Letters to the editor

Soccer’s a really great game,

 

but, ya can’t beat football

Editor,

I am responding to the “Dueling columnists” titled “Tony takes on T.S. over state of American soccer” and I would like to express my thoughts as well. First of all, I do see that the sport of soccer has potential to become more popular in the U.S.A. on grade school, high school, college and professional levels.

From personally watching soccer varsity games at my alumni college, I realize that soccer is very much a grueling sport which demands top, conditioned fitness in its participants (no room for 300-pound tackles here).

If Major League Baseball goes on strike again, then soccer could have an open door of opportunity to be more popular than America’s former pastime. But soccer will never dethrone the king of American sports — football, and these are my top five reasons:

5. The NFL has not only dominated the popularity in the U.S.A. but is quickly becoming more popular across the globe (i.e., NFL-Europe, the international popularity of the Super Bowl).

4. Iron-clad tradition: In this sport, you can see the longhorn steer stampede onto the field before a game or the clear noise of howls from fans after a touchdown, a parking lot packed with tailgaters or the famous Gatorade showers for major wins or championships.

3. Miraculous comebacks: In football, never say that the game is over at half-time when the score is 21 to 0. There are times when the team with no points at half-time will win the game. Can you say “Hail Mary pass?”

2. A pileup on a fumbled ball. When a football is fumbled, leading to a pile-up of players, for a long moment there is the edge-of-the-seat suspense about who has recovered the ball, broken by the referee’s signal of possession.

1. Teamwork – I believe that there is no other sport where teamwork is so critical (even basketball). To protect the quarterback, to block for a running back, or the teamwork demanded in a blitz (where the defense ambushes the quarterback).

These are my thoughts, with the anticipation that we’re only weeks away from the first kick-off of the greatest game of all — football.

Jim Wilburn

Belen

Where were you in ’56?

Editor:

The Class of l956 will be holding its class reunion on Sept. 13 and 14 at the Tierra Del Sol Country Club.

I know there are many of the graduates who live in Belen or surrounding area who are not always crazy about a class reunion because they see a lot of us on a daily and yearly basis, but, for those of us who do not live in Belen, I personally would like for all of you to attend and reminisce.

We are looking for addresses for: Joe M. Baca; Mary Barela Thompson; Ernestine Chavez; Richard Gabaldon, Antonia Jara-millo, Rutelio Molina, Gloria Moya, George Pena, Joe Pino, Esther Sanchez, Nellie Sanchez, Lily Storey Benavidez, Judy Canon and Raymond Pena.

If anyone has their addresses or phone numbers, please call Affairs to Remember at l-505-296-3717.

We invite any of our teachers, administrators, coaches to call and attend the reunion.

Sheila Seery Burdett, Junction City, Kan.

Check out websites

Editor:

My fellow citizens of the Rio Abajo and Valencia County: please read and share with others before the Aug. 13 Valencia County (Commission) hearing:

Today’s News-Bulletin story calls for action and communication with county, Belen, Los Lunas, Isleta plus Sandia Labs, the Environmental Protection Agency, PNM and educators about the state air quality permit OK’d on the Rio Communities power plant.

Download and distribute “Solar Power Solutions: A Business Case for Capturing Total Value” from http://www.solarelectricpower.org. Read this report, especially the recommendations.

See www.nmsea.org website for local advocacy Sept. 28-29 Solar Festival at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, co-sponsored by Sandia Labs and the schools’ educational and science van visiting our schools. Consultation on this issue has been brought to the attention of the NMESA board.

The 350 days of isolation charts of our area are available from NASA at http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/ and certainly show what an asset we have here in the county for development of clean industry with public-private partnerships and government assistance, if it were only requested and set in motion.

The east mesa power plant should be encouraged only if the gas-fired turbines meet all EPA and U.N. Rio Summit goals for 2010 and are used only as backup to a solar PV farm array on the smallest scale possible. If done right, this is a great good. If done wrong, we threaten our air, water, capacity for development.

Rather than protest the intent of a power plant, development of industry, social and economic progress and stewardship of our lands, I see in this issue every possible potential, every public-private partnership benefit (if every) entity is quite able to handshake and work in unity for all. I question the necessity to burn fossil fuel to bring this about when all directives from the federal Department of Energy, governor’s conference and our federal labs and universities all are in agreement in making our futures as sustainable as possible.

Katje Erickson

Belen

Thanks for voting on levy

Editor:

The Soil and Water Conser-vation District board of supervisors wishes to thank the people who took time to vote in our mill levy referendum. Though the outcome was not what we had hoped for, the people used one of our greatest freedoms, the right to vote.

A big thank you.

Carl Hullinger

Chairman

Board of Supervisors

Soil and Water Conservation District

Los Lunas