Once again, property taxpayers of Santa Fe County have taken it in the chops. We have been betrayed by the powers that be on a promise of adequate parking being part of the deal for the new courthouse being built with property tax money. This is exactly why I quit voting in favor of any bond issues no matter what the promises were (the latest bond issue earlier this month being just one of many I voted against). Also, I would not be surprised if there is no maintenance money available for the courthouse, just as there was no maintenance money available after the Genoveva Chavez Community Center was built, the Santa Fe Community College, the convention center and you name it, for any other government buildings. I’m tired of betrayal by the County Commission and City Council, aren’t you? Vote ’em out!

D. Keith Higgins

Santa Fe

Hired help

To the majority of the Santa Fe County Commission: So, those who have paid for the new courthouse, the people, will not be allowed to park there. A touch high-handed, don’t you think? I think it is time to remind you all that you are the hired help — you work for us. We do not exist to serve you. If you cannot find some room for your employers to park in that building, your employers will remember you on Election Day.

Stephen C. Dubinsky

Santa Fe

Ignoring abuse

House Memorial 9, sponsored by Rep. Nora Espinoza, proposes mutual efforts to enhance a strategic partnership between the United States and the Republic of Azerbaijan. It was passed without a committee hearing and without a dissenting vote. It appears that not only were strings, but an entire wool garment, pulled over the eyes of our legislators. Our partnership and friendship is now pledged to a country that restricts freedom of expression, assembly and association, and does not provide due legal process. There are reports of pervasive corruption in the judiciary and law enforcement organizations, along with abuse and torture. These charges appear in the 2011 U.S. Department of State Human Rights Report. We wonder what the inspiration was behind this memorial proposed by Rep. Espinoza and supported by 70 representatives.

Robert E. Pearson

Rociada

Message is lacking

One of President Barack Obama’s messages lacked the moral fortitude and urgency that he brings to the issue of gun violence. He’s still talking about climate change as if it will affect our children in a distant future and not furiously bearing down on us now with little time to right our course. And his policy choices do the same. Expanded drilling for oil, fracking and coal mining on public lands have created a surplus of domestic energy, but at what cost? As U.S. CO₂ emissions decline, they rise globally, in part due to Obama’s increased rate of coal exports to Asia.

The president did urge Congress to pursue market-based solutions. Here, we agree. If Congress ends dirty-energy subsidies and places a carbon tax on fossil-fuel polluters, we can shift our power to a green energy future. Such a future would reflect the moral urgency of what must be done.

Maria Rotunda

Santa Fe

Rethink drones

With drone technology spreading worldwide, here’s what we may see hovering over Santa Fe one day — a Chinese drone. Turns out the drone is tracking a citizen of China who opposes the regime in power and has been making threats against it. The Chinese citizen is right there in a public place. The drone fires its missile, killing the target and some 20 of us Santa Feans who happen to be in the vicinity, including children. Implausible? But this is just what often goes on in Pakistan and the Arabian peninsula as we target and kill suspected al-Qaida militants — and even three U.S. citizens, who died without due process or trial. Civilians abroad who must live under our constant menace from the sky are understandably outraged. It’s well past time to stop and rethink what we’re doing with these lethal drones.

Robert Sterns

Santa Fe

Racism lives

So Marc Simmons dismisses out of hand the racist incidents reported by Luis Zuloaga, even though such things continue to the present day (“In 1800s, young Hispanos sent to St. Louis to learn English,” Feb. 9)? Disbelieving the victim is an old, old ploy to denigrate and degrade those considered “lesser” — people of color, women, children. How many crimes of violence, including rape and child abuse, have never been prosecuted because “no evidence can be found those actually occurred?”

Who would have corroborated this Mexican boy’s experience in the jingoistic 1840s U.S.?

Diana Thatcher

Santa Fe