New Mexico Mercury

Will Syria Crisis Stifle Immigration Reform?

As the political crisis and debate intensify over Syria, immigrant advocates fear the issue of possible U.S. military action will delay comprehensive immigration reform in Washington.

Weekly Poem: In The Heart of Syria (A Hak-ku*)

Humanity is
never the most logical
option, just like love.

When U.S. Grant turned on Lew Wallace

Lew Wallace made the most ambitious effort of any New Mexico governor to reform our state’s errant political ways but famously conceded, “Every calculation based on experience elsewhere fails in New Mexico.”

Wallace was not just a territorial governor from 1848 to 1851. He was also one of the most celebrated novelists of his time due to the success of his historical epic, Ben-Hur. Before he was a governor or a novelist, however, he was a major general in the Union Army during the Civil War, where he became an arch-foe of his boss, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant...

Distractions from Syria

El Machete

Cereal, or Syria, or Whatever

I think we should just get in there to Swaziland as quick as possible before the UN can say diddle squat to tell Adam, or Sadam, or Asad, or Borat, or what’shisface  to stop raising our gas prices and murdering his own people with postulations. We have lock-sure evidence he was the one who released sarin on all those folks who all look the same.

This is nothing like Iraq. This is nothing like Afghanistan. This is nothing like Viet Nam or New Jersey, for that matter...

The Sadness of Trayvon Martin

Sadness!  Why is it that so many have lost their hearts and ability to think clearly in an America that grows more totalitarian and militaristic every day? Why do we confuse the victim and the executioner?  George Zimmerman was acting in a militaristic manner and hunting with his gun.  Travyon Martin was minding his own business and eating Skittles.  Apparently being young, being black and wearing a hoodie  makes one threatening and/or guilty-a target for all the George Zimmermans of America...

The Puebloan view of a lesser-known war

A Chinese restaurant’s fortune cookie proclaimed that “You have a charming way with words and should write a book.” Inspired, I taped that little slip of paper to the front of my desktop computer where I was writing.

The result is a historical novel, Winter of the Metal People, which took ten years to research, write, and rewrite.

Winter of the Metal People is about the Coronado expedition and the Tiguex War he fought in 1540-41 against Pueblo tribes — but it’s told for the first time from the Indian point of view...

The New Mexico State Fair for the 21st Century

It’s time to open the New Mexico State Fair 2013. The rides on the Midway will turn you upside down. Now let’s turn the Fair inside out and make it great fun next year - all year long!

The future success of the State Fair in Albuquerque depends on the Fair becoming more a part of Albuquerque, not more of a secure, gated entertainment compound behind its blank walls and parking lots. As a public venue, Expo New Mexico has a greater duty to the community than say, Disneyland. At the same time, Expo has a duty to deliver a first class entertainment experience to the citizens of New Mexico and the residents of Albuquerque beyond the slot machines of the Downs at Albuquerque...

Countdown to health care reform

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is barely one month away from its first major milestone on October 1, 2013 when Health Insurance Exchanges (HIX) will be operational.  The HIX is the marketplace for individual and small businesses to purchase affordable health insurance. As this deadline approaches, a flurry of anxiety and confusion will inevitably surface. Change is never easy even when it’s simple – and changes in health care are never simple...

What’s Happened to Albuquerque? Part 8: The Apolitical City

Water scarcity is nowhere to be found in a mayoral race seemingly void of real issues.