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Columns

  • Beth Speaks for Herself - Musing about Las Vegas while cruising Lake Michigan

    By Beth Urech

    Two columns ago, I quoted Rumi: “Ages ago, God circled a spot on the map exactly where you are standing now.” That sounded so reassuring and solid. However, since then I’ve been in and out of circles as we wend our way up the Michigan coast in our sailboat.

    I wonder if God predicted them all. As a kid, I took the same route albeit on Route 31 in the family Chevrolet station wagon. In a car, the trip takes six hours — in our boat two weeks.

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  • Just a Thought: It’s only just a name — or is it?

    By Rick Kraft

    It has been said that the sweetest sound a person can hear is the sound of his or her name.

    Your name is unique. It is the very identifier for each of us. When someone says, “How are you doing Rick?” I know their greeting is specifically for me. If in a lengthy conversation the person I am talking with says “Rick” several times, it reminds me that they are talking directly to me.

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  • From the Highlands President - Merging the institutions of higher education

    By Sam Minner

    Are there too many institutions of higher education in New Mexico? If so, should some of them merge and if that happened, what might be gained?

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  • Another Perspective: Another assault on tenure by NMHU administration

    By Dr. Kathy Jenkins

    The New Mexico Highlands University administration has a long and storied history of assaulting the rights of tenured faculty at our institution.

    A simple search of NMHU and the American Association of University Professors reveals two disturbing assaults on tenure from previous administrations.

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  • Dispatch New Mexico - All about voting and other fraudulent activities

    Distrust in our government must be at an all-time high, or at least comparable to the Watergate years.

    Donald Trump certainly didn’t create the distrust; instead, he capitalized off it for a phenomenal rise to power. But now he’s as much a part of the problem as any other Washington insider, and is even creating problems that didn’t seem to exist before he hit town.

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  • Never, ever double-space — ever

    Doing research through old microfilms of the Optic, at Highlands’ Donnelly Library, I soon thought of abandoning the project — for several reasons.

    For years, a laboratory somewhere would take each issue of the Optic, photograph it and convert it to a 35mm reel of film that contained the days’ news. But that didn’t make things perfect.

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  • Just a Thought: Let’s stop avoiding ‘I don’t have time for that’

    By Rick Kraft

    How often do we say “I don’t have time for that”? In reality, it is not really a time issue, it is a priority issue. What we really mean to say is “that” is not a priority to me.

    We are all creatures of habit. It would be interesting if you took out a sheet of paper and wrote down every one of your habits. You would likely fill a page with your repetitive actions.

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  • Salazar is new chair of pension committee

    NOTE: This item was submitted to the Optic by the office of the New Mexico Legislature Speaker of the House of Representatives.

    As New Mexico’s inter- im   legislative committees begin their hearings, Rep.Tomás Salazar (D-San Miguel, Santa Fe, Torrance) is pleased as he opens the Investment Pensions and Oversight Committee as its new chairman.

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  • Babbling Brooks - Great customer service should be the bare minimum

    There are plenty of businesses and government or nonprofit organizations providing fine customer service around Las Vegas. If you are a retail business owner who pays attention to nearly every detail and has a vested interest in growing the customer base, I salute you, and keep up the hard work that has got you to this point.

    However, if you’re the owner of one of the Vegas businesses in the following categories, I really hope you have younger new customers in mind, and I hope you can find the resources to improve in some key areas.

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  • Dispatch New Mexico - Sampling a week of small-town news

    And they say nothing ever happens in small towns.

    Take a look at some of the goings-on just last week around New Mexico, gleaned from small-town newspapers across the state.

    Down the in southwestern corner of the state, the Silver City Daily Press reported on how Gary Johnson came riding through town on his bicycle.

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