Amigos: Let's serve a compassionate solution

| The New Mexican

7/2/2008 - 7/2/08

Balancing competing interests is seldom easy — and that's obviously the case in a dispute between members of Los Amigos del Parque and a state agency.

Admirably, the group has spent time over the past seven years handing out coffee and snacks to day laborers looking for work downtown. These are workers at the bottom of the labor food chain — they line up each day at DeVargas Park, not knowing whether they'll have a dollar to put in their pocket at the end of the day.

When you work by the day, you don't know if you're going to get hired. Many of these workers are immigrants and their position in our society is shaky at best.

For the help, for the kindness and compassion, the volunteers at Los Amigos del Parque deserve much credit.

At the same time, when the executive director of the Northern Area Local Workforce Development Board asked the group to quit using state parking to set up in the mornings, it's hardly helpful to cry "racism" before attempting to work out a mutually agreeable compromise.

Truth be told, there have long been difficulties associated with a group of unemployed men hanging out for a good part of the day at a downtown park. State workers have complained about being harassed; the proximity of the looking-for-work line and a kids' skate park is hardly comforting.

Maybe the parking lot isn't the best place for the van to set up; and perhaps a city park isn't the best place for day workers to wait while they find work.

Helping the less fortunate is essential to creating a just and compassionate society. How best to do that, though, is a topic worthy of debate. We'd suggest Los Amigos co-founder Mara Taub ratchet down the rhetoric — worrying about liability and the comfort of your workers does not make a person a racist. On the other side, perhaps the state can help the group find a spot that works for their set-up without creating other problems. Maybe City of Santa Fe officials can be brought in to brainstorm a solution that works for all.

A balancing act, in other words.