Opinion

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Ask Dr. Peg

What comes after winter in New Mexico? Allergy season. And it has arrived in full force. Juniper pollen counts were close to 500 last time I checked, and that is high, in case your nose hadn't noticed. Next will come mulberry and other trees, then a summer full of grass itches and, finally, sneezy fall weeds.

Academy a novel approach to filling public service ranks

Editor, I'd like to respond to Arun Anand Ahuja's letter published Tuesday regarding the U.S. Public Service Academy. As someone who questions the extraordinary emphasis our country puts on the military in the first place, I think that the very idea of this civilian service academy rebuts the notion that there's only one way to "serve" your country.

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Academy for public service sounds like military branch

Editor, In his piece plugging the U.S. Public Service Academy on Feb. 27, Zac Westbrook sounds like a military recruiter trying hard not to sound like one. If the graduates are going to be helping out at Katrina-like disasters, why is it modeled after academies that are military? His calling the latter "illustrious" is what gives him away, like when a posse of trained killers is called an elite corps.

Offering grad students child care subsidies an investment for NM

Editor, I am writing in response to the article titled "GPSA seeks child care subsidies for graduate students" in Monday's Daily Lobo. I completely agree with GPSA because, currently, graduate students are the only class of people who are singled out and denied access to assistance.

UNM West provides community with quality faculty, services

Editor, I work at UNM West in Rio Rancho. Apparently, UNM West was presented as an item of discussion and controversy during the faculty meeting last week. The citizens of Rio Rancho passed a tax bill to allocate money for the building of a campus in Rio Rancho.

Honesty in Obama's speech a political breath of fresh air

Editor, I congratulate President Barack Obama on the content and tone of the speech he gave last week. He told U.S. citizens and the rest of the world exactly where we are financially. He also assured us that we will recover from this, as we have always recovered in the past.

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Freedom-hating professors show little regard for the law

Editor, I was disgusted with professors Sharon Warner and Feroza Jussawalla for using the microphone at Wednesday's faculty meeting to further infect the public mind with their freedom-hating views. This tyrannous pair brought up last year's completely unrelated Creative Writing fiasco, once again demonstrating their contempt for the rule of law and individual rights.

Column: Faculty must keep pressuring admins

Atypically, I must commend the faculty, at least the 400 or so who showed up for the meeting on Wednesday. Not since the regents attempted to hire the utterly unqualified John Elac as president have I seen such anger and action from normally quiescent faculty.

Obama has already brought change beyond expectations

Editor, This is in response to the letter written on Feb. 4 by Andres Saenz concerning President Obama's "failure to keep promises." First of all, Obama has been in office for about two months. Give him a break. He is only human. As far as the inauguration, I have heard different accounts of how much it cost.

Students may have to pull their own weight, buy bus passes

Editor, Given the dismal state of the economy, it seems unlikely that the University and the State will continue subsidizing free bus rides for staff and students. It was fun while it lasted, but the time may have come for us to once again pull our own weight.

Column: US public service needs support

The chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina illustrated the importance of public service and volunteerism as well as the devastating effects of a poorly prepared and understaffed domestic response team. Yet we still face significant obstacles in the way of building a larger, better qualified and more committed pool of public servants.

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Run for president if you want to change how Obama lives

Editor, I would like to respond to a letter that was published on Feb. 12 by Daniel Martinez titled "Obama a hypocrite for asking CEOs to reduce their salaries." His complaint is of President Barack Obama asking major corporate CEOs to put limits or caps on their salaries and comparing the position of the presidency to that of a corporate CEO.

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Bill threatens to undermine Electoral College, democracy

Editor, House Bill 383 passed the New Mexico House of Representatives on Friday. As a New Mexico resident and voter, I am disturbed by the blatant attempt to rob New Mexicans of their votes when it comes to choosing our president. This bill would take New Mexico's five Electoral College votes and give them to whomever won the national popular vote.

Stimulus package won't help U.S. economy in long run

Editor, God willing, I'll graduate in May with my MBA from the Anderson School of Management. But it doesn't really matter what degree I'll have, because it'll still be hard to find a job given the current economic conditions. Unbelievably, I still retain a decent measure of hope for my future prospects, though it's not coming from where you might expect.

Schmidly shouldn't allow Fox to give commencement speech

Editor, We are writing in protest of Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico and CEO of Coca-Cola, serving as the commencement speaker this spring and of UNM's collaboration with Fox as described on the front page of UNM's Web site. As two former presidents of the Student Organization of Latin American Studies, we are appalled at UNM's collaboration with a man who has been accused of presiding over human-rights abuses of indigenous peoples, women and human rights activists, among others.