Letters to the Editor

Letter To The Editor: It’s All About The Kids … Yours, Ours And Generations To Come!

by

By CHERYL and MORRIE PONGRATZ
Los Alamos

We’ve lived in Los Alamos for 47 years. Both of our children graduated from Los Alamos Public Schools. We and they owe a lot to the schools and it’s essential that we repay the schools by supporting them during these “unprecedented” times. One way that we can pay it forward is through supporting the Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation.

Since it was formed in 2005, the Foundation, through the community, has contributed well over a million dollars to the students, teachers and schools by supporting staff professional development, classroom grants, classroom Read More

Letter To The Editor: A Solution To Racism

by

By JOSHUA BISHOP
Los Alamos

Whatever you feel about racism and all the things going on in the world, I ask you to read to the end, I promise this is worth your time.

I was the only child of a lower income single mother. I was also an illegal immigrant to the country my story happened in. I did not speak the language at all. We lived under the constant potential of being found out, caught and hassled, or whatever might happen. The country we were in has strict immigration laws.

When I first started in a new school in this country, my teacher refused to speak to me and demanded I be transferred to a different class. Read More

Letter To The Editor: Thank You Dean Obermeyer

by

By LOUI JANECKY
Los Alamos

I am writing to acknowledge and thank Dean Obermeyer, former technology chair of Los Alamos Public Schools (now retired).

When I was on the school board, he put forward an initiative in the district called “a computer for every child”.

There were some who vehemently opposed his hard work on this project. I am so thankful now that he persevered.

All students are now learning and schooling from home in this COVID era. Most of them are doing so on borrowed LAPS computers! Where would they be without Dean’s initiative? Read More

Letter To The Editor: Please Give To Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation Through LANL’s Giving Campaign

by

By Steve and Kathy Boerigter
White Rock

We are writing this letter to encourage other members of our community who work at Los Alamos National Laboratory to give to the Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation through the lab’s giving campaign.

We give to LAPSF this way so that our contributions will be increased to the foundation and make an even greater impact to assist teachers at the schools in our district.

We have been fortunate to have had three daughters graduate from the LAPS schools and while we were able to contribute to their individual teachers, we found that the foundation was able to benefit Read More

Letter To The Editor: Gessing And Unions

by

By ED BIRNBAUM
Los Alamos

The recent op-ed in the Los Alamos Daily Post (link) by Paul Gessing, president of the New Mexico Rio Grande Foundation, reiterates the usual talking points about unions in their efforts to encourage members of unions to leave their union, whether they are employees in the private or the public sector.

The reasons given range from the cost of belonging to a union to the fact that an employee may not agree with the policies advocated for by their union.

Members can already reduce their union dues by the amount used by the union for political purposes, and I can certainly appreciate Read More

Letter To The Editor: How You Can Help Students And Teachers Returning To School This Fall

by

By DAVID LYONS
Vice President
Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation

To the Los Alamos Public Schools community:

As school starts this year in the shadow of the continuing global pandemic, the teachers, administrators and students of the Los Alamos Public Schools need our support more than ever. To that end, I urge you to donate today to the Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation. As a parent myself of two LAHS students, I understand well the concerns we all have as we enter the new school year.

Our teachers, administrators and students are all being asked to do things they have never done before. The

Read More

Letter To The Editor: Red Meat On Pretty Floral Paper Plates, Way Too Many Of Those Little Keurig Things, Dirty Diapers, And Baked Goods Plastic…

by

By LYNN HANRAHAN
Los Alamos

Once again this morning — the third time in the last few days — my daughter helped me clean up what the bear left behind in our backyard. Since the last big fire this happens. The garbage bags this morning were from someone new. We have an idea who. Usually it’s obvious from financial documents, advertisements, etc.

We live in a nice neighborhood — the sort of place where practically everyone has a graduate degree — for what it’s worth. The sort of place where people should be thoughtful enough to live in peace with nature. The solution Read More

Letter To The Editor: Scenes Of August 1945 Still Coming To Light

by

By NANCY and JOHN BARTLIT
Los Alamos

Japan surrendered at noon on August 15, 1945, ending World War II in the Pacific. On August 6, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and another on August 9 on Nagasaki.

For 75 years, Americans have struggled with Americans to sort out the human dimensions of these events. That August was the crossroads of Japan’s internal conflict. The stark events, as told by Japan’s wartime leaders, became readily known in the U.S. only in the last 20 years.     

In the final summer of WWII, Japan’s Supreme War Council wrestled with turning points in Japan’s Read More

Letter To The Editor: Thank You PRC Commissioners

by

By ARCELIA ISAIS-GASTELUM
Albuquerque

July 29, the Public Regulation Commission unanimously approved the plan for replacement power for the SJGS that consisted of 100 percent renewable energy and battery storage.

This is a monumental step in the right direction, and I applaud our commissioners for their leadership.

A few years ago, PNM announced they were planning to shut down the last stacks of the San Juan coal plant by 2022. Keeping it running is no longer economically feasible, and though the industry has provided more than half our state’s energy for the last half century, it’s time to Read More

Letter To The Editor: Support For David Reagor

by

DIANE ARCHER
Los Alamos

David Reagor is a Republican running for Los Alamos County Council. He believes the council should research ideas then be pragmatic with their decisions.

The Council has considered Carbon Free Energy, which sounds good initially. The modular reactor portion is a potential reliable solution in the far future. In fact, the cost of storing the electricity, wind and solar cells makes it an expensive alternative.

He recognizes the struggles our businesses suffer from the approach to COVID-19. We can’t wait for the disease to peak or find a vaccination. With a fatality rate Read More