Opinion

Last year, my friends and I were talking about news stories which bludgeoned the ears (and minds) of the American public throughout the year of 2012. 

Of course, the Presidential election was high on the list. It was like watching a comedic version of Eraserhead dubbed over with the soundtrack from “Xanadu.” I must admit though, it was entertaining to see Clint Eastwood argue with a piece of furniture (and losing the argument to it).

Psy’s Gangnam Style infected the airwaves with K-pop and bad dancing. Trayvon Martin’s murder piqued the nation’s curiosity as to what brand of shoes Zimmerman wore. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone conversations are far more interesting than our own, but it’s no reason to be complacent.

“We’re basically turning citizens into human intel for the country. Welcome to the Surveillance State,” said software developer Andrew Stone. “All communications are being spied upon — phone, email, Skype, web browsing. Massive amounts of data are being collected.”

Stone isn’t your wild-eyed activist. He’s best known as developer of the popular mobile application Twittelator for the iPhone and iPad. His Albuquerque-based Stone Design Corp. has published more than 35 software titles for generations of Macintosh operating systems. Stone joined computing legend Steve Jobs after Jobs, forced out of Apple, started his own company, NeXT. Stone is still an independent developer for Apple.

Dear Editor,

This weekend there is a gun show at the Pueblo Gym. The gym is on a site owned by the Los Alamos Public Schools. This means that very soon, forty vendors will gather for the purchase and sale of guns on our tax-payer supported school property.

A discussion has begun about whether or not it is appropriate to conduct gun sales on school district grounds. I began this conversation a few days ago when I emailed Superintendent Gene Schmidt and the five School Board members asking that LAPS discontinue its support of this gun show, where, by the way, children 12 and under get in free.

I was delighted to read that my fellow county councilors passed a resolution in favor of the special election to consider a property tax levy to help University of New Mexico-Los Alamos.

Even though I was away for that meeting, I want to voice my support for this resolution and furthermore urge every voter to approve this ballot question.

I have many reasons for my support, but I wanted to concentrate on a specific value that UNM-LA provides to our community and one that my family has benefited from directly. A healthy UNM-LA is a great resource for our high school students, and helps in many ways to make them better prepared for the future.

My three boys graduated from Los Alamos High School, and all three of them took classes at UNM-LA. These classes gave them a good (and eye-opening) preview of the rigors of a college class and gave them a head start by transferring credits to their eventual college.

When I researched the statistics on this “dual credit” opportunity, I was surprised by the large number of students who took advantage of this program. In the last five years, there were almost 1399 dual credit students and last spring, 70 percent of them were LAHS students.

Three cheers for
children’s theater

On behalf of the Los Alamos Arts Council, I would like to thank the cast members of Missoula Children’s Theater’s production of “The Tortoise Versus the Hare” for their wonderful performance. I would also like to thank all the parents and friends of the cast who attended the play on Saturday, as well as Kirk Christensen and the staff of Crossroads Bible Church. They were wonderful to work with and made the week a complete success. 

Additionally, many thanks go to the Los Alamos Arts Council members who volunteered their time to help make this year’s production a wonderful experience for the participants. 

The Arts Council would like to thank the County of Los Alamos for co-sponsoring this event and the community for supporting Arts Council programs.

What do you suppose really happened on July 7, 1947, at the Roswell Army Air Force Base to cause Col. William “Butch” Blanchard to announce that a flying disk had been captured?

   An announcement of that magnitude would have to be carefully considered and not issued without direction from the highest authorities in Washington, D.C.

   The mystery of what happened at Roswell hinges on what took place behind closed doors that day. Official records indicate that absolutely nothing out of the ordinary occurred at the base during the entire week. Everyone who believes that, please raise your hand.

If a tree falls in the forest…

That little statement used to introduce a philosophical discussion. Today we might ask, “If a tree falls in the forest and lands on a power line, whose responsibility is the resulting fire?”

A host of insurance companies are suing the Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative claiming the utility is responsible for the 2011 Las Conchas fire. 

The utility argues that the tree fell on its line from private property outside its right of way. 

We can probably expect more such lawsuits related to the Tres Lagunas and Thompson Ridge fires, both started by downed power lines.

In “Democracy in America,” published in 1835, the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at length about the voluntary associations he found here. These groups of citizens came together to get things done, to build a schoolhouse, or whatever. They provided a core of what today we call civil society. 

Now the worry is about “the decay of civil society as represented in part by the decline of thousands of private, voluntary organizations (Rotarians, Elks, et. al.) that have contributed so much to social order and progress in America.”

George Melloan, the worrier here, was reviewing “The Great Degeneration,” the new book by Niall Ferguson, a Scot of some pop culture fame who teaches at Harvard. Ferguson did “Civilization: Is the West History?” a six-part documentary in 2011. 

Some days it just seems like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Rod Serling steps from behind a tree and begins his monologue that will take viewers on a journey to some alternate reality.

So it was with Friday’s announcement from the Kiwanis Club that this year’s 4th of July fireworks show is on for Overlook Park in White Rock. Indeed, the day’s top story regarding the impending closure of Santa Fe National Forest due to extreme fire danger juxtaposed with the Kiwanis statement was a study in contradiction.

On the one hand, the county council and fire chief are moving to extend the ban on fireworks for another month, yet the Kiwanis Club would appear to be exempt.

There’s no question that just about everybody loves a good fireworks show. Fireworks on the 4th of July rank right up there with saluting the flag and a slice of mom’s apple pie. It’s part of what defines us as being uniquely American. The annual event is also the major fundraiser for Kiwanis and the club is no doubt missing the revenue generated in light of the show’s cancellation the past two years. Like all of this town’s civic clubs, the Kiwanis do good work with the bucks they take in from events like the fireworks show. But, in this instance, one has to wonder if the risks are worth the rewards.