Thank you!
Editor:
On behalf of the Rio Communities Optimist Club, thank you to everyone that participated in this year’s visit with Santa! We served more than 360 children and 250 adults, much more than we were expecting.
A special thank you to Morgan Nesslage, manager with the Rio Communities Dollar General, for her support and collection of so many toys, socks and gifts for the children.
A big thank you to Loedi Silva and Tom Nelson for their donation of gifts they provided and collected from the community. Additional donations of handmade wooden toys were provided by the Albuquerque Woodworkers Association.
This successful event could not have been possible without the hard work of our Optimist members and the location provided by the Rio Communities Fire Department.
A final thank you to the community for joining us and to Santa and Mrs. Claus for taking time from their busy schedule to visit and take pictures with all the children!
Happy New Year to everyone!
Steve Togami
President, Rio Communities Optimist Club
Did you forget MLK?
Editor:
Did anyone forget Dr. Martin Luther King Day this year? I spoke with a coworker the week before the holiday who had forgotten the upcoming day off.
The “What Is America” children’s book series has a title on George Washington and the March on Washington, but not MLK. What gives?
Try looking at Dr. King’s famous “I have a Dream” speech delivered in 1963 at the March on Washington.
Dr. King said, “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.” He does not seek to cancel that promissory note, but to collect on it.
Dr. King said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of tis creed[.]” He does not seek to see the creed abolished. He seeks to have it realized.
Maybe in a nation divided between left and right, red and blue, this and that, we have a harder time seeing every American as heir to the same promissory note and a beneficiary of the same creed. Perhaps Dr. King is less remembered than we might think because we have a harder time thinking as he thought: America is a nation flawed, with ideals worth sacrificing to realize.
Now, years after MLK, what do we see as America’s creed — and what are we willing to sacrifice to see America live it out?
Jonathan Gardner
Los Lunas
LLS’ 3 mill levy election
Editor:
I disagree with Mr. Good’s position. My property taxes increase 3 percent annually, which means Los Lunas Schools receive a 3 percent increase as well.
I suggest that Mr. Good realize the voters did not support the increase and he should more efficiently work with what he has.
It would not surprise me the cost of this special “all mail ballot” will equal or surpass the 3 mill levy much to the chagrin of the voters who denied the tax increase in the first place.
Richard Karpe
Meadow Lake
The Valencia County News-Bulletin is a locally owned and operated community newspaper, dedicated to serving Valencia County since 1910 through the highest journalistic and professional business standards. The VCNB is published weekly on Thursdays, including holidays both in print and online.
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April 25, 2024
