Women Without Choices: Two plays in ABQ
Americans tend to think of the pursuit of happiness as one of our inalienable rights, but the phrase means not that society gives us happiness but that it offers choices that allow us to seek it. But what if we don’t have choices?
Two new plays in Albuquerque focus on young women whose choices are foreclosed, whose destiny is tragedy. That these stories occur nearly a century apart merely shows that the prison bars of ethnicity, gender and social milieu are endemic in America...
What Happened to Transparency and Openness?
Less than four weeks into her term, Governor Susana Martinez had to be reminded by the New Mexico Supreme Court that, “Nobody is above the law.” The reason: the Governor had tried to prevent recently approved dairy rules, among other new environmentally protective rules, from going into effect.
The Governor’s Administration is still dodging the rules in order to help her industry friends. This time, the Administration is helping the dairy industry avoid taking common sense steps that would prevent their cows’ waste from continuing to contaminate New Mexico’s precious groundwater...
Why New Mexico’s Climate Future Has Already Been Decided – and What Can Be Done
No, the New Mexico official told me, you’re getting too far ahead of the science. Your certainty about the consequences of climate change, he cautioned me, isn’t warranted. You’ll hurt your credibility.
This official deals with water issues for our state. He was gracious enough to provide feedback on a paper I’d written in my capacity as a law student at the University of New Mexico. The paper dealt with how the state’s prior appropriation system of water law manages water shortages during drought. In writing about that subject, I had emphasized that the state faced a future of, in essence, permanent drought, and had best prepare accordingly...
Suzilla
Here’s a synopsis of the latest hot monster film soon to be shot in New Mexico starring Bob Odenkirk as Suzilla the Great—
Not to worry about the thousand-year drought, not to worry about cratering employment, not to worry about all the cop murders, not to worry about the starving, underachieving kids—Remember, the kingdom of New Whazzits is run by Suzilla the Great who eats citizens.
Like all monsters, Suzilla sees things in black and white. Are you edible?...
ALEC Otherworld
Last week I traveled to Missouri to attend my second American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference.
As a state legislator from Wisconsin, I joined ALEC last year. That was the beginning of my journey into a parallel world. In the ALEC otherworld, the three branches of government are: 1. Multinational corporations, including Anheuser-Busch and Koch Industries, 2. Rightwing think tanks networked together through the State Policy Network, and 3. State legislators like me--although, as a progressive Democrat, I don't fit the mold. Most of my colleagues who belong to ALEC are Republicans and many are Tea Partiers...
NM Twittersphere: APD, Gov’s Race, HSD & Education Woes
Our second installment of the goings on in New Mexico's Twitter Universe. This week we have the release of Mary Hawke's autopsy report as well as the promotion of an APD officer who had previously burned off a homeless man's ear by tasering. That man, who feared retribution, was murdered shortly after winning a settlement with the city. Also, Gov. race coverage, HSD and NM PED in hot water and backlash against the Governor's corporately crafted teacher evaluations. If you see a tweet that we should highlight, pass it on or retweet it with the hashtag #NMTwittersphere....
Border Farmers’ Market a Year-Round Hit
Estela Flores is an earth artist. On Saturday mornings, you can find her work, courtesy of Mother Earth, on display at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing Farmers’ Market in Sunland Park, New Mexico.
Flores’ stand offers an inspiring inventory of garden art and potted plants ready for the backyard or front porch. Visitors behold herbs, native landscape plants, organic vegetables, succulents, and a garden dragon fly fashioned from wrought iron and embodied with peat moss and soil...
Weekly Poem: Georgia at ‘The Black Place’
I sit
between black lava and ash
dust-brushed and shaken
amid suggestion of bone
in the curve of the place without sky
rose-lipped clouds beneath...
Redemption at the Rock
“Boom!” It’s only one minute and forty seconds of the first round and suddenly Natalie Roy from Santa Fe lands a tremendous punch on her opponent, Nikki Lowe, and the fight is over.
This is “Redemption at the Rock,” a night of mixed martial arts (MMA) fights at the Camel Rock Lodge in Tesuque, a night with 10 fights and a cheering audience of about 1,000. Put on by Orthrus Promotions, its leaders, JR Rodriguez and Sal Mora and their staff, it was an exciting and well organized event for a sport that has a big future in New Mexico and across the country. It was their fifth such event in New Mexico, Texas and Iowa and another is coming up on June 14...
Policing problems don’t end with APD
“It’s not just the Albuquerque Police Department,” the caller told me before narrating his own tale of a violent encounter with law enforcement. This caller was not looking for money or publicity or revenge or even justice. He did not tell me his name or the name of the deputy, and he has not filed a lawsuit or a criminal complaint.
He just wanted me to know that he had read a column I wrote recently about the U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the Albuquerque Police Department and that the problem of excessive violence did not stop with the Duke City. “It’s everywhere,” he told me...