Columns

A few days ago, my wife and I marked our four-year anniversary as residents of Las Vegas, New Mexico and my four-year tenure as President of New Mexico Highlands University. From my perspective, I’ve moved from total newbie to one not quite so new. I hardly think of myself as a long-term resident with deep family ties to this place, but I can now find my way to my own office, can locate some restaurants in town, and know all too well the road to Santa Fe and

Albuquerque.

I have a few impressions.
 

Health care is a right. Raise your hand if you agree.

That wasn’t exactly one of the hand-counts at last week’s Democratic debates, but I wish it had been. They came close, with questions about “Medicare for all” and other proposed reforms to our system of providing health services to people, both foreign and domestic, in America, and I heard a couple of candidates explicitly say it is a basic right. But the reality is, America is divided on this question, and it strikes at the heart of the issue.

Now add another thing to my list.

Today’s column is significant to me because it is numbered column 1000. Every week for over 19 years I have had a Just A Thought Column published. In order to maintain the sequence in my computer folder, I number each column. If you could see my list you would see the first column was given number 1 and then each column thereafter is numbered in sequence up to last week’s column which was given number 999.

Today’s column will be assigned the number 1000.

A number of years ago Work of Art featured an item on the use of “sapo” in New Mexico parlance. I’ve always known a sapo to be a toad, a relative of a frog.

But mainly, sapo, at least in our Railroad Avenue barrio represented a lucky shot. Even in those years, when my buddies and I were only pre-teens, we made “sapo” one of our favorite words.