Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Once again New Mexico is at the bottom of a list. “Kids Count 2023” is compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation with distribution and media handled by New Mexico Voices for Children. While it is not the report Rio Grande Foundation would compile, the 16 variables considered in do highlight issues regarding the well-being of New Mexico children. Sadly, like so many similar reports, the results are not good for our state. What is unique is the positive spin being applied by Voices for Children. As Voices for Children’s Amber Wallin recen...
The vermin that vandalized the Portales Islamic Center five times last month are probably not our community's high achievers. Statistics show they are not "focused on long-term goals (or) imbued with grit and determination," according to the Dolan Consulting Group, which provides training for police across the country. The research, according to Dolan, shows that most vandals are thrill-seekers, looking for an "emotional rush of the risk, and to lash out at authority. ... (M)ost are generally...
Have you been too cheerful lately? You might take the time to watch the Neflix documentary series, “Shiny happy people.” Seriously, you should watch it. I know some are warning against it: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Christians should never be afraid to look. While I’m at it, let me also recommend the documentary from “Christianity Today” magazine, “The rise and fall of Mars Hill.” If you’re a podcast listener, check out episodes 148 and 149 of the Bare Marriage podcast and hear the voice of a victim of so-called “purit...
Some of us remember it as the greatest football game ever played. Danny Villanueva was a big part of it. The Dallas Cowboys led the Green Bay Packers, 17-14, in that NFL Championship game of Dec. 31, 1967, that’s come to be known as the Ice Bowl. Gametime temperature was 15-below zero. The wind-chill factor was 48-below. One fan died of exposure to those elements. Players and fans suffered frostbite that plagued them the rest of their lives. Villanueva, the Cowboys veteran kicker, was the difference in his team’s lead with a 29-yard field goa...
Black Americans are a community of people that have endured abominable levels of trials, abuse and tribulations. Our experience in this country includes rivers of blood, mountains of sweat and countless numbers of anguished tears. As a Black American, I am descended from a people for whom the history of slavery, lynching, segregation, black codes, poll taxes, oppressive sharecropping systems and Jim Crow laws are historical facts deeply etched in the fabric of history. My ancestors were brought to America as slaves. I can only begin to imagine...
Barack Obama told a good joke the other day. He said he thought that the level of disinformation and misinformation online has gotten so dangerously high in the U.S. that we need to develop “digital fingerprints” so ordinary citizens can tell what’s truly true and know who’s not telling it. We? Did he mean “We the American people” or “We the politicians with all the power”? The ex-president of us all didn’t specify what government agency or allegedly nonpartisan public watchdog group he thought should get to decide what is the “truth” or ho...
It’s June 21, the longest day of the year, although God made one or two days longer (Joshua 10:12-14; 2 Kings 20:1-11; Isaiah 38:1-8). In both cases, God looked to his people’s best interests and, in Joshua’s case, he increased torment for his people’s enemies. I’d bet the Israelites thought, “When will this day ever end!” after the all-night march and despite the fact they, or actually God, was winning, although I suspect God gave them sufficient energy to finish the battle. God’s battle for Israel against evil was part of a war started in...
This is not a space that routinely applauds government intervention. If it doesn’t involve securing the blessings of liberty, government needs to back off. The recent actions of the city of Portales’ animal control department clearly fall within the U.S. Constitution’s introduction for how “We the people …” will consent to be governed. Nobody’s happy that city officials are planning to euthanize more stray dogs in a shorter amount of time. But we don’t need another Tucumcari incident in our communities. “People have been complaining about...
As if his political career wasn’t perverse and horrid enough, Donald Trump now holds the distinction of being the first former president in U.S. history to face federal criminal charges. Trump was arraigned last week on 37 separate counts over his handling of classified information, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements. Predictable, some high-profile Republicans have rallied to Trump’s defense. “Today is indeed a dark day for the Unit...
The Democrats and the liberal media were back in Trump Heaven last week. When Donald Trump was indicted on 37 charges related to the mishandling of classified documents, they couldn’t contain their joy or hide their biases. When Trump pleaded not guilty and walked free, the hopes of the permanently “Deranged Ones” at CNN and MSNBC were once again dashed. They wanted to see Trump put in shackles and leg irons and thrown into a jail cell for the next several years. During their saturation coverage of Trump, the unbalanced and unfair “jour...
I’m seeing an objection in short videos recently. It is an old Muslim argument, although non-Muslims make use of it, against Christianity: “Jesus never said he was God.” The charge is that Christians have wrongly raised Jesus of Nazareth to the level of divinity. We’ve made him our God, contrary to his own teachings and will. That’s the assertion. Part of the objection may be freely admitted. The Bible never records Jesus saying the words, “I am God.” (As an aside, before I address that in earnest, I’ll point out that Jesus is never recorded...
Seventy-five years ago this week, Clovis’ most famous athlete was settling in for a relaxing summer with family. He could not have imagined the challenges he would soon encounter. Jerry Nuzum had been away at college where he was the star halfback at New Mexico A&M in Las Cruces. Late in 1947, he’d decided on a career field. But first, the 1941 Clovis High School graduate was spending time in his hometown. “Mrs. Jerry (Mary) Nuzum and small daughters, Jerry Jan and Sandra, have arrived from State College, N.M., to spend the summer visiting in t...
Last month, the NAACP made waves for issuing a travel advisory for Florida in response to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ruthless efforts to whitewash Black history and severely curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. “Once again, hate-inspired state leaders have chosen to put politics over people. Governor Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida have engaged in a blatant war against principles of diversity and inclusion and rejected our shared identities to appeal to a dangerous, extremist minority,” Leon Russell, chair of the national NAACP...
Oil money, oil money. When you have as much of it as Saudi Arabia has, it can buy a lot of things – including a sacred American sports institution like the PGA. As all of us hackers know, the PGA Tour shocked the golf world last week by announcing it will merge with the LIV Tour, the upstart Saudi-backed professional golf tour that the PGA has been in a bitter legal fight with since last year. The details of the nearly $3 billion deal are still unknown. So is the impact it will have on the wallets of pro golfers and how much control it will g...
First, my wife approved of this article. We attend church in Logan, and typical of many happy couples, I drive while my wife applies her makeup. Probably everyone traveling regularly between Tucumcari and Logan on U.S. 54 knows about the perpetual bumpy spot. I learned early in our marriage that to have fewer hiccups in the harmony, it’s my job to warn my wife about upcoming bumps so whatever makeup she’s applying goes where she wants it. The eyeliner pencil poke in her eye was more traumatic for me than her. Hence, when I noticed there’s a sin...
Father’s Day is sneaking up on me. Since my dad died, there is a hint of sadness tied in with the gratitude I feel remembering my dad. This year, it’s compounded by the passing of my father-in-law George Head, who died a day before the fifth anniversary of my own dad’s passing. And about a month and a half before that, my brother-in-law George died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. This past weekend, generations of family gathered in Kingman, Ariz., to celebrate the lives of both Georges. As these things go, there were equal amounts...
He has been an outspoken and persistent critic of the COVID-19 vaccine. Mainstream media have described his views on the issue as misleading and dangerous. Instagram kicked him off its platform, accusing him of spreading misinformation about the vaccine. He once suggested vaccines and mask requirements were something Nazis would have implemented during the pandemic. He’s been known to associate with Donald Trump allies Roger Stone and Steve Bannon. And he’s an outspoken critic of President Joe Biden. “I just disagree fundamentally with him o...
Tina Turner, who died last month, was a pioneer and an artist who personified the word innovative. Like her contemporary, Little Richard, Tina Turner brought an uncompromised strand of Black Southern music, the sound of the Chitlin’ Circuit itself, into the lives of teenagers and adults around the globe. She garnered appeal across racial boundaries at a time when the nation was highly segregated, and she helped pave the way for future female artists including Gloria Gaynor, Beyonce, Melissa Etheridge, Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston, Mariah C...
Context. Perspective. Background. It’s not news to anyone that the major media consistently fail to provide any of those things when covering the burning political issues of the moment. Take, for example, the compromise the House of Representatives and the White House just made to settle the federal budget and debt-ceiling crisis. We know from the media that it will lift the debt ceiling for two years, make some minor spending cuts and avert a financial apocalypse that supposedly would have destroyed the U.S. dollar, crippled our economy and ca...
Is there a calling on your life? In my own denominational setting, that question is about two things specifically. Do you feel drawn in some way to pastoral ministry, or do you sense that God is calling you to be a foreign missionary? When Southern Baptists talk about being “called” that’s generally what we mean, and I wish we’d stop it. I wish we’d expand our vision. Full time Gospel ministry is a thing that God calls people to. But that’s uncommon. What about all the rest of the folks? Has God not called them? Of course. But here’s the...
I almost forgot cattle could swim until I saw their feed lot under water in Hereford last weekend. They weren't the only ones surprised to see so much water. We were all reminded why Running Water Draw northwest of Clovis has that name. And why Ned Houk Park needs a dam. And if you really want to see the power Mother Nature unleashed on us, take a look at the video on the Quay County Sun's Facebook page -- a bridge under construction between San Jon and Endee was destroyed by flash flooding...
The Jezebel of the Republican Party is at it again. Just when you thought she could not get any more disingenuous and despicable, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene engaged in some wild intellectual dishonesty by accusing New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of calling her the equivalent of the N-word. She also accused him of being “physically threatening” and deviously concocted an entire slew of falsehoods. For those of who are unaware, this month both Bowman and Greene engaged in what could be most aptly described as a verbal political spi...
What did you do to celebrate Memorial Day? How did you honor the soldiers, sailors and airmen who made the ultimate sacrifice to keep America safe, free and great for more than 240 years? My son Cameron, as usual, planned to take his daughters to a military cemetery and remind them who those fallen soldiers were and why America was worth fighting and dying for. Cameron’s kids – my grandkids – will be taught what I taught him and my daughter Ashley and what my father drilled into me. I remember how I first learned about the greatness of Ameri...
Monday is Memorial Day, when we remember those who’ve gone on leaving precious memories. We erect tombstones and statues to remember the great people in our lives and history, and since there’s little, if any new knowledge about history, we should respect history for what it is, learn from it and thereby move on to a brighter future. God is big on memorials for us to remember the good and the bad, and that bad can and will be overcome, so those who turn to the good will have the brightest of futures (Jeremiah 29:13-14, I love this passage as...
She married her high school sweetheart and best friend on June 23, 1948. Hundreds of people came to her wedding. Most of them had to buy a ticket. The event attracted a fair amount of media coverage. “More than1,900 baseball fans jammed Bell Park Wednesday night to see the Clovis Pioneers win their sixth straight game … and to witness the marriage of Pioneer center fielder Wilcy Moore to Miss Mary Arnold of Muleshoe,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. “The wedding ceremony at home plate was scheduled to get under way at 7:15, but at the tim...