OP/ED

There’s More To The Pilgrim Story Than Thanksgiving

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Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1863-1930, The Mayflower Compact 1620, Oil on Canvas. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Courtesy/Wikipedia Commons

By CHRIS BROWN
and
ASENATH KEPLER
New Mexico’s Mayflower Society

This Thanksgiving marks 70 years since New Mexico’s Mayflower Society was founded by descendants of the ship’s 102 passengers. Our mission is to keep the Pilgrim story alive and relevant to New Mexicans today.  More important than the first Thanksgiving that half of the passengers survived to celebrate only with help from their native benefactors, Plymouth’s settlers

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Op-Ed: Vaccines – Who Can You Trust?

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By RICHARD SKOLNIK
White Rock

The Republican Trump administration has “gone to war” against vaccines. This includes recently changing the CDC’s website on childhood vaccines at the direct request of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to imply that “vaccines cause autism.” This is despite the complete lack of scientific evidence for this idea.

Secretary Kennedy’s battle against vaccines appears to have four pillars, dealing with trust and the destruction of key vaccine institutions:

  • Reduce trust in vaccines
  • Take over the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
  • Make
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Op-Ed: Blotting Out The Stars, One State Project At A time

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By GALEN GISLER and DIDIER SAUMON
Los Alamos 

We are writing as concerned residents regarding the recently activated parking lot lighting at the new Piñon Elementary School.

Upon inspection and measurements, we have found that the level of illumination is far in excess of what is allowed under the Los Alamos County Development Code lighting ordinance (02-333, 16-44ff). Nineteen very bright fixtures now illuminate the northeast parking lot—all night long—when the lot is empty. This single area alone represents a substantial increase in light output and electricity consumption compared Read More

Op-Ed: Veterans Fought For Justice Abroad. We Deserve It At Home.

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By MIKE DOYLE
U.S. Air Force Veteran and Trial Attorney
Los Lunas

Every veteran knows that service doesn’t end when you take off the uniform. As a U.S. Air Force veteran and a trial attorney, I’ve fought two battles — one wearing a uniform and one in a courtroom. The first taught me discipline and sacrifice. The second has shown me how easily justice slips away from the people who risked everything to defend it.

A study from the Center for Justice & Democracy, “The Costs and Legal Obstacles Facing America’s Service Members and Veterans,” outlines how service members and veterans face staggering Read More

Op-Ed: SICK SEVEN

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By JOHN PAWLAK
Los Alamos

Fix Leaven!  Picks Devon!  Mix Lemon!  Tricks Neven!

Obviously, I hesitated to write “the numbers”, lest readers suddenly find themselves compelled to bop the hands (palm side up) up and down like mindless piston engines racing to the end of a meme.

Recent news articles have bemoaned Dictionary.com’s choice for its “Word of the Year”, but having ridiculous words put on lexical pedestals is nothing new.  Next year, a new meaningless string of letters will sit on the throne of linguistic brain rot.

To highlight this fact, we can note that Oxford Word of the Year for 2024 was Read More

Shin: Los Alamos County MRA Review Committee Subject To New Mexico Open Meetings Act

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By LISA SHIN
Los Alamos Family Eyecare

Last July 2024, I submitted an editorial, “Los Alamos Metropolitan Redevelopment Area Commission Necessary for an Open and Transparent Government.” In compliance with the New Mexico Redevelopment Code, this Commission would not include County Councilors or County employees, but rather key members from the community with experience in commercial property development, affordable housing, finances/banking and environmental sustainability. The MRA Commission would make recommendations to our County Council and would reflect a diverse and broad Read More

Letter To The Editor: Comment On Terry Wallace’s Nuclear Weapons Testing Op-Ed

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By ROBERT D. DAY
Los Alamos

Terry Wallace’s Op-Ed (link) in the Nov. 6, 2025 issue of the Los Alamos Daily Post sounded like a lot of political-eze.

Nuclear weapons systems are very complex and even the most sophisticated numerical simulations being used to model them cannot allow for every complexity.

It falls into the you-do-not-know-what-you-don’t-know category. I, personally, would like to know if the weapons in our stockpile still work. (Especially since they have been “mothballed” for around 30 years.) The only way to determine this is by testing. Read More

Op-Ed: New Mexico Needs Common-Sense Malpractice Reform

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By Robert McAtee, MD & Elena McAtee, MD

We write to encourage you to urgently ask your State Representative and Senator to pass medical malpractice reform in the next legislative session.

I am an Emergency Medicine Physician in Española and my wife is a Family Medicine Physician here in Los Alamos. We love New Mexico, but we can no longer ignore how our state’s malpractice environment is driving doctors away and making it harder for patients to get timely care.

The numbers are stark. Independent analyses by Think New Mexico demonstrate that New Mexico has one malpractice lawsuit for roughly Read More

Op-Ed: Former Los Alamos County Councilors Express Support For GRT Proposal

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By Former Los Alamos County Councilors:

We write to express our support for the nominal increase in Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) to be considered this evening by our County Councilors.

We are County residents and former Councilors whose service to Los Alamos and LANL spans decades and whose perspectives cover the spectrum of political positions.

Key responsibilities of our County government are the maintenance of basic governmental services and support for an enhanced quality of life, including public safety, housing, infrastructure, the local business community, and schools. Our property Read More

Op-Ed: Support For Española Pathways Shelter

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By Pastor Russ Hall
Valley View United Methodist

We all know that the pain of addiction, grief, and homelessness runs deeply within this community. We see the symptoms of decades of systems, structures, and neglect that is tearing families apart. We do not have to bring in outsiders to fill the Española Pathways Shelter because it is full with our sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, friends and community members who would otherwise be bereft.

The Española Pathways Shelter is a presence of hope in this community to those who have lost hope. We cannot imagine, nor do we want our community to endure Read More