Letters

I was very sorry to hear of the recent New Mexico infant whooping cough deaths, one in San Miguel County. The state Department of Health has information important to all families and caregivers of infants about protecting them. Since babies are too small to be vaccinated against whooping cough, and aren’t fully protected until they get all their boosters, all adults who will be around them need to get an update to their pertussis vaccine.

In response to Art Trujillo‘s “Work of Art — Ultima, Ultimately” (Nov. 21, 2012) column, I would like to share a story of my own.

About 10 years ago, while serving as a hospice chaplain in southwest Iowa, I stopped one day at a nursing home to meet a new patient of ours. I shall refer to her as Margaret, a lady in her late 70s of German and Czech heritage. She had recently been referred to hospice care with terminal cancer which, among other things, had metastasized to her brain and destroyed her eyesight.

When we completed the last mural panel for the “The Peoples History of El Norte,” none of the contemporary issues illustrated were resolved. Since then four of six have been resolved by a concerted grassroots effort by the people of San Miguel County.

Whites Peak has been returned to the people, Invenergy has been blocked from littering the Bernal mesa with turbines, the PNM plant on the west side of Las Vegas has been shut down, and the 1199 have finally prevailed against Alta Vista Regional Hospital.

In the past, Senate members used a filibuster as a means of bringing attention to a high-profile bill they disagreed with.  For many, many years it was seldom employed but since the 1970s it has been used repeatedly to stop much of the chamber’s work. Both parties have used the filibuster to alter simple “majority rules” bills to supermajority votes, so this is not a partisan issue.