Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Letters to the Editor
I would like to mention a probably little-known fact in these here parts: People waste a lot of water.
With the area under a drought that has lasted for a number of years, why do people still have to have lawns?
You don’t live in the Great Lakes area where there is abundant water. Here it is a precious and scarce resource.
Every day I see so many sprinkler systems pumping the precious water into the wind and most of it doesn’t even land on the lawn, it blows away into the air.
Maybe we should institute a ban on watering. How about a special watering tax? Anyone with a lawn would have to pay an extra $200 a month for the privilege of watering the lawn. Maybe then they would cut back on wasting the water.
Even the Great Lakes area has a ban on watering in the summer. I think a ban on watering all year here would help to conserve what little we have left.
I think the native yard should be enforced. If the plant grows naturally here, such as Pinon trees, yuccas, etc., those plants should be grown in yards — not a Chicago-style green water-wasting lawn.
Maybe next time I will mention the wasting of electricity with the porch lights on all day and night. I guess folks here have so much money they can keep the water flowing and the lights on.
Bob Sheldon
Clovis
Abuse by soldiers can’t be tolerated
Let me begin by stating the obvious: Any member of the United States armed forces found guilty of offenses against the Uniform Code of Military Conduct should be punished quickly, openly and to the fullest extent of the law.
Allegations of misconduct by individual soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have been garnering headlines across the country for the last few weeks. Lurid photos of prisoners posed in obscene positions are being widely circulated with the promise of much more, including possibly videos, to come.
Every week we can expect some new, equally offensive, set of Polaroid prints or digital photos doled out via the major print and electronic media.
A cynic could claim that this trickle of sewage will be leaked so as to keep the story alive as long as possible.
Investigations into the alleged misbehavior at the prison being conducted by the U. S. Army have listed a number of degrading practices prisoners were forced to endure. These included standing naked with wires connected to various parts of their bodies and being threatened with electrocution.
Other male inmates were forced to don women’s underwear. Middle Eastern experts inform us that nothing is more degrading for an Arab male than being forced to undergo this type of persecution. Indeed, Sen, Joseph Biden, D.-Del., opined on the floor of the U.S. Senate that it may have been better, from a loss of dignity aspect, if the guards had taken the prisoners out and shot them.
Sen. Biden was unable to contact either Daniel Pearl or Fabrizio Quattrocchi for their thoughts on which choice they would have preferred.
Pearl was an American reporter who was decapitated by his captors and Quattrocchi was an Italian contractor who was shot in the head after being forced to dig his own grave. Although both of these events were videotaped and distributed to media outlets by their perpetrators, I missed them on the evening news telecasts.
Americans, it seems, will never understand the Middle East. It should never be forgotten that in the hundreds of mass graves discovered in Iraq, not a single male ... has been found wearing women’s underwear. Only the bodies of the thousands of women and girls, a single bullet hole in their skulls, some still clutching dolls, have suffered this ignominy.
Saddam the considerate. Saddam the compassionate. Yeah right.
R. L. Render
Clovis
Portales man not endorsing candidate
In last Sunday’s Clovis News Journal, district attorney candidate Matthew Chandler used my name on a list of endorsers for his candidacy in a half-page ad.
I have since spoken with Chandler to assure him that I would not be publicly endorsing him or his campaign.
To set the record straight for everyone, I also wanted to let the voters in the district know that I am not endorsing Chandler or his candidacy for district attorney.
District Attorney Brett Carter and Chandler are both good people and whoever should win the office for our area has a tough road ahead of them.
I wish them both the best of luck, and may the best man win for the benefit of our families and our district.
Bob Cornelius
Portales
