Letters to the Editor (March 7, 2024)

Kick-a-thon success 

Editor: 

We want to thank all of the students and families of  Belen Goju Ryu Karate for helping to raise money for the Belen Area Food Pantry. All of the students kicked for 15 minutes non-stop as a way of Kicking Hunger Out of Belen and then asked for donations for their efforts for the food pantry.   

A total of 121,899 kicks were completed by all students combined, and they raised  $1,153.25 in donations to help those experiencing food insecurity. 

Belen Goju Ryu Karate, as of 2013, decided to help a local organization with minimum overhead. After this year, our Belen Area Food Pantry dollars have totaled $7,541.01.  

We were able to help MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) with $34,460.00 with our Kick-A-Thons from 1992 thrrough 2012. Our MDA and Belen Area Food Pantry Kick-A-Thons have now raised a total of $42,001.01. 

We chose February for the Kick-A-Thon because donations usually go up around the holidays and then plunge after the first of the year. We know “extra money” is hard to come by, but if you have some, the Belen Area Food Pantry is a great place to donate. Your dollars go directly to feeding people. 

Richard and Cindy Long 

Belen Goju Ryu Karate 

  

Protecting our rights 

Editor: 

It is not that often a state supreme court decision makes national news. That happened in February with the Hawaii’s Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Wilson.   

Maybe you heard the Hawaii Supreme Court talked about the “Aloha Spirit” in a gun case. Maybe you heard that the Hawaii and U.S. constitutions both have Second Amendment language, but the Hawaii Supreme Court decided the words meant something totally different (the two provisions are capitalized and punctuated differently with the same words, but the two provisions have been read very differently). Maybe you heard a judicial opinion cited The Wire (specifically the line “The thing about the old days, they the old days.”) 

The opinion in Wilson runs over 50 pages and says a lot, including disagreeing vigorously with United States Supreme Court Second Amendment decisions, discussing the history of deadly weapon regulation in Hawaii. Beyond fanning the flames of the Second Amendment gun control debate already raging nationwide (and here in New Mexico), does this decision hold value for us here in New Mexico? 

Yes, because it is a reminder of state constitutions. Every state has its own. The U.S. and state constitutions can both protect rights. They can protect the same rights. They can protect the same rights differently. 

Wilson is a reminder a state does not have to provide the same protection for a right as the U.S. Constitution. A state constitution could provide more protection. It might provide the same protection. It might provide less protection. It might provide none at all. 

The U.S. Constitution is a floor. A state might provide less protection on its own, but you still get the protection of the U.S. Constitution no matter what. The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment still applies in Hawaii, New Mexico and everywhere else.  

Wilson, though, reminds us that states — including ours — can make choices, and those choices can be different. 

Jonathan Gardner 

Los Lunas