Thanks! -- a Column on Writing Columns

Today is the seventh anniversary of our move back to Las Cruces. Within months I started writing these columns. I doubt they've changed Las Cruces much, but they've changed me. 

Strangers express their appreciation of the columns and radio commentary in strong terms, thanking me. I feel a mixture of gratitude and the sense that I'm not doing enough to deserve such generous praise.

Nor do I deserve the insulting lecture someone gave me Thursday, “you people have your mind all made up” and “you don't want to listen to all the facts.” Actually, I do. As I explained, I do have strong views, but I try above all to be fair and accurate. 

This week saw an unusual number and variety of events and conversations generated by the columns. A county commissioner joked with regard to my column on DASO enforcing immigration laws that “you're dictating our agenda to us.” An acquaintance sent a two year-old spaceport-related column around to his mailing list. That column was an example of an occasional phenomena: sometimes someone tells me of a situation, or I read something, and quickly write a first draft; but when I talk to the subject of the column and hear the other side, I scrap the column or enrich it by articulating both sides. That one I muted, turning predictions of certain doom into questions with alternative answers.

Sometimes acquaintances and strangers express concern, asking whether I get a lot of abuse from people for my columns. (Not so much, actually.) 

Such concerns, like the criticism, spark inner questions about why I continue. Why do I? I suppose because public figures sometimes forget to tell the truth, and someone should remind them; and because I can fill that need reasonably well. 

In another life, I'd write more about coyotes, toads, and roadrunners, or appreciative (human) character studies. I'd write gentle, folksy columns full of practical wisdom – if I had any wisdom.

But stuff happens; and people tell me about it, sometimes confidentially, fearing retaliation. Like many of us (maybe more so, having grown up rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers) I like underdogs. Sympathy won't convince me inaccurate speculation is fact, but will motivate me to investigate and, if appropriate, shine what light I can into dark corners.

I really started these columns in 1975, as the Las Cruces Bureau Chief for the El Paso Times. They appeared three times a week. I called them, “130 South Water” – our address. Sometimes, passing there or contemplating the unchanging Organ Mountains, or noticing names of friends like Bob Munson, Jake Hands, Albert Johnson, Gerald Thomas, and Pete Domenici on buildings, I wonder how it would be, and how I would be, if I'd stayed here writing columns and stories for four decades. 

I love this place. Writing hundreds of columns has helped me know it and love it better than I otherwise might. I'm grateful for that. And for so much gracious support.

I'm also grateful to people who talk to me when telling the truth ain't what their bosses want done, or could be dangerous; to the Sun-News and to KRWG; and to people I disagree with. I think they usually see that while I may reject some of what they say, I do not reject them as people. Neighbors who disagree are still neighbors. Our candid disagreements are the best road toward truth. 

Thanks!

                                              -30-

[This column appeared in the Las Cruces Sun-News this morning, Sunday, 13 May 2018, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air during the week on KRWG and on KTAL-LP 101.5 FM.]

[I think a major thing I wanted to say was, "Thanks to you, reading this."  Writing these columns is a distraction, sometimes taking a lot of time, and you keep me writing them, for better or for worse.] 

[As to those earlier columns, I think I wrote them thrice weekly for the last two of my three years as Las Cruces Bureau Chief, February 1974 to January 1975.  I had advantages then: it was an earlier day; and when people saw this long-haired hippie show up at city council meetings and plunk his motorcycle helmet down on the press table, they quickly guessed they could trust the crazy guy to protect confidentiality under pressure.  So people talked to me.  It was an interesting time.]

[One column which changed after I got to talk with the subject was Doings at Dusty Spaceport (May 2015), which concerned Exos Aerospace.  I'd drafted one that piled on Exos as probably a fraud, but talking with John Quinn from Exos led me to mute the mocking, and end not with a conclusion but with a question: Will Exos will help save the Dusty Desert Spaceport? Tune in next year.

Greg Lennes reminded me of that a couple of months ago by attaching it to an email he sent around asking what had happened to a planned launch by Exos earlier this year.  So I just googled "Expos Aerospace launch" and got the company's website, where you can sign up for flights.  An April 2016 statement announced a five-year partnership with Spaceport America, describing Exos as "a leading developer of suborbital reusable space launch vehicles."

A more recent story recites, "Exos is planning a first launch April 7 from Spaceport America, flying to an altitude of at least 80 kilometers. Preparations for the launch will begin in the week leading up to it, Quinn said, as the rocket and support personnel travel from Texas to New Mexico.

"The rocket will be carrying payloads for customers, Quinn said, but did not disclose their names. One goal of the flight, he said, is to qualify to be a part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, which contracts with several companies to fly suborbital research payloads. The program’s current suborbital flight providers include Blue Origin, UP Aerospace and Virgin Galactic."

April 7 didn't see a launch, as far as I know, and Doug Messier on the blog "Parabolic Arc" says Spaceport America and Exos announced a launch for May 5 -- which passed recently, and if there was news of a launch I didn't see it.  This morning an email said the launch was now set for this weekend, televised, but I've no idea whether anything happened.

So by trying to be open-minded maybe I get conned sometimes into going easier on authorities.  On balance, I'm not overly troubled by that.  I am who I am, with plenty of faults, of which maybe that's one.  I do plan to look further into Exos: instinct told me it was a con job three years ago; I muted my comments to that effect (which would have been fun but might have been unduly harsh); and "con job" probably is too strong (Exos reportedly did complete "a fully integrated hot fire testing" in December), but three years have passed, with someone investing in Exos, and . . .   Anyway, I'll shoot for updating that column in a few months.]