Letters to Editor

[Editor's Note: I posted this the first time with ALL of the names of the people who provided information to this letter to the editorial. I was told I could post  it as it was written. Then somebody threw a fit and I had to take names off. But I have been reminded that my policy is NOT to publish anonymous letters to the editor, so the letter is gone! People need to follow the submission rules!)

[Editor's Note No. 2: I got permission for someone to be named as the author of the letter, and I redacted other names, except for those in current leadership positions in HMS.]

To whom it may concern,

I was present for the town hall meeting in May, as well as the one that was held last night at the convention center. There were lots of issues that I feel were blanketed just like was mentioned by concerned community members in the last meeting. When asked about the statistics for providers leaving, we all got board member Rusty Tolley stating how well CEO Dan Otero did the research and got the numbers. Dr. Nelson [previous chief medical officer over the residency program] debunked his lies on how to properly get the numbers needed for a facility based on reference to the state level.

Dear Editor...Isn't it interesting how New Mexico's behavioral health spending keeps rising (can I say, booming!!!) --- $555 million was just allocated in the latest Santa Fe budget --- and yet New Mexico's 'substance abuse DISORDER' ranking keeps falling --- the latest, from 36th to 44th WORST IN AMERICA (ABQ Journal, Dan Boyd, 6/25/25). U know, it ain't working now, but if we just spend more money, maybe it will???

And reflectively, here in gorgeous Silver City, a behavioral clinic reopens --- yeah!!! --- as the senior centers close???!!! And so it seems: buckets of money for the 'mashed minds' of locals, curdled by NM hallucinogens; but no lunch money, no 'mashed potatoes' for everybody's Abuela.

 Editor:

After reading Paul Gessing's "Arizona Policy Runs Circles Around New Mexico" opinion piece, The Beat, June 17, 2025, explaining Arizona's obvious population growth and economic advancements over The Land of Enchantment, it wasn't too difficult to figure out why.

For instance, Arizona's population is reported to be 7.6 million. New Mexico's is around 2.1 million people — 5.5 million less. Arizona had an economic GNP of $508 billion in 2023. NM recorded $113 billion 2024 — nearly $400 billion less.

Even though New Mexico became a state before Arizona, and both are next door neighbors, and both are blessed with an abundance of natural resources, the distinguishing factor seems to be decidedly different political and governing policies.

Dear Editor,

I am writing in my role as Chair of the Board of Directors of Hidalgo Medical Services.

We have read with interest the ongoing series by Frost McGahey, including the June 3, 2025 article with the headline "Insurance Company Alleges Fraud." It is unclear why Ms. McGahey has never contacted HMS before publishing. It is also unclear why an eight-year-old news story is now being revisited, and represented to the public as if it were based on recent events.

Sheriff Raul Villanueva,

I'm not laughing. Apparently three out of four Sheriffs deputies laughed and one of those four pulled his taser on a fellow officer to force him to turn over a compromised rabbit. This is sadistic behavior and has NO PLACE in law enforcement. It has long been postulated that abusing animals is accompanied by anti-social or sociopathic behavior. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4552201/ 

And some say Silver City does not need a Citizens Advisory Group. Maybe the county needs one.

We will be watching closely how this event is adjudicated and if the responsible parties are appropriately disciplined or, if necessary, fired. No officer pulls a taser on a fellow officer if nothing dangerous is afoot.

Dennis Nendza
Silver City Resident

Dear Editor...After 250 years of world-shattering success, could it be that the nation's Rule of Law --- managed and executed by our 'Third Estate' --- is now breaking bad!!!

Only 3 weeks ago a horrendous gang shootout and murder of three teenagers shattered Las Cruces; and presently, a Las Cruces judge...no, not an innocent Cruceño homeowner but a Magistrate who presides over the New Mexico Judicial System...was just found harboring a tren de aragua vicious migrant gang-member in his own home!!!

Ken Burns, to celebrate the nation's semiquincentennial, will soon air a new PBS special, and we will be celebrating that the Founders carefully crafted certain guarantees to foster a prosperous civil society, including (a) personal property rights, (b) trial by juries of peers, and (c) IMPARTIALITY by the justice system...pictified in courthouses across the nation as a blindfolded mature woman administering justice fairly and equally. Today, 250 years into our American journey, Judges now act partially, politically, capriciously, imperiously, impulsively, impetuously.

Editor-

I read New Mexico House Bill 518, relating to the LGBTQ+ community and discovered it said virtually the same thing over and over within its two-sentence statement. — Grant County Beat, Mar. 14, 2025.

Although, I'll have to admit I've never heard the word "Expansive" included in the multiple sequence of nouns and symbols common to the phrase.

Maybe, "Expansive" is New Mexico's contribution to the term's official state designation.

It’s a “No” on Senate Bill 5

By Tom Shelley

I have worked closely on wildlife management and conservation issues in New Mexico for more than three decades. The subject matters greatly to anyone who hunts or fishes or lives or works near our wildlife or simply enjoys our wildlife species.

Senate Bill 5 could reach the House of Representatives for a vote early this week. We need to stop it. The bill would send the Game Commission down the same, overreaching path that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has been on over the past century.