Giving Ourselves the Gift of Gratitude

Sitting in Nessa’s, a fellow old man told me of a conversation with a neighbor, whose nonagenarian husband was sinking into dementia. My friend sympathized, and suggested that, even so, the four of them should get together for happy hour soon. His neighbor agreed, adding, “But these days we call it ‘Gratitude Hour,’ we’re so grateful to still be here.”

Practicing gratitude matters.

Yeah, life is tough. Time and age are merciless. So is capitalism. We are not only short-lived and insignificant beings clinging briefly to the edge of one of zillions of planets, but in our work, our diet, our health, our recreation and entertainment, we are at the mercy of vast corporations which use us as they can. Too, our world has closed in on us: the days when young persons could flee a dull or difficult home-life and hometown for the frontier died a century ago.

So what’s to be grateful for? We’ve each been granted a life. A span of years, with this marvel, a mind. A series of individual moments. Each moment, while we live it, is all there is. The past is clouded and no future is guaranteed. We build a life from that series of moments, by how we handle them. Just as many moments full of laughter and love carve a face with laugh lines, repeated moments of anger and envy carve a different face, unless we are Dorian Gray. And, more importantly, time carves our inner face accordingly.

It is not our good or bad fortune at work, or even in love, that determines such matters. We do. Each moment, even when we are not paying full attention, we choose.

Perhaps this is all taurine manure. Although I’m far from rich (or young, beautiful, or famous, nor can I dunk a basketball), chance has granted me a relatively comfortable existence. I do not live in Yemen or Gaza or Putin’s Russia, nor am I an untouchable in India or a Rohingya trying in Burma. I am not the friend who has been so devastated by Alzheimer's that she plays with her feces. I have a home, health, and something to eat. I do not have to work as a greeter in Walmart.

Yet we are all doing better than many and worse than many, in this way or that. That can anger us or simply amuse or bemuse us. As science and religions point out, it will pass. In a world of more fear and intolerance and greed and prejudice than we might wish, it’s essential not to take those qualities inside ourselves, as weapons with which to respond to life’s slings and arrows. Doing so only poisons us, without making us any more effective. Rather, practicing gratitude, not anger and envy, lets us consider each moment more clearly; and it may rather disarm others.

We chatted on radio recently with a wandering monk. When we asked, he said that he welcomed people’s intolerance, or other difficulties, as opportunities to strengthen his inner peace. While most of us are not wandering monks, we are always building or maintaining our ability to negotiate this very challenging game called life. Just as playing tougher opponents improves your bridge or pickleball (or football and video-game skills), we can use each experience, particularly the hard ones, to develop the muscles that let us do what needs doing without being distracted by others’ misconduct toward us.

                                           – 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 21April, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and will soon also be available on the newspaper’s website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/).]

[I guess the short form of the above would be “LIVE your life: even if it sucks, it’s a huge gift; and keeping that in mind can both improve its quality and extend it.” Apologies to readers who have have expected something more political or analytical.]

"Monk Reading Sutras in the Jokhang" 

© Peter Goodman 1987

[Funny thing about columns: often I’ve written drafts days or even weeks earlier, and interviewed a lot of people and rea
d a lot of documents in trying to be fair and accurate. Sometimes, as during the last two weeks, other stuff I’m working on isn’t quite ready for prime time yet, and nothing has come readily to mind (or life has intervened!) and it’s Thursday morning, with a column due in hours. I’ve no clue what it’ll be, and even wonder if I’ll not manage it this time. Last week, a few moments’ reflection led to starting one on the MAGA cult, and the importance of distinguishing between that cult and either conservatism or even the Republican Party, though for the moment the Cult controls the Party. This week, a longer period of reflection got me started on the column above.]

 

 

The Cult

With our government paralyzed by the MAGA Cult, how must we look to the world?

We can’t even approve paying our debts.

Sadly, but comically, the House Republican majority could barely elect a leader, then a second, who survives at the pleasure of a lady who says God is sending us messages with these earthquakes and eclipses.

Further, whatever our government agrees on can be scuttled instantly by the cult leader, who holds no office.

Mr. Biden, most experts, and almost all Republicans and Democrats in Congress believe that for the world’s security and ours, helping fund Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion is good. It’s costly; but Putin’s Russia invaded a sovereign country and threatens to invade its neighbors, whom we are treaty-bound to defend. Without risking U.S. soldiers’ lives, Ukraine has been weakening Russia militarily and perhaps averting invasions of its neighbors. Right or wrong, a majority of our leaders appreciate that. But the cult obeys its leader. No wonder Putin and China favor his election!

Our southern border is a problem. Reasonable minds differ on how best to solve it. A majority of Republicans and Democrats found a compromise they thought would greatly help. It included authorizing President Biden to close the border, which the Republicans (MAGA loudest) had been yammering for. They were prepared to vote, until the MAGA Cult Leader said “No!” Notably, he offers no reason that a productive compromise on this contentious issue wouldn’t be to our benefit.

He’s notorious for judging anything and anyone based on what helps him or hurts him. Allowing something good for us is bad for him because Mr. Biden, against whom the Cult Leader will run in November, might get some of the credit. That all the other leaders think it’s good for our country, and that acting like grownups might marginally increase citizens’ respect for Congress, mean nothing. (Venality is an occupational hazard in politicians; but most have conscience, ethics, or faith holding that in check.)

I’m not against dissent. I’ve strongly argued that certain wars were bad for the nation. The Cult Leader offers no serious argument that having Ukraine defend against Putin doesn’t benefit us.

Health care is notoriously abysmal here, compared to other nations. In 2010, the national government adopted a plan that would help significantly, although it would be far from solving the problem. Some Republicans opposed it, as with Social Security, but then saw that it clearly benefited people, and accepted it. But the Cult Leader remains obsessed with repealing it. It was the signature achievement of President Barack Obama, a Black man who, the Leader felt, had once insulted him at a public dinner.

We progressives poke fun at the Cult, but understandably worry. It could run this country, perhaps for the rest of our lives. The Leader has no respect for the Constitution.

Many Republicans say the Cult isn’t even conservative, and that the Leader spent wildly while in office. Since the Leader’s election in 2016, they’ve lost Senate seats, and governorships, and the Leader, lost the Presidency, as incumbents rarely do.

But inflation caused by two wars might enable the Cult to win in November. I don’t say Biden’s blameless. Since October, I’ve said that Israel’s tragically excessive response to Hamas’s terrible massacre of civilians might elect MAGA. Biden has let Netanyahu lead him by his nose, but has done much good. He’s also decent and sane.

                                             – 30 --

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 14April, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and and will soon be available on the newspaper’s website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/).]

[The MAGA Cult is not the Republican Party, although certainly it now controls the Party, and may some day destroy or evict non-MAGA Republicans.

Cult? How do you tell a cult? Blind obedience to the Leader, and subordinating not only one’s though but one’s entire well-being to his. That includes “conservatives abandoning their most cherished beliefs: republicans and military folk once believed in confronting a threat to world peace and allies’ security, so much so that they launched lunatic wars against Viet Nam and other small nations (and they honored our war dead); conservative Republicans preached respect for the whole Constitution (not just the 2^nd Amendment!); Christian leaders at least purported to honor Jesus and his words (although some managed to harmonize those in their minds with human slavery) and respected men for their honesty, fortitude, loyalty to their wives, respect for Jesus’s example, humility, and care for the poor; and “fiscal conservatives” preached tightness with public funds, not corruption and a heyday for large corporations. But all beliefs fall by the wayside when following the Leader is paramount.

A handy dictionary defines “cult” as a system of religious worship or “an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers.” Admirers venerate Mr. Trump greatly. They lose their senses. They donate hard-earned cash to help him, a supposed billionaire, avoid accountability for his defaming a woman he bodily assaulted, violations of financial and election laws, violations of national security rules regarding documents, and even fomenting a small insurrection. (Jeez, he’s been busy!) They even abandon their faith and their patriotism, or twist those into unrecognizable shapes so as to pretend still to embrace them.

Protecting our young is supposedly one of our deepest instincts. Like the children of Hamelin, they will even follow him over the cliff of climate-change denial, endangering their own children’s well-being. ]

[Speaking of parents, this would be the 105^th birthday of the young ex-Marine in this picture. Whom I loved during his life, despite some pretty strong disagreements during my youth, and honor now.]

 

 

It's Time for Las Cruces to Re-Start its Oversight Committee

In 2018 alleged misconduct led the City to enact the Accountability in Government Ordinance to protect against “fraud, waste, and abuse.”

The ordinance (Municipal Code Section 2-179) created an Inspector-General and an Oversight Committee to keep a close eye on city spending. Both make sense: Las Cruces’s annual budget exceeds half a billion dollars. It spends this public money on a variety of salaries, contracts, supplies, and costs. With 1600 employees, that’s a lot for anyone to keep track of.

This ordinance was mandatory. Provisions read, “The committee shall consist of [three city resident members, one each from accounting, law enforcement, and professional management/business] . . . The mayor and one councilor . . . shall be nonvoting ex officio members. . . . As vacancies on the committee occur, the council shall appoint new members. . . . The committee shall meet at least four times per year,”

“Shall” means what your father meant when he raised his arm in a ready-to-spank position as he told you to do something. Legally, it doesn’t mean “if you feel like it” or “if the wind is blowing just right, could you please . . . ?”

The city hasn’t done it. Management’s years-long delay in hiring the required inspector-general was widely reported. After a search, the City hired a really topnotch gent, who’d been a GS-14 at the DEA, but perhaps Pili didn’t exactly welcome him. He resigned while “on probation.” Pili then hired Charles Tucker, sans search, off the Oversight Committee.

The committee functioned, but last met in September 2023. Chair Jack Eakman is its only current member. In a meeting last August, city councilors acknowledged what others had alleged, that Ifo Pili didn’t much like oversight.

Has the City really tried? It shouldn’t be hard to find an accountant or a lawyer or ex-cop. Have they even called the Southern New Mexico Bar Association? The City tells me that it made efforts, but “It was determined that the ordinance needs some revisions, and it would be better to make those revisions before appointing new members.” Revisions will go “to City Council at a future work session in the coming months.” Translation: “Later, kid!”

This wasn’t a do-nothing committee. Eakman declined to discuss specifics or name names, calling that confidential (although I understand Ifo was meant to publish committee reports). I asked whether the committee had uncovered “mismanagement and misappropriation of funds.” He replied, “Absolutely. And fraud, waste, and abuse.” Whether that saved us $1 a year or $1 million, that’s money not being recovered currently, and problems not being identified, because of management sluggishness.

Basically: some city folks screwed up, or worse; investigators found the city wasn’t keeping track of its money (our money) well enough and suggested an oversight committee; city council created one; but management has put the committee to sleep for now.

That’s a problem. This committee is an important tool to spot and prevent carelessness and corruption. I hope councilors feel some urgency about it. One guessed “revisions” might include loosening the requirements, to facilitate appointing committee-members; but “some future time in months” doesn’t sound urgent. Maybe a citizen or group will take some legal action to force Las Cruces to follow a Las Cruces City Ordinance calling for good-government.

I hope Mayor Enriquez will light a fire under someone to get the Oversight Committee two more members soon. Drafting “revisions” shouldn’t take six months.

                                – 30 –

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 7April, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/).]

[The city needs to do this. Further delay to June or July isn’t necessary. It can’t take that long, at this point, to get the subject into shape for a meaningful discussion, with a draft ordinance on the table to focus that discussion. It’s already been six months! The further delay means probably we’ll have spent a full year in violation of our own ordinance before (perhaps) coming back into compliance. I’m just not seeing a good excuse for such an extensive delay.]

[I’m guessing here, and not stating a fact or advocating anything, but the delay to date and the need to amend the ordinance may be related. One councilor told me she’s been asking acquaintances who are lawyers, ex-cops, or accountants to consider it, and that’s yielded no applications so far. So maybe they’re considering easing the requirements. Might be necessary, although I’m still guessing management hasn’t made serious efforts to fix this. (Maybe Ikani will.) And how to loosen up the requirements while still making sure to have savvy folks on the committee will take some thought. One idea would be to loosen the residency requirement so that a member need only reside within a few miles of the city limits. I know several great candidates who live in, say, Talavera.]

[On another topic I’ve written about a little, the city was finally going to have a work session [Monday, 8 April] on evidence that Memorial Medical Center is not performing satisfactorily under its contract with city and county. I even declined the Monday afternoon bridge game to attend. But now, I’m told, MMC has asked for more time to prepare. Time they might not need if answers that would be both true and acceptable to the city and the public were easy to form. Anyway, if you were planning on attending, do something fun instead.]

Main Street 1885

 

Dancing to Corporate Tunes Sabotages our Health, Community, and Well-Being

We’re in a battle with ourselves to minimize for our kids the damage we’ve done to our environment.

So I was startled to read a recent op-ed chortling with delight over the wonders of petroleum and plastics.

The writer looked like a nice young person, but willfully ignorant. What would she say if her great grandson could speak back through time to her, from his climate-change ravaged world of 2094, and ask how she could have written such things? Sure, our state does currently depend financially on oil and gas; but that’s like taking some dangerous medicine, with serious known side effects, to recover from something worse. (Chemotherapy saves lives, but we don’t rush back for more once the cancer is gone!) Petroleum is a known poison to us and our world, but essential to our civilization. Working to kick that addiction is just as urgent as with fentanyl. In 2094, our descendants will be struggling as desperately to get to Canada, just as some folks now risk everything to get here. Let’s hope they’re treated decently.

I’m told that an indigenous elder, long ago, seeing the influx of white people, said that there would come a day when you could no longer dip your cup in the river and drink. That sounded crazy. Now we take for granted a highly unnatural world in which dipping our cup into almost any river would be unwise. A world where sometimes the air is too thick to breathe. A world in which most people mostly eat “food” full of chemicals bearing little relationship to nutrients.

Gretchen Morgenson’s book, These Are the Plunderers, brilliantly describes how private equity is savaging health care. Barons may do the same for the plunderers of our farmland. Walmart has a share of the grocery market equal to the combined shares of corporations standing 2^nd through 8^th on that list. The “system” is cheating and poisoning us in a variety of ways.

We try to participate as little as possible. We buy much of our food at the Farmers’ Market. We patronize Toucan as much as we can. We struggled to support the Mountain View Co-Op and mourn its passing. Eat what huge trucks needn’t bring here.

With so many wonderful local restaurants, it’s no sacrifice to avoid not only fast food joints but all the chain restaurants. Coffee at Milagro, Nessa’s, Grounded, and the Bean. Except when traveling, I haven’t set foot in Starbucks for years,.

I prefer the quirky diversity of local places to bland rooms that are identical to thousands around the country; economically, we keep our money here, where local restaurant owners will spend much of their profit, rather than sending it to some coastal corporate headquarters; monopolies, if we let them, monopolies will jack up prices out of sight; and I can ask a local grower how s/he grew what I’m buying, and if something’s wrong my complaint will be heard.

While we carefully watched for Communists, corporations robbed us daily and changed our world. We let it happen. But even now we can resist, and look out for ourselves, by generally favoring what’s local, what’s smaller, and what’s simpler, with a smaller carbon footprint. If feasible, by walking and bicycling, by composting, by limiting water use, by spending a moment reading food ingredients.

By recognizing that all those Super Bowl advertisers aren’t our friends, necessitating a certain alertness, and independent thought.

                                  – 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 31 March, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/).]

[Sorry if this column is a little muddled, or scattered, maybe trying to cover several different points. I do feel that corporations have more control of us than they need.]

[Perhaps the first point to make is that our Constitution was admirably constructed to prevent our government from abusing us as the British Empire had abused the colonies, and from having our elected president crown himself king. (Yes, nothing’s foolproof, and a nation of fools certainly could vote in a would-be tyrant, their elected congressfolk and his appointed justices could ignore or weaken all safeguards, and perhaps even cancel the “two terms only” amendment or else let his spouse or flunky “run for President” and technically hold the office while leaving decisions to the tyrant.)

However, our freedoms, health, and well-being now are most infringed by the huge corporations that provide our food, medicines, entertainment, clothing, transportation, means of communication, household goods, air and water pollution, and assorted trinkets and poisons. Mindless state governments are a distant second, although they tend to be more openly vicious and their legal arrows sure hurt plenty of women, poor folk, and folks with unconventional genders.

Because our constitution sees corporations and “private property,” and even “persons,” it was written to protect them rather than control them and hold them to account. Similarly, it was written by the representatives of thirteen states to protect those states as much as the people, and didn’t even bother with the Bill of Rights until public sentiment seemed to require it as a condition for adoption of the document.

But that’s another potential column.

Fact is, we have partnered with profit-seeking corporations and politicians often paid by those corporations to form ourselves an unhealthy and inequitable society. I guess I connect up several problems with that because I feel strongly about all of them. Not all are even anyone’s conscious intent, but they happen. As mentioned, we can dip our drinking cup in few rivers, and often can’t drink our own municipal drinking water. Communities are dissolving under the sad combination of having more and more decisions about us made by corporate chiefs and political flunkies, local news deserts getting further dried out by corporate recognition that local newspapers and radio discussion isn’t terribly profitable, we are subject to monopoly pricing, and various forms of pollution. Consequences include not only dying species, rampant illness, and incresing inequalities, but a loss of community, a loss of autonomy, a loss of our connection with nature, including our own natures. ]

Fraying Freedoms

Freedoms are fraying.

Current examples include book-banning, Otero County Commission’s citizen censorship, and a New Mexico order limiting free speech.

Nationally, book-banning is on the rise. As in a recent local example, it’s mostly a small conservative group. It’s not someone reading a book and getting disgusted or offended. Partially sparked by “Copycat” bans, book bans are up 33% this year, mostly censoring discussions of race, sex, and gender identity. It’s even struck fine literature like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye?

The Otero County Commission, during Couy Griffin’s tenure, was Trump Country. In public input, some crazy guy said the 2020 election wasn’t stolen. The sheriff hustled him roughly out of the chambers. Matthew Crecelius wasn’t just any citizen. He was a veteran, an ex-MP. He had also objected to the banning of library books. The ACLU of New Mexico helped him win a $45,000 apology in court recently.

Meanwhile, Governor Lujan-Grisham, likely with good intentions, issued Executive Order 2022-118, adopting as state law an overly broad definition of antisemitism that will chill free speech.

For years, Israeli lobbyists have been pushing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA’s) definition of antisemitism, in what a panel of scholars called, “a movement seeking to redefine and curtail global conversations through the misappropriation and mobilization of legitimate concerns.” Bigotry is a legitimate concern, but the misleading definition can be used as a weapon against legitimate political dialogue.

Therefore been dozens of attempts to sell governments, universities, and major organizations on the definition. Assessing it, a team concluded, “The IHRA definition is fundamentally unsuitable for adoption” and recommended rejecting it because it didn’t “reflect the historical phenomena of antisemitism fully, didn’t “reflect the current realities of antisemitism,” and “has been, and could continue to be, used to suppress freedom of speech.”

For example, the definition forbids “Calling Israel a ‘racist endeavor.’” Whatever Zionists originally wanted, even many Jews call Israel an apartheid state now. Palestinians mostly can only be second-class citizens. Israel may say that’s necessary for security; but South Africa retained apartheid partially for security, lest Blacks, given more rights and freedom, might butcher Whites.

I find “Comparing Israel to the Nazis” both tasteless and inaccurate, but if I had family in Gaza, why couldn’t I compare Israel’s slaughters to Nazi slaughters? A major Israeli general has done so, publicly. Is he antisemitic?

I would distinguish what Israel’s is doing in Gaza from “genocide.” But others disagree. How many tens of thousands of civilian deaths would make that a legitimate question? No amount, says our guv.

Hating who I am differs fundamentally from hating what I do. Anti-Antisemitism traditionally, means punishing or mistreating people simply because they’re Jewish. Further, we mustn’t hold any Jew or Palestinian here responsible for misconduct there.

A New York Congressman has urged Congress to enact this restrictive standard. He has the chutzpah to shout that it’s completely unrelated to free speech! It’s not a free-speech issue because it could lead to people getting harmed. But Gazans are people, too.

We’d let a Tutsi or Armenian accuse Hutus or Turks of attempting genocide. No nationality should have some special privilege against having its bad conduct called out by others, particularly victims. Let public opinion or courts figure out the truth. New Mexico law should not outlaw the debate!

Governor, please don’t let free speech get chopped up by a definition, accepted by you with good intentions, that was designed as a weapon.

                                  – 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 24 March, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website on the newspaper’s website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/).]

[The definition under discussion, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (“IHRA”) definition, can be found in full here. Although the IHRA website says clearly that criticism of Israel for doing things any country would be criticized for are NOT antisemitic, the definition is susceptible to being used to prevent or punish such speech, and has been so used.]

[Nothing in the column should be construed as “taking a side” in the overall controversy in Palestine / Israel. I understand each side’s arguments, and the pain everyone on both sides has endured, but I can’t defend what Hamas did on October 7 and I can’t defend what Israel is doing now. (I do understand that Hamas has won, in the sense that Israel is doing just what Hamas hoped it would, chilling the rapprochement between Israel and its neighbors, and the deterioration in the world’s opinion of Israel is everything Hamas could have hoped for. I also do understand that Hamas and Netanyahu have been two major impediments to any kind of “solution.” ]

How to Start Reducing Hyper-Partisonship

People are tired and frightened.

Yeah, we always are. People are more than usually tired and frightened.

We are tired of the often vicious hyperpartisanship. In polls, folks of all political persuasions loathe congress and desperately wish to cool off the red-hot partisanship.

Part of that is the viciousness. Folks who blame Donald Trump for that are not facing the whole picture. Sure, he’s exacerbated things; but it started while he was still just gouging tenants and workers around New York.

The base for most hatred, in our personal lives and our politics, is fear. A radio station once gave me a manual for talk radio. It said success required making your audience fear someone, then convincing them that you are the only one who can save them from what they fear. That creates devoted listeners.

Fear is part of us. We come into this busy, complex world yowling, clueless about our surroundings, and helpless. For a long time we’re children, dimly aware (until about 16, when we know everything) of how little we really understand. Our parents protect us, but necessarily teach us we need protection. (The many parents who abuse their kids, psychologically and otherwise, wreak more acute havoc.) Schools, particularly high school, exacerbate our fears: not too sure who we are yet, we get reminded how inadequate we are by other kids whose inner fears have led them to band together and reassure themselves by harassing or bullying those they can.

As adults, we may (or may not!) have comfort zones: family, workplace, bowling or bridge club, church, mosque or synagogue, reading group. Beyond those, the world feels dangerous. Free exploration of ideas may also feel dangerous, or just be something we lack time and patience for. So, more and more, we rely too much on political party or blogger or journalist. As we chose an allegiance in school, or as prisoners do, we become Republican or Democrat, or some subgroup treat not just overtly political issues but all issues, one of two ways: learn what X thinks and shout it; or learn what Y thinks and shout the opposite. In one move, we express loyalty to the group and proclaim to the world (and our inner voices) “No, I’m not lost and confused!!”

Ethnic hatreds are part of that. Considerably less so, I hope and believe, than in my youth. But the problem is wider: those who see things differently, do things differently, believe differently are dangerous. Fear is foolish, but powerful.

How can we push for the reasonably non-partisan and civil world we want? Push ourselves in that direction. Listen to folks we disagree with. Talk to everyone. Start with a smile, because you’re contacting a fellow human being. Recognize how much you each love your children, New Mexico desert, the Organ Mountains, and the sports, arts, hobbies, or causes to which you devote yourselves. Those children have different names, carpentry isn’t oil-painting, people ride horses, dirt-bikes, or bicycles, you pet a dog or a cat, but you both feel the same. You both want a better and more peaceful world, particularly for those children.

Find those common points. Laugh. Appreciate each other. Truly see each other. Then talk about Biden and Trump in that context. Not as antagonists, but fellow humans seeking the best course.

I hardly find anyone who can’t share a laugh, a sunset, or a ballgame, or teach me something.

                                      – 30 --

[The above column appeared Sunday, 17 March, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and will soon be on the newspaper’s website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/).]

[ Guess I have little to add here, except a stanza from a poem:

    An ancient Chinese zen master

    visited hell at suppertime.

    Tables laden with fine food, but

    chopsticks three feet long. All the food

    fell to the floor. No one could eat.

    In heaven, same problem – but souls

    simply fed each other and laughed.

(I later learned that Jewish lore includes a rabbi having a very similar experience.  Anyway, I guess I’ve never seen a reason to let our differences blind us to our common humanity. Maybe something about how I grew up. Doesn’t mean I don’t speak up, very directly, particularly if I hear anything that sounds racist. ]