New Mexico Mercury

Disaster’s false dichotomy

We differentiate between human-made disasters and those caused by nature. I believe this is a false, and ultimately misleading, distinction.

If a building housing sweatshops collapses in Savar, Bangladesh, killing more than a thousand workers, we assess blame to the architect who approved the plans (undoubtedly for monetary gain), a government that cannot establish building codes or, if it has them, refuses to enforce them (plenty of kickbacks there as well). We can blame the clothing brands in the US and other Western countries, which reap exaggerated profit and have never been serious about improving the facilities where their clothing is made...

Water’s Peace - Petra

Margaret Randall explores the ancient rock city of Petra and gleans lessons for modern New Mexico.

The rape of a five-year-old

Almost lost amidst the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon was the news a few days later of a five-year-old girl raped and left for dead in New Delhi, India. Only four months earlier, a young Indian woman was gang raped on a bus; she died of her injuries. Much of the world’s attention focused on that faraway country, on its startling number of sexualized power crimes against women and girls, and the failure of its authorities to take such crimes seriously.

But this is not an Indian problem. There is really nothing unusual about men raping or otherwise sexually abusing women and young girls...

El Morro: Crossroads of Cultures

Water, historic inscriptions and a geological landscape as diverse as the travelers who left their mark at this hidden New Mexico gem.

Salinas Pueblo Missions: A Lesson in Resistance

Margaret Randall explores the architectural remnants of imposed culture.

Aaron’s Death

A young man's death harkens a re-examination of manhood in a society awash in moral conundrums.

Herb Goldman Among Us

When I think of Albuquerque’s preeminent art scene at the mid twentieth century, I think of Raymond Jonson, Jack and Alice Garver, Connie Fox, Dick Kurman, Don Ivers, Bainbridge Bunting, John Tatchel, and Herb Goldman. I think of visiting UNM professor and artist Elaine de Kooning, who did as much as anyone to bring this group together, and help nudge several of them to national prominence. Many of these artists are long gone. Others have moved elsewhere. 

Herb Goldman, who died in September 2012, was one of New Mexico’s most unique and powerful artists...

We need a national conversation

The Boston marathon bombing shocked us to our core. With neither the degree of coordination, immense loss of human life and treasure, or national and international impact of 9/11, it held our attention in ways even tragic recent school massacres have not.

If our national response to previous acts of terrorism on our homeland is any indication, what we will not get is a conversation, the conversation we so desperately need, about what prompted this and previous terrorist attacks. A few private discussions may try to frame the real questions, but these will not gain currency in the general consciousness. Extreme patriotism will trump thoughtful insight in every public forum...

We have it all

En Route with Margaret Randall - In spite of ancient hindsight and modern science, we trod a perilous road.

Art for the people - Mexico and New Mexico, then and now

There are few countries where public art is more vibrant than in Mexico. In any part of that country it often seems that every ancient ruin, plaza or green space, building, wall, or simple dish of food was made to delight the senses.