Failing Grade?
I have a bone to pick on your homeschool article ("Not in Public," September). Most people I know who have elected to use homeschooling (three families) had good reasons such as not liking the poor influences on their kids from gang members, kids on drugs, and probably disrespectful, poor-mannered kids (the majority?). The school systems usually do not try to control or educate the kids in proper behavior. Some maybe had particular problems such as a kid needing extra motivation or attention. None tried to educate their kids that "science" was wrong and the fundamentalists were smarter than the scientists. You chose that particular line to repeat in BOLD print and I feel that was a slap in the face of most homeschoolers.
J.D. Larock
via email
Editor's note: As the article
noted, most of the wide range of homeschoolers we talked to insisted
that their motivation was not dissatisfaction
with public schools; one family did cite this as a reason, which we reported.
So-called "pullquotes" in bold type are designed to attract
reader attention as well as to even out column space. Given that Bible-based
education and concern over teaching evolution was a major theme with many
homeschoolers we interviewed, highlighting this in one of three pullquotes
was representative of the article. Other pullquotes spotlighted homeschooling's
parent-child dynamics and praised the flexibility of the PACE program.
Just got finished reading your articles about homeschooling and the PACE program. What innovative and brave people. I know that many do not agree with this style of education and that's OK, we live in a free country. I have heard all the arguments against home schooling, but they are weak. It is good to see so many parents really involved in their children's education. I know that many parents that have their children in the public school system are also involved with their children's education and I applaud them. Your article gave strong insight to many different avenues for other parents thinking about homeschooling or maybe entering the PACE Program. Having these choices is a blessing. I had the opportunity to homeschool our children when we lived in the Northwest. Both my husband and I chose this route and are glad we did. All of our children went on to obtain their undergraduate and graduate degrees. There is so much diversity in the community at large and that is a good thing. Let freedom ring!
Susie Forest
Lake Roberts
Democracy in Action
In response to your editorial about partisanship ("Editor's Notebook," September), yes, I still think my vote for Nader in 2000 had some value. It's a tired refrain when Democratic Party supporters blame votes for Nader for Bush's electoral victory. It's easy, and perhaps comfortable, to point the finger "out there." A more honest and constructive alternative might be to examine why Democrats failed to attract the votes needed to elect their guy in the first place.
For more than 40 years, from Vietnam (thanks to the Democratic Party) to Iraq II (thanks in large part to the Republican Party), we have been practicing "giving the other team the ball." It doesn't take a two-by-four upside my head to get that there's a problem with that philosophy right now.
Doesn't a new way of doing things usually start small? If some people don't vote their conscience and make a statement against the life-denying, moneyed interest behind both parties' candidates, how will a more compassionate, life-affirming trend emerge?
I see the two-by-four coming and I'm going to duck, and vote for someone like Dennis Kucinich (even if I have to write him in) who has the integrity to tell us some truth and not just what he/she has been told by a pollster we want to hear. If others think a Hilary or an Obama will keep us out of the next war, I hope they have plenty of bandages ready.
My own integrity is too valuable to waste on supporting anyone else than, in my opinion, the best choice to lead us from fear and hate into love and compassion. If you tell me I'm wasting my vote, that might be good for one's ego — it makes one feel "right." Yet it does nothing for bringing me toward one's point of view. Instead, show me how other choices lead to a better, more just, more humane world, where fear is rejected and ideals worthy of our hearts and minds are strengthened.
I believe we each have a choice in applying our considerable thoughts, words and deeds towards creating our reality. To argue "my choice is the right choice" is absurd and childish. We sometimes believe the traditional political process is the only game in town so we have to play it. But it's really only the dominant game right now — and a sick, soulless and moral-less one (my judgment). We can choose to "think outside the box" and create new games to inspire our imaginations and spark our creativity.
Tom Gibbons
Silver City
All in all, the September "Editor's Notebook" was thoughtful and interesting. For those of us old enough to have been to hootenannies, however, the prospect of Americans coming together to sing "Kumbaya" is frightening beyond words. The prospect of another Republican administration, or a karaoke bar opening in Silver, nearly pales in comparison. (Nearly.)
Ed Teja
Silver City
Haunting Remark
I did not appreciate the derogatory comment about Steve May, the previous owner of the Adobe Springs Cafe, in your article "Extreme Makeover" (August): ". . .a cigarette still dangling from its pale lips." I feel that the article could have been written without a personal slam to Mr. May. I found the comment extremely unprofessional and hope that future articles do not carry such degrading, unprofessional comments.
Deborah G. Berry
via email
Editor's note: No slight to Steve May was intended. "Pale" referred to his ghost, metaphorically still present at the eatery. Anyone who frequented the Adobe Springs Cafe during his ownership would have seen him smoking outside the restaurant; the reference only meant to stir those memories.
Bordering on Creamy
Did I see creamy bastard on Henry Lightcap's pencil-thin mustache (Henry Lightcap's Journal, August, "Creamy Bastard Awards")? With all his facts and figures of the cost to America from our Mexican neighbors coming across the border looking for work, and how "creamy" of them to send most of their hard-earned cash back to their families, Mr. Henry would tackle the symptoms but ignore the disease.
The disease, by name, is called NAFTA and WTO.
Is Mr. Lightcap too light to even wonder why, when Presidente Fox announced Mexico was legalizing drugs, President Bush said NO, he will not do this, and Presidente changed his mind? How did George Bush get this power hold over Mr. Fox, and now with Presidente Calderon perhaps?
If Mr. Henry Lightcap is "a big fan of Mexico and its people," as he stated in his creamy filling bastard-coated outer layer article, he would be kinder to our neighbors, as Mr. Rogers asks of us, and address the disease of poverty in Mexico instead of the symptom of workers needing to feed their family — at the risk of losing their lives crossing the border.
Edy Lou Benjamin
Silver City
Let us hear from you! Write Desert Exposure Letters, PO Box 191, Silver City, NM 88062, email letters@desertexposure.com or fax 534-4134. Letters are subject to editing for style and length. Deadline for the next issue is the 18th of the month.