Letters to the Editor

Local physicians, firefighters may have saved her life

Editor:

Early this month, I experienced something none of us is prepared for! If it hadn’t been for some extremely well-trained and very competent people, I wouldn’t be here to write this!

After having a cup of tea, I noticed that I was itching all over as well as getting hives all over! I called my local doctor, but no one was available. Then I remembered hearing very positive comments about First Choice, so I called and talked to a nurse by the name of Phillip and he said, “Come right in!”

By the time my daughter, Elizabeth, got me there, I was having trouble breathing and knew I was in trouble!

The First Choice staff quickly took my vitals and rushed me in to see Dr. Phillips, who had nurse Phillip put me on oxygen and told Phillip to stay right with me. Never have I had better or more competent and caring people around me!

After my vitals returned to normal range, Dr. Phillips advised me to go by ambulance to Presbyterian Hospital to be monitored in case of “rebound” amphylactic shock!

Dr. Phillips was advised there was no ambulance available, so she called Belen Fire and Rescue.

Two more angels, Larry Copeland and Ms. Foster, showed up, whisked me into their vehicle and off we went to Albuquerque. Again, they took such good care of me you would have thought I was family.

My heart is full of thankfulness and respect for all of you. My wish is that both God and our whole community treats you all with the greatest love and gratitude! You deserve it, my friends and heroes.

I’d like to mention that these people are volunteers for our community and they take time away from their jobs and do this simply because they’re such caring and concerned people. I hope the community will respect this and show some real gratitude and respect toward them.

Shaelagh Murphy

Belen

Geneva Nixon is great!

Editor:

In reporting the actions of the Belen School Board’s meeting, Mr. Bruce Warren gave cursory mention of Mrs. Geneva Nixon’s “transfer” to La Merced Elemen-tary School “to take over the principal duties.”

Is this an appointment, a promotion or an acting position until someone else is found?

Perhaps Mr. Warren or another reporter has, in a previous edition which I missed, wrote of Mrs. Nixon’s qualifications, achievements, length of service and interest in education in the Belen School District. Was it done when she was promoted to assistant principal of Belen High School?

It would be good when someone of Mrs. Nixon’s caliber achieves such a position in our community that your reporters take the time to give her the credit she deserves, if, indeed, she has been promoted.

We who admire Mrs. Geneva Nixon would like to see her recognized in like manner as others.

Keith Gordon Easton

Rio Communities

(Editor’s note: Yes, Mrs. Nixon will be the full-time principal at La Merced; she has been transferred there from Belen High School., where she was an assistant principal for a year. She is a 20-year Belen teacher who was also the activities coordinator at Belen High.)

Clothes are self-expression

Editor:

This is an open letter to the Los Lunas School Board:

I have concerns about the way Los Lunas High School is being run. I wish to get right to the point so as not to take up too much of your time. First of all, the dress code is ridiculous. Is there no one who understands the growth patterns of our young people? Self-expression of the youth is part of the learning experience. If you bind our children up with restrictions, how can they learn? You cut off their individual growth as a person. They need to find out who they are. Don’t be afraid of pink hair or a nose ring. Most of these children will drift away from these things eventually. We demand that you allow the parents to have control of these issues in our children’s lives.

Girls should wear clothing which adequately covers all sensitive areas, boys should wear shirts at all times and pants. The end! Apparel which boasts the names of teams and/or colors should be allowed. Use your heads. If you’re worried about kids wearing signs or colors to boast their gangs, at least you would have an idea who they might be. Kids know, for the most part, what not to wear as to not get in trouble with gang colors.

These … controls need to be abolished. Teachers are there to teach, not to mold. Our job as parents is to mold. You have good kids and, unfortunately, you have labeled these kids as being bad or trouble-makers, low-life. This school has taken away these kids’ pride and only because the kids have a piercing, colored hair (or a) different hair style. These things will not change who these kids are or what they learn. If the principals or teachers are afraid, perhaps they should change their vocation to escape the terror which exists mostly in their minds.

People complain that the school system no longer works. The only reason it doesn’t work is because it has not changed with our children. Our kids can do more, be more and want more. They’re older than we were at their age. They’re smarter than we were at their age. With these increases comes a strong desire to be different — not bad, just different.

Our kids are locked in a system which forces them to learn the same things, eat the same food, sit in the same rooms. So let them, as individuals, be different. If our teachers and administration cannot change, they will fail our children.

It is the constitutional right of every child to have an education. In the constitution, there were never any stipulations put on this right.

My child was suspended for piercings and a shirt which was less than one inch from her jeans. … She was set apart and labeled, I suppose, as not being an American. I deduce this due to the fact that she cannot be educated under our constitution.

She is an American. She does deserve to be educated and she truly is a good person, just like all the other children who have been persecuted …

Mr. and Mrs. Guy R. Cornejo

Los Lunas

George W. is confusing

Editor:

When George Sr. was Presi-dent, I could never understand what I thought he was trying to say and finally came to the conclusion that he was purposely confusing the issue.

But, after listening to George W.’s “economic” statement to the participants of his hand-picked, farcical “economic forum,” I have decided that foreign media and governments have him correctly labeled: “Nudnik,” “grammatically challenged,” “fraternity boy,” “The Texan,” “Dumb Quixote,” etc. Embarrassing, to say the least.

Why should we feel better about the economy just because George W. tells us that things will get better because we are Americans? We have a president who brags about being a “C” student and seems proud of being mediocre, who advocates a mumble-jumble about honesty, family values and civil liberties when his own background is a history of anything but.

Why should his corporate buddies have to be threatened with jail before they file a true financial statement? Obviously, they have been cheating their stockholders — have they also been filing false statements with the IRS?

It is time for a general cleanup — business, politics and religion. It is hard to fight big business, but the one true freedom we have is the right to vote — but only if we use it.

Hazel Bickford

Los Lunas

Thanks, Andrew Sanchez

In a letter to the editor by Evelyn A. Sanchez about the Belen summer recreation program, one of the names of those she thanked was listed incorrectly. She thanked Andrew Sanchez for his help with the program. The News-Bulletin apologizes for the error.