AS ENLIGHTENED AS THE NEXT GUY SINCE 1992 ART BY SHANE GLEASON VOLUME 28 | ISSUE 5 | JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 6, 2019 | FREE [ 2] WEEKLY ALIBI JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 6, 2019 JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 6, 2019 WEEKLY ALIBI [3] alibi VOLUME 28 | ISSUE 5 | JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 6, 2019 EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR/ FILM EDITOR: Email letters, including author’s name, mailing address and daytime phone number to [email protected]. Devin D. O’Leary (ext. 230) [email protected] MUSIC EDITOR/NEWS EDITOR: Letters can also be mailed to P.O. Box 81, Albuquerque, N.M., 87103. Letters—including comments posted August March (ext. 245) [email protected] on alibi.com—may be published in any medium and edited for length and clarity; owing to the volume of ARTS AND LIT.EDITOR: correspondence, we regrettably can’t respond to every letter. Alisa Valdes (ext. 239) [email protected] FOOD EDITOR: Robin Babb [email protected] COPY EDITOR: Taylor Grabowsky [email protected] Get Educated Editor’s Response CALENDARS EDITOR: Ashli Kesali [email protected] Dear Alibi, Dear Al, CALENDARS INTERN: If you plan to have an honest and productive Sami Solimon The point of a newspaper’s Letters page is not STAFF WRITER: discussion, you should at least get the basic to challenge the readers and refute their Joshua Lee (ext. 243) [email protected] facts straight. In the education discussion SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR: opinions. That is, arguably and more Samantha Carrillo (ext. 223) [email protected] between Glenna Voigt and Barbara Petersen appropriately, the point of an Editorial page. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: [v28 i4], you lumped charter schools together Rob Brezsny, Carolyn Carlson, Samantha Carrillo, Letters, in contrast, is an opportunity to Desmond Fox, Taylor Grabowsky, Maggie Grimason, with private schools. This taints the provide readers an open forum to discuss Steven Luthy, Hosho McCreesh, Mayo Lua de Frenchie discussion and perpetuates the whatever topics they see fit. And in recent PRODUCTION misinformation pushed by anti-charter school GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: months the Alibi has seen a host of letters Ramona Chavez [email protected] entities. calling us to task for printing unchallenged Corey Yazzie [email protected] Charter schools are public schools. Period. right-wing opinions from conservative, Trump- STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: What they provide is an alternative to Eric Williams [email protected] backing readers. For example: CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: traditional public schools that have trouble Max Cannon, Michael Ellis, Ryan North, Mike reaching some students. These students can Organisciak, Jen Sorensen be high achieving students that are being Upset SALES SALES DIRECTOR: held back by the system or low performing Dear Alibi, Tierna Unruh-Enos (ext. 248) [email protected] students that the current system cannot ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: I too was upset by the right-wing letter writers Kittie Blackwell (ext. 224) [email protected] reach. In fact, most charter school students demanding a wall to protect America from all John Hankinson (ext. 235) [email protected] are minority students and students from Shane Boyd (ext. 223) [email protected] the “criminals” trying to enter our southern Sarah Shipman (ext. 210) [email protected] poverty. They are not some elite private border with Mexico with the sole purpose to ADMINISTRATION school kids using public money outside the tear down our country. These “patriotic” PUBLISHER: system. Intrinsic government responsibilities Americans from red states like Oklahoma and Constance Moss (ext. 222) [email protected] can be met within government but outside CONTROLLER: Virginia would rather our government Courtney Foster (ext. 257) [email protected] the one size cookie cutter model. And for the shutdown over Trump’s demands for funding SYSTEMS MANAGER: record, charter schools operate with less of the wall, then to allow Congress to vote on Kyle Silfer (ext. 242) [email protected] WEB MONKEY: funding than regular public schools per the issue (hopefully based on what their John Millington (ext. 238) [email protected] student. constituents want). OWNERS: Teacher Unions are opposed to charters. Christopher Johnson and Daniel Scott The 2018 midterm elections in our now ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Charter schools are not opposed to teacher blue state show that the majority of the Courtney Foster (ext. 257) [email protected] unions. Unions are free to organize at schools people don’t favor a wall (the monument to CIRCULATION if they choose to do so. However, charter racism). Remarkably, they see the cost of CIRCULATION MANAGER: school teachers are not interested in joining Chris Silva (ext. 252) [email protected] billions of dollars might be better spent on CIRCULATION SPECIAL FORCES: unions. They enjoy their work and the education, infrastructure, health, Darrell Sparks [email protected] freedom to innovate and tailor their teaching transportation and a move toward green INFORMATION within an accountable student centered energy jobs to protect the environment. PRINTER: environment. The Santa Fe New Mexican Referring to the mass of immigrants on our IN LOVING MEMORY: If you want detailed facts and numbers to border, those people are here for asylum Doug Albin, Martin Candelaria, Michael Henningsen, back them up (assuming you truly want the Gretchen Hudson, Eric Johnson, Greg Medara, Chico because their country has been overrun by Ramirez, Mina Yamashita real facts), contact the New Mexico gangs of the illegal drug/gun trade, a sad result INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER: Coalition for Charter Schools. of our country’s war on drugs since the Bush Southwest Cyberport (232-7992) [email protected] Ronald Toya NATIONAL ADVERTISING: administration. Instead we see children VMG Advertising (888) 278-9866 NMCCS Board member separated from their parents and caged like www.vmgadvertising.com dangerous animals, some have died. Is this the NUCITY PUBLICATIONS, INC. P.O. Box 81 Albuquerque, NM 87103 · Get Paid Every Friday! BS! America our Constitution was written for? BUSINESS HOURS: 10AM–5PM MON–FRI With the shutdown, asylum seekers cases are PHONE and FAX: (505) 346-0660 · Up to $11.45/hr Dear Alibi, not being heard. We have grave moral-issues Alibi (ISSN 1088-0496) is published weekly 51 times per year. The content · Paid Mileage, Travel, & Holidays Comes a time when left-wing BS becomes too of this issue is Copyright © 2018 by NuCity Publications, Inc., and may not be at hand, and hatred from the conservative reprinted in part or in whole without written consent of the publisher. All rights · Paid Training ridiculous even for a left-winger like me. are reserved. One copy of each edition of Alibi is available free to county residents side’s POTUS is allowing the shutdown to and visitors each week. Anyone caught removing papers in bulk will be prosecuted · Work Mon-Fri, Days That’s why your letters page is facing a on theft charges to the fullest extent of the law. Yearly subscription $100, back continue indefinitely. We should all work for issues are $3, Best of Burque is $5. Queries and manuscripts should include a · No Nights, No Weekends shortage. You challenge no lies and print self-addressed stamped envelope; Alibi assumes no responsibility for peace and justice as our goal. But without unsolicited material. every untruth as if it were fact. It’s good to · CALL TODAY 344-9880 justice, there will be no peace. know there are still people who demand more Mark Nolan, than you are willing to deliver. Albuquerque Al Vincent, Albuquerque Association of Alternative Newsmedia [4] WEEKLY ALIBI JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 6, 2019 contacted social services about the case because she didn’t want the child placed in ODDS foster care. “I knew he did not have insurance, and I wanted to do all I could to help him get well. I know this action was wrong. In the ENDS moment, my only concern was for this child’s AND health,” she said. Elwood Community Schools board president Brent Kane said the district is WEIRD NEWS supporting Smitherman. “She made an Dateline: Iowa unfortunate mistake, but we understand that it was out of concern for this child’s welfare,” he Police say a man constructed a functioning said in a public statement. Smitherman signed bomb while sitting in a sushi restaurant to an Agreement for Withheld Prosecution with make a point. According to KCCI in Iowa, a the Madison County Prosecutor’s Office last man who said he was concerned that bomb week which will allow the charges against her threats aren’t taken seriously enough to be dismissed as long as there are no further constructed a homemade bomb while dining at arrests over the next year. Akebono sushi restaurant in Des Moines last week. The device was reportedly similar to a hand grenade, and officials say it posed a Dateline: Wisconsin legitimate threat to the restaurant’s patrons. Believing his wife had damaged a collection of The man accused of building the bomb, Des action figures, a man allegedly damaged his Moines resident Ivory Washington, told police home with an ax last week. According to he was concerned that people don’t take WMTV in Wisconsin, police were called to a threats seriously enough, and wanted to point Madison, Wis., home last week by a man who it out by publicly building a explosive device said he’d taken a log-splitting ax to a number in plain sight and waiting to see if anyone of items at the home he shares with his wife. would report it. According to restaurant staff, According to police, the man had been Washington was behaving strangely. Witnesses drinking and believed his wife had damaged said he plugged devices into a wall jack and some of his action figures. He said he repeatedly approached the bar to throw trash overreacted and used the ax to destroy a away.