US Ignores Responsibility in Fossil Fuel Divestment
Recently the fossil fuel divestment campaign added to their numbers the heirs of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, when the great-great grandson and great granddaughter withdrew their funds from oil investments. This is the latest indication that in fact there will be a turning away from the current course of self-ruin, even by the petroleum industry’s own elite. When the Rockefellers decide to turn their (green)backs on oil and coal, we must ask if this will make it easier for others of their ilk to do the same...
Screaming at the Mayor and City Council Is Where It’s At!
I really like it when ordinary citizens scream at city officials, there are mass demonstrations, people are arrested and carted off.
It seems when the civic volcano blows its top, that’s the only time the powers that be realize there’s a problem they must respond to.
Otherwise, the complacency is so thick, you could cut it with a knife.
Nothing really happens until the pressure builds again to the eruption point and citizens once more start screaming at officials. That sure seems true regarding the Albuquerque Police Dept. crisis...
3 Good Reasons Why You Should Object to the Santolina Subdivision
You probably haven’t heard of the new proposed subdivision “Santolina” and yet the Bernalillo County Planning Commission has been debating about its implementation for months. The Santolina subdivision is proposed to be built in the southwest portion of Bernalillo County on what is commonly referred to as the Black Mesa. The subdivision would cover almost 14,000 previously untouched acres with approximately 38,000 new cookie-cutter homes. Although you may not have ever heard of Santolina, you should object to it, and here’s why...
God Picks Candidates in This Here Legacy County, Bro
Are you for James Baird for County Sheriff? God is for James Baird, and if you are anywhere near being a sane, decent, upstanding, thoughtful, God-fearing human being, you will be too. You see, here in Legacy County we all know God favors certain candidates.
He’s up there in the sky marking His ballot even now. You will receive by divine agency a pre-marked ballot showing God’s actual highlighting, his revealed choices in upcoming county and state races.
Don’t worry. They’re all Republicans...
Lack of Mental Health Treatment, Facilities Has Consequences for Families like Mine
Several years ago, my teenage son, out of the blue, began exhibiting signs of mental illness. It was a cruel twist that most families don’t expect, but what followed the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, was the deepest cut of all. It was the Kafkaesque search for psychiatrists, and for treatment programs and facilities that would provide a sense of safety and a hope of recovery.
I called every psychiatrist in the phone book and couldn’t get him seen. I called my friend Nancy Jo Archer, then director of Hogares. She got Neil an evaluation, a treatment plan, a community support worker, a therapist, and a psychiatrist all available through her agency. Both Neil and I felt hopeful. But then Neil lost his therapist when Hogares was taken over by an Arizona company in the summer of 2013...
Playing the “Ground Game” in the North Valley
Tomas Serna was something of a regular. The 89-year old North-Valley resident called candidates, elected officials, ward heelers, volunteers who happened to come to his door whenever he had a thought—a thought about his benefits, his transportation problem, his health, his expired driver’s license or his daughter who was “no damn good.” He still believed politicians were there to help. As a result, his telephone number was on every call list, and his doorbell regularly rung by campaign volunteers. Now, in 2013, he was on the list of seniors who needed a ride to the polls to vote early in the local election. The low turnout elections could teeter on two or three votes so Tomas was in high demand when a perky field worker knocked on his door...
What Really Counts?
Rumor has it that Gubernatorial candidate Gary King is traveling around the state on a listening tour, hunkering down in every little burg and hamlet to hear people bitch about their problems. Doesn’t he get it?
These little people with their little issues don’t count anymore. The good and kind folks with the money are the People now. That and the companies are also Human.
If you have fifteen billion dollars, you are a human being. If you don’t have a job, or you are a teacher, or make less than two hunderd thou a year, you are just another member of the hoy polloy, the great unwashed, the ignorant masses, the general public...
Iguala
“I came home from work on April 3 and Alfredo was just gone,” Adrianna says. “His breakfast was on the table, nothing had been taken, not even his toothbrush.” They then tell me how they had gone to every town in the area, talking to police officials, checking jails and asking for Alfredo. I’m stunned because I thought that the wave of violence that swept through Palomas a few years earlier had disappeared. It sounds, however, that he and two cousins had been kidnapped and are now dead and buried somewhere out in the desert...
New Mexico Solar Businesses Ready to Roll with Clean Power
Over the last several days, anger has spread over news that the country’s largest methane leak is located right here in New Mexico, near the Four Corners region, and is three times larger than originally reported. The methane leak is attributed to gas production in the area and for many New Mexicans, this dangerous human health and environmental hazard represents a wake-up call for new energy policies in our state. Lucky for us, we’re not starting from scratch to address the issue...
“Oh, no, not again.”
My wife’s reaction was understandable. I hate giving bad news but sometimes you just have to face the miserable reality head on.
The miserable reality is that in recent days it has quietly developed that in two years the country will probably endure another Bush-Clinton shootout at the OK Corral.
With the exception of 2012, you have to go all the way back to 1976 to find a year in which a Bush or a Clinton (or both) wasn’t running for President...