The Miracle of Alfredo
It’s a miracle, says Pastor Galván as we talk about the sudden recovery of Alfredo Ortiz, one of the mental patients in his asylum in Juárez. The problem is that I don’t believe in miracles. So how did this man recover from three months of being catatonic?
Alfredo was born in Juárez on June 9, 1977, appears to be a humble young man and is a skillful worker. In April 2012, his family committed him to Vision in Action, this private mental asylum founded by Pastor Galván...
An Open Internet for All New Mexicans
Open Internet, also known as net neutrality, preserves our right to communicate freely online while enabling and protecting free speech. It means that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should provide us with open networks and not interfere with any applications or content that we access on our computers, phones, and other devices, allowing me to read my favorite blogs even if they criticize big telecom companies...
Holiday Shopping Goes Local, Independent
For those suffering from too much quality time with their families, the chain stores are poised to offer an escape by opening Thanksgiving Day. Before your dinner is digested, you can flee the table to vie for pole position at the big box entrance like Roman chariot drivers and prepare to do battle for one of those few really cheap “door-buster” flat-screens...
The Corporate Sleight of Hand and the ACA
According to the illusionist team Penn and Teller, one of the main principles in sleight-of-hand stage magic is "misdirection," whereas an audience's attention is lead "away from a secret move.” The distraction is necessary to make an audience believe something is happening when in fact it is not. On the current American political and economic stage we have a myriad of hucksters selling us a collective diversion from systemic inequalities and institutional injustices to the ‘reality TV’ baseness of political parody...
The Brave New World of New Mexico Education
The very first thing we need to do is privatize public education. We have to act with haste. Thankfully, there’s a model we can follow. We’ve privatized our prisons, and just look at all the money we shook out for the tax payers even though, for some reason, it costs us more to run the prisons now than when the government managed the penal system, but never mind that. Facts are not important. Kids are...
National Journal Article Reveals Governor’s Cloak
A recent story by Daniel Libit in the National Journal about the behind-behind the-scenes workings of the Martinez Administration provides further insight into a complicated agenda of well-financed deception that should sound off alarms in the minds and hearts of most New Mexicans.
To most of us who have a front row seat to the workings of state government, the article only reaffirms the hidden agendas and mean-spirited politics of what is commonly referred to as the “fifth floor.”...
Old Chemical Weapons to New Mexico?
The Panamanian government announced an agreement November 21 between the United States and Panama that could involve the disposal of old chemical weapons in the state of New Mexico. Panamanian Chancellor Fernando Nunez Fabrega told the international press that old weapons will be removed from San Jose Island and buried in the desert of New Mexico in 2014...
Art Collaboration Brings “Quantum Bridge” Mural to ABQ
Warehouse 508, 516 ARTS and The City of Albuquerque Public Art Urban Enhancement Program are celebrating the completion of a 180-foot long mural as part of a collaboration called Heart of the City. The mural was created by a team of youth apprentices from Warehouse 508 under the direction of lead guest artist Aaron Noble.
A celebration for the unveiling of the mural will be on Sunday, November 24, 2-5pm with refreshments and a chance to meet the artists...
The Kennedy Hype
I had intended to pass up the opportunity to join the coteries of commentators analyzing, scrutinizing and memorializing the 50th anniversary Friday, Nov. 22, of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But so much of what is being written and broadcast is so contrary to my own memories that I have decided belatedly to join the fray.
The assassination was one of these rare tragedies, like the death of Franklin Roosevelt or the destruction of the World Trade Center, that makes people remember all their lives what they were doing and where they were at that momentous moment...
Bullfighting and Border Crossing in Tijuana
Imagine what a surprise it was when my wife, Julie said that she wanted to go to Tijuana, Mexico. For months, she has been concerned about my monthly trips across the border (mostly Ciudad Juárez) but I have long wanted her to see what border life is like, especially in the safer environment of Tijuana.
The occasion was the visit of Julián López Escobar, “El Juli,” the world’s greatest bullfighter in my opinion and a very unique human being. Born in Madrid, Spain on October 3, 1982, his parents enrolled him in the Madrid School of Tauromachy when he was only nine years old...