Our view B-2 My view B-3, B-4
SUNDAY, JULY 13, 2014 THE NEW MEXICAN
OPINIONS
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Nikolewski: Billions just a Band-Aid for the border. Page B-4
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
New schools receive green features A
dded to the wonderful features described in the article (“SFPS prepares to unveil new schools” July 7), we have also responded to energy and water conservation priorities. The combined 140 kilowatt total from the two new solar carports will save the taxpayers approximately $30,000 annually at current Public Service Co. of New Mexico rates and offset carbon emissions by 396,144 pounds each year, boosting Santa Fe Public Schools’ solar generation to nearly a half megawatt by fall 2014. A 25,000-gallon water catchment cistern is online at Atalaya Elementary, and 1.28 gallon flush toilets, half-gallon flush urinals and faucet aerators are a SFPS standard now. The new tracks and fields are synthetic turf,
the landscaping is on drip irrigation and drought-tolerant, our heating and cooling are centrally controlled. All three new schools will have interactive touchscreen and Webenabled energy/water/solar monitoring dashboards to share real-time data with staff, students and community members. Email lrandall@ sfps.info for more information Lisa Randall
Energy and Water Conservation Program Coordinator Santa Fe Public Schools Santa Fe
Important question I have two college degrees and consider myself above average in intelligence (a licensed attorney
for more than 64 years), and also served honorably in the military. Still, if I were asked this question, “Just why are U.S. troops in Afghanistan?” I could not give an intelligent answer. Could you? Herman I. Morris
Santa Fe
Revisit public option Appearing in the story, (“Hobby Lobby wins case on birth control,” July 1) is this: “Justice Samuel Alito wrote … there are ways for the administration to ensure women get the birth control they want.” Or, there is nothing in the Constitution that would prevent the government from providing contraceptives to anyone needing them.
A single-payer program, such as we have now in this country in the form of Medicare, would be one of the “ways.” President Barack Obama campaigned on a public option for anyone in this country, regardless of age, to sign up for Medicare. For unclear reasons, the president scuttled the public option while getting his Affordable Care Act passed into law. Now it’s time for him and us to revisit that idea. With the Supreme Court decision allowing private employers such as Hobby Lobby to deny health care to its employees, the time is right for all Americans to demand access to Medicare, regardless of age or employment status.
I am appalled at the anger, fear and hatred displayed by citizens of Artesia at the City Council meeting and know it is not representative of everyone there. My primary goal was first to meet the needs of the women and children being detained, and secondly, to provide an opportunity for those who support humane treatment of all detainees to be seen and heard. My concern now is the plan set forward to send the children back and not recognize them as political refugees seeking asylum. We are talking to officials to seek a more just resolution as we continue to ask for donations. Vickie Connally of Eddy County is a former science teacher and is vice chairwoman of the Eddy County Democratic Party.
Contact Steve Terrell at sterrell@ sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at www.santafenewmexican.com/news/ blogs/politics.
Bill Leavy
Santa Fe
Immigrants deserve Christian love S
have expressed outrage at the decision to house these people. At issue for many is the presumed illegal presence. Romans 13 calls for reasonable submission to the sovereign laws of the land and its governing authorities. Therefore, having presumed the immigrant’s guilt for violating the law, Romans 13 is hastily referenced to legitimize swift and decisive punitive measures both in the name of Scriptural authority and legal obligation. This, in spite of the reality that our criminal code both presumes innocence and calls for just and humane treatment of arrestees who are imprisoned. Reading further in the same chapter of Romans, Scripture calls for love as the fulfillment of the law rather than legalistic and punitive adherence to the law. Jesus Christ modeled the priority of human compassion over legalistic adherence throughout his ministry. In speaking of loving God and loving neighbor, Jesus told the parable of three men. Two upheld the letter of the law and maintained their ritual holiness and
purity by avoiding the stranger in need. Yet it was one who broke the law and crossed the cultural, religious, and moral codes of the day to meet a stranger in need. We remember that lawbreaker as the Good Samaritan. Therefore, even in the midst of the legitimately illegal status of their presence on U.S. soil, the commands of God in Jesus Christ are for love, not fear or punishment. Much of the controversy and emotionally charged outrage over these immigrants is endemic of our own nation’s broken immigration system and the political rancor over how to best address immigration on a comprehensive, defensible and humanitarian basis. While the current situation raises the issues in very powerful ways, expressing hatred toward, fear of or anger with the women and children housed in Artesia serves nothing to resolve the national debate. Rather, it only diverts precious energy and engenders a destructive spirit of mistrust that is contrary to Christian love and hospitality.
As a matter of faith and biblical authenticity, it is vital that all Christians approach the immigrants with utmost compassion. As the prophet Zechariah made clear in the seventh chapter, God does not honor proper religious ritual and sacrifice when the people of God also oppress the widow, orphan and alien. It is a sentiment echoed in Amos 5:21-24, Micah 6:6-8, Isaiah 1:10-20, Hosea 6:6, Hosea 8:11-14, Jeremiah 7:22-23 and Matthew 25:31-46. God has made the command clear. This is no time for fear. In faith, our call is to be the good news and stand in solidarity with Christ with confidence and love. Our call is perhaps best summarized in the words of Micah 6:8, which reads that we are to love kindness, seek justice and walk humbly with God. The Rev. David Wilson Rogers is pastor at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Carlsbad. This piece was signed by eight other ministers and a representative of the New Mexico Faith Coalition for Immigrant Justice.
MY VIEW: VICKIE CONNALLY
Helping refugees amid chilly greeting in Artesia
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ast week, my friend and I saw a report by an Albuquerque TV station concerning the refugees recently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was reported that some detainees would be housed in the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia and included statements from residents at an Artesia City Council meeting. When we discussed the events taking place, my friend, a retired teacher and current volunteer at the Literacy Center in Carlsbad, mentioned that she always had a few handmade baby quilts and wondered if it would be helpful to get those to the women and children. I called the chamber of commerce and was given a list of suggested items to donate. Those included
women’s clothing, infant-to-17-yearold children’s clothing, diapers and toys. I posted this information on Facebook and immediately began to get messages from teachers and students expressing a desire to help. We established a drop-off point in the village of Loving and then planned our first trip. The response was overwhelming, as I received messages from Santa Fe and Albuquerque as well as Carlsbad, Hobbs and Roswell. We picked up supplies on Tuesday and couldn’t fit all the donations in my SUV. When we arrived in Artesia, loaded with supplies, we were given a bit of a cold welcome by the woman in charge at their chamber of commerce. We were told we could not park near the building where service vehicles were
allowed to unload. We were able to obtain a dolly and then moved our car onto the loading area anyway, because it was just too much of a chore to unload it all and move it a long distance. Maintenance personnel were visible but did not offer to assist. There was a small area where donations had been placed, and we more than quadrupled what was there. Again, we were met with an unenthusiastic welcome. We inquired if there were plans for educational activities for the children and were told we could not visit the detainees. We reiterated that we were not trying to visit but wondered if plans were being developed to meet the educational needs. The receptionist took our information and said we would be contacted.
Editorial page editor: Inez Russell Gomez, 986-3053, igomez@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Brian Barker@sfnewmexican.com
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o quote the title from a bad old Bob Hope movie: Boy, did I get a wrong number! Just last October in this column, I made a prediction (I never learn …). Looking at the latest campaign finance reports back then, I contended we might not be seeing wall-to-wall attack ads in the governor’s race in 2014. I actually was right for the most part about the ads Gov. Susana Martinez would run during primary season: “The primary ads I expect to see from Martinez would be positive, resembling the colorful mailers her political action committee has sent during the past couple of years, Steve Terrell touting legislation she Roundhouse has gotten through Roundup the Legislature (tax cuts, anyone?) and stressing the bipartisan support she has received.” As it turned out, all but one of the governor’s primary ads were positive. The exception wasn’t exactly a bombshell. It was the one in which photos of all five of the Democratic primary candidates were replaced by photos of former Gov. Bill Richardson. But then, last October, pondering the general election, I wrote, “if her poll numbers hold and the Democratic nominee doesn’t seem to be making a dent, like Richardson, she might have the luxury of basically ignoring her opponent.” Oops. As we all know, after the primary, the Martinez campaign and the Republican Governors Association have run a constant barrage of attack ads on Democratic candidate Gary King. Let’s take a little trip down Memory Lane, back to that golden year of 2006, when Richardson was running for reelection. Like Martinez, he had millions in his campaign coffers, high approval ratings and a general election opponent, John Dendahl, who was severely underfunded. (Dendahl died last year.) In late June — after Dendahl was nominated by the state GOP’s Central Committee when the little-known primary winner withdrew — Richardson released a scathing radio ad tearing into Dendahl. There were no more ads until late July. It talked about Richardson’s support of gun rights and punishing criminals. It didn’t talk about punishing Dendahl. The next ad was downright soft, featuring Richardson’s wife, Barbara Richardson, talking about child immunization and domestic violence. Later came the “funny” ads that received national attention, Old West movie parodies featuring Richardson in cowboy regalia on horseback. And so it went up to the landslide election. It was as if Dendahl had disappeared. I’m writing this on Thursday. So far it’s been a week since Martinez or the Republican governors have released a new ad. Maybe the attacks on King are going to slow down until after Labor Day when the general public starts to pay serious attention. A modest proposal (sure to be ignored): Last week’s campaign finance reports showed Martinez with more than 37 times the cash on hand as King. Thirtyseven times. That reminded me of an item in a May 2006 Roundhouse Roundup column: “Since Richardson’s such a sure bet, why doesn’t he give the rest of his campaign war chest to charity? Or, if not the whole thing, give enough away so he only has, say, 100 times the amount [his opponent] has. … The only people who would suffer would be campaign consultants and television-ad reps. “And what Richardson would lose in campaign cash-on-hand, he’d be repaid 10 times over in national publicity. He’d get to play the good guy on Larry King and Bill O’Reilly, talking about how campaigns really have gotten too expensive and, doggone it, someone finally had to take a stand, and how it wouldn’t hurt other politicians to follow suit.” So I’ll suggest the same to Gov. Martinez: Why not just give it to charity? Or buy more books to give to the schoolchildren? If not all of it, just keep enough so you have, say 10 times the amount King has. If all the feel-good, goodwill stuff doesn’t appeal to you, just think of the expressions of shock on your critics’ faces if you made that move. That’s got to be worth something.
COMMENTARY: DAVID WILSON ROGERS
outheast New Mexico is facing a crisis that cuts at the heart of Christian faith and practice. With the recent notification by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that upward of 600 Central American refugees would be housed at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center campus in Artesia, it has served as a rallying call for many local citizens as well as local elected officials. Tragically, much of the most vehement responses have been exceptionally negative, couched in fear, fueled in highly politicized rhetoric, and grounded in anything but solid biblical, Christian, moral and humanitarian concerns. As faith leaders and Christian pastors in Eddy and Lea Counties, this is our call to speak a word of Christian grace, morality and common sense in regard to the looming crisis. Scripture repeatedly, and unapologetically, calls for God’s people to welcome the stranger, the alien, the orphan, the widow and the sojourner. Leviticus 19:33-34 recalls the sacred memory of the time when the people of God were once the unwanted immigrants in Egypt. Central to the biblical narrative is the call to remember the harsh treatment and slavery inflicted upon the Hebrew people and to live in such a way as to never return such inhumanity upon other aliens. Jesus Christ also emphasized this vital law of God’s grace, compassion and welcome. Most notably, Matthew 25 reminds us that our salvation hinges on caring for “the least of these.” Furthermore, James writes that for our religious faith to be genuine and authentic, it must make as priority our call to care for the orphans and widows in their distress. As these immigrant women and children from Central America are brought to our backyard in Eddy County, Christianity demands we respond with compassion. Extending hospitality to the stranger and welcoming the alien is not a practice that comes easily and also brings an understandable degree of fear. Naturally, we tend to fear that which we do not fully understand. Accordingly, many in our community
Rather than attacking, donate funds to charity
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