Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court got me to thinking about other African-American women who have made their mark on American history. There are many, including lesser-known women such as the late Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to be appointed to a federal judgeship. In her day, she played a pivotal role in desegregating Southern institutions of higher learning, critical to ending the era of Jim Crow. Then there are famous Black women like Rosa Parks. In 1955, she refused to give up her seat to a...
It’s starting to feel more and more like summer, a time that’s ripe for weekend getaways. And if you’re like me and enjoy the “hidden treasures” of our state, here’s one you might enjoy: Mills Canyon in Harding County. It’s tucked away in the grasslands of northeastern New Mexico, in the most sparsely populated county in the state. The park is managed by the U.S. Forest Service and includes one of the most rugged stretches of the Canadian River in northeastern New Mexico. It’s within the Kiowa National Grasslands, where the Canadian River...
All this national news about Supreme Court judges has me thinking about the judges who make day-to-day differences in our lives, namely, the lower court judges who live and die among us. As a journalist, I’ve known many judges through the years, and have bittersweet memories of one district judge in particular. I came to know him quite well as a reporter in Conway, Ark. His name was Watson Villines, a young man in his 30s who took the higher standards of his job quite seriously. He followed the law in his courtroom, but he also sought to e...
I firmly believe that the greatest contribution to my daughters’ education wasn’t in helping them get through high school or even college. It was in teaching them a love for reading. Often it came as bedtime stories by Dr. Seuss, or one of the tales of the Berenstain Bears, or through a Japanese children’s book I couldn’t read but their mother could. Whatever it was, they came to look forward to it every night and their love for books grew with time. As parents, we didn’t teach them to read, but by the time they were old enough for school th...
Recently, I read an obscure little book I think is worth writing about. It suggests Billy the Kid lives on — genealogically. The book is titled “Billy the Kid’s Kid — The Hispanic Connection” and was written by Elbert A. Garcia, who claimed to be the descendent of Billy the Kid. Garcia, who died a couple of years ago, wrote it mostly for his family. It lacks the proof needed for a decisive contribution to the real history of the Kid, but it does offer up a perspective worth considering. Much has been written about Billy the Kid, some as fact-b...
Back in the 1950s, in the thick of the Cold War, Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union at that time, famously said, “We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within.” Of course, they didn’t destroy us. The U.S. ultimately won the Cold War and saved the world for democracy. But it’s a new day now, and such a threat may be more real than ever before — not because of the threat that Russia now poses through cyber-attacks and military incursions, but because of the dumbing d...
Who would’ve thought that the Soviet Union would rise from the ashes and re-establish itself in Eastern Europe once again? It’s now clear that is exactly what Russia President Vladimir Putin wants to do. He has reportedly said the Soviet Union’s fall was “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the (20th) century” and his actions are speaking louder than his words. So far, he has invaded the former Soviet “possessions” of Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014, and Ukraine in 2022. It’s an opportune time for his ambitious expansion; the U.S. is in...
Last week ended with big New Mexico news, several times over. The governor surprised the state by lifting the mask mandate. The speaker of the House announced he is voluntarily stepping down. And the 30-day legislative session ended with a mixed bag in the 11th hour of legislative wrangling at the Roundhouse. All in an election year that is still stacked to favor of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. In historic terms, you can’t call it an overly productive legislative session that adjourned last week. The Albuquerque Journal tallied up 64 bil...
It’s hard to be optimistic about the world these days, but I still try. A rise in nationalism is not only ripping into the fabric of democracies, it’s making a global effort to save our earth seem impossible. Nevertheless, my belief in humanity’s problem-solving abilities was restored the other day when I ran across a TED Talk featuring Dr. Ilissa Ocko, a climate scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund who spoke on how we can mitigate climate change by tackling methane first. According to Ocko, “Cutting methane is the single fastest...
As a professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Dr. L.T. Williams had a way of making history multidimensional. He gave history meaning for the present-day world. As a student pursuing my degree at UALR, I recognized his teaching talents early on. Initially, I took his course in U.S. history up to the Civil War and loved it so much that the next semester I jumped straight into his second U.S. history overview, from the Civil War to the present day, then I delved into both of his Black history classes, and another on the...
To steal a quote from former GOP President George H.W. Bush, the Republican Party of New Mexico is in “deep do-do” these days, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better anytime soon. Already the Republican Party is powerless statewide, since the Democrats control both legislative chambers as well as all statewide offices from the governor on down. But it’s recent news out of Washington, D.C., that has the state GOP stepping in its own mess. Last week the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capi...
This nation has been divided over the “facts” for some time now, but does that mean we’re divided over telling the truth, too? Used to be, Americans valued honesty, even if we didn’t always practice it so well. We said things like, “Honesty is the best policy,” “A man’s word is his bond,” and “If you always tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said.” But that was then, and this is now. Used to be, politicians and used car salesmen were among the least respected professions, because of their perceived lack of honesty. Now, decepti...
Sometimes politicians govern. Sometimes they campaign. Most of the time, it’s hard to tell the difference. Take, for example, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s legislative agenda for this year’s 30-day session. It’s ambitious and aggressive, and just in time for her re-election bid. In her first three years in office, Lujan Grisham has accomplished a lot, thanks to her party’s domination of both legislative chambers and a growing surplus in state revenues. This combination of power and money gives her the ability to push a big agenda in...
New Mexico’s 30-day session begins Jan. 18, and while its emphasis will be on the state budget, the governor can add to the legislative “call” and already has. On the first anniversary of last year’s attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that she and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver will be pushing for voting rights legislation similar to what’s been languishing in Congress since last year. In the U.S. Capitol, Republicans are holding up the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, but here in N...
Seems to me, 2021 began on Jan. 20. That’s when Joe Biden was sworn in as president. Because of Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results, opposition to Biden’s election turned into an attempted coup on Jan. 6, followed by the most hurried and justified presidential impeachment in U.S. history (that’s what should happen whenever a sitting president tries to remain in office by force). By the time Biden’s inauguration came around, Washington, D.C., was a fortress of security — the violence had been quelled and the nation bega...
Christmas is exhausting. These days, as a man teetering on old age and living alone most of the time, I’m just not motivated to get all dressed up for these holidays. My adult kids are having their own Christmases elsewhere this year, and I’m way too busy with work anyway; I don’t have time for a big holiday. I’ll be fine with a nice nap on Christmas Day this year. Not that Christmas is without depth for me, because it still means a lot to me — both as a religious and a secular holiday. When I was growing up, Christmas Day was celebrate...
If you think New Mexico’s commitment to alternative energy sources is evident only by the wind turbines and solar farms going up, think again. Hydrogen gas is on the way. Earlier this month, officials with BayoTech Inc., alongside Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, unveiled the Albuquerque-based company’s first “hydrogen-generating hub” — the first of many the company plans to help build in the U.S. and Great Britain over the next three years. BayoTech’s CEO said the company’s goal is to be the largest hydrogen distribution company in the world — a...
Sound the alarm! Gas prices are going up! Throughout my life, I’ve noticed a certain obsession Americans have with gas prices. I used to tease my father for driving out of his way just to save a couple of cents on a gallon of gas. I told him that he probably spent more money (and time) driving across town to the cheaper gas station than he saved at the pump, but he was unwavering in his search for the cheapest gas possible. To this day, I know guys who can make an entire conversation out of the price of gasoline. The media don’t help, sho...
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I grew up on them. They were the first thing I learned to make in the kitchen. That and a glass of milk. Microwaves hadn’t been invented yet. Playing basketball on a dirt patch in our back yard. That’s where I learned to dribble and shoot with one hand. And football in our front yard. When no one else was around, I’d take the hike from an imaginary center, drop back and throw to the trees, believing that I was the star quarterback for the Arkansas Razorbacks, the only college team that mattered in the unive...
Every year I write about Thanksgiving with a hope that I can avoid, or at least minimize, my political commentary, opting instead to make an annual kumbaya column, writing about what’s close to my heart in advance of my favorite holiday. At least I try. This year, however, I freely admit I can’t do it. The things for which I’m grateful are just too politically tainted this time around. Maybe it’s a sign of the times that my worldview is undeniably political, because the fight for “truth, justice and the American way” (as the a-political Superma...
Forget what the polls say. President Biden is getting things done. Some on the left say his accomplishments are too little too late, while others on the right cry socialism and foul play. But let the record show that, so far, Biden’s been an effective leader. In less than a year, he has managed the pandemic and a massive vaccine rollout — not as well as some would have hoped but far more competently than his predecessor. If you ask someone like me — a card-carrying, fully vaccinated recipient of some impressive science — you’ll hear that, whe...
The port city of Glasgow in southern Scotland is a happening place right now. So much so that even the governor of a small state feels she must be there. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham went to Glasgow for the first week of the United Nations’ conference on climate change to represent New Mexico’s interests on the world stage. She hails from a state that’s part of the problem and part of the solution. We’re part of the problem in that we’re a big producer of oil and gas, major emitters of carbon into the atmosphere, and we can’t quite wean oursel...
The divisions in our nation mostly lie along urban and rural lines. Why is that? Recently I spent a week in Memphis. It’s famous for Beale Street and the Blues, Elvis’s Graceland and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, but as is the case with any famous city, it’s so much more than what it’s known for. The Greater Memphis area population is about 1.3 million, but the latest Census count puts it at 633,104 inside the city limits. It should be no surprise that, in 2020, Biden won big there, carrying all of Shelby County with 64.4% of the...
Since this pandemic has upset the economic applecart and challenged the actual value of work, maybe we should consider some radical new ideas about how to compensate people. So, after being influenced by a week of workaday pleasures with a granddaughter, whose eyes are just beginning to see the magnificence of life on earth — let’s make up a utopia, where everyone lives off the generosity of each other. Instead of stimulus checks, let’s give out gratuity checks, the catch being we can only spend them on tips and bonuses. Teachers and child...
In 2020, the frontline in “the battle for the soul of America” was the election between Joe Biden, who spoke of that battle many times, and Donald Trump, who spoke about how it was all rigged. Now, that battle seems best viewed through the prism of two big and powerful states: Texas and California. On the surface, it looks like Texas is winning. The 2020 Census shows its population grew enough for two additional congressional seats, while California lost a seat for the first time in, well, forever. But politically, California is solidly Dem...