New Mexico Mercury

Out of the mouths of babes into the pockets of the rich

The United State has fallen into a pit of political absurdities so chaotic, so brutal, and so cruel that many of us have become desensitized to the torturous, slow ruining of lives that poverty in our country causes every minute of every day.

We’re so mesmerized by the viciousness of our politics that rich lawmakers have no qualms about taking food out of poor people’s mouths, passing laws that diminish their only hope to get an adequate share of life’s basic substance through food stamps...

Weekly Poetry: HOW MANY SHOTS NEED TO BE FIRED

out of the dark water
comes a gun.  a gun I did not see
but heard less then 15 feet away
from me.

and a story falls out of the mirror.
lands in broken shards of what really
happened.
and here is what the broken shards
and the dark water sing...

Colfax Ave, and Logan St..
Summer, curl your fingers around my hair.
let my hand sling around your waist.
past festivals and music played in Denver,
in Civic Center Park,
to the bus stop,

at Colfax and Logan.
the weather is perfect,
night upon all, waiting at the bus stop,
when a shot cries out, there amidst all,
a single shot fired...

The naked truth about the on-line underwear caper

I was absolutely taken aback when one of my many detractors told me in a recent e-mail “NOBODY CARES” that our distinguished gov. paid no Gross Receipts Tax on her on-line purchases.  This individual, who shall forever remain nameless and faceless, advised me to in his words, “Get a life.” I refer, of course, to one of my previous pieces in which I tsk, tsked the illustrious governor of our state for not paying Gross Receipts Tax on her on-line underwear purchases...

A Kerfuffalo or a Genius Idea?

I have always known that there is one unshakeable truth given to us by God: thin people damn well deserve to get ahead because the almighty has made skinny folks supremely more qualified, more talented, more perceptive, more articulate and more blessed than fat people who are ill-suited for the rigors of a life in which we all have to scurry about as quickly as possible.

Now I have living confirmation of the living truth of my insightful prejudgment thanks to self-styled “idiotic” and impulsive” UNM Psych. Professor, Dr. Geoffrey Miller, who so wrongly beats himself up over a little on-line kerfuffalo he made...

Weekly Poetry: Buckman Diversion

Come out from tangled roots,
change course, move away
from contamination. Snake
into the riverbed, divert erosion
into a reflexive complaint
below the run-off. A global
cycle of invasion, of white strips
of drying bandage wrapped
around red poles, of blood-letting
to make dragon soup garnished
with hated radishes...

Hunger in New Mexico

More bad news for kids in the Land of Enchantment.  Not only is New Mexico the second worst state in which to raise your children (thank God for Mississippi!) according to Kids Count, but it’s the absolute worst in food security.  Maybe we need a Department of Homeland Food Security – we’re not doing very well at protecting our children.

Food insecurity is a term that replaces “hunger,” perhaps a euphemism, but more descriptive of families that at least some of the time don’t know where the next meal is coming from...

What’s happened to ABQ? Part 5: Rio Grande Vision- Nature center or amusement park?

The Rio Grande Vision plan for “improvements” to the Middle Rio Grande Bosque breaks continuity with the long and illustrious history of citizen activism to preserve riparian habitat and allow residents to refresh themselves in a natural setting and observe wildlife without disturbing it.

Modeling itself on duded up urban rivers in Texas and other places, the Vision seems to have overlooked completely the ideal model right under its nose – the Rio Grande Nature Center, a masterwork of architecture so inconspicuous and respectful of its place that birds and other creatures have no fear of us when we’re visiting...

Leave Mount Taylor in peace

There’s something particularly ugly about the proposed new uranium mine on Mount Taylor west of Albuquerque. If past history is any indication, it will leave this sacred site littered with mining debris and contaminated water. And it will probably sell the uranium to China and India, the biggest uranium markets in the world, ruining a local place to make some people an international fortune. This will truly amount to ill gotten gains...

Inform yourself

Inform yourself. The responsibility of every good citizen.

But how?

Way back in a time before the Rabbit Hole opened up and we all passed into that other world where up is down and in is out, it seemed simple. You bought a morning newspaper or listened to the evening news. You thought you were getting the information you needed because you believed your government, church, even the corporations urging you to buy, wanted you to be informed.

It’s been a complex and highly sophisticated road from there to here...

Whole Foods Stinks

El Machete