New Mexico Mercury

An unlikely Jerusalem and its merry band of misfits

Beginning in early spring and continuing into late autumn, I often see a man walking on Raven Road in my neighborhood with a backpack, a shabby jacket and a smile. He is elderly, lean, with long hair and a beard as gray as my own. He wears dirty boots, a torn shirt and shabby pants. He is always by himself, although when I greet him, he responds with a friendly word and wave.

This man, with all his repulsiveness and attractiveness, is much like the protagonist of Jerusalem, an unusual play, in equal parts entertainment and philosophical statement, that opened last week at the Vortex Theater in Albuquerque...

Section K: Lobos Given Treacherous Conference Road Schedule

Dear Mountain West Commissioner,

The Lobos have finished first in the league the past two years, and last season, UNM was the only team during conference competition with a winning record on the road. Across the sports world, this success would garner respect--and, in some instances, even advantages--but the Lobos receive neither from the Mountain West...

El Machete: Long Walk

Never forget. 150 years ago.

New Mexico Water Wars and Their Implications

My friends and I spent the last months after our high school graduation making memories together before our college paths diverged. We refused to think of the challenges of adulthood that lay threateningly on the horizon but rather spent our time water skiing on Brantley Lake, on the outskirts of Carlsbad, New Mexico, reveling in the few remaining days of our boyhood. The winters of 2009 and 2010 had been excellent snow seasons and along with an unusually wet monsoon season, Brantley Reservoir was swollen almost to full capacity.

Over the course of the next three years, New Mexico suffered through a period of intense drought. The reservoir shrunk little by little, depleted by the water needs of the farmers and citizens of the local community...

What Does Real Reform Look Like?

When a state’s children protective services fails to serve or protect children it is supposed to help, what is to be done? What is the root of the problem a state faces in trying to help children who are abused in their own families? How can a system that almost everybody calls dysfunctional be reformed?

Since the death of 9-year-old Omaree Varela in Albuquerque last month, legislators, officials of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department and advocates for children have been asking these questions. So far, they have no good answers...

There’s No Place Like Burque: Dimver Revisited

The esteemed journalist Wally Gordon has viciously attacked my blog scratchins about a place I call Dimver where I grew up and where, much to my utter disappointment, I spend every free waking hour of the day and night when I’m not in my beloved Burque.

Let me just say that Burque is as close to heaven as we get in this here life and that I love New Mexico to the point of abject drooling, but not so much Nuevo Colorado and certainly not so much  that place I call Dimver.

Case in point: look what happened to Dimver in the recent Superbowl...

The New Free Trade Fever

20 years after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, little interest has been shown until now by the governments of the signatory countries for reopening the trade pact. But a similar agreement between Mexico and the European Union, signed in 1997 and enacted in 2000, is under review and could be expanded.  

Three working groups from the European Commission are expected to be in Mexico February 11-13 for discussions that could lead to changes in the current agreement, especially as they pertain to the energy, agricultural, financial services and telecommunications sectors...

From Section K: Lobos Better Last Year, But This Squad Will Go Further

In the first week of February 2013, the 19-3 Lobos ranked 15th nationally on their way to a 29-win season and a three seed in West Region. Six weeks later sitting stunned in Section 19 of Salt Lake’s EnergySolutions Arena, I would have traded all those accolades for a rematch with Harvard.

This February, the 17-4 Lobos look in from outside the Top-25. While on track for an NCAA appearance, two bad losses--one to stumbling NMSU and another to underperforming UNLV--keep the Lobos from receiving national attention...

Trickle-down PR in the Journal

You have to give it the corporate elite in this country for their crafty effectiveness in convincing a large percentage of the working poor and the debt-ridden middle class to parrot economic talking points that work in direct opposition to their best interest.  A marketing coup made possible with the support of much of the mainstream media establishment at the national and local level.

Winthrop Quigley gives us the latest supporting example this week in an Albuquerque Journal column, “Minimum wage hike won’t fix income inequality”...

Answering response to ‘Reforms in Mexico’

On January 24, I submitted an article entitled “Reforms in Mexico” and writer Margaret Randall filed a very articulate response, finding my ideas “extremely troubling.” She raised three issues to which I would like to respond.

1. My characterization of two-time presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador as “loony” when, in fact, she believes that he is a “genuine revolutionary reformer” and “widely believed to have won the election in his first bid for the presidency.” I agree with part of her criticism. Using the word “loony” was wrong because he’s a very intelligent individual. The word “hypocritical” would have been more accurate...