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Columns

  • How many are we, really?

    Tuning in to election results a few years back, I suddenly wondered how the radio management ever expected listeners to glean the vote tallies the way the partial results were being spilled out.

    I was passing through another New Mexico town at the time, and I tuned in the radio station. The on-duty announcer rattled off something like this:
    “Jones now has 113 votes; Smith has 257; Brown has 412; and Martinez has 73.” How much more complicated could the radioman have made this spilling out of the votes so far?

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  • Celebrate Earth Day in Las Vegas

    On April 14, during the Seed Exchange at Luna, Miguel Angel asked if we would like to see plastic bags outlawed in Las Vegas. Not even half the audience raised hands. 

    Is this one more example of not wanting to be like Santa Fe? I hope not.

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  • I wish I could just do it all over again

    By Rick Kraft

    Two things I know. Today is the youngest you will ever be for the rest of your life. When the sun rises tomorrow you will be another day older.

    As you live your life day to day, it is my hope and prayer that you don’t live your life with regrets. There are two dimensions of this prayer for you. One involves dealing with events that have happened in your past and the other is avoiding events that could occur in your future.

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  • The time for courage to change is now

    From time to time, as I travel around my district and to other areas of the state, I hear criticism that the Legislature has not done enough to solve one problem or another. Take your pick: our economy, capital outlay, education, crime. The list goes on.

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  • Enveloped by drought and short-sightedness

    Oh, what a difference a year makes.

    Last year, the U.S. Drought Monitor map showed about half of New Mexico was in an “abnormally dry” condition, with only a tiny portion in the northeastern corner of the state actuall suffering from “moderate drought.”

    Now, that little corner of the state is suffering from “extreme” or “exceptional” drought conditions while most of the rest of the state is now in “severe” or “extreme” drought.

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  • A loud pop delays the show

    Just when I thought it was safe to close the chapter on the George Gershwin/Cole Porter performance by the Highlands University Choir at Ilfeld Auditorium, along comes another aspect of the performance.

    Last week’s column covered the unexpected power failure in that historic building. Those several minutes left the auditorium in darkness, except for the handful of illuminated “exit” signs throughout the building.

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  • N.M. homelessness — as seen by a Norwegian

    My name is Annika, and I am a volunteer at the Samaritan House in Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA. Currently, I’m studying at the United World college in Montezuma, but primarily, I live in Norway.

    I moved here in August 2017 to attend the World College, and since then I have been going to the shelter with a group of other people from my school, every week.

    Considering the background I come from, I was not very familiar with homelessness before coming here.

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  • Investing in a child is investing in the future

    A few years ago a 60 something-year-old man came to me for help. It was my first time meeting him. As an attorney having practiced law for over three and a half decades, I was ready to address his legal issues.
    I listened as he began to share his story. His issue was completely unrelated to his upbringing, but he began his story by saying “When I was seven years old my parents got divorced.” He proceeded to explain his current legal problem almost 60 years later.

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  • Do what works to provide student success

    By Charles Goodmacher

    Teachers and other educators across the nation say “enough” to chronic underfunding of public education. Here in New Mexico, educators await a positive outcome to the lawsuit against the State for failing to provide public schools the supports necessary for statewide student success.

    The National Education Association-New Mexico applauds every parent, school district board of education and the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund who bring the lawsuit.

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  • Poll shows New Mexicans want reforms

    In 2016, Americans threw a hand grenade into the nation’s body politic. Fed up with politicians in general and suffering from misinformation running amuck on social media, Donald Trump became that grenade and we’ve been dealing the consequences ever since.

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