Letters - The Daily Lobo

Opinion

Letter: Pedestrians should make sure they're visible at night

Daily Lobo Readers | November 27

I normally bike but I happened to drive across campus the other evening (in the rain). It was only 5:30 p.m. but the cloud cover and time change had made the streets darker. To add to the decrease in vision was the road construction everywhere. Dividers here and there, construction lights blinking and headlights coming and taillights just ahead made me realize how invisible pedestrians are in the darkness.

Opinion

Letter: Universities should open their doors to more conservatives

Daily Lobo Readers | November 20

The hate and intolerance directed at Trump during Wednesday's "walk out" reminded me of a relatively old (1991) quote from a well-known liberal attorney, author and professor named Alan Dershowicz, who back then was so disturbed by the lack of respect for conservatives in certain liberal circles he’s on record as saying: “Political correctness is the most serious issue on college campuses. We are tolerating, and teaching, intolerance and hypocrisy” (James Warren, “Drawing Laughs,” Chicago Tribune, April 14, 1991, section 5, p. 2). Things didn’t change much from 1991 by 2005. Indeed, the intolerance of the ever-so-trendy “politically correct” mob just seemed to have gotten worse (power may have gone to their heads). That motivated a libertarian syndicated columnist named Nat Hentoff to pen a piece titled "College no place for closed minds" (Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 15, 2005, p. 45).

Opinion

Letter: The Electoral College needs to be reformed, not abolished

Daily Lobo Readers | November 20

The framers of the U.S. Constitution created the Electoral College as a result of a compromise for the presidential election process. During the debate, some delegates felt that a direct popular election would lead to the election of each state’s favorite son and none would emerge with sufficient popular majority to govern the country. Other delegates felt that giving Congress the power to select the president would deny the people their right to choose. After all, the people voted for their representatives to the federal legislature. The compromise was to set up an Electoral College system that allowed voters to vote for electors, who would then cast their votes for candidates, a system described in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution.

Opinion

Letter: The Inconvenient Truth of Donald Trump

Daily Lobo Readers | November 16

It has become a convenient sport to display one’s democratic colors by hurling the strongest condemnations at America’s most iconic target: Donald Trump. The man himself not only invites, but calls for the criticism. His public posture consists, in a shameless transparency, of an unashamed mindset that digs deep into the muck of America’s bigoted history of racism, slavery, sexist misogyny, chauvinistic nationalism, militarism, burnt-earth capitalism and blood-drenched imperialism. Violence of hatred breeds more hatred of violence. Entrenched in the vicious cycle, Trump is one of few public figures who refuse to mince words. He exhibits his narcissism with an inadvertent honesty that pulls him into the spotlight of utter impertinence.

Opinion

Letter: ASUNM should be willing to discuss finances publicly, not behind closed doors

Daily Lobo Readers | November 13

Editor, On Nov. 11, the ASUNM president sent me a personal email regarding my recent and open critiques of ASUNM and its performance. Specifically, he invited me to schedule a private meeting with him and his staff to address my communications to the Daily Lobo. The ASUNM president's invitation to a private dialogue without an audience should come as a shock to all undergraduates, as this proposed cloak-and-dagger affair runs in the face of the transparency, openness and full disclosure that ASUNM alleges it values. This is indicative of a desire to handle ASUNM business in a manner so that is hidden from the public eye.

Opinion

Letter: Frank condemns anti-Trump graffiti but refuses to condemn Trump's fascism

Daily Lobo Readers | November 13

Editor, UNM President Frank has condemned "highly offensive" anti-fascist Trump graffiti at UNM. Does he also condemn fascism? I imagine after the tumult of the next four years, this highly offensive grafitti is going to look pretty damn tame in 2020! Appeasement in a social or political context is a diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to an enemy power in order to avoid conflict. Frank can try his best to be fair and balanced, but fascism should never be appeased.

Opinion

Letter: ASUNM works hard for little to provide opportunities to students

Daily Lobo Readers | November 9

In response to the article published on Monday, here are some things to know about your undergraduate student government.

Opinion

Letter: Now is the best time to transition to renewables as a long-term solution

Daily Lobo Readers | November 9

On Wednesday of last week Robert Sanchez of the U.S. Government Accountability Office came in and talked about the potential for the United States to diversify the national energy portfolio and the hazards and obstacles that are in the way. The gist of what he was telling those of us interested in the topic was that renewable energy isn’t all that likely to be 100 percent of the energy portfolio – as it stands, fossil fuels are the cheapest available energy source and it seems that it won’t change any time soon with the onset of fracking.

Opinion

Letter: ASUNM provides for themselves rather than the students they serve

Daily Lobo Readers | November 9

The front page article of the Nov. 7 paper should come as a shock to all students. The crux of the matter is that the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico appears to be doing little more than funding itself and its own extravagances rather than appropriating funds to the students that it claims to be serving. The majority of the money, which comes directly from student fees, does not make it back to the students, who are being milked like cash cows. It would almost be comical to chalk this up as negligence on behalf of ASUNM, but the truth is that they know exactly where this money goes and how little there is to show for it.

Opinion

Letter: Higher learning today displays anti-Christian bias

Daily Lobo Readers | November 6

Hello. Writing to all you out in academia about the election from the viewpoint of a Christian. I was raised in my family as a liberal Democrat back when that was a good thing. What I mean by that is the liberal Democrats have now come to stand for things I no longer support. We used to be for integration and proper hours and wages for workers. Honestly, I agree with both parties on certain issues so I am what is called an independent.

Opinion

Letter: Election drama won't end on Tuesday

Daily Lobo Readers | November 6

An American spring, a renewed and reset Constitutional Republic. What very few people know, understand or want to acknowledge is that behind the scenes of all this election drama, a second American revolution is currently underway. Actually, more correctly, a counter-revolution to turn back the forces of tyranny and criminality, and the stakes could not be higher.

Opinion

Letter: Hiring freeze could result in exploitation of staff

Daily Lobo Readers | November 3

Dear Editor, In regard to last week’s University budget town hall, I would like to address an issue that came up. It’s a pity that President Frank completely missed the point that an employee made about the fact that individuals are being asked to do more for less. It wasn’t surprising, though. I find the administration has a difficult time taking staff concerns into serious consideration, even though that is the purpose of the town hall meeting. The employee was making a statement about the fact that when programs lose staff, they are not being given approval to hire a replacement. Instead, the work is being unloaded onto staff that are in completely different departments.

Opinion

Letter: Hillary's egregious misdeeds disqualify her for office

Daily Lobo Readers | October 30

Editor, Yes, if Hillary is elected, then the nation will have voted itself into ruin.

Opinion

Letter: Voters must not allow corrupt Clinton into office

Daily Lobo Readers | October 23

LAUNCELOT: Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes, you might fail of the knowing me: it is a wise father that knows his own child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of your son: give me your blessing: truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son may, but at the length truth will out. --Shakespeare's “The Merchant of Venice,” 1596.

Opinion

Column: Negative fliers shouldn't keep voters away from polls

Nichole Harwood | October 21

This election season has been a pretty memorable one. There's no doubt about it when you view the two major party candidates from a historical perspective. Furthermore, social media almost guarantees you will see memes and videos shared amongst family and friends spreading opinions about the major party candidates in one way or another. Amongst the cloud of factual and false information being distributed through a variety of social media and news outlets, one message rings loudest: you must vote.

Opinion

Letter: Electing Hillary isn't enough to stop Republicans

Daily Lobo Readers | October 20

I just read a fantastic article at the Los Angeles Times explaining why the election is going to be a slam dunk for Hillary. It also mentions that as far as the Congressional races go, things are not nearly as clear cut. While it's becoming more obvious by the day that Hillary is going to win the election, I must act as the bearer of potentially bad news by letting my fellow readers know: the Republicans are likely to maintain their strong presence in Congress. They're not going to make things easy for us.

Opinion

Letter: "Hacked" Clinton emails are a convenient distraction

Daily Lobo Readers | October 19

Beware the hacker who first reads your confidential stuff, then alters –- through even false “redacts” – certain choice docs subtly but with incendiary results, before releasing them through a leaking outfit. He could alter World History. The matter has come up because the Clinton campaign is not saying Clinton’s hacked stuff is authentic or not. Maybe they are; maybe they aren’t. Have they been tampered with? By definition, how would we ever know? Would they say, “Yes, this is the speech Hillary gave to Goldman Sachs, but Hillary did not use those exact words”?

Opinion

Letter: Cannabis' Schedule 1 status is unacceptable

Daily Lobo Readers | October 16

On April 21, 1999, the United States Of America, as represented by the Department Of Health And Human Services filed for a patent, application number US 09/674,028. On Oct. 7, 2003 publication number US6630507 B1 was published. Entitled “Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants,” and U.S. Patent, Hampson et. al., 6,630,507 was granted to the U.S. Government for medicinal marijuana. Under Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.), Schedule I Controlled Substances are defined as: “Substances in this schedule have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse.

Opinion

Letter: UNM Athletics hogs too much money

Daily Lobo Readers | October 16

On Monday the Albuquerque Journal had an article titled "UNM athletics looks for financial solutions." Two passages stood out in the article. The first that 24 employees in the Athletics Department have base salaries over $100K/yr, and the second being that the University may increase fees to offset a $1.54 million budget deficit. Coaches' salaries are high because they bring in money to the University. Obviously ours do not do that, and before any fee increase is considered there should be pay cuts at the TOP of the Athletics Department.

Opinion

Letter: Resources are wasted on low-performing professors

Daily Lobo Readers | October 5

Dear James Lewis, President, UNM Alumni Association: Your recent call to action would be a much easier cause to support if the administration was willing to take a look at low-performing professors and strip them of their tenure. UNM wastes a tremendous amount of its scarce resources by not holding its staff accountable.