OPINION: Talk of the Town

Carding senior citizens doesn't align with state law 

My wife and I (we’re in our late 70’s and look it) are always carded and I’m sick of it.

We were checking out at a local Smith’s grocery with a box of cooking wine, but only I had brought my ID and they refused to sell to us. The clerk and her manager insisted we both needed IDs to prove we were over 21, saying it is “state law,” according to what they were told “in the class." I’m always carded at other retailers too, with the same excuses of “having had the class” and that carding everyone was “state law”.

Carding everyone is in fact a “policy” that misrepresents New Mexico law. The controlling statute on selling alcohol (Sec. 60-7B-2 A – C (2023 update)) says “… it is unnecessary to ask for an ID if the person clearly looks older than thirty-five years of age.”

I sent a letter to Smith’s corporate office complaining about carding everyone and cited the relevant statutes. In response, I received the following:

“Thanks for reaching out. I'm (name deleted). Thank you for contacting Kroger Customer Connect regarding our alcohol sales and return policy. All customers who appear to be under the age of thirty-five will be carded. Except for in New Mexico where all customers will be carded, regardless of their age.”

So carding everyone only applies to New Mexico residents? Doesn’t that seem discriminatory and prejudicial to older people?

Accordingly, I suggest Smith’s and other alcohol retailers revisit their policies to allow reasonable judgment as state law provides, and refrain from enforcing a clearly ridiculous policy standard. And, someone needs to tell whoever puts on “the class” to re-read the statutes and get it right.

Robert Jackson

Albuquerque

Journal columnist was tone-deaf in recent op-ed

Tasteless, tone-deaf and mean-spirited is how to describe Sunday's op-ed ( Jan. 25 Sunday Journal) from Albuquerque Journal Columnist Jeff Tucker, who glorified a Department of Homeland Security immigrant self-deportation program. Less than 24 hours after Alex Pretti was murdered by ICE agents in Minnesota, he highlighted the authoritarian and racist programs Pretti peacefully protested.

Pretti exercised his First Amendment right to assemble and protest, he gave voice to the voiceless, he offered a supporting arm to another protester assaulted by poorly chosen and ill-trained ICE agents. But Tucker, nominally claiming to emphasize an "empowering" and "generous" program to get rid of immigrants, characterizes protest as a terroristic and violent act. He says protesters are "ramming federal law enforcement agents with vehicles" and "harassing" and "impeding" them, rather than describing the truth of what is seen in overwhelming video evidence. Violence issued from the government, not the people, continues to happen everywhere ICE deploys.

The Journal’s constant editorial support of the current government’s despotic leanings is tiring. Tucker's op-ed even goes so far as to back identification requirements before a person can obtain a lease, sign a mortgage or secure a car loan; even so far as to bar the purchase of postage stamps without a REAL ID. That is downright totalitarian.

Tucker gleefully vows undocumented immigrants should fear hiding out in a cellblock with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Maybe Tucker missed the news that a federal judge released Garcia, finding no legal authority to continue detaining him. Perhaps he did not read reporting that unsealed documents indicate the government is vindictively prosecuting Garcia.

It’s time the Journal cease and desist from supporting the fascist madness of the current administration.

Mac McCaskill

Albuquerque

Lawmakers should pass road package

As West Las Vegas Schools superintendent, I support the road package currently going through the Legislature. Here’s why.

Safety. Our school buses require efficient and reliable roads, as dangerous roads are a safety hazard.

Maintenance. When buses are forced to use substandard roads, it costs the district money to make repairs. This reduces funding available for student needs.

Reliability. When buses transport students to school or sporting events, reliable transportation is a must. Buses that get damaged by poorly maintained roads are not as reliable.

The Legislature is currently working on passing a road package. The package includes a $1.5 billion bond for state highways and a special appropriation of $500 million that can be used for local roads.

I urge the Legislature to fund the direly needed road package.

Christopher Gutierrez

Las Vegas

Proud of the students for walk out

As a father of a Highland High School graduate, I was so proud to see the walk out by Highland students for the Free America protest on Jan. 21. This is the kind of civic education that is missing in Albuquerque Public Schools. These students know that the assault on the Twin Cities is coming our way sooner than later. It's no longer just about deportation, but random cruelty by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even ironically toward Native Americans. Young adults like these Highland students give me hope for our future.

Gary Anderson 

Albuquerque

Thanks to DA for standing up to ICE

I was delighted to see District Attorney Sam Bregman warn ICE officers about violating our false imprisonment laws in New Mexico.

They need to also be warned that under Sec. 30-3-2 NMSA, any threatening or menacing conduct while wearing a mask is a felony. And it seems that nearly all their conduct involves threatening or menacing conduct. Leaving the ace of spades, as described in your Saturday paper, certainly qualifies.

Law enforcement officers wearing masks is clearly not American. Watch any "Western." Only the bad guys do it.

Gary Plath

Rio Rancho

Journal must document erased legacies and culture

Kudos to the Sunday Journal (Jan. 25) for publishing the op-ed by Donald Chavez entitled, “How long will New Mexico allow itself to be erased?”

It’s important for the Journal to document and depict New Mexico’s erased legacies and cultural heritage. This effort should aim to provide informed and constructive postcolonial studies that lead to tangible improvements in New Mexico, rather than merely recounting fanciful tales of bravery and heroic attempts to civilize the Natives. A study of historic colonized cultures and civilizations emerging from colonialism reveals that only a minuscule number have become self-sufficient. The U.S. is relatively successful in this regard; however, these cultures have rarely achieved true independence, and New Mexico is not one of them.

A colonized civilization and culture is a society subjected to external control and influence by a colonial power, resulting in the imposition of foreign governance, economic structures and cultural practices. This domination of Indigenous populations often leads to resource extraction, cultural assimilation and social restructuring. Key characteristics include cultural displacement, economic exploitation, political control and the hybridization of local cultures. Additionally, these civilizations frequently experience cultural erosion or extinction, social inequality and ongoing conflicts and tensions.

Many of New Mexico's endemic issues stem from the historical causes of colonialism by Spanish and American conquerors. Similarly, other regions have suffered under the control of various conquerors throughout history. This historical pattern illustrates that sociocultural, economic and political divisions arise from class rather than race, distinguishing between the conquerors and the conquered.

It is imperative for New Mexico’s success to highlight these histories in order to develop effective solutions. The Journal plays a critical role in creating these solutions, helping to avoid ineffective recommendations based on ignorance of New Mexico’s sociocultural, economic, political and class histories.

David Casas 

Albuquerque

Lawmakers should pass Clear Horizons Act

The forest outside my home once filled me with joy. Now it fills me with dread. Rising temperatures, declining snow and rain, and diseases have wiped out trees with brutal speed. Wildfire is a constant threat. I’m getting too old to drag hoses to water-stressed piñons and I don’t want to overdraw our well. Three neighbors had to re-drill theirs. Insurance costs are soaring, and I spend tens of thousands of dollars removing dead trees or saving sick ones.

The Clear Horizons Act (SB18) addresses the cause of this destruction: climate-heating pollution. The oil and gas lobby boasts it supports our schools, yet it fights royalty rates and bonding requirements. The industry doesn’t compensate New Mexicans who lost homes or insurance after fires and floods, farmers who lost crops, or families facing health costs from asthma, dementia and other pollution-linked illnesses. By 2040, climate impacts could cost $3.3 billion annually — a third of our budget — while the industry collects billions in taxpayer subsidies nationwide.

The Clear Horizons Act will drive down emissions and transition to clean energy — solar, wind, batteries and geothermal — creating jobs and energy independence. This is the direction the world is moving. Let’s not be left behind now.

Stefi Weisburd

Tijeras

Don't confuse modern ICE with law enforcement

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and New Mexico Republican Party Chair Amy Barela appear to be making the absurd case that protesting the lawless tactics of ICE indicates a lack of support for law enforcement.

After Noem’s evidence-free claim that Alex Pretti “arrived at the scene” in Minneapolis in part “to kill law enforcement," Barela followed with a suggestion that those critical of recent killings by ICE “tone down the rhetoric against law enforcement."

In order to be respected as law enforcement, you are required to respect and abide by the rule of law.

Today’s ICE is not law enforcement.

These attempts to conflate the actions of hastily assembled ICE agents with legitimate community policing show that Barela and Noem are the ones displaying a profound lack of respect for police officers.

This disrespect extends to the public when they say, in effect, that events couldn’t have been what we saw with our own eyes. They’re going to tell us what we saw. No need for independent investigations.

False imprisonment, prevention of due process, brutal beatings, kidnappings and shootings — not just of “suspects” but of protesters exercising their constitutionally protected rights — are not acts of law enforcement. They are acts of terror.

It has become routine for current DHS leadership to issue nothing-to-see-here denials and full descriptions of victim culpability immediately after each incident. And Republican leadership goes right along with it.

I support law enforcement. I don’t support this version of ICE. I’m not confusing the two.

So when Barela says to tone down the rhetoric against law enforcement, we see her words for what they are: an attempt to hide the deplorable actions of undisciplined, poorly trained, trigger happy wannabes behind the shield of those who rightfully deserve to wear that shield.

Bernard Fuller

Albuquerque