Shooting woman acted irresponsibly

I find it somewhat amazing that our citizens are making a hero out of the young lady who fired her gun at the potential bad guys breaking into her home (“Clovis woman fires on intruders to defend home,” Feb. 6 CNJ).

The article stated she saw a 12-year-old-boy knocking at her door, then heard someone trying to enter through a door in the back.

This inexperienced gun handler picks up a weapon and fires it wildly through doors and down hallways, scaring the potential bad guys away?

Thankfully she didn’t hit anything but her own walls and doors.

Thankfully she didn’t shoot and kill a bunch of 12-year-old kids.

Thankfully one of her wild shots didn’t hit an innocent person standing across the street.

I hope she enjoys her 15 minutes of fame and, thankfully, it’s not for killing someone.

Connie Belcher
Clovis

Portales' country roads an eyesore

I live three miles west of Portales. As the population grows outside the city limits, so do my concerns about the piling up of trash and tumbleweeds.

It’s not only an eyesore, but a fire danger.

Our county officials need to look into controlling this problem because it looks like individuals won’t do it.

There are a number of people who pile their trash in yards, just to have stray dogs and cats tear the bags open and drag trash all over. It is then left for the wind to blow it into the neighbors’ yards or on into town.

There are some individuals who discard their unwanted mail into the road with no regard for where it will end up.

Then there is the matter of landowners who won’t shred the crop of tumbleweeds they grow every year. They just let it keep producing weeds for the neighbors to deal with when the high winds begin.

Spring is approaching and so is Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup, which takes place annually from March 1 through May 31.

As always, it will be left to the few people who care to clean up after the inconsiderate individuals who choose to trash our countryside.

We hear a lot about beautifying Portales; that should mean the county too.

We would like to be proud of our area just like the people in town. No one should be allowed to throw trash just anywhere they please or grow fire-hazard crops.

This is a big problem that is getting out of control. The city dump is cleaner than some of the country roads west of Portales.

Linda Giddings
Portales