I read with interest the article (“Will tariffs give logging more teeth?” March 31). The article gave many interesting facts about local and Canadian logging and timber production. Not every felled tree ends up as lumber. There are other issues with logging, no matter where it is done. According to National Geographic, 27,000 trees a day are felled to produce toilet paper. This destructive practice means around 9.8 million trees are sacrificed each year to be flushed down the toilet.
All tariffs aside, we need to use fewer paper products. That translates to fewer trees felled. The National Resources Defense Council report, “The Issue With Tissue,” is a great guide to steer your consumer choices to sustainably produced paper products. We can all support our state’s timber industry as well as a greener future. Tariffs directly impact consumer consumption. The more we recycle, the less we consume.
Karl Grubbe
Santa Fe
Airport in shambles
Santa Fe recently completed a long anticipated and delayed airport renovation to “improve” the facilities. Someone please explain the incompetence in all this effort resulting in only three dedicated toilet stalls. There is even a sign that says “restrooms” plural, pointing to the single new toilet that was added in the renovation. They left the previous two single-use toilets as they were. I’m sitting here watching lines form before the plane boards and visitors are scratching their heads while doing the dance.
Next up is the new parking lot that is already at capacity and overflowing into dirt lots. Why wouldn’t planners design a two-story parking garage below ground? With the known increase in travelers anticipated, how these basic and necessary services ended up underdesigned is beyond incompetent. I’m sure the baggage claim in the doublewide will be improved in similar fashion.
Kevin Box
Box Studio LLC
Santa Fe
Right from wrong
Cheers for state GOP Chair Amy Barela. Her statement, “Those who resort to violence to undermine our state and nation must be held accountable” clearly indicates she does not support the granting of pardons for the criminals who attacked the nation’s Capitol. I’m so glad to learn that she knows right from wrong, no matter who perpetrates violence (“Fire at state GOP offices believed to be deliberate,” March 31; “Hazy accusations,” April 1).
Laura McAllister
Santa Fe
Tolerate differences
The recent fire and defacement of the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters several hours after U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (“Leger Fernandez urges Santa Fe to fight back,” March 30) called on participants at a Santa Fe town hall to “agitate” is sad and absolutely disturbing. This type of rhetoric, telling a gymnasium filled with people to go out and agitate is reckless. We have to be better than this. We all live together as a community, whether you like Republican ideas or not. It is beyond belief that people would think that no one else can have a different view.
Alexis Martinez Johnson
Santa Fe
One-sided outrage
I nearly spit out my coffee this morning when I read that this state’s Republican Party chairwoman claimed she was “deeply relieved that no one was harmed,” when the party’s state office was possibly subject to arson (“Fire at state GOP offices believed to be deliberate,” March 31; “Hazy accusations,” April 1). I wish the same could have been said when domestic terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol at the direction of her party’s leader. They injured police officers, threatened death to the vice president and smeared feces in the hallways of the nation’s Capitol.
Then, Chairwoman Amy Barela doubled down on her unconscionable hypocrisy by stating, “Those who resort to violence to undermine our state and nation must be held accountable, and our state leaders must reinforce through decisive action that these cowardly acts will not be tolerated.” This is exactly what the Justice Department pursued when right-wingers tried to overturn a free and fair election. Those convictions were pardoned by an autocrat who seems to cherish cowardly acts that undermine our nation.
Your outrage may be genuine, Chairwoman Barela, but it is naively one-sided.
Jonathan Lathrop
Los Alamos
Signal chats
War plans sent via smoke signals — Ricardo Caté is a genius!
E. Pacheco
Santa Fe
Fund suicide prevention
We are educators in Santa Fe who work with at-risk youth. From our combined lifelong years of experience, we have seen how vital and effective suicide prevention training is for teachers and students in schools in New Mexico. It is alarming to learn that very recently federal funds have been cut for these educational programs in our state. Our school had to cancel a professional development workshop the day of these cuts.
We now are left to our own devices to find ways to provide suicide prevention in our charter school.
