Dear Editor:

Well, it’s Black History Month again. This letter won’t discuss black notable achievements gained over the years. While they’re significant, I’m interested in what’s happened to the black family, marriages and the black race since integration. I realize it’s the family that binds individuals together, and when that unit is bruised and savaged, true healing can only occur through the grace and love of Jesus the Christ.

American slavery destroyed and severely debilitated the black family. How? White slave owners took sexual liberties with black women, who bore the psychological and physical damage from both the man and his white wife (especially if a child resulted). The abuse had to affect her relationship with her black husband, who in most cases didn’t retaliate because of fear he’d be hurt or killed. Any black family member could be sold to another slave owner at the owner’s whim. Black children born to the slaves were considered another additional piece of property, so birthing children was encouraged.

Read slave narratives to get their accounts. In “Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb” published in 1849, Bibb contended legal marriage didn’t exist for many enslaved blacks.

“There is no legal marriage among the slaves of the South, I never saw nor heard of such a thing in my life, and I have been through seven of the slave states,” Bibb said, “A slave marrying according to law is a thing unknown in the history of American slavery.” 

“The Classic Slave Narratives,” edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr., includes the stories of Mary Prince and Harriet Jacobs, who dramatically discussed their abuse by the white men and women — who were angry that black women would want to marry.

In essence the black family wasn’t valued or protected. Its damage has been reaped throughout generations. It prompted the black middle class to pressure poor blacks to accept questionable family planning practices espoused by Margaret Sanger during the 1930s-1940s.

Then in the 1950s while black integrationists agitated for job equality, integrated schools, public accommodations and political representation, something else more insidious began happening. In the midst of the 1960s-1970s Sexual Revolution while white women burned their bras and marched for free sexual expression and abortions, black men and women followed suit. They stopped marrying each other, started divorcing each other, black men increasingly partnered with non-black women, black women began choosing abortion, and pregnancy among black teenagers steadily increased. The lesson: nothing happens in a vacuum; black folks learned to imitate white behavior during slavery, they continued learning through integration and have now excelled.

Only problem, it’s similar behavior but different outcomes, resulting in skewed numbers; blacks account for 13 percent of the population, yet the abortion rate is 37 percent. That’s compared to 12 percent for whites and 19 percent for Latinos. Put another way, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, from 2002 stats, for every 100 black live births, 49.5 percent were aborted. Conclusion: black women are three times as likely as white women to have abortions.

For black women intending to carry their babies to term, unfortunately for every 1,000 live births, 14.4 percent of the babies died during 20 weeks or more of pregnancy, according to 1980 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number was 32.1 percent in 1950, so progress has been made. Comparatively, in 1950, white babies died at a percentage rate of 16.6, and decreased to 8.1 in 1980.

Nearly 70 percent of black women have never married; the probability of a divorce when black women married exceeded 47 percent by 1980 -1984. The number was 24 percent from 1950-1954. For white women the percentage rate was 13 percent during that period, rising to 28 percent from 1980-1984. 

Yet with this reality, the National Black Justice Coalition is advocating and pushing for same-sex marriage legislation. Black men and women can’t seem to stay married to each other. So in essence, black homosexual activists are saying, “Let’s follow white homosexual activists and demand marriage for male couples in all its colors, and marriage for females in all its colors. We’ll have a better world.”

To that, I ask: Why do black marriages, black families, black children have to keep suffering? Why do our family units have to be stacked on the burning pyre of experimentation and supposed freedom? The harvest from American slavery continues whether we want to accept it or not. But we can grow a better harvest if we get our healing. Both blacks and whites can get healing from a superiority complex, inferiority complex, hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment, and deep wounds. It’s time for us to turn to God through his son Jesus the Christ, repent, give Him all that mess and get ourselves healed! This is just one aspect of Black History Month I’ve addressed. Believe me, there’s so much more.

Alice Louise Wagoner

Roswell

Editor’s Note: This letter was sent to the Daily Record in February.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letters were sent to the Daily Record by Roswell students who wanted to express their views regarding the Yucca Recreation Center. Due to the young ages of the letter writers, the Record has granted partial anonymity to the students by not requiring them to provide their last names. 

I think that the stadiums, parks and Yucca are wonderful places.

I don’t think they are trashed, dirty or ruined in any way and they provide a place for the kids to go and different schools use the facilities because they don’t have their own.

I believe these places should be kept how they are and maybe be maintained better. So instead of paying to destroy something why not pay to fix it up?

Don’t take away from our lives please. 

Aaron

The Yucca Center and the Debremond Stadium are very important facilities to my school. At Valley Christian Academy we don’t have a place of our own to practice sports and have games. The Yucca is where we have our volleyball and basketball games and practice. We use the Debremond stadium for our football games. Both places mean a lot to our school. 

There are also very many activities that are held at the Yucca Center. The Roswell parks are also very important to our community. Because we don’t have many places to go in Roswell for little children, the parks are a great place to take children.

Natalie

The Yucca Center means a lot to me. It’s where my high school basketball team practices and plays its home games. ( I attend Valley Christian Academy and currently play on the varsity basketball team.) 

The Yucca also provides a lot of recreational activities that many people enjoy.

Also the people that work there work hard to make Roswell a better place and don’t deserve their building to be torn down!

Take a break and recreate in your All American City!

Logan

The Yucca Center, the Roswell park and the Debremond stadium mean a lot to all of the high schoolers at VCA. We use all of these places to play and practice for our sports. We all have come to love these places.

These places are very important not just because we play sports there, but because they are very historical.

By breaking down these places, you will be taking away part of our lives. Also by breaking them down, kids will be more likely to get into trouble.

Billy

In Roswell we have many parks, stadiums and buildings that serve great purposes such as practice fields, playing fields and places where events are held. 

Without these places more people would be out of opportunities. If you tore down these places we would not have a place to play football. If you tore down Lions Hondo we wouldn’t have a place to play baseball. However if you were to build some new sports complexes, then that would be great because we would have up-to-date fields and also they would be nice to look at. 

Morgan

The Yucca stadium means a lot to me. It is the only place that this school has to practice at. If they destroy the Yucca, our school would have no place to play. We would not be able to play basketball anymore and we would not have a basketball team. Is that what you want? To destroy our basketball program, to cause us to become fat and out of shape because we cannot run anymore?

It also provides young kids to get started with basketball and a ton of other fun activities.

You need to think about what those kids want, not what some old grumpy people want to do to the Yucca.

Taylor

The Yucca Center and all of the fields and stadiums are very important to me. Without the football and baseball fields where would kids play sports? I know for me, sports is a way to just get away from everything. It is my life. If I never played sports when I was little, I don’t know what I would be doing now.

Plus without the Debremond, Valley Christian Academy wouldn’t have anywhere to play football. And without the Yucca Center, kids won’t be able to play basketball and just have a place to hang out. Without sports who knows what kids will resort to.

I think that it would be not wise to destroy the parks and fields. How would Roswell look without the nature and without kids being able to play?

Garrett

If people destroy our Roswell parks, where would teenage athletes from Valley Christian Academy practice their sports?

Basketball, volleyball and many other athletics are practiced there. These places are historical and mean a lot to the people of Roswell.

I know, along with many others, that the Yucca Center and the stadium have been here for longer than I have been alive. To destroy these parks is wrong. Many people have memories and pasts that survive in these beloved places.

How can anyone dream of breaking down the foundation of our physical education.

Even to think of such a catastrophe ... it’s just wrong.

Lauren

Why are you wanting to bulldoze the Yucca? The students here at Valley Christian Academy enjoy that place when it comes to our home games for basketball and volleyball.

The Yucca is where our athletes practice as well. Some of our school’s greatest sports moments happened there. We are also wondering why you are wanting to demolish Debremond stadium? That is our only football field to play the fun game of football. Besides, that stadium has a lot of history. Why are you wanting to destroy a place of sports and fun.

I don’t want to be on a team and find out there’s no field or court to play on. 

Whoever is wanting to bulldoze these buildings is crazy, or they have something against Valley. We are hoping you don’t allow this to happen because sports is a part of our pride here at Valley.

Jason

The stadium, parks and Yucca Center are important to athletes as well as others for entertainment and can help for their own health benefits. For our school, we meet there for our own good. We need sports, for stress release and entertainment

I run in the parks, I play football games in the stadium, and my little brother plays basketball at Yucca. That’s just how it affects me. There are many other children and adults that use these and won’t know how to replace them. 

Everyone has something that they believe is a memorial and important to them. This is one of them. If this is gone our school won’t have sports, so this is ruining half the school the minute you do it.

David

Our city needs facilities like the Yucca Center and Debremond. We need these to make an attempt to get kids off the streets that would be doing drugs or who knows what.

They do lots of good things and closing it down is totally uncalled for. As a citizen of Roswell I ask you please not to do this. 

On a personal level these facilities provide and have provided athletic fields/courts. I attend Valley Christian and we are struggling for funds and the city letting us use these facilities is a godsend to our athletic programs.

Another thing, Debremond is a historical landmark and should be protected as such. It was built by German P.O.W.s during World War Two.

If we destroy this stadium we destroy local history.

Mathew

Tearing down the Yucca Center would be devastating not only to the athletes of Valley Christian, but also many families.

As an athlete at Valley, that’s the only place we have to have practices and games. A lot of children stay there when their parents are at work, and you would also take away many jobs. The Yucca also has many recreational activities that they hold at their facilities.

There is nothing good that can happen from tearing down Yucca, only trauma in Roswell.

Augustus

The Yucca is a very important place to our school. The volleyball players of Valley Christian Academy practice and play there during the season and off-season. The basketball boys and girls use it for the same purpose. Little kids also use the Yucca for many purposes and for summer care.

The parks are very special as well. People make memories there and parents love playing with there children at the park.

Debremond stadium is used for soccer games and our football games. We won’t have a place to play our games and have our practices if you tear these down. The civic center also does not need more parking. 

God gave us the world and our talents, abilities and energy for a purpose. We are supposed to show God’s glory in these qualities I mentioned. If we don’t have places to play and practice and improve these qualities, they won’t improve. Don’t take away children’s play places and opportunities.

Stephanie

The Yucca Center and parks are very important to the youth around Roswell. The Yucca Center is Valley Christian Academy home court for basketball and volleyball. Without the Yucca Center, Valley Christian will probably will not have basketball or volleyball. 

The Yucca Center also has youth basketball programs. The little kids need to be able to go and exercise playing basketball or going to the park and running around. So we can help overweight kids get in shape.

We were nominated the All-American City in 2002. Would this be American if we made all the youth fat? Keep the parks and Yucca Center for the kids

Brian

The Yucca Center and Debremond are very important to me and my school. As a private school, we have no funding from the government. Therefore we have to use local facilities to practice and play our sports.

The Yucca Center is also a place of comfort and security for some children. They have tons of extracurricular activities.

The Yucca also means a lot to those children who are there a lot.

So it would really effect a lot of people in the community in a negative way.

Bryce

The parks, Yucca Center, and football/sports stadium mean a lot to me. I live right by a park and I grew up playing in it. I still do play there and walk through it almost every day. 

The Yucca Center has also impacted me greatly. Without the Yucca Center, my school’s sports teams wouldn’t really work. We practice and have our volleyball and basketball games there. 

It also means a lot to all the kids in town that go there to play and hang out. It’s a good place for kids to hang out and be safe.

And I love the sports stadiums. My school uses those also for our football games. Debremond is actually in great shape and is very important to my school. Other schools use it as well so it’s important to many other kids and parents as well.

All of these places mean a lot to me. I love the parks, the Yucca Center, and the stadiums. They really do mean a lot to many people and it would be really hard without them. It would be a great loss. 

God has blessed us with great places like these and I think we should keep them. They may need a little fixing up, but they should not be destroyed.

We should fix what we already have been blessed with.

Katie

My name is Corey and I am a little concerned about an idea about tearing down the Yucca Recreation Center and the Debremond. 

I am not completely against it but I do think that they should be replaced with a new facility. Because the middle schools use the field for soccer and football and the Yucca is good for many activities, including youth basketball.

And if you are claiming they’re in bad condition, then remodel them or build a new one. 

And also the Boys and Girls Club isn’t in good condition either. So I think that the proposal for tearing them down, they should remodel or build them new.

Corey

The Roswell Yucca Center and stadium means more to the kids in Roswell than people know. To me, the Yucca is a place to play basketball.

The Yucca has let Valley Christian Academy use their gym for years. If we didn’t have that gym to practice and play in, then we wouldn’t be able to play basketball anywhere. 

Our school also plays football at Debremond and without that stadium, we would have nowhere to play. Our school isn’t the only one that uses the facilities.

I love basketball and if I couldn’t play basketball, I don’t know what I would do. 

So I end this letter with one question: Why tear down the hearts of thousands of children? Don’t do it! Don’t tear it down. You’re crippling them, crippling them for life.

Lane

When I was younger, I spent so much time at Yucca playing basketball, and I always had a great time. If you were to tear that down, kids would be getting into trouble more instead of doing something productive.

If you tear down Debremond stadium, a lot of people won’t have places to play sports. Tons of people go there to play and watch sports. If you tear that down, they would go to parks. But you are planning to tear those down also. And parks aren’t just for sports. You can do all sorts of fun stuff at parks.

Please don’t tear down all of that stuff. Roswell really needs them. Everyone in Roswell needs them.

Kyle

Dear Editor:

City elections soon. We see articles urging everyone to be supportive and get out and vote! We read about each candidate running for office.

We would love to vote. We enjoy living in the county but because we live outside the city limits, we are not allowed to vote! It feels like the dark ages!

We subscribe to the Roswell Daily Record and articles often urge us to spend our money in Roswell. We buy our groceries and gas to get back and forth to Roswell in the car we bought in Roswell. We attend church in Roswell. We do our banking at the Roswell banks. We pay our property taxes and are retirees right here in Chaves County. It seems we should be allowed to vote for our choice of folks making decisions that affect our daily lives. We never miss voting in state and national elections. When will the laws ever change?

Betty and Herman Hadsall

Roswell

Dear Editor:

It was my privilege to serve on the Roswell City Council with Mayor Sam LaGrone. I have also served on the Roswell Safe Coalition and the Roswell Chaves County Economic Development Corporation boards with him. Both organizations have made tremendous progress — Crime Stoppers, Neighborhood Watch, air service to Dallas and Los Angeles to name a few. Mayor LaGrone has taken a major leadership role in these organizations.

Roswell has great momentum going and I believe we will go over 50,000 with the new census. We can be a city of 75,000 in the years ahead. We need a mayor with vision, commitment, enthusiasm and a proven track record to keep this momentum moving ahead. In my opinion, Mayor LaGrone has done an outstanding job.

Marlin D. Wells

Roswell

Editor’s Note: Marlin D. Wells is a co-treasurer for the Friends of Sam LaGrone.

Dear Editor:

Our national government budget needs major surgery now. Our economy is being destroyed. President Obama’s budget will increase our debt by $18.57 trillion in 10 years. Our debt from 1941 to 2008 was 45 percent of GDP. It will increase from 60 percent of GDP in 2018 to 100 percent of GDP by 2022. The interest on the debt will increase from $188 billion at present to $840 billion by 2020. We have had no economic growth for the past 20 months. 

Is our Congress so deluded that they cannot see this, or do they just not have the integrity and common sense to do anything about it? The Chinese are getting jittery about buying our debt. If the government keeps printing money, eventually it will lead to more devaluation of our currency, runaway inflation and hyper-taxation. 

Meanwhile, many of the jobs being created and “saved” are government jobs. While states and business owners are cutting jobs, hiring temporary employees, reducing wages and forcing workers to take leave one or two days a week, our bloated government is actually GROWING! Both houses of Congress recently gave themselves pay raises. Five years ago the average wages of Congress were $59,000 as opposed to average wages in the private sector of $40,000. This year the average wages of Congress have been raised from an average of $71,000 to $75,000 as opposed to the average of the private sector of (still) $40,000. Also we will still be paying their huge retirement benefits when they are out of office. They have great health insurance — to which they contribute, to be fair. The cost to the public for their retirement benefits will rise from $320 million in 2000 to $7.3 billion by 2010. Some will still be receiving 80 percent to 90 percent of their previous incomes for the remainder of their lives. Sweet deal for them! Their pensions are adjusted yearly according to inflation.

(No COLA this year for seniors on Social Security, which is also bankrupt, thanks to a Congress that raided this supposedly safe trust fund years ago). 

Meanwhile, where is the concern for the citizens struggling to make ends meet? It seems to me they are more interested and focused on winning the next election and in paying back the special interests that make campaign donations. This is madness.

We must have a good house cleaning and the sooner the better. 

Delma Craig

Roswell

Dear Editor:

On behalf of Talk Roswell Action Committee, I would like to thank the over 60 Roswell residents who braved the cold and snow to attend the TRAC Candidate Forum, at the Sally Port Inn, on Feb. 23. 

I also thank the eight candidates who attended the forum. Those candidates proved that they care enough about public input to attend an open forum and field random questions by the people of Roswell. I applaud them for that.

All mayoral and City Council candidates were invited to attend the forum. TRAC sent out two mailings to each candidate — one a questionnaire and one an agenda for the event. There were a few candidates who had valid reasons why they couldn’t attend, but the majority of the no shows didn’t respond at all to the invitations sent out by TRAC. That, in itself, speaks volumes.

I can’t stress enough how important it is for Roswell citizens to become involved in how our city is governed. Roswell city leaders don’t know how we feel about the issues unless we tell them. It’s important to remember that they work for us, not the other way around.

I urge everyone in the city of Roswell to get out and vote on March 2. It’s important!

Sincerely,

Toni Wiebenga

Roswell

Dear Editor:

In the upcoming election one has to ask the question: Where are all of these candidates going to take Roswell in the future and how will we pay for it? After attending two forums, crime and the causes of crime was the No. 1 concern of every candidate. Whether you approach crime with a larger better paid police department or through community service programs, it will take money.

Where will that money come from? Not from the state, because it’s broke. Not from the Feds because they are broke too. I think everyone knows the answer and yes, it has to come from the citizens of Roswell through a local tax increase.

Some of the other top priorities mentioned by the candidates besides crime was economic development, youth and senior programs, city infrastructure and finally, quality of life. Crime will always exist but we do need to curtail it. Economic development will always be on the horizon and we need to narrow down what will work in Roswell. Youth are the future of Roswell and we will all be seniors someday. The city infrastructure is in need of an extreme makeover and all of the above has to do with quality of life?

The Roswell of 2010 has changed very little from the Roswell of 2005 when I relocated here. Based on the 2005 Comprehensive Master Plan (CMP) crime, economic development, youth programs, senior programs and city infrastructure were the top priorities then, in addition to heath care. Several notable improvements since 2005 have been Sam’s Discount, Roswell Regional Hospital, American Eagle Airlines, a lot of new housing developments and a four-way stop at the corner of North Kentucky and Eighth. In addition to the 2005 CMP, I also read the Master Plan for the Parks and Recreation Department and I was very impressed by what I read.

Now here we are at a crossroads with this election and need to decide which path we should take for the city to grow. Is it going to be business as usual or is it time to make some bold decisions? I support the Cielo Grande Multi-Purpose Recreational Facility as one of those bold choices because it will address all of the top priorities listed the 2005 CMP and currently by the candidates in 2010. Cielo Grande will provide construction jobs for local contractors and tradesmen, modern faculties for all youth programs as well as some additional senior programs lacking at the Adult Center and other facilities.

All the schools will benefit from the proposed facility with additional sport program opportunities and the facility would be accommodating for many multi-day tournaments brought to Roswell, which in turn, benefits the entire community.  

I do realize that there are many people who are opposed to such a big project because it would cost a lot of money. That money would have come from the local community (not the state or the feds) but would also be spent in the local community (jobs, etc). In addition to stimulating the local economy, it would improve the overall quality of life in Roswell and the surrounding communities. If the state actually decides to increase its GRT margin from 5 percent to 5.5 percent then all bets are off for Roswell being able to generate the local money to complete the Cielo Grande Project. It is critical that our legislators find other ways for the state to balance its budget without crippling the smaller municipalities with a GRT increase that will never be returned directly to the local communities. The only .5 percent GRT that I would ever support would be to increase the municipalities GRT margin where all the money stays local. It’s your community and it takes your vote to re-set the direction of Roswell.  

Thank you,

Martin Kral

Roswell

Dear Editor:

The New Mexico Legislature returns to the state Capitol next week to complete work on a state budget for the upcoming fiscal year amid certain unyielding realities: state tax revenue is way down, federal funding that helped the state get by, so far, is ending soon and the economy is not recovering nearly as fast as anyone had hoped. The New Mexico Senate recognizes these realities and, while taking no joy in them, is committed to approving a responsible state government spending plan that relies just as much on less spending as it does on more taxes.

The fiscal crisis in which New Mexico government finds itself is not temporary and will not be overcome with temporary solutions.

The state is expected to receive just $4.8 billion this fiscal year — $1.2 billion less than two years ago and a level not seen in years. Revenue for the next fiscal year, the budget that the Legislature is working on right now, is projected to be $5.1 billion, or 6 percent more than the state is receiving this year. But no one I know who runs a business is planning on revenue growth of 6 percent, and no workers I know are counting on getting a 6 percent pay raise next year, so it is hard to imagine that state revenue from personal income taxes, corporate income taxes and gross receipts taxes will grow that much next year. If growth is only 2 percent, the state will be short $200 million.

Compounding the problem is that the state is counting on $200 million in federal funds for next year’s state budget that will not be available after that year. The state will have to make this up in fiscal year 2012’s budget.

I applaud and am proud of the Senate’s resolve to responsibly address this fiscal crisis. New Mexico government will continue to play a strong role in educating our children, providing health care and healthy meals for residents who would otherwise go without and protecting our streets and neighborhoods. But there is a limit to how much taxes can be raised to cover state government spending. Now is the time to balance tax increases with spending cuts and enact a sustainable state government spending plan.

Working together, we will get through these difficult times.

Sincerely,

Timothy Z. Jennings

Senate President Pro Tempore