Councilor Jones (also to be sent to District 8 NA leaders and Coalitions of NA leaders who are likely as concerned)
We now have an APD substation at Montgomery and Tramway that can’t be manned due to lack of funds/officers. We now have an attractive well equipped YMCA on Tramway Boulevard. It is only ¼ mile away from your requested, (but never asked for by anyone in District 8) Holiday Park Multi-Generational Center that you now intend to build.
You have already unilaterally committed much of our tax dollars to SMPC Architects to design this Center without any prior consultation with your District 8 constituents and plan to waste another $8 million in the future to build it. You cared little that nobody even showed up to your recent meeting to discuss this project. We don’t need it now particularly in this poor economy! Just why are you doing it as it is clearly fiscally irresponsible?
I have asked DFCS Director Robin Otten just why this project is still proceeding without the benefit of any DFCS required Center needs analysis? She indicated an unwillingness to challenge you on this-thus allowing the waste to proceed. While preaching to all fiscal responsibility, is the Berry administration merely in a I don’t care mode choosing to defer to the whims of you and many other city councilors who don’t feel you have to justify to anyone just how you spend our tax dollars? You all will be reminded of this on election day-be assured of that.
This Center is much like the $430 million for an equally unneeded, unjustified white elephant Events Center/Hotel/parking garage project in the downtown that you and six others (O’Malley, Benton, Garduno, Sanchez, Cook and Harris) on the Council voted last Monday night to still pursue. You deliberately ignored the fact that no sane private developer prior to 2006 would even take on this very high risk project using its own money.
You also know that the DMD-Mike Riordan-run 2006 procurement process had picked their favored (Ed Adams and Diane Denish-connected) but far more expensive (by $100-175 million more) contractor team to do this job-one whose bid also was based on irresponsible baseless exaggerations of its success.
Yet not surprisingly, that team (DDT-now ABQ66 Center LLC) chose in its bid proposal to commit the least amount of its own money towards this white elephant-and it is a white elephant.
Then adding insult to injury to us taxpayers, in a secret 2008 meeting, your project allies Councilors Benton and O’Malley would have the audacity to approve changing and increasing the RFP scope and allowed cost of that project even more for their favored developer team friends. The Council would in 2008 also give this winning contractor team $700,000 to hire their own consultants to do the important go/no-go economic viability analysis of the project for the City/us taxpayers-something that Ms. O’Malley attempted to portray Monday night as even credible.
This blatant conflict of interest 2008 viability analysis contract award would prompt us citizen attendees at a mid-2008 NM First-sponsored Town Hall Events Center meeting to document our real fears about corruption with this fast tracked downtown project. All of this relevant information was being ignored. It was then of no concern to you and the others that Economic Development Director John Garcia-also seemingly unconcerned with wasting our tax dollars, would then hold secret (closed doors to the public) advisory team meetings to try to justify this wasteful downtown project. His report is not even out yet, yet you and the others supported proceeding with it Monday night.
Like your personal blatantly tax-wasteful new multi-generational center in Holiday Park, choosing to proceed with this Events Center seemingly demonstrates just how arrogant you and the other tax wasters on the Council who voted with you Monday night are. 70% said to you all in a survey last year that they did not want it. You don’t really care what we think! You have to take care of your downtown friends first and foremost.
In another example of misguided priorities, isn’t it also curious that you-with many of these same other councilors had earlier agreed to divert much of the $20 million committed to the important I-25/Paseo interchange to now your own personal pork projects? $8 million of this $20 million would go to a streetscape for MLK Boulevard downtown. Was that decorative project really that urgent? We are already spending/wasting $36 million to decorate just six miles of Lead and Coal.
You and others had even asked for $100 million from the federal government in MR-COG’s 2010 TIP last year for the $30-40 million/mile streetcar. Are you really that out of touch with reality or do you have a blank check from Mayor Berry to continue to waste tons of our tax dollars whenever you wish?
The truth is that you and most of the others really don’t care what your constituents with far more important needs think. It’s your own selfish personal self interests you really care about and this is a demonstration of arrogance at its very worst. Many of us can’t wait until the 2011 and 2015 elections.
TO: Mayor Berry
Do you really care about any of this? If so, just where’s your veto pen?
Disappointed-but not surprised
Silvio
EANA
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Why did Chris Hinz die? Ask APD
Subject: Killing of Chris Hinz
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:06:40 -0600Dear Sirs:
We the family and friends of Chris Hinz would like to have some issues explained to us as we have questions as to how things were handled.
We understand that you are unaware of the things that happened prior to his death: he visited with a neighbor about 5:30 or so before going home around 6pm, he was intoxicated, and he asked his neighbors for assistance to find his cell phone shortly after going home. His cell phone was not found until Saturday but he has a landline that is listed on the Internet under the White Pages, Chris Hinz. What all of us don't know is why Chris was drinking, and why he was shooting his gun in his home. What most of us know is the police showed up around 7pm, surrounded the area from Spain to Camero on Carruthers, prevented people from going in or out, and Chris was shot around 8:45pm because he came out of his garage holding a rifle he did not put down because the police feared for their lives (this is what was reported). The stories have come out that are incorrect are that he was running around the neighborhood shooting his gun; or that he had an altercation with a neighbor. What we are disturbed about (we were present on the Camero and Overlook corner) are the following:
1) His daughter, Krystal, was on the scene standing on the corner of Camero and Carruthers with a neighbor and then was whisked away by the police and put into a police car after she heard the shots that killed her father. She was kept in the police car with a friend, for about 5 hours after the shots, while we stood around waiting for an announcement. His daughter is 18 years old. She is an adult. How was keeping her in the car with her friend for about 5 hours helping her?
2) There were about 5-6 police, including a female officer, around the car who were talking, laughing and carrying on like nothing had happened. Their behavior was very offensive and disrespectful. They may be used to people dying but this was a father, a son and our friend who had just been killed.
3) His mother, Cathy, was called and asked to come over to the scene by one of our parents. She had no idea that it was her son who was on the news. She tried to approach her granddaughter, Krystal, in the car and the police sent her away. She was not given any information and told that they were waiting. For what? No one was ever told. This is the victim's mother and she was told to go away. She identified herself and this is how you treat family? a mother?
We understand that the police felt they were protecting the public and themselves but what we would like to know is what measures were taken to protect Chris from getting killed?
Is there a Crisis Unit available to handle these situations?
Does the police have any measure in place to diffuse situations like this or is it only in the movies that blow horns are used?
He has been described as having a 'criminal record' so if this is true, were there no records of his family that could have been called to intervene ?
This scenario seemed to have happened 2 years ago and his mother and daughter were used to talk him out of killing himself. The police knew his daughter was present, why wasn't she allowed to talk to her father?
There was a neighbor in the area whom he had gone to visit prior to his getting shot available and ready to talk to Chris but he was not allowed to contact him. Another officer who lives in the area was with this neighbor and knew he was prepared to talk to him. Why wasn't he allowed to talk to him?
When he came out of the garage, where were the Swat Team that were present, who may be dressed with bullet proof vests to keep them safe? Why didn't they take a shot to disarm him or render him unable to shoot? It was reported on the news that 2 regular policemen shot Chris.
Why did the police shoot to kill? Is this policy?
It was also reported that the rifle was not cocked to shoot nor did he have elevated to shoot. Why did they shoot to kill?
What many people, including the "experts" are stating is that Chris had 'suicide by police' in mind.
We, his family and friends, knew that he was elated about a new job he started in Santa Fe and that he adored his daughter!
We also knew he was not suicidal nor gun crazy nor asking for the inevitable. We also knew that he was his daughter's only support.
Chris made a bad choice coming out with a rifle in his hand but why did he have to die? He was not a violent person! Come into the neighborhood and interview the people who lived by him; interview the cheer parents of Eldorado High School; interview the baseball players he played with for years; interview the parents and families at Road Runner Little League where his daughter played and he was a role model for many years; interview his bosses and peers at his employment; interview his mother, his brother, his sister, and interview his daughter, Krystal. They will all give you a different picture of the man being touted as a violent man!
Tonight's KOAT-TV 7 news indicated that you, Mr. Berry, are not looking at the way police are handling these shootings. The other man, the independent expert, stated something that when the public is concerned, the police shoot... yes, we know.
If it was a family member and you knew he or she was ill, wouldn't you want someone to do all they could to keep them alive and get them help? Are you stating that the way this situation was handled was the best APD could do? How can anyone feel that the police will not shoot to kill? Are the present police procedures the best APD has to offer?
Chris Hinz is dead.
We are having a candlelight vigil service to honor his life and help us heal on Thursday, June 17th, at 8 pm in front of his home, 5501 Carruthers. His memorial service will be held at Hoffmantown Church on Thursday, June 24th at 10 am. You are welcome to attend.
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:06:40 -0600Dear Sirs:
We the family and friends of Chris Hinz would like to have some issues explained to us as we have questions as to how things were handled.
We understand that you are unaware of the things that happened prior to his death: he visited with a neighbor about 5:30 or so before going home around 6pm, he was intoxicated, and he asked his neighbors for assistance to find his cell phone shortly after going home. His cell phone was not found until Saturday but he has a landline that is listed on the Internet under the White Pages, Chris Hinz. What all of us don't know is why Chris was drinking, and why he was shooting his gun in his home. What most of us know is the police showed up around 7pm, surrounded the area from Spain to Camero on Carruthers, prevented people from going in or out, and Chris was shot around 8:45pm because he came out of his garage holding a rifle he did not put down because the police feared for their lives (this is what was reported). The stories have come out that are incorrect are that he was running around the neighborhood shooting his gun; or that he had an altercation with a neighbor. What we are disturbed about (we were present on the Camero and Overlook corner) are the following:
1) His daughter, Krystal, was on the scene standing on the corner of Camero and Carruthers with a neighbor and then was whisked away by the police and put into a police car after she heard the shots that killed her father. She was kept in the police car with a friend, for about 5 hours after the shots, while we stood around waiting for an announcement. His daughter is 18 years old. She is an adult. How was keeping her in the car with her friend for about 5 hours helping her?
2) There were about 5-6 police, including a female officer, around the car who were talking, laughing and carrying on like nothing had happened. Their behavior was very offensive and disrespectful. They may be used to people dying but this was a father, a son and our friend who had just been killed.
3) His mother, Cathy, was called and asked to come over to the scene by one of our parents. She had no idea that it was her son who was on the news. She tried to approach her granddaughter, Krystal, in the car and the police sent her away. She was not given any information and told that they were waiting. For what? No one was ever told. This is the victim's mother and she was told to go away. She identified herself and this is how you treat family? a mother?
We understand that the police felt they were protecting the public and themselves but what we would like to know is what measures were taken to protect Chris from getting killed?
Is there a Crisis Unit available to handle these situations?
Does the police have any measure in place to diffuse situations like this or is it only in the movies that blow horns are used?
He has been described as having a 'criminal record' so if this is true, were there no records of his family that could have been called to intervene ?
This scenario seemed to have happened 2 years ago and his mother and daughter were used to talk him out of killing himself. The police knew his daughter was present, why wasn't she allowed to talk to her father?
There was a neighbor in the area whom he had gone to visit prior to his getting shot available and ready to talk to Chris but he was not allowed to contact him. Another officer who lives in the area was with this neighbor and knew he was prepared to talk to him. Why wasn't he allowed to talk to him?
When he came out of the garage, where were the Swat Team that were present, who may be dressed with bullet proof vests to keep them safe? Why didn't they take a shot to disarm him or render him unable to shoot? It was reported on the news that 2 regular policemen shot Chris.
Why did the police shoot to kill? Is this policy?
It was also reported that the rifle was not cocked to shoot nor did he have elevated to shoot. Why did they shoot to kill?
What many people, including the "experts" are stating is that Chris had 'suicide by police' in mind.
We, his family and friends, knew that he was elated about a new job he started in Santa Fe and that he adored his daughter!
We also knew he was not suicidal nor gun crazy nor asking for the inevitable. We also knew that he was his daughter's only support.
Chris made a bad choice coming out with a rifle in his hand but why did he have to die? He was not a violent person! Come into the neighborhood and interview the people who lived by him; interview the cheer parents of Eldorado High School; interview the baseball players he played with for years; interview the parents and families at Road Runner Little League where his daughter played and he was a role model for many years; interview his bosses and peers at his employment; interview his mother, his brother, his sister, and interview his daughter, Krystal. They will all give you a different picture of the man being touted as a violent man!
Tonight's KOAT-TV 7 news indicated that you, Mr. Berry, are not looking at the way police are handling these shootings. The other man, the independent expert, stated something that when the public is concerned, the police shoot... yes, we know.
If it was a family member and you knew he or she was ill, wouldn't you want someone to do all they could to keep them alive and get them help? Are you stating that the way this situation was handled was the best APD could do? How can anyone feel that the police will not shoot to kill? Are the present police procedures the best APD has to offer?
Chris Hinz is dead.
We are having a candlelight vigil service to honor his life and help us heal on Thursday, June 17th, at 8 pm in front of his home, 5501 Carruthers. His memorial service will be held at Hoffmantown Church on Thursday, June 24th at 10 am. You are welcome to attend.
Chris Hinz: Not a person with a criminal history who died by APD lethal force
City Councilors
You already received a copy of this 6/15 e-mail below from a close friend of the Hinz family and I hope you are now as concerned as are we.
I had expected my Councilor Trudy Jones to be concerned-but really am not surprised with her silence, as her loyalty is once again clearly to Mayor Berry and not to us-her supposed District 8 constituents. I plan to discuss this killing at the Council meeting Monday night and hope more concerned citizens will show up expressing their outrage and call for changes. Seemingly showing a lack of leadership, Mayor Berry has been silent on this killing thus far hoping it will somehow go away with the blessing of the Police Oversight Commission and some help from his TV, radio and printed media friends. The review of this by the Police Oversight Commission will be a sham/cover-up-as APD well knows. Mayor Berry has likely seen the APD videotape of the incident-killing but won’t have it released to the media or public. You should ask to see it.
It’s clear that the administration is now in damage control to try to lump Chris’ killing into all of the other shootings-some justified. They expect the media to support them- rather than the citizens of this City in their reporting-something that has seemingly been their slant thus far. The administration recently told Channel 7 reporter Ilana Gold that Chris had a “criminal record” so apparently viewers are to conclude he deserved to die. TV-7 anchor Shelly Ribando repeated that “criminal record” City claim as well as the bogus assertion that many EANA neighbors agreed with how APD handled it. I doubt that either is the case. Just what is Chris’ “criminal record?” Just who agreed?
Today’s Journal article quoting Chief Schulz and Darren White tries to somehow paint the APD shooters as the victims saying that “officer-involved shootings have an effect on officers and their families.” What about the effect they have on the victim and their families? Chief Shultz claims that “the last thing they want to do is take someone’s life.” Really? Tell that to Chris’ daughter Krystal who now has no dad or mom. What about the traumatizing effect on her? What about the effect on the families of the other people wrongly killed by APD?
The e-mail below from neighbor Angela Durham speaks for itself. This was NOT a justified killing-plain and simple and is symptomatic of the apparent freedom APD officers have to take innocent lives without any fear of accountability for their actions-with the blue code of silence they expect. A badge does NOT give them a license to kill indiscriminately! This anger with the Hinz killing voiced by many is not against the dedicated police officers but with the leadership or lack thereof-starting with the still-silent Mayor Berry to Darren White to APD Chief Schultz, all of whom have seemingly embraced this culture of lethal rather than non-lethal force. You note that the front page article in today’s Albuquerque Journal states that Chris now only ALLEGEDLY threatened officers. The APD videotape will likely reveal that there was no threat and this matter could have been resolved without his death. As Angela’s e-mail below says, “the rifle was not cocked to shoot nor did he have elevated to shoot.” Demand that APD release their videotape! I also wish TV 4 would have played more of my interview with their reporter yesterday to put my “gutless” comment broadcasted last night into context. Sometimes the easy way out/shoot to kill rather than take non-lethal action, is gutless. The victims here are NOT the APD officer shooters and their families!
Please get involved. You should be as outraged with this shooting as am I and not choose look the other way and thus perpetuate this seemingly “shoot-first” culture.
The blame should be placed at the very top-not with the shooters who were just following orders-their misguided training in such matters.
Respectfully,
Silvio
EANA
296 3241
I hope the Journal asks Ms. Durham if they could print/summarize the contents of her e-mail below as an OpEd or letter.
You already received a copy of this 6/15 e-mail below from a close friend of the Hinz family and I hope you are now as concerned as are we.
I had expected my Councilor Trudy Jones to be concerned-but really am not surprised with her silence, as her loyalty is once again clearly to Mayor Berry and not to us-her supposed District 8 constituents. I plan to discuss this killing at the Council meeting Monday night and hope more concerned citizens will show up expressing their outrage and call for changes. Seemingly showing a lack of leadership, Mayor Berry has been silent on this killing thus far hoping it will somehow go away with the blessing of the Police Oversight Commission and some help from his TV, radio and printed media friends. The review of this by the Police Oversight Commission will be a sham/cover-up-as APD well knows. Mayor Berry has likely seen the APD videotape of the incident-killing but won’t have it released to the media or public. You should ask to see it.
It’s clear that the administration is now in damage control to try to lump Chris’ killing into all of the other shootings-some justified. They expect the media to support them- rather than the citizens of this City in their reporting-something that has seemingly been their slant thus far. The administration recently told Channel 7 reporter Ilana Gold that Chris had a “criminal record” so apparently viewers are to conclude he deserved to die. TV-7 anchor Shelly Ribando repeated that “criminal record” City claim as well as the bogus assertion that many EANA neighbors agreed with how APD handled it. I doubt that either is the case. Just what is Chris’ “criminal record?” Just who agreed?
Today’s Journal article quoting Chief Schulz and Darren White tries to somehow paint the APD shooters as the victims saying that “officer-involved shootings have an effect on officers and their families.” What about the effect they have on the victim and their families? Chief Shultz claims that “the last thing they want to do is take someone’s life.” Really? Tell that to Chris’ daughter Krystal who now has no dad or mom. What about the traumatizing effect on her? What about the effect on the families of the other people wrongly killed by APD?
The e-mail below from neighbor Angela Durham speaks for itself. This was NOT a justified killing-plain and simple and is symptomatic of the apparent freedom APD officers have to take innocent lives without any fear of accountability for their actions-with the blue code of silence they expect. A badge does NOT give them a license to kill indiscriminately! This anger with the Hinz killing voiced by many is not against the dedicated police officers but with the leadership or lack thereof-starting with the still-silent Mayor Berry to Darren White to APD Chief Schultz, all of whom have seemingly embraced this culture of lethal rather than non-lethal force. You note that the front page article in today’s Albuquerque Journal states that Chris now only ALLEGEDLY threatened officers. The APD videotape will likely reveal that there was no threat and this matter could have been resolved without his death. As Angela’s e-mail below says, “the rifle was not cocked to shoot nor did he have elevated to shoot.” Demand that APD release their videotape! I also wish TV 4 would have played more of my interview with their reporter yesterday to put my “gutless” comment broadcasted last night into context. Sometimes the easy way out/shoot to kill rather than take non-lethal action, is gutless. The victims here are NOT the APD officer shooters and their families!
Please get involved. You should be as outraged with this shooting as am I and not choose look the other way and thus perpetuate this seemingly “shoot-first” culture.
The blame should be placed at the very top-not with the shooters who were just following orders-their misguided training in such matters.
Respectfully,
Silvio
EANA
296 3241
I hope the Journal asks Ms. Durham if they could print/summarize the contents of her e-mail below as an OpEd or letter.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Does Albuquerque Mayor Berry decide just what information citizens receive?
“On June 22, I asked Journal Editor Kent Walz whether the real editor of the Journal sits in the Mayor’s or CAO’s chair on the 11th floor of the City/County Building. That is where the Ministry of Truth and Newspeak described in George Orwell’s book “1984” seems to reside telling you and others in the media just what propaganda to put out to us unwashed (assumed to be stupid) masses. See an abbreviated extract of the “1984” plot below. It should be mandatory reading by all there and elsewhere in the broadcast and printed media.
The Journal’s deliberate lack of coverage of the many people speaking at the City Council meeting last night who objected to the June 10 execution of neighbor Chris Hinz by APD was inexcusable! Even most of your recent article covering last Thursday’s candlelight vigil for Chris in our neighborhood was devoted to the City’s defense of the killing. Someone in the City even lied to KOAT-TV-7 saying Chris had a criminal history to try to somehow justify it. This certainly demands the firing of that person or persons-(White?, Schultz? your former guy T.J. Wilham? or someone else?) but does Mayor Berry have the backbone to do it? We’ll see. This defamation of Chris was repeated on the late news by KOAT anchor Shelly Ribando to tens of thousands and the family has yet to see a correction. Will APD ever release a videotape of their June 10 execution?
Will Dan McKay and others covering the City ever have an epiphany and become a Winston of Oceania? Are those among us who have the courage to condemn the City’s culture of corruption and fraud, waste and abuse of our tax dollars now deemed by the Journal to be the Emmanuel Goldsteins of Albuquerque? Is that why our letters to the editor or OpEds there never get published? Possibly your boss-Publisher T.H. Lang might consider renaming the paper the R.J. Rag, the Berry Bugle or something more descriptive.
Your misguided editorial today “A Government That’s Here to Help-Really” praised the three transit mechanics who in reality were only doing their jobs that the seemingly incompetent highly-paid City contractors just couldn’t do. Doesn’t it instead send a message that the City ought to hire more competent lower-priced city mechanics and other employees who can serve us better than these favored contractor friends of the Mayor, of the CAO, of ABQRide’s Bruce Rizzieri, of DMD’s Mike Riordan and others?
Isn’t the planned waste of tax dollars to bulldoze the neighbor’s attractive completed median already there on Cesar Chavez and Yale and now do a ridiculously-expensive new median-this time with water wasting sprinklers, more newsworthy and more typical of this Berry administration-the waste that occurs there every day?
You should also have praised Councilor Dan Lewis for being the only one with the guts to oppose the “downtown first” crowd’s Council bill last night attempting to perpetuate the unneeded, unjustified and wasteful $430 million events center/hotel downtown. APS ought to say NO to sharing the First Baptist Church property.
Just a reminder in the extract of “1984” below just how similar we are to Oceania?
Cheers
Silvio Dell’Angela
President-EANA
296 3241
Plot Overview-“1984”
Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in London, in the nation of Oceania. Everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, the Party watches him through telescreens; everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Party’s seemingly omniscient leader, a figure known only as Big Brother. The Party controls everything in Oceania, even the people’s history and language. Currently, the Party is forcing the implementation of an invented language called Newspeak, which attempts to prevent political rebellion by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal. Such thoughtcrime is, in fact, the worst of all crimes.
As the novel opens, Winston feels frustrated by the oppression and rigid control of the Party, which prohibits free thought, sex, and any expression of individuality. Winston dislikes the party and has illegally purchased a diary in which to write his criminal thoughts. He has also become fixated on a powerful Party member named O’Brien, whom Winston believes is a secret member of the Brotherhood—the mysterious, legendary group that works to overthrow the Party.
Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, where he alters historical records to fit the needs of the Party. He notices a coworker, a beautiful dark-haired girl, staring at him, and worries that she is an informant who will turn him in for his thoughtcrime. He is troubled by the Party’s control of history: the Party claims that Oceania has always been allied with Eastasia in a war against Eurasia, but Winston seems to recall a time when this was not true. The Party also claims that Emmanuel Goldstein, the alleged leader of the Brotherhood, is the most dangerous man alive, but this does not seem plausible to Winston. Winston spends his evenings wandering through the poorest neighborhoods in London, where the proletarians, or proles, live squalid lives, relatively free of Party monitoring.
The Journal’s deliberate lack of coverage of the many people speaking at the City Council meeting last night who objected to the June 10 execution of neighbor Chris Hinz by APD was inexcusable! Even most of your recent article covering last Thursday’s candlelight vigil for Chris in our neighborhood was devoted to the City’s defense of the killing. Someone in the City even lied to KOAT-TV-7 saying Chris had a criminal history to try to somehow justify it. This certainly demands the firing of that person or persons-(White?, Schultz? your former guy T.J. Wilham? or someone else?) but does Mayor Berry have the backbone to do it? We’ll see. This defamation of Chris was repeated on the late news by KOAT anchor Shelly Ribando to tens of thousands and the family has yet to see a correction. Will APD ever release a videotape of their June 10 execution?
Will Dan McKay and others covering the City ever have an epiphany and become a Winston of Oceania? Are those among us who have the courage to condemn the City’s culture of corruption and fraud, waste and abuse of our tax dollars now deemed by the Journal to be the Emmanuel Goldsteins of Albuquerque? Is that why our letters to the editor or OpEds there never get published? Possibly your boss-Publisher T.H. Lang might consider renaming the paper the R.J. Rag, the Berry Bugle or something more descriptive.
Your misguided editorial today “A Government That’s Here to Help-Really” praised the three transit mechanics who in reality were only doing their jobs that the seemingly incompetent highly-paid City contractors just couldn’t do. Doesn’t it instead send a message that the City ought to hire more competent lower-priced city mechanics and other employees who can serve us better than these favored contractor friends of the Mayor, of the CAO, of ABQRide’s Bruce Rizzieri, of DMD’s Mike Riordan and others?
Isn’t the planned waste of tax dollars to bulldoze the neighbor’s attractive completed median already there on Cesar Chavez and Yale and now do a ridiculously-expensive new median-this time with water wasting sprinklers, more newsworthy and more typical of this Berry administration-the waste that occurs there every day?
You should also have praised Councilor Dan Lewis for being the only one with the guts to oppose the “downtown first” crowd’s Council bill last night attempting to perpetuate the unneeded, unjustified and wasteful $430 million events center/hotel downtown. APS ought to say NO to sharing the First Baptist Church property.
Just a reminder in the extract of “1984” below just how similar we are to Oceania?
Cheers
Silvio Dell’Angela
President-EANA
296 3241
Plot Overview-“1984”
Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in London, in the nation of Oceania. Everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, the Party watches him through telescreens; everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Party’s seemingly omniscient leader, a figure known only as Big Brother. The Party controls everything in Oceania, even the people’s history and language. Currently, the Party is forcing the implementation of an invented language called Newspeak, which attempts to prevent political rebellion by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal. Such thoughtcrime is, in fact, the worst of all crimes.
As the novel opens, Winston feels frustrated by the oppression and rigid control of the Party, which prohibits free thought, sex, and any expression of individuality. Winston dislikes the party and has illegally purchased a diary in which to write his criminal thoughts. He has also become fixated on a powerful Party member named O’Brien, whom Winston believes is a secret member of the Brotherhood—the mysterious, legendary group that works to overthrow the Party.
Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, where he alters historical records to fit the needs of the Party. He notices a coworker, a beautiful dark-haired girl, staring at him, and worries that she is an informant who will turn him in for his thoughtcrime. He is troubled by the Party’s control of history: the Party claims that Oceania has always been allied with Eastasia in a war against Eurasia, but Winston seems to recall a time when this was not true. The Party also claims that Emmanuel Goldstein, the alleged leader of the Brotherhood, is the most dangerous man alive, but this does not seem plausible to Winston. Winston spends his evenings wandering through the poorest neighborhoods in London, where the proletarians, or proles, live squalid lives, relatively free of Party monitoring.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)