February 7, 2019 600 AM
Dear editor, This letter is in reaction to David Beebe’s letter to the editor in last week’s issue. I am grateful to Mr. Beebe for bringing to our attention the inconsistency with which an important issue has been debated and voted on by our commissioners in the last few years. It dawned on me that the topic of alcohol service until 2am could be remedied in a simple way by establishing a Presidio County-wide provision allowing all service industry businesses to serve alcohol until that same time. Much like counties being designated as ‘dry counties’ or ‘wet counties,’ Presidio County could declare a 7-days-a-week 2am alcohol service ordinance. This remedy is, no doubt, a simple and perhaps naïve solution, but it is a fair and equitable way for the service industry in our county to enjoy the same advantages and be treated equally. Assuming that extended drinking hours will yield more profit, more jobs, and more customers to our area, there may therefore be increased opportunities not only for Presidio County residents but maybe also for “skinny boys with French degrees”.
Don Culbertson Marfa
• • • Dear editor, It is disappointing to learn of the Crowley coup d’état accomplished at the recent County Commissioner’s Court meeting held in Presidio. Apparently, businessman, County Judge Cinderela Guevara and with the exception of Commissioner Bentley, all the County Commissioners share a disregard and contempt for the views of Marfa citizens, neighbors, friends, customers and constituents on a matter of vital interest to them. But of course, this is just business as usual in America. The rich and their politician puppets know better than the rest of us. Unfortunately, we are the ones who will be kept up at nights and be killed by drunk drivers leaving Mr. Crowley’s party palace at 2am.
Kent C. Anschutz Austin and Marfa
• • • Dear editor, Trump is a national security threat As a former Navy enlisted man and an officer I am concerned with the threat to national security posed by President Trump. His attacks on our intelligence agencies and cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin are un-American. Recently Trump dismissed the input of his intelligence chiefs about the threats posed by Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and ISIS. Trump continues to question the assessment of our intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. Trump is in an ongoing trade war with China which is adversely impacting the global and U.S. economies. He erroneously believes North Korea is not a nuclear threat to the U.S. And he is pulling our military out of Syria, which will allow ISIS to reconstitute itself and allow Turkey to attack our allies, the Kurds. According to Rex Tillerson, former Secretary of State, Trump doesn’t like to read. According to John Kelly, former Chief of Staff, Trump shows impulsive decision making. According to White House sources it is difficult for Trump to comprehend and process complex information, e.g. intelligence reports, military scenarios. He does not concentrate well on matters. He is a threat to our national security, and should be voted out of office.
Donald Moskowitz Londonderry, New Hampshire
• • • Dear editor, Real leaders don’t punch down. Leaders solve problems without harming those with few resources. They do not impose starvation on children by stopping food stamps. They do not leave other people in danger of starving or losing their home while forcing people to work with no pay. Trump supporters please note that President Trump had two years of a Republican Congress during which he did nothing about building his wall. Suddenly, we are told the wall is an emergency that requires no sacrifice from the wealthy people who run this corrupt govt. but requires deadly sacrifice from those who cannot afford that sacrifice. Trump’s latest scare mongering is crazed immigrants moving towards the US from Honduras. Clinton and Obama supporters, please note that it was under the reign of Obama and Clinton than the coup (and Clinton did call it a coup) in Honduras occurred. This coup came with the blessing of the US. We kept soldiers in Honduras under their reign and now our soldiers are still in Honduras under the reign of Trump and Pence. The American people are not supposed to unquestioningly support the powerful people who run our government. We are supposed to keep them in check. We cannot do this if we will not hold them to account for their actions. This shutdown should end immediately with back pay and food stamps immediately restored. If we don’t want refugees or immigrants coming from other nations, then one important money saving action this government can take is to stop interfering in other nation’s governments. We can cease the instigation of coups, remove our military from harm’s way and get to fixing the many problems in our own society.
Jill Berkana Fort Davis
• • • Dear editor, Radio Rocks 34 years ago a white, soon-to-be medical doctor smeared black shoe polish on his face and imitated Michael Jackson by performing the moon walk. Regardless how many times Ralph Northam repeats his apology it will not be accepted. The tide is rising against the Virginia governor keeping his job. 34 years ago Michael Jackson began a melanin inhibiting treatment that let him imitate a white man. Jackson sang and danced to the lyrically challenged composition “I’m Bad” and repeated the phrase several hundred times. No one asked Jackson to stop singing and dancing. Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher, humanist and mathematician, visited the United States in the 1930s and remarked that the two best things he experienced were Niagara Falls and Amos and Andy. Amos and Andy were two white men wearing blackface who affected Negro humor on radio. (For the word police, black humor is not Negro humor and has nothing to do with color.) Did Governor Northam have some latent desire to look black the way Jackson wanted to look white? Did white America in the pre-TV era admire black culture, since imitation is said to be a form of flattery? Why should anyone care? Outside of a courtroom, why do we as a nation judge other people by single incidents and not in the context of their lives? Radio is color blind. In this Too Much Information Age of Confession and Apology maybe we should go back to radio.
Rex Redden South Brewster County
• • • Dear editor, Lucy
Woe to those called-out for past indiscretions, i.e. Justice Bret Kavanaugh, President Clinton and Virginia’s Gov. Northam revealed for wearing “blackface”. Issues of past behaviors and the racist implications of blackface are important discussions on several levels. CBN’s David Brody asked White House Press Secretary Sanders about Trump, https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/us/sanders-trump-god/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3CqfBTolGFuaOHZ1NDScwxUu1i2Ai-JB34reAUSb-OuyBXkbr9Tj0hX3gU. She responded: “I think he [God] wanted Donald Trump to become president …” Many Evangelicals say “God raised the president up and forgives. So do I.” Okay, “God raises-up! But for what purpose – promote the falsehood of Birtherism, cheat on three wives, not pay contractors, Trump University scams and lying daily about more than crowd size? Evangelical theologian, Ekemini Uwan, observes: “… distinction between God’s sovereignty and God’s approval. That is, what God allows to happen is not the same thing as what God wants to happen.” Overlooked or ignored by Trump’s religious base are Biblical consequences for abusing such honors. What of contrition, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrite, a component of forgiveness? The wrongdoer has an obligation; over a protracted period of time, to demonstrate a meaningful change of heart. Has Trump been contrite about anything, acknowledged any wrongdoing or apologized to anyone? He just distorted the testimony of his top security advisers before Congress concerning their risk assessment about our southern border, Iran and North Korea! An exasperated Ricky bellowed: “Lucy …you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do!”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtsetC6EtKE. Indeed, the American nation deserves better than a reprobate president wanting to “be the entire show” instead of a heartfelt constitutional participant!
Rev. Barry Abraham Zavah Alpine
