It was with great interest that I read the articles by Jason Hennington [“Sul Ross students visit Topolobampo to study La Entrada”] and Fran Sage [“La Entrada: the fight goes on”], in the January 2008 issue. As an owner-operator [of commercial trucks], I have loaded out of Laredo, TX off and on for years and have never even heard of such a proposed route [La Entrada al Pacifico, linking the Pacific port of Topolobampo, Sinaloa, MX with Midland-Odessa, TX].

I have no real insight into the situation, but I checked into it a little bit. It really seems that the logistical difficulties due to geography and road conditions of moving freight from that port through Presidio are well-nigh inseparable.

Meetings seldom stop anything if it is economically viable for Big Business: witness Laredo.

In this case, maybe it’s better to have mountains than meetings.

Jim McGuris
Tonopah, AZ

An international group called Nonviolent Peaceforce – which I believe could serve Big Bend communities well – is forming a regional chapter here.

Nonviolent Peaceforce is a 3rd party intervention force usually deployed to far away lands as a way to move between government and indigenous populations and/or corporate and indigenous populations. In the Texas-Mexico borderlands, as times become tougher, tensions rise. We have seen it on occasion already. Some parts of some of our communities already live in fear.

A domestic version of Nonviolent Peaceforce is taking shape. Folks along the length of the US-Mexican border are already working together to create this Nonviolent Border Peaceforce. It is important to stress that Nonviolent Peaceforce does not advocate and does not protest or demonstrate: it does not take sides. Nonviolent Peaceforce provides skilled community volunteers to help create spaces for making peace.

This is nonviolence in a non-wimpy powerful mode that can save lives, liberty and property within our communities. Forget equating passive resistance with non-violence; Gandhi rejected that and so do effective non-violent activists.

We might, together, decide to be the Ezekiel Hernandez Chapter of the US Nonviolent Peaceforce.

Big Bend is too spread out to do this in just one town. We need a group of trained folks in every population center...can’t, for example, see Marathon team making it to Presidio in time for any crisis.

We are NOT trying to either substitute for or get in the way of law enforcement officers. As a former criminal justice professor, I would not find that to be helpful to communities. This is a community justice group with skills for resolution of neighborhood conflicts, skills developed by local citizens for the benefit of local citizens.

For more information on Nonviolent Peaceforce, visit: www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org, or contact me: 432-837-3780, evetrook@sbcglobal.net.

Eve Trook
Alpine

I am writing in response to the open letter to the community written by the new CEO of Lajitas Mr. Edwin Leslie.

I was employed by Lajitas as the golf course superintendent for over 5 1/2 years. My family and I moved to Terlingua not only for the job, but to realize our dream of living in the Big Bend. It became my mission to help ease the tension between Lajitas and Terlingua by cutting the water usage in half on the golf course and implementing responsible maintenance practices regarding fertilizers and pesticides. I am also one of the few female golf course superintendents in the country. I had to prove myself more than once to the “good old boys” who doubted the “little lady” could manage a 25-man Hispanic crew on the border.

[In his “Open Letter to the Community” January 2008], Mr. Leslie states “We all know the last few months have been difficult for the employees of Lajitas.” It was not the last few months, but the last five years. The last few months were easy because we had hope that a new owner would come in and make things right.

On December 20 (five days before Christmas), I was told I would no longer be working for Lajitas. I was given a few hours to clear out of my office. No warning and no explanation. I was never allowed the opportunity to meet Mr. Warren or his management team and I still don’t know why I was let go. Not very neighborly, Mr. Leslie.

I remain a member of this community. My daughter attends Terlingua high school, and my husband is disabled and cannot work.

Mr. Leslie states in his letter that it is his hope that we the community will allow him the chance to prove his commitment to Lajitas, the Big Bend, and to us.

Unfortunately, I was not afforded the same opportunity.

If I may offer a few words of advice to Mr.Leslie and the “new Lajitas,” actions do speak louder than words, and don’t underestimate the intelligence of your new neighbors.

I am no longer an employee of Lajitas the “Ultimate Hideout,” I am your neighbor.

Kerry Green
Terlingua

Most horse owners are now aware of the current situation of horse slaughter in Mexico. For those who are not, the following paragraph is a brief description of what happens to the horses sold for slaughter. It is unpleasant to read and to think about, but not nearly as unpleasant as what the horses are experiencing.

From the auction house, the horses are hauled to Juárez or Chihuahua City, with no food, water, or rest, for what is often a trip that takes days. Unlike the (now closed) U.S. slaughter houses where a stun-gun is used, the Mexican slaughterhouses use a knife to stab the horse, usually repeatedly, in the withers to severe the spinal cord and paralyze, but not kill.  The horse falls to the ground and is hoisted upside down by a hind leg until his head is several feet above the ground.  Then he bleeds to death. It would be hard to create a more terrifying way for a horse to die.

There are four things concerned people can do now:

1. Contact your elected officials (it will take about five minutes) and urge them to support the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. H.R. 503 or S.311. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison  (202) 224-5922. Sen. John Cornyn  (202) 224-2934. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez  (202) 225-4511.

2.  Be mindful of selling your horse.  The large majority of horses that wind up at auction houses are sent to slaughter.

3.  Don’t breed more horses. It is estimated that over ninety percent of the horses bound for slaughter are neither old nor unsound, only unwanted.

4. Consider how, when it is time, you will end your horse’s life.  Doing it in a humane manner could be considered a necessary expense of horse ownership.

For more information search the Internet for “HSUS horse slaughter,” or visit:  mysa.com: mexico horse slaughter.

Mary Baxter
Marathon

Immigrants are important to this country. Immigrants are as important as the President or anyone else living here. If there were no immigrants in the United States, the country would be dramatically different. America is made up of many immigrants from different places in the world who have built this nation.

Immigrants are not always legal. They come in spite of a man-made dividing line to seek a better life. Ask yourself if you would be trying to cross that river if you had been born in a poor country. Illegal immigrants are breaking man’s law, but they are not breaking God’s law. The immigrant today is the person going out everyday to the fields to plant or gather produce that makes money for the “legal people” of the United States. She is the person who clean houses, works as a dishwasher, and often gets paid less than minimum wage, the one who sends money to her family she left behind so her children can have a better life. He is the one who pays taxes for the goods he buys and the one who helps some rich people get even richer than they already are.

To many people, immigrants are at lower levels of importance than others in this society. For example, some people think that they are a bunch of ignorant criminals who should not have the same rights that citizens or residents have and should go back to where they came from. Other people think that they should have the same rights as everybody else in this country.

I think that laws need to be changed so that immigrants who want to better themselves by going to school or working should not have such a long wait for legalization that they are tempted to sneak over. After proving their good intentions, immigrants should have the same privileges as every other human in this country because they help support this nation in ways that citizens do. We should appreciate the immigrants who work in this country.

Zahi Carrasco
Big Bend High School, Terlingua

April 18-19 is the time for all of us to “Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back” during the Relay For Life event. The local unit of the American Cancer Society is seeking assistance with locating cancer survivors who would like to participate in the “Victory Lap.”  Survivors are needed because each of you offer hope, encouragement and provide proof that our battle can and will be won. There are no fees nor contributions required (only rubber-soled shoes for use on the track). Because free T-shirts are provided for those survivors participating in this event, we need to know how many and the sizes to order before February 25.  Please advise if there are any special need issues we can assist with.

Contact me @837-0992 or 386-2020 or leave a message as soon as possible.

Jayne Stewart
Survivor Chairman, Big Bend Unit
American Cancer Society

Did they just forget or have I been lied to again?

At the April, 2007 meeting of the Board of Directors of the Property Owners Association of Terlingua Ranch, I filed a grievance under the Issues Resolution (IR) Procedures of the Association. My grievance was in three parts: 1) complaints about the IR Procedures themselves (they are awful); 2) a complaint against the board of directors for failure to exercise oversight of the General Manager (GM), and; 3) several specific complaints about the General Manager’s repeated and multiple violations of the policies and procedures (p&ps) related to employees. In my grievance I asked for the following:

• change the IR Procedures, which are both unfair and in some cases totally unworkable

• exercise oversight of the General Manager to prevent violations of policies, procedures, etc.

• review the Employee P&Ps and make the Manager adhere to them

I was contacted some time later by the then-BoD President, Mr. Staton, who informed me that the BoD had agreed that the Executive Committee plus one other BoD member, would give me a hearing on the matter. This was in violation of the IR Procedures as I pointed out to Mr. Staton. The Procedures require that the aggrieved first try to resolve matters with the GM and, as I pointed out, if you have procedures you follow them, however bad they may be. Mr. Staton said it would save time to go straight to a hearing because it was obvious that the GM and I were not going to work this out, and in any case my grievance fell under all three of the grievance types. I insisted that we follow the Procedures, partly to point out just how stupid and cumbersome they were.

It was too late to follow the time frames laid out in the Procedures, but there was nothing we could do about that. So, a meeting was set with the GM. I met with the GM and a BoD “observer” (don’t know who he was there to protect, the GM or me) and we agreed that we disagreed and that therefore the process should go to the next stage.

I had my one-hour phone conference or hearing with the Panel as it is called. In that we agreed to three things: 1) that the Employee P&Ps would be reviewed; 2) that a committee would be established to review and rewrite the IR Procedures, and; 3) that there would be discussions on how to oversee management given that the vast majority of the BoD members are nonresidents. My recommendation to can the GM was, not surprisingly, rejected. I think we who live here all know who runs the place, lock, stock and barrel, regardless of whether a BoD exists or not.

Some four weeks later I wrote the President to inquire after the status of the matter as I had not received confirmation of our agreement in writing. The then-Secretary sent me such confirmation on July 19.

Since then I have heard nothing, I have read nothing in the minutes of BoD meetings nor in the newsletter that would indicate that anything was actually done.

There is no committee to review the IR Procedures – you can look at any BoD agenda to see what committees and task forces do exist. Look at the IR Procedures on the website and you will see the same ones that existed before my grievance. I can’t find the Employee P&Ps on the website but I find no mention in minutes or the newsletter that these had been reviewed and/or changed. Nor have I seen or heard of any new policies regarding oversight. Since I was the aggrieved, you would think I would have been informed of the results of any of the three items we had agreed on. I have received, in fact, no correspondence of any kind on the matter and it has been more than six months since my hearing. Nor have the members received any information: not about my grievance, any results, any policy changes– nothing. And this from a BoD “committed” to better communications with the membership.

In short, I don’t think anything was done. I think they walked away and ignored the whole thing because Little Hitler, as our GM is affectionately known by resident owners, did not want anything to change. There you have it, another example of how the POATRI system is totally dysfunctional, and deliberately so. Did the Panel, all five members, just forget something or was I lied to? The answer to that seems obvious. Don’t bother filing a grievance, it’s just another sham.

By the way, I have provided the Editor of this paper with copies of my grievance and the four week late written response.

Jack Hennessy, Property Owner (Still aggrieved)
Terlingua Ranch