OPINION: Talk of the Town

Don't highlight mansions during housing shortage

Given the seemingly intractable housing shortage in Albuquerque and, indeed, across the nation, I find it nothing short of obscene to see the Journal featuring multimillion dollar homes in the Business Outlook section.

The sellers of luxury properties can certainly afford to place large display ads in the paper. Seeing these commodities featured prominently in the newspaper makes one wonder if the Journal is pandering to the real estate industry. I know print journalism is struggling mightily and you’ve got to pay the bills, but the optics are unseemly for New Mexico’s newspaper of record.

Janet Goldstein 

Albuquerque

Girl Scouts board is selling out the next generation of leaders

The Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails Board of Directors is letting down the girls of New Mexico. They have voted to sell the council’s summer camp, Rancho del Chaparral, in the Jemez Mountains.

For over 50 years, Rancho has provided girls with invaluable opportunities to learn outdoor skills, gain confidence, develop leadership experience and forge lifelong friendships. For many, it is a sanctuary — a safe place to grow and discover who they are.

The board has not been forthright with the membership regarding its plans to sell. Furthermore, board members have failed to explore alternative revenue streams or consider the long-term sustainability of the organization without this summer camp. The board should be ashamed. Those in these positions of power — especially the women — should be dedicated to expanding opportunities for our young girls and future leaders, not stripping them away.

Alice Wood

New Mexico

Election claims strike at the heart of America's greatness

In 2014, I lost a close election for judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals. I was the Democratic candidate in our largely Democratic state. But never once did I doubt that the election was free and fair. The historical data supports the integrity of American elections.

President Trump, however, attacks our elections when he and his Republican servants lose. The events of Jan. 6, 2021, the recent federal seizure of voting records in Georgia, and his latest threat that elections should be “nationalized” and that Republicans should take over the voting in at least 15 states, prove his contempt for democracy.

He is starting our democracy on a death spiral. This fact is not just recognized by the left. For example, neoconservative David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, warns in his podcast that Trump’s goal is to cement his authoritarian rule by subverting the 2026 midterms.

Trump strikes at the heart of this country’s greatness: free and fair elections, reflecting the will of its people, followed by the peaceful transition of power. His actions are far more destructive than the partisan divide over policy. Without our constitutional system, there is no place for policy disagreements or compromises. There is only rule by the one. Accordingly, all of us should be alert and should consider supporting organizations fighting to ensure election integrity. One such organization is The Campaign Legal Center, started by a Republican lawyer in 2002 and now fighting these attempts to undermine our elections.

Ultimately, do we bow to this despot? Or do we commit to the principle of another Republican president that “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth?"

Kerry C. Kiernan

Albuquerque

Deteriorating health care system will drive people from NM

When will lack of adequate health care become unbearable? New Mexico has experienced a significant decline in its physician workforce over the last decade, becoming the only state in the U.S. to lose practicing physicians between 2019 and 2024. New Mexico lost 248 practicing physicians during this five-year window. Since 2017, NM has lost 30% of its primary care physicians. Since 2013, the state has had 37 fewer OB-GYNs, 20 fewer general surgeons and 12 fewer psychiatrists.

My wife and I first came to this state in 1979. Over the last several years as we age, we have noticed a marked decline in ability to get timely medical care. Upon referral to a major hospital’s Neurosurgery Department for a serious back problem, the clinic informed my wife that someone would contact her in four months to discuss an appointment schedule that would be weeks or months more in the future. Her “yearly” cardiologist appointments following a 2021 heart attack have slipped from yearly to once every 18 months, and the next appointment is with a physician assistant instead of the cardiologist. My cancer treatments have been sterling only because of continuity of care from the same hematologist/oncologist. If that specialist were to transfer out of state, it would present a dire scramble for us to find adequate care.

An aging workforce, high malpractice insurance costs and high litigiousness are the primary reasons for the exodus. New Mexico has the oldest physician workforce in the nation; nearly 40% of doctors are aged 60 or older and are expected to retire by 2030. The state has the second-highest medical malpractice insurance premiums in the U.S. and ranks second in the nation for medical malpractice lawsuits per capita.

We are hoping the medical practitioner shortage doesn’t ultimately drive us to seek care in another state.

George Wright

Corrales

Don't mistake partisan rhetoric and legal fact 

Reeve Swainston’s column on Bernallilo County District Attorney Sam Bregmam (Jan. 29 Sunday Journal) is nothing more than a smear disguised as a legal argument. It’s so obvious even a layman like myself can see through it. 

Had Swainston stuck to the principles invoked by the Supremacy Clause he might have had a valid concern. But he didn’t. He went on to attack Bregman’s mettle as a DA. But even then, he doesn’t tell the whole truth regarding the Supremacy Clause, which also states that federal agents do not have complete immunity to act with impunity. When federal officials act beyond the scope of their duties, violate federal law, or behave in an egregious or unwarranted manner, state prosecutions can move forward. Even where charges are ultimately dismissed, states have occasionally used prosecutions as a form of pushback against controversial federal actions.

Thus, DA Bergman is well within his legal capacity to prosecute federal agents who, as in the killings of Alex Pretti and Renée Good, were out of control and behaving in an egregious manner. Swainston ignored these facts and, in the end simply regurgitated the Trump party line.

Jeffery Hanson

Albuquerque