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Columns

  • Just a Thought: Let go of the past and fully experience the future

    Along highway 70/380 just west of Hondo on the north side of the road facing west is a large white billboard standing all by itself with one word printed in big black letters. The word is “Forgive.” It is virtually impossible to miss for every driver heading east.

    I do not know who is paying for the sign, but it has been up for some time. Neither do I know how much traffic travels by the sign daily. What I do know is that the one word sign contains much wisdom.

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  • Another Perspective: New Mexico has a ‘Dr. Holly Abernathy’ problem

    In 2014, The Wall Street Journal explored the ways that Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid was “straining some health-care systems that already don’t have enough doctors and staff” and challenging “medical practices’ bottom lines in ways that lead them to turn some away.”

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  • Palabras Pinturescas: Queen Mary’s Farewell Dinner a real feast

    It wouldn’t be springtime in our Rockies, and more particularly here on this old ranch  if we didn’t have at least one baby calf on a bottle. This bottle baby was born during our last snow storm, and his mother developed post partem psychosis, so elected to totally ignore him. This condition is rare, caused by an imbalance of hormones after birth. Thankfully, we have the warm sheds, corrals and chute to hold this belligerent cow that has to be milked daily, just to feed her baby.

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  • Dispatch New Mexico - Police work is tough, but it has to be scrutinized

    It’s tough to be a cop these days.

    It always has been, but in today’s climate it’s particularly difficult. And it’s not just nationally, it’s local too, right here in cities and towns across New Mexico.

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  • A work of Art: ‘Kinda’ is sorta common nowadays

    A recent discovery, which with my luck won’t create even a ripple, deals with added flabbiness in speech and writing.
    The culprit has a name: “Like.” We’re not talking about the verb like, which might appear in this sentence: “I really like Katherine Zeta Jones.” That’s a legitimate use of the word.

    It’s the flabby part of speech that we make of “like,” when we like overuse it.

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  • Just for the record: A recent experience with medical costs

    We can’t all seem to agree about much lately, but perhaps we can all agree that in order to address a problem we have to have some accurate information, even if just one person’s experience.

     So, assuming we agree we do have a problem with medical costs and coverage (including the specter of going bankrupt from medical costs if not insurance costs), I’d like to share a recent experience with surgery and hospitalization:

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  • Just a Thought: Feet on the ground and reach for the stars

    There are two personality traits that most people would agree should be sought after.

    One trait is confidence. I think if you ask the average person if they would like to approach each day with confidence, they would say yes. A second personality trait is humbleness. This might be a better question asked about others. I think if you ask the average person if they would like others to be humble, they would say yes.

    So one of these is a characteristic we wish on ourselves and one of these is a characteristic we desire in others, but should also want for ourselves.

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  • Another Perspective: Citizens make the justice system work by serving as jurors

    As we celebrate national Law Day on May 1 and Juror Appreciation Week in New Mexico, I would like to recognize the vital role each citizen plays in preserving the rule of law by serving on juries in our state courts.

    New Mexico courts each year summon about 10 percent of the state’s adult population to participate in jury service. Along with the ballot box, the jury box is one of the two most direct forms of citizen participation in our system of self-government.

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  • Palabras Pinturescas: Ever heard of Loma Parda? It must have been bustling

    Well, I just can’t let this information hide out in my collection of books.  I knew I should have looked up “Loma Parda” in my copy of “New Mexico Place Names” by Robert Julyan. His description of this long-gone town says it all and I quote: “A settlement in the north bank of the Rio Mora, 6. Mi. NW of Watrous PO 1872-1900, mail to Watrous. Only silent ruins remain of this infamous village, once infamous on the easter plains a the “Sodom of the Mora.”

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  • Dispatch New Mexico - History will be written by young voters too

    The older you get, the more you appreciate history, because you’ve lived through so much of it.

    And in this year, history is being written in dynamic and unpredictable ways. So don’t blink or you might miss it.

    Here in New Mexico, the tumult isn’t so obvious. We mostly live in small villages, towns and cities, and that’s not where the action is. Consistent with history, most of the really big changes are going on in the urban centers of our nation, and with the young.

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