Editor,
I'm writing to you because our University students represent our future leaders, and they should be aware of what's going on around them. Based on recent news, Mayor Chávez appears to be hell-bent on running for higher office. He has been quite busy wheeling and dealing in order to get all his ducks in line regardless of the cost to others, and his dictatorial style of management has been a great help to him in accomplishing his objectives.
He mandated that anyone who owns or wants to buy a dog or cat must have it spayed or neutered due to "overpopulation." But, then, who gives a darn? After all, animals don't have rights, right? Well, even if this were the case, what about our right to choose how to run and live our own lives? Don't we have a say on whether we want our pets neutered or not?
There's the issue of water conservation. I can understand implementing drastic measures during a crisis, however, continuing with these austere conservation mandates after the crisis has passed is uncalled for and plain dictatorial. And, as if this wasn't enough, he has mandated that we will be penalized if we exceed his residential water-usage standards.
There's the issue of the costly cameras installed at certain intersections and imposed on all residents in order to catch those few that keep running red lights. In my opinion, this is an obvious invasion of our privacy. To make matters worse, the majority of the money goes to an out-of-state company instead of our city coffers.
He has mandated that there will be no smoking on public properties. Now, as a nonsmoker, I can understand prohibiting smoking in public buildings. However, I don't agree with this entirely. To dictate that smoking will not be allowed in outdoor public properties, such as city parks and other such places, is carrying the issue too far. But, then, who gives a darn? After all, smokers don't have rights either, right? I guess that smokers, like criminals, represent the dregs of society and should not be tolerated - at least, that's what Chávez seems to be insinuating.
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All of the issues cited above point to one central commonality: Our mayor continues to choose the easy way out of any problem he encounters. Instead of analyzing the issues and looking for and treating the root causes of these problems, he chooses to treat the symptoms and penalize all the citizens instead of the few contributing to the problems.
However, based on the lack of citizen reaction, it appears that the majority of Albuquerque citizens are comfortable with the mayor's dictatorial style of management. This being the case, he should not have any trouble adding even more such accomplishments to his brilliant rÇsumÇ. All I can say is, more power to you, mayor.
Nahum B. Castillo
Daily Lobo reader
