To the editor

Paying legislators

The question of whether to offer our state legislators a yearly salary for services rendered to the State of New Mexico is certainly one that is long overdue to be addressed. As pointed out by guest columnist Shawna Pfeiffer, our state is the only one that does not provide yearly compensation to lawmakers.

I was also made aware the state does provide a stipend to cover expenses while they are busy attending to the state's business in Santa Fe. To me, this is the least New Mexico should provide.

However, if the state is blessed with budgetary surpluses in excess of $3 billion dollars annually, as advertised, it is amazing that New Mexico has failed to provide our lawmakers with appropriate compensation for their time.

Perhaps this may have something to do with our state being listed 47th statistically in just about every category that pertains to improving quality of life, from education to affordable healthcare. When legislation is pushed through for the sake of time so lawmakers can return quickly to their “normal” lives in order to make a living, it is easy to see why big issues such as these are put on the backburner.

Of course, if you want to limit government participation to those with big business interests and land barons, the concerns of the rest of society will continue to lay dormant because those that truly care about affordability cannot afford to govern.

Dave Adie

Sexual assault victim support

Sexual assault support services is a non-profit organization ran by Silver Regional and Child Advocacy Center. The importance of SASS is to help, give

support, and educate survivors, while also to educate and help prevent crimes from happening.

SASS provides services to survivors of sexual violence through their case management services, crisis intervention services, community education and awareness services, counseling services, and accompaniment services.

Further information regarding volunteer work is available at www.silverregionalsass.org.

As volunteers of this program it is important to bring awareness to the community and let the people know about the services that are available and that they are not alone.

As students and volunteers of SASS, we would like to fully express our support for their work being done to promote safer school and overall social environments. School safety is an issue that we’re surrounded by, we believe that it is important for students to have a voice when it comes to these harder conversations.

On Saturday, April 18, SASS will be hosting a “Toss For A Cause,” their first annual cornhole tournament fundraiser. The entry fee of $25 will help support Sexual Assault Awareness Month as well as Child Abuse Awarness Month. This event will be held at the Henry V. “La burra” Morales Recreation Center in Silver City at noon. We invite you all to attend.

Jacqueline Murphy

Wynter Rose Swan Sheka

Andres Silereal Sleiman

Elias Guadiana

Education Is about educators, not students

I commend those fighting against inappropriate books in school libraries, the racist practices of DEI and SEL and the closing out of parents from what they know about one child, but these practices, though important, are all things the state and local institutions of education merely see as irritants they must endure so as to avoid the real question we should all be asking: “Relative to the students future, why are our schools not preparing them to be inspired and prepared to flourish as individuals, in careers, and for civil thriving in the age they will live in?"

Rob Wood

Las Cruces

Stop allowing Project Jupiter to take advantage of our community

There is no reason to trust the argument that Project Jupiter’s contribution of jobs and economic growth is at all worth the tremendous costs to our community. There is no reason to trust this industry at all.

These promises continue to carry a false sense of weight as they pattern themselves around the exploitation of small underprivileged communities in the borderlands. Cities like ours have a harder time than wealthier ones saying no to a meager amount of money and jobs offered at the expense of our land, air, water, and health.

Billion-dollar companies like Open A.I. and Oracle excel at finding and using these communities: places that offer massive tax breaks, commissioners that sign NDAs, counties that keep their constituents in the dark.

We must not stay quiet while marketing campaigns called “Elevate New Mexico,” blatantly omit the harms of Project Jupiter while glorifying its potential.

Decisions made to develop data centers are not based on community needs whatsoever, but on how easy it will be to abuse local governance. Jobs and economic growth are easy, front-facing ways to convince the public (one uninformed of the true costs) that projects like this are beneficial.

If this project was going to do so much good for our community, then why all the haste and secrecy?

Where is the transparency we deserve?

What successful business that has received a green light from our commissioners needs a marketing campaign with promotions on billboards, in local newspapers, mailers, and YouTube ads?

Senator Cervantes explains this perfectly, “A worthy project can withstand oversight, a worthy project can withstand scrutiny and very candidly, this project has endeavored to avoid oversight and scrutiny…They’re taking advantage of commissioners who are uninformed and ill-prepared for the task ahead of them.”

The presumed benefits AI will provide fall far beneath the destruction it will cause upon our society, environment, and health. It is an unnecessary commodity, a convenience that humans are currently battling for resources.

Greed and wealth are the real driving force here. This has never been a political issue but one of class. Our futures are more important than short term growth. What is money worth when you have no world to spend it in?

Annie Ersinghaus

Las Cruces