Dear Gallup Sun,

Your informative Top Five stories of 2022 made me ponder on the “Top Five or Six Elephants in the Room” – those enormous and difficult issues which are obvious yet ignored due to the discomfort or political embarrassment of those in power.

1. Duplication of services Your “RMCH still facing problems” seems to have been an annual story for some 50 years, before the Rehoboth-McKinley General merge when we had three hospitals. Many of us wonder why there are multiple hospitals in a region which should require only one.

We are perplexed that there is a need to segregate non-Indians from Indians. Whether you have a Medicare, Medicaid, VA, ACA, Indian Health ID, or...

Dear Gallup Sun,

Several years ago you were the only media outlet in town that would publish or report on five scientific studies I presented regarding environmental health dangers in our region which need to be addressed.

Here is my recent post on the McKinley County Grassroots Facebook page:

MCG, I often say the greatest threat to environmental health are environmentalists. After reading about the new Environmental Crimes Task Force in the Gallup Sun, I sensed another government fraud, waste of taxpayer money, and abuse of power.

I forwarded this email to several N.M. environmental officials and, not surprisingly, received no response. I then forwarded my complaint to Patty...

We write to thank the county commission for holding off voting on a fourth mill levy for RMCHCS. We are sending this letter to summarize the suggestions of community members at this meeting.

Community members support the use of tax funds to keep our hospital open, but believe that clear measures are needed to ensure that the use of these funds does not merely postpone the hospital’s closure but instead spurs a sharp change of course toward recovery.

In all, we suggest that the county commission articulate conditions that need to be met for the use of public funds.  These are consensus recommendations from our community, which includes former hospital executives, former physicians...

This Fourth of July, as we commemorate our nation’s founding, our community has much to celebrate and much for which we can be grateful. Gallup has long been proud to be known as the most patriotic small town in America. We earned that reputation, at least in part, because of the large number of veterans who call our community home.

We are honored that so many brave men and women who have served our country choose to live in Gallup. As friends and neighbors, we take our responsibility to support these veterans seriously. That’s why when the Federal department of Veterans Affairs proposed closing our local Veterans’ Clinic, as well as the clinics in Las Vegas, Raton, and...