Columns

After the nationwide economic panic of 1893, the lavish  Montezuma hotel and resort  closed, although several unsuccessful attempts were made during the next decade to revive the grand destination. Finally, in 1903, Montezuma closed its doors for good, no longer attracting the rich and famous, who were by then visiting other western resorts, and traveling abroad in luxurious steamships.

In the past few days, I performed two highly unusual acts: I chose to gift a relative and to friend someone on Facebook. You say this is no big deal?

Let me explain:

At the school I attended three-fourths of my life ago, Immaculate Conception, in Las Vegas, our English teacher, Margaret Kennedy (after whom Highlands’ Kennedy Hall is named), drilled into us the notion that there are verbs and there are nouns.

The railroad was not deterred by the 1884 fire that completely destroyed the first Montezuma hotel, a three-story frame structure built in 1882. A new four-story stone and brick hotel was immediately erected on higher ground and completed in 1885.

Facts are more important than opinions. That may seem like an obvious point, but given the times in which we live, it’s worth saying.

Straight news reporting is the most valuable contribution being made to the national discussion, but you wouldn’t know that by observing the media’s behavior.

I suppose it’s because the “most valuable contribution” isn’t always the most marketable. Opinion often sells better than fact.