New Mexico Mercury

The Fourth War

On the eve of the 9/11 anniversary of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon—attacks that launched the U.S. on three wars, against al-Qaeda, Saddam Hussein and the Taliban—President Barack Obama went on prime-time television to announce a fourth war. It says something about the uncertainty of this new war that the U.S. can’t even agree on the name of the outfit we are fighting: ISIS, ISIL or the Islamic State.

The goal, or at least the vocabulary, of this new war seems modest, in Obama’s words “to degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIL. It is those two words “degrade” and “ultimately” that are intended to differentiate Obama’s war from the bluster of his predecessor’s three wars. Whether that is a distinction without a difference remains to be seen...

Because they are different

I have a 17-year-old black friend, let’s call him K., who, with his family, used to live in the East Mountains and then Albuquerque. Now he is a freshman at Chandler/Gilbert Community College, where he won a scholarship. On Sunday night, Aug. 24, a little after midnight, he was riding a scooter back from a friend’s home to his apartment. He was neatly dressed and carrying a daypack.

“I was riding on the sidewalk because there was no bicycle lane,” he told me later. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong.” A Gilbert policeman drove past him, apparently noticed he was black, then did a U-turn and came back. The policeman, who was white, stopped K...

Disabled but not enabled

Over the past 29 years Adaptive Sports Program of New Mexico has given thousands of disabled people the opportunity to enjoy snow and water sports supposedly reserved for the strong and healthy.

This summer more than 100 disabled people are participating in 10 river running and lake events that include kayaking, sailing, paddle boarding and sail boarding. Last winter more than 300 participated in downhill skiing and snowboarding at Ski Santa Fe, Sandia and Pajarito...

Retirement: Is it death deferred?

Is retirement an end or a beginning? We talk about retiring from, almost never retiring to. We talk about what we are leaving behind rather than where we are going.

We focus on what we no longer have to endure. We’ve spent our lives on the concerns of living: the job, the commute, the burdens, the worries, raising kids, paying the mortgage, keeping a boss or employees or colleagues happy, and supporting those who depend on us.

Then we retire. Now what?...

‘The unsolved murder capital of the world’

When Scot Key retired in 2008 after serving 12 years as district attorney, he said of Lincoln County, “In the decades prior, the county was ridiculed as the unsolved murder capital of the world.”

One of those unsolved murders was that of 16-year-old Katrina Chavez. She was a star at Hondo High School, a cheerleader, a volleyball player and a basketball player. The account of that unsolved and forgotten killing forms the most intense section of, The Enchantment of New Mexico, a new book by Dixie Boyle...

The Longest Night

I disliked my job from the first day, but until that long night in April 1968, I didn’t hate it.

I wanted to cry that night with the reams of copy pouring onto the desk in front of me, stories of deaths and injuries, tears and screams, anger and sorrow, broken bodies and bloodied streets. I wanted to stop and think about what was happening, but there was no time. I wanted to stop and cry, but I could not...

Does it matter how many students are raped?

A young woman, a student at the University of New Mexico, gets into a BMW with three men, including two UNM athletes.

Later she shows up at her dormitory in tears and reports that she has been raped. Her lawyer says she was drugged.

The men say she had sex voluntarily with them. She says she blanked out because she was drugged. The investigation has been dropped at least temporarily.

This incident, which transpired in April, and the questions it raises are typical of many of the sexual encounters on campuses around the country. Was it a sexual assault? Was it rape? What should the university, the police and the district attorney do about it?...

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire

A majority of Americans favor marijuana legalization. Getting measures for statewide reform on the ballot may draw out young, left-leaning voters and heat up the gubernatorial race. 

What would N.M. look like without Albuquerque?

While the state's overall economic lag in recovery gets the most attention, Albuquerque's influence on the numbers is the seldom spoken elephant in the room.

Leaving the world to find it

For a vast, remote and harsh expanse of southwestern desert, the Kaiparowits Plateau has seen a lot of life, from prehistoric Indians to migrating Mormons to adventurers that, during the Memorial Day weekend, included my son and I. Just as this seemingly inhospitable area helped save earlier travelers, so it redeemed our own trip that otherwise could have gone off the tracks. Sometimes, it would seem, you have to leave the world behind in order to find it...