcome. As one example, I ended up in the emergency room in March and was told that would put me higher on the list to see a specialist. When I called for an appointment, I was told the next available appointment was in September — six months away — and it was with a nurse practitioner.

How has New Mexico allowed this to happen?

The Legislature needs to pass laws to address the health care worker shortage. From my understanding, the two most impactful changes the Legislature could make are No. 1, joining major interstate compacts for health care workers and No. 2, enacting reasonable medical malpractice reform to recruit and retain doctors.

These reforms are expected to come up during the short legislative session this month. I urge anyone who is having problems getting health care in New Mexico to call their state representative and support the passing of these bills.

Robbie Smith

Bosque Farms

Renaming New Mexico op-ed was a major miss

Hit and miss.

The Albuquerque Journal’s Local Column by Steven Chavez (Jan. 11) that presents ideas to grow the New Mexico economy is a presentation that stimulates creative ideas and community discussion.

It is appalling though, that the Albuquerque Journal would publish the Local Column by David Ansell to rename New Mexico. Fie on the oblivious elitist marginalizing colonial outsider. While everyone is entitled to their opinion and exercise of their freedom of speech, some opinions are so mealy-mouthed and dismissive that they dishonor the audience. All things are possible, not all things are beneficial. 

His comments echo the perceptions in line with those newly arrived Americans who found this land and our people strange and repellent, i.e., New Mexico and the mestizo population. Gov. Lew Wallace and Mrs. Susan Wallace, the New York Times and Vice President John D. Calhoun disparaged New Mexico. The American artist community of the early 1900s often marginalized and cast Indigenous and Hispanic communities as backdrops to the more "civilized" narratives of the artists themselves. Ansell attempts to launder New Mexico’s history and cultures to become more palatable. Would Ansell change the names of New Hampshire to Granite Land, New Jersey to Garden Land, and New York to Empire Land? He’d be laughed out of town. The name change erases the strangeness and repellence of the sins of our land to make us more attractive and beautiful for his ilk.

Ansell’s 46-year immersion into New Mexico history and culture appears to be from graphic comic book adaptations and blood and thunder stories in pulp magazines. Would Ansell recommend that the locals appear “camera ready” to enhance tourist’s perceptions?

His 46 years are but a blink in our history. We welcomed him here back then. He’s welcome to stay and learn more about us.

David Casas

Albuquerque

Longing for a return to old-school politics 

Growing up in New Mexico, I was surrounded by a political culture that valued participation, conversation and respect — even across party lines. Politics was serious, but it wasn’t hostile. Disagreement didn’t mean dehumanization, and leadership wasn’t performative.

I miss Republicans like John McCain, Bob Dole and George H. W. Bush — leaders who believed character mattered, institutions mattered and democracy was worth protecting. And I miss people like Don Tripp here in New Mexico, who showed that public service could be grounded, personal and bipartisan.

I spent many summers with my grandmother, who was deeply involved in Democratic politics. She worked on statewide efforts, spoke publicly, organized campaigns and showed up wherever civic engagement was happening. She believed voting and participation were responsibilities, not talking points.

But some of the most powerful lessons I learned weren’t from campaign events or speeches.

They happened at her kitchen table.

My grandmother believed politics lived in everyday moments. She talked to people at the mailbox, in the grocery store and over coffee. She listened. She believed grassroots politics mattered because democracy is built on relationships.

One of the people she respected most was not a Democrat at all, but Republican Tripp, who served New Mexico for many years. Long before titles and terms, he showed up. He sat at her kitchen table, drank coffee and talked about the community. Party mattered less than integrity, respect and service.

As a child, I watched genuine bipartisanship. People disagreed on policy but agreed on humanity. Public service was treated as an honor, not a weapon.

I don’t miss perfection.

I miss decency.

I know that bipartisanship existed, because I saw it — here in New Mexico, around a kitchen table, in conversations grounded in respect.

And I still hope we can find our way back to it.

Brandy Torres-DeMark

Edmond, Oklahoma

Also experiencing a change at the VA

Regarding Bob Anderson’s Local Column in the Sunday Journal (Jan. 11), I, too, am a Vietnam veteran who gets most of my medical care through the Albuquerque Veterans Affairs hospital. I too have received excellent care at the VA here for many years. I have most appreciated being welcomed as a “brother," which those of us who survived combat truly are. That’s markedly different from the indifference I have received elsewhere. Over the past year, I have noticed a change in the VA, and, like Anderson, I too think that change for the worse is deliberate. Morale has suffered, medical personnel are worried about staffing cutbacks. Two weeks ago I was (slightly) injured by a technician who seemed distracted, preoccupied and inattentive. But the wound has healed; I hope the VA can.

Jeff Radford

 Corrales

Lawmakers should pass the Clear Horizons Act

I’ve lived in New Mexico since 1965 and know, based on my own experience, that the climate has changed dramatically in that time.

Winters, for example, used to be much colder. As a construction worker in the late 1970s, I remember enduring many bitterly cold Albuquerque days, and areas further north were downright frigid. Strong storms and significant snowfall, even in Albuquerque, were not unusual. (A particularly ferocious blizzard in 1987 shut down Tijeras Canyon for two days and nearly stranded our 8 year old at home alone. Fortunately her uncle came to her rescue and stayed with her till the roads opened up.) Summers were hot but not unbearable, and reliable monsoon rains provided relief from the heat.

It started changing in the early 2000s. Winter snowfall and summer rains started to falter, our water well started dropping and piñon trees began dying by the thousands. I’ve seen with my own eyes what climate scientists are telling us, so I believe them when they say it’s going to get worse if we don’t do something about it.

State legislation being considered this year would help. The Clear Horizons Act would impose greenhouse gas reduction requirements on the state’s largest polluters and penalize those who don’t comply. It would reduce emissions 50% by 2040, which is what scientists say is necessary to prevent climate change from spiraling out of control.

Having lived here for 60 years it’s clear to me that climate change is real and that we’ve already lost some battles. The good news is that bold action now can prevent even greater losses and eventually start to repair the damage. In the struggle to maintain a livable planet, passage of the Clear Horizons Act would give us a fighting chance.

Kevin Bean

Albuquerque