Columns

The shock and sorrow spread throughout my beloved Mora County like a tsunami this week. John Harrington, our dear friend and neighbor to many, was tragically killed while riding his bicycle on N.M. 105 on Monday.

A service will be held for him at 2 p.m. today (Friday) at the Pendaries Community Center. John, 49, was bicycling westbound on the road two or three miles east of Pendaries at about 5:30 p.m. when a vehicle driven by Calvin Postoak — a Fort Worth, Texas, man who lives part-time in Pendaries — struck him.

“If I owned Texas and Hell, I’d rent out Texas and live in Hell.”
— Gen. Phillip H. Sheridan

The Battle of Glorieta was not called the Gettysburg of the West because of the large number of casualties. It was compared to the Battle of Gettysburg because it just may have determined the outcome of the Civil War.

Had the Confederates from Texas reached California, they would have had an entire coastline of blockade-free ports and all the gold they needed to finance their army.

America is a leader on the world stage. Sometimes. Other times, we just won’t budge.

Here are three issues we refuse to address, even though we give plenty of lip-service to each:

1. We fool ourselves into thinking that because we have the greatest health care system for those who can afford it, we must have the greatest health care — even though thousands upon thousands of people regularly fall through the cracks.

An organized system of formal education in New Mexico was non-existent until the late 1800s. In fact, when Gov. Albino Pérez proposed a tax levy in 1837 to help fund a system of public education, he was more than just rebuffed — he was beheaded.