New Years Resolutions Revisited

Shifting word-processing files around in preparation for changing computers, I spotted once called "Column 2019 01 01 - New Years' Resolutions" -- a column I'd published in the Las Cruces Sun-News and elsewhere at the start of this year.  I wondered whether revisiting it might be worth a column in January 2020.  It's at least a blog post, with the year-old column in regular-type and the comments bold-faced:

In 2019, I will be more mindful, contemplative, grateful, and kind.

Mindfulness? Hitting a tennis ball, I know to keep my head down as long as possible. Driving, I try to be aware of everything around me, and how fast it's moving.

Can I manage that same mindfulness in all that I do? Be as wholly present washing dishes or watering the vegetables as I am playing ball? 

I get a pretty mixed report card on this one.  I'd give myself a C, maybe a B-.  I still aspire to improve -- even as the passing years augur a decline in my capabilities.  

Contemplation is good, both for itself and for its results – although best when I neither seek nor even envision “results.” The gift is to stop for a moment: stop doing, saying, planning, resenting. Just be. Breathe. Stopping the rush, externally and internally, creates space for an insight, a memory, even a poem to wander in. It frees me to appreciate what I really like or enjoy, or hear what may be crying out for change, inside or around me.

I manage this at times -- mostly out back in our garden, or occasionally when waiting for someone in a coffeehouse.  Often the "product" is a haiku or tanka.  

But too often I am too intent on everything else I'm doing -- newspaper columns and the radio versions, occasional legal issues, fiction-writing, a great deal of pickleball, doing two radio shows on KTAL (a Sunday one, discussing people's faith or non-faith, which last year I began sharing with Stuart Kelter, a capable host who hosted it on alternate weeks, and which in 2020 will be replaced by Stuart's new show, "Delving In"; and a two-hour show Wednesdays ("Speak Up, Las Cruces!") with co-host Walt Rubel.  Starting in February 2020, I think, (1) Walt will take the lead, with me often participating in interviews and only occasionally arranging them, and (2) we'll often do the show for just an hour, 8-9, rather than the 8-10 we've been doing for 2 1/2 years.     

Gratitude is important. That dawned on me even before the current slew of books, articles, and studies telling us gratitude is good for us. In 2019 I will be more grateful – even “blessed,” without feeling any particular need to figure out by whom or by what. Not just because feeling and expressing gratitude is healthy, but because so much demands my gratitude.

Gratitude IS important.  I do feel grateful.  If this was a resolution, I've done fairly well; but can take no credit.  I FEEL grateful, often; but the fact that I also THINK I should is mostly coincidental.  I don't feel grateful because of any resolution, or any act of will, but because -- despite pain and suffering, and death, and political rancor, and news cycles full of Donald Trump, the life around me induces feelings of gratitude.  Whether all those negative observations about the world undermine my gratitude or fuel it, or both, is a question for another day.

I am grateful for – well, above all, my wife. I lack space to list all that we share and laugh about, and all that she teaches me.

I am grateful for: the Organ Mountains, especially at sunset or in snow; our caring, thoughtful Congresswoman, Xochitl Torres-Small; many wonderful coffee houses and other local businesses that deserve our support; the more tolerant spirit I hope to feel among us, perhaps because we are seeing clearly where acrimony and hyper-partisanship lead; the surprising courtesy Las Cruces drivers extend to us as we bicycle about town; KTAL 101.5 FM (Las Cruces Community Radio) and KRWG; our deep well of talented artists, poets, and musicians; our community; Arturo Flores, 100, a WWII vet and courageous labor leader, who died this week (I'm grateful that we had him so long, and for his fine family and his influence on his many friends); people who read and respond to these columns; my invigorating poetry workshop; Bob Diven and Mark Medoff (who, sadly, is no longer with us, except through his creative work and his wonderful family; and in the many grateful memories of him in so many hearts or minds, including mine); the talented, tireless growers and craftspeople at the Saturday Farmers' Market; Camp Hope; our longstanding local theater groups, movies at the Fountain, and the Las Cruces Symphony; good health; and the abandoned Doña Ana County Courthouse, haunted by memories of this long-haired young newspaper reporter. (With its adobe walls, it looked great in this week's snow.)  (Again we've seen a little snow in the year's final week, but just a light dusting on the mountains.)  

I should have included gratitude for pickleball (and the great folks who play it here), Planet Fitness (where I lift weights less often than I should, but more than I used to), and the NMSU pool, because all three activities, and the folks I see there, have a great effect on my mood and well-being.

I'm also grateful for a sense of wonder, which children (like great-grandson Teddy) and snow restore to me when I misplace it.

If I were making real “Resolutions” they'd include being more kind (doing some unexpected good turn for someone each day), of course, but also: wonder often; and do only what I can do with joy. That last is tough. But I guess if I can't choose only activities that spark joy, I need to find what joy there is in all that I must do. And, last, I will not judge others, let alone complain about the speck in their eye without first dealing with the beam in mine.

Finally, gratitude to Bear, our esteemed cat, who helps me sit up straight by occupying most of the chair from which I scribble this.  (Sadly, this was Bear's final year on Earth.  We miss him.  I remain grateful for him -- but am also sort of grateful that Foxy, a red-heeler mix, has shared our life for a few months now.)  A couple of recent tanka and a haiku:

                                                               The old red heeler
                                                               stretches and yawns, dreaming she’s           

                                                               herding the cattle,
                                                               fearlessly nipping at hooves,
                                                               at home in the vast outback.

red dog above ground,
black cat’s bones decay below.
I write of the dog,
but the cat helped with poems,
had that taste for mystery. 

most recently:

                                  dog's head in my lap

                           she knows only this moment --

                                  i am still learning

Happy New Year!

Yep! Happy New Year!  Have one, please! I suspect we each have more influence over how our year goes than we suppose we do.

                                                   -30- 

Since this is a blog-post, not a newspaper column, I can include some resolutions:

(1) to treat my opponents in pickleball and political debate better;

(2) to lift every other day; 

(3) to take contemplative time daily;

(4) to weigh under 160 pounds;

(5) to show my wife how much I love her;

(6) to give something meaningful (not just a quarter, and not necessarily just financial) to a stranger at least every week in 2020;
(7) to publish the novel The Garden Journal, a book that purports to be the diary or journal of a 32 -year-old woman living in Oakland, California, in 1914. 

Year-End Reflections

Recently someone remarked that we can do little or nothing to affect what happens. I agreed, but suggested that as long as we're here, why not continue our foolish efforts?

2020 will bring elections with more than usual riding on the results. Let's listen to candidates, and work hard for whomever we support. BUT let's all recall that few of our political adversaries, if any, are evil, or mean harm to us or our country. Almost all share our wish to make the U.S. the best nation we can be. Sure, many haven't researched things systematically, others are trapped in outmoded beliefs or ideologies, and many are afraid; but they are not the enemy.

Therefore it's important to keep talking. And listening! Not giving up on each other. 

 

While I no longer believe in Santa or God, I maintain a perhaps anachronistic belief in democracy. I still believe in the free exchange of ideas our country was founded on, the wisdom of the common person, and the Maine town meeting notion that if we discuss something honestly and vigorously, we'll eventually get it right. But that requires us to investigate issues carefully and articulate them, without getting unnecessarily personal.

Is democracy endangered by our hyper-partisanship? By big money tricking us into unwarranted faith in this shampoo or that political candidate? By the retreat of the U.S. and Britain into faux nationalist foolishness? By India and much of Europe falling into ethnic prejudice? By the unarguable fact that our system placed Donald Trump in the White House? You betcha! I hope we'll survive and thrive; but would I bet money on it? Don't ask! 

 

Complex political issues aren't football games, where we root passionately for the Aggies over UTEP, no matter what. We need to maintain our fragile personal relationships with folks we don't always agree with. At the Farmers Market, I enjoy Randy Harris's table because progressives and Trumpists sit with each other, and pet each others' dogs.

It'll help if we can maintain our compassion and humor, avoid being judgmental, and recognize (1) how much we have to be grateful for and (2) how little each of us knows. Facing our own ignorance and asking questions are two solid steps toward both professional success and personal harmony. Our aversion to studying the facts, not just reading the commentators we agree with, is certainly unhelpful. As Benjamin Franklin replied to someone asking what the Constitutional Convention had come up with: “We've given you a republic – if you can keep it.”

Meanwhile, let's celebrate what's great in our town. The Community of Hope is wonderful, and its program to get homeless veterans into homes unique. Our young people are wonderful and unique too: recent news stories describe Alivea (10) serving homeless at El Caldito and Lily's second-grade “Passion Project” inspiring southern New Mexico Walmarts to donate tents and blankets to Camp Hope. (Both come from families where giving and caring go back at least three generations.)

These young people remind us that many in Doña Ana County are doing great things, often without much recognition. If you know some, thank them! 

 

Whatever our beliefs, the Christmas Season provides a chance to pause and reflect – to review the closing year and contemplate the coming one. Let's continue the struggle, with a constant eye toward improvement. We may not “succeed,” but we can sure do less harm.

Happy New Year!

                                                            -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 29 December 2019, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air during the week on KRWG and KTAL, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org), and is also available at the KRWG site.]  

[It'll take less than a minute, but I urge you to watch this award-winning Iranian short film.] 

[The following local letter, reprinted from tpday's [29 December] Sun-News, comments on the huge political chasm between or among U.S. citizens:

'The Decline of Reason'

The deep political divide in America is complex. A recent interview in The Point magazine titled ‘Control Groups,’ helps significantly in trying to understand. Tobias Haberkorn interviews William Davies, professor of political economy, about his new book "Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason."

Davies talks about factors that have shaken our understanding of how things work. He indicates traditional liberalism has assured us that “humans have a special, ultimately God-given capacity to think autonomously, rationally and reasonably,” and the Liberal State has been an agreement that the State will handle defense/warfare so the people can “live in peace and prosperity.” Davies clarifies the Liberal State does not guarantee democracy, and that warfare is growing more and more pervasive, including soldiers, and ‘information warfare,’ and drones.

Our Liberal State and democracy are at risk. Davies emphasizes “a situation of warfare is one in which nothing ever stays still for very long. You have to be constantly on your guard … you need to be suspicious of everything.” There is no time for “dispassionate objective studies.” And, we are in Internet driven accelerated news and business cycles, which value instant reaction and decisions over deliberation. Davies also states “the language of entrepreneurship is riven with military metaphors,” and that our current Populism/Nationalism movement has grown primarily from defeat — the lowering life expectancy of white men, the opiate crisis, fear of inadequate work, and the increasing feeling of losing control.

 

Davies asserts “questions of suffering, disease and mortality have re-entered the center of the political scene.” Democracy seems too slow, whereas an authoritarian leader —Trump — promises to help people regain control quicker. Disastrously, Trump is a con man, only truly helping some, primarily the rich. If we believe in American democracy, we best unite, restart critical thinking, and regain control.

John Funk, Santa Teresa ]

A Saturday

We abandon our houseguest and bicycle to the Farmers Market. The sun, vicious in desert summers, is a joyful presence this bracing winter morning. 

 

The question on Randy Harris's whiteboard this Saturday is whether most people truly believe it is better to give than to receive. One women writes “maybe” and says she's “trying to teach my son that.” Others say they wish it were so. An acquaintance wearing his customary Trump cap says he divides people into those who prefer giving to receiving and those who don't, adding that the givers are generally happier. I resist asking where the Donald fits in. (A solid majority didn't believe that most people really think giving is better.)

We watch people pass, noting all their guarded and unguarded self-presentations. 

 

A friend sits on a nearby bench with his cane. We met playing touch-football more than 50 years ago. We acknowledge that our bodies aren't quite as they were then, and mourn two fellow players who died this year, just weeks apart, and discuss other friends. We could be two grizzled Sicilian fishermen mending nets, or two doddering Brits drinking in their club, recalling our shared youth like yesterday, yet aware a spot of time has passed.

A young woman friend, walking with another young woman, pauses to say hello. I guess they're a couple, and (a closet romantic) am delighted for them. As we all talk, their bodies edge closer to each other in silent confirmation. I appreciate the lightness of their mutual affection as I might the notes of a flute wafting from a doorway around the corner.

Meanwhile, across the street a tiny boy holds the leash of a dog three times his size. The dog sees another dog a few yards away. I watch helplessly as the leashed dog starts to rush toward the other. He will pull the child along roughly, probably causing him to fall on his face on the pavement. But Daddy grabs the leash, averting disaster. The tableau feels like a haiku no one else sees. We are all that small boy, blissfully going about our business, unaware of what's about to jerk us into another life.

I stop to buy granola from a vendor who was a boy when I first visited his family near Silver City. He's now a man, with a new pilot's license. When I ask how he is, he replies, as always, “Blessed.” I reply that I feel blessed too, but with no clue by whom or by what. 

 

Someone asks me, “If you were God, and could say something to everyone in the world, knowing it would be heard, but you had only 30 seconds, what would you say?” I mumble that I can't improve on the usual stuff we all constantly forget: the Golden Rule, focus on your gratitude, be tolerant, avoid being judgmental.

After a busy morning of marvelous local vegetables and conversation, we bicycle home. The houseguest is waiting, her forepaws extending toward us beneath the gate, her tail wagging. 

 

We drink tea and coffee in the garden. Sounds of distant traffic and sirens sharpen our awareness of the garden's peace. Looking into the dog's eyes, I recall Benjamin's “Blessed,” and suddenly know what I'd say to everyone if I were God: “Thank you for sharing our beautiful world and making it more beautiful by being yourself.”

Happy Christmas! And salutations to what blesses you.

                                                            -30-

[The above column appeared today, Sunday, 22 December 2019, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website (the newspaper's website) and KRWG;s website.  A spoken version, which will air during the week on both KRWG and KTAL, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org) and is available on KRWG's website.]

[The Saturday Las Cruces Farmers' Market matters to us: we buy much of what we'll eat in the next week, we get to talk or play chess with an abundance of friends and acquaintances, and buying local is an important value both for community and global climate reasons (although, yes, we recognize that our focus on fresh local food ain't gonna stop the climate-change train).  It's fun.  Coffee from Vintage Mercado and a breakfast burrito from the Napolito's truck, plus a massage from Mike -- all add to the morning.

And this past Saturday, a former market and Co+Op regular we don't see often these days (for good reason) graced us with her presence, and seemed happy to gas casually with old friends and constituents): Xochitl Torres Small wandered through the market with her husband Nathan (whom we see more often) today.  I hope they didn't plan on buying too many vegetables, because they were doing a lot of visiting with folks -- when she wasn't on the phone, or texting.  You could see the job in being back here.  I shudder to think of the effect on someone of being daily, 24-7, a part of the madness of our politics and government.  Just the toll of being "on" so much of the time, and the unrelenting questions of all sorts, but also the difficult task of sifting everything to distinguish the small compromises the situation requires from the ones that really aren't so small. 
It's easier to know who your friends are in Las Cruces than it is in Washington.
It was fun to see her! ]

Unburdened by such cares, this old man sits in the garden petting the dog, and a Zennish haiku visits:



                                 dog's head in my lap

                                 she knows only this moment
  
                                 -- i am still learning

Making a Makerspace

Let's celebrate Cruces Creatives! Several years ago, as Lea Wise-Surguy was graduating from college, she had a sudden realization: “I would lose my access to the tools and space I used, and lose a creative community.”

She liked the idea of a makerspace – where artists, artisans, kids, and grownups could gather to share resources and knowledge to make or repair stuff. A way to enable folks who lack tools or a workshop to work and collaborate with others.

Lea decided to make a makerspace. She investigated cities where she might try to do so, checking on their financial health and how well they funded public institutions. She visited some of the finalists. Several cities looked good, but a key question was “how friendly are the people?” Her answer: “I fell in love with Las Cruces.”

When I first learned Lea and others were discussing a makerspace here, it sounded great, but I wasn't sure it could actually happen. (We'd just been exactly there with KTAL Community Radio.)

Recently we spent a morning at Cruces Creatives learning to build a Johnson-Su Bioreactor. (“Supercomposters” invented by David Johnson and Wei-jen Su. The two we made are now in use.) 

A couple of years ago CC was a gleam in its founders' eyes. Now it's a real place where people make real things, and learn to make things; where people fix bicycles, weave, and record songs; and where there is an open-mic night, an art gallery, a classroom, and much more.

CC opened its doors at 205 East Lohman eighteen months ago. People can join and have access to the many tools and technologies, either by paying a monthly fee or by volunteering three hours a week. Tools include computers and printers, a woodworking shop, art materials, industrial sewing machines, audio and video equipment, and various technologies. 

I'm impressed by the variety of things CC is doing with and for our community, sometimes in partnership with schools, Branigan Library, NMSU, and others. CC volunteers have made textile-based goods for Jardin de Los Niños, the animal shelter, and refugees; another program promotes regenerative agriculture and assists farmers. 

One excellent feature is the Job Shop, where CC will build or help build a prototype or object. For example, CC made the internal structure and encasement for Electronic Caregiver's Addison Care, its famous virtual caregiver. That product has been shown at industry events and deployed to help people. (Kudos to both Electronic Caregiver and CC on this collaboration. EC was on the point of going to a design firm in Arizona, but decided to give CC a try.)

^th and 5^th graders STEAM (STEM plus Art), and to teach life skills to developmentally-delayed adults.

CC's custom units for Childrens Museum

Few entities both collaborate with a major local company on an important health-care innovation and also work with educators to teach 4

Lea calls CC “maybe Makerspace 2.0. We've expanded our capabilities. It's more community-focused.”

I call it an example of, “If you build it, they will come.” If you create a space with tools, and invite people to create, they will. That's the story of CC (and of KTAL Radio, a new station with basic equipment drawing a stellar set of show-hosts and other volunteers. If given the chance, people will band together to do what they want or need to do. 

The “products” of these collaborations are great. Greater still is the enhanced sense of community we all gain.

                                                                      -30-

[The column above appeared this morning, Sunday, 15 December 2019, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A spoken version is also available on the KRWG site, and will air during the week on both KRWG and KTAL, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org). ]

[To learn more about Cruces Creatives, go to the website -- https://crucescreatives.org/ -- and you can also go to KTAL's website, click on archives, and hear an interview from 11 December 2019 with Lea and others from Cruces Creatives on "Speak Up, Las Cruces!" ]

In May 2019, a variety of artists painted images on the exterior walls at Cruces Creatives.  Below, Saba paints one of the images.  An alarmed passerby alerted LCPD, but the officer who responded recognized what was going on, and that the painters were authorized to paint. (See May 19 column, Something Is Happening Here -- Maybe an Illegal Art Show?)

Is God Indeed Using Donald Trump?

The view that God chose Donald Trump to do what he's doing has more to it than meets the superficial eye.

I first heard this from a local Christian friend. My response cited some of Trump's bad conduct. She said God often chose unusual folks: that Winston Churchill was a drunk, and Lincoln was bad news in some way, so Trump fit right in. I scoffed; but is God using Trump? And for what?

The answer may depend on your view of the United States. I love my country, its natural beauty, and the freedom and liberty espoused by those who founded it (despite their prejudices). Having motorcycled through all 48 continental states, discovering obscure wonders and oddities, I love its various eccentricities. 

However, history contains a great deal of bad conduct by our government (and us).

While preaching freedom, we participated in denying freedom to Iran, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Guatemala, Chile, and dozens of other nations. We tried to deny Cubans and Vietnamese freedom, but they proved too much for us.

Among nations, ours is the kind of rich, fat, selfish fellow that Jesus said would have a tough time reaching Heaven. Camel through the eye of a needle?

We have embraced the role of the richest, most powerful nation using and abusing less powerful ones, and during the past half-century have obscenely increased economic inequality within our country. Jesus preached peace, tolerance, and charity. More and more, our government stands for greed, intolerance, and every kind of friction.

While God told us to be good stewards of the Earth, we cannot muster even the inadequate sacrifices saner nations are making to minimize the more destructive effects of climate-change. Under Trump, we are loosening our limited regulation of industries that dispense poisons into our air, water, and food.

While God discouraged us from killing our fellow humans, and the U.S. flag symbolized peace for much of our nation's life, during the past half-century we have initiated or escalated or covertly backed many wars, probably more than has that loathsome oligarchy called Russia. 

We have more to answer for than will fit into this column.

So God, with his usual brilliance (and a keen sense of humor) has chosen Trump as our means to destroy ourselves, or, with luck, humble ourselves and learn something. Perhaps humility? One lesson is that discontented people will vote for a con man. If it no longer feels like our china shop, we'll invite in the bull. 

Trump already has most of the world laughing at him, and us.

He and his greedy pals are destroying a government we took centuries to build. We've recently seen what he's doing to the State Department, which matters more than most of us realize. He's undermining our military strength by improperly interfering with military discipline to suit his political aims. He's destroying us economically by his policies (feeding the short-term greed of the already wealthy) and by his war on science, which will lessen our ability to lead the world around the next technological bend. He's eviscerated the Environmental Protection Agency and weakened our judiciary. 

Of course, despite his dangerous bumbling, Trump is nothing new. He's enacting the long-time Republican agenda. He's merely a grotesque exaggeration of what too many of our politicians are, regardless of party. He just doesn't bother to cover his tracks or mask his odor.

Well done, God!

-30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 8 December 2019, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air during the week both on KRWG and on KTAL, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org) and is available at KRWG's website.

[           7 December 1941 Thinking of Lauren Bruner

        dawn. death. confusion.

        this day's tentacles still reach

        into all of us   ]

[ I have no idea whether or not there is a god or whether or not He is making use of Donald Trump; but if he is, the evidence so far surely suggests he means Trump's occupancy of the Casa Blanca to be a hard lesson for us.  This is, after all, the God who turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt and okayed a devastating flood in Noah's time. ]

[Note:

>this Wednesday (11Dec) our guests on "Speak Up, Las Cruces!" on KTAL, 101.5 FM, will be:

8-9 a.m.: Dave DuBois, State Climatologist; 9-10: founders and volunteers from Cruces Creatives to discuss the many things folks can do or learn there; feel free to call in to the show on (575) 526 5825

>Monday (9 Dec) at 1 p.m. at City Hall the City Council will have a work session on issues including:NM State Bank; Alliance for Military Support; and the 2018 GO Bonds propositions; with regard to the Public Bank, Elaine Sullivan from Allliance for Local Economic Prosperity will present.  (See also recent column on the New Mexico State Bank idea

>Tuesday (10Dec) at 9 a.m. the County Commission will meet at 9 a.m. in the Commission Chambers at 845 Motel Blvd., with agenda items including support of legislative priorities and a resolution urging that New Mexico stop taxing social security benefits

"The Devil's Mistress" Comes Home

When I arrived here in August 1969, I immediately became friends with three very creative gentlemen: playwright and actor Mark Medoff, poet Keith Wilson, and filmmaker Orville (“Buddy”) Wanzer. Sadly, all three have left us.

Keith, portrayed his native New Mexico in magical poetry. He and his wife Heloise were the center of a warm and lively poetry scene here for decades. His Collected Poetry is a fine poetic exploration of New Mexico. 

Mark was a talented writer and charismatic actor, who continued to grow as a playwright and a person. We recently saw Mark's last play, Time and Chance. A week later, we heard his delightful granddaughter, Grace Marks, sing and play guitar. I'd have liked to congratulate Mark on both; but he died in April.

Buddy taught film, and for decades (with John Hadsell) ran the Film Society, an oasis where folks could see great international films. Today, we're so used to Netflix,TCM, Hulu and YouTube it's hard to imagine how isolated we were then. There weren't even videos to rent. 

In 1965, Bud made a feature, The Devil's Mistress, which was distributed nationally. Back then, all feature films in the U.S. came from Hollywood. Newspapers around the nation ran the AP story on the professor making a film in the desert. 

Don't be put off by the poster!

Shooting with local actors and crew, he did a hell of a job. It wasn't a great film, but it was a fairly original concept. Making such a film, working essentially alone, was almost heroic. 

It was a big deal here. Local actors, local investors, and a packed premiere at the Rio Grande. Fast-talking distributors ripped off the locals so badly that they got no money back. In 1969, Bud didn't even have a copy of the film. (One morning, leafing through film-rental catalogues, I spotted The Devil's Mistress. Bud rented it and illegally copied it.)

Bud was a fun, informal, and iconoclastic teacher. People still tell me how greatly he affected their lives. Some of his film-making students had film careers in Kuwait or India, some became network sports personnel, and others independent film-makers and photographers. Some also taught. 

In 1984, when Bud planned to retire, we bought some land in Derry. Working alone, he built a little house, using only materials he took there in his Datsun. He lived there 29 years, enjoying his solitude and creativity. People still read, and discuss on-line, his enviro-fantasy novel The Elfin Brood; and whenever I see stained-glass for sale it looks like child's play compared to Bud's work. He also had to build or repair most everything. He fell off the roof at an age when doctors would have forbade him to be up there. Eventually, he moved back to town, and later into Good Sam's.

Native New Mexican Julia Louisa Smith teaches film at CMI. When she learned of Bud's work, she started a documentary by interviewing him a few times before he died in February, and has continued the project. She calls The Devil's Mistress (which never was a conventional western!) an “acid western.” She showed it in Shanghai. She's intrigued that he created a local community of film-makers, way before CMI. (It's interesting to see a piece of my youth through her educated eye.)

Film Las Cruces and the LC Film Festival will show The Devil's Mistress at 7 p.m. this Thursday at the Rio Grande Theater. A reception, at nearby 575, will follow.

                                                    -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 1 December 2019, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A spoken version is available on KRWG's website and will air during the week both on KRWG and on KTAL, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org).]

[You can get tickets for the film showing at the door, or in advance through Eventbrite , which you can also reach through the Rio Grande Theater's website [https://www.riograndetheatre.org/rio-grande-theatre-calendar/] by clicking on "The Devil's Mistress then on "Tickets." ]

[At the showing, Julia will talk a bit about the film and show a bit of her documentary-in-progress.  Ted Gregory, who was one of the film's stars and probably worked on it as a cinematographer too, may also speak briefly.]

[btw, if you google the film (and the IMDb listing is minimal and a bit inaccurate), two more films since 1965 have used that inviting title.  In one, the lady is Joseph Goebbels's mistress just before WWII, and the other is set against the background of the English Civil War.  Down at the bottom, though, is "Devil's Mistress 1965.  So in Advanced Search, add 1965 or Wanzer as additional required words.]

When Both the Facts and the Law Are Against You, Pound the Table!

Republican efforts to defend Donald Trump from possible impeachment are making less and less sense. 

 

Trump held up Congressional-mandated aid to Ukraine to bully Ukrainian President Zelensky into opening an investigation into Hunter Biden, son of the 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate Trump most fears. The delay, amidst rumors of a whistleblower's formal complaint, sparked questions by senators, making it too hot for Trump and his minions to carry on.

To distract us, Republicans scream that the Whistleblower must testify; but s/he stated s/he lacked first-hand knowledge; and Trump's “transcript” and sworn witnesses with more firsthand knowledge are confirming what s/he alleged. 

 

Trump repeats, “there was no quid pro quo” like a mantra; but Gordon Sondland, who gave Trump a boatload of campaign money and got appointed Ambassador to the E.U., says “There was a quid pro quo.” Sondland sure ain't part of “the Deep State” – or a Democratic pawn. 

 

Currently, the main argument for Trump is that since the aid was eventually released and Zelensky didn't investigate Biden, Trump couldn't have been attempting extortion! But a misfiring gun doesn't clear you of attempted murder. Or say a man told a woman he'd publish nude photos of her unless she slept with him – then her big brother took the photos from the man. Would we buy a defense argument that there'd been no criminal extortion attempt because it failed? 

 

Republicans add that Zelensky denies he was pressured. What alternate universe do they live in where Ukraine's President, dependent on us to survive Russian aggression, would voluntarily embarrass Trump? Ukraine needs us, Trump leads us. You do the math.

More foolish yet is arguing Trump was deeply concerned about Ukrainian corruption. Our Government had already certified sufficient Ukrainian progress on corruption to warrant the aid. Trump cared about Biden and about trying to portray Ukraine as interfering in the 2016 election. Sondland, under oath, verified the nature of Trump's concern. Meanwhile Trump vilified and fired the U.S. Ambassador who had pushed Ukraine to clean things up. 

 

Trump, constantly tweets comments on the hearings he insists he's not watching. Harmful tweets. Tweets trying (unsuccessfully) to intimidate witnesses oughtta be impeachable acts. Retweeting the debunked Russian allegation that Ukraine “interfered” with our election can only help Russia's efforts to minimize Ukrainian support here. 

 

Trump's conduct (subordinating Ukraine aid to personal interests) has likely emboldened Russia. When Zelensky meets with Putin shortly, Trump's apparent affection for Putin, and his minimal concern about Ukraine's security, won't strengthen Zelensky's hand.

The hearings, featuring some very admirable witnesses, have established the facts. If Trump were not forbidding his people to testify, we'd have more and clearer facts. (It's not likely that the folks Trump is keeping away from Congress could exonerate him.) Steve Bannon, the Trump supporter who mocked the Trump-Sondland efforts as “a drug deal,” won't be fun for Trump to watch.

Unfortunately, too few folks are watching to increase pressure on Republican Senators to do right. Too few of us are capable of changing our minds based on facts. Sadly, too many root for Blue or Red as if they were team colors. I'm an Aggie, you're a Lobo.

The facts are clear. They are not pretty. The question Republicans should focus on is whether or not Trump's misconduct warrants the drastic step of impeachment. I think so, but we do not overturn elections lightly. That's the robust debate we ought to be having.

                                                       -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 24 November 2019, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper' website and KRWG's website.  A spoken version is on the latter, and also will air during the week on KRWG and KTAL, 101.5 FM, Las Cruces Community Radio.]


[As Frank Rich wrote of Sondland's confession of a quid pro quo, "If the Republicans cared about the facts or the gravity of the crime being investigated, the answer would be apocalyptically damaging. But they don’t care, and they will continue to defend Trump even if those testifying under oath include an eyewitness to a criminal conspiracy hatched in the White House like Sondland, or patriots like Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman, and Marie Yovanovitch, who not only provided irrefutable evidence of the crime but detailed the existential threat that crime poses to America."
He added that "Had Trump pulled out that (so far) proverbial gun and shot someone on Fifth Avenue, Republicans would trot out the exact same defense they have this week: The shot was fired at 2 a.m. and there were no eyewitnesses. [Witnesses] who claimed to have heard the shot had actually heard a car backfiring. The closed-circuit video capturing the incident is . . . a hoax concocted by the same Fake News outlets that manufactured the Access Hollywood video. . . . Election records show that the cops who arrived on the scene were registered Democrats and therefore part of a deep-state conspiracy to frame the president for a crime he didn’t commit but that the Democrats did. . . .  And even if Trump [fatally gunned down a young woman], the argument advanced by Trump’s lawyer last month would apply: 'The person who serves as president, while in office, enjoys absolute immunity from criminal process of any kind.' Next case!"]

[There's still every likelihood that the matter will be decided by the voters in November 2020, after the Democrat-controlled House impeaches and the Republican-controlled Senate declines to convict.  But in theory --or if, as doesn't yet appear to be the case, public sentiment in favor of impeachment grows -- the "real" question is, "Does what Mr. Trump did here warrant impeachment."  Of course, the Mueller Report demonstrated numerous acts of obstruction of justice, one of the impeachment charges prepared against Richard Nixon. (Trump is also obstructing justice with regard to the Ukraine issue.)   
How does Trump's "high crime" stack up against burglary? Well, burglary has the advantage of being a criminal act with which we have all been familiar since childhood, and one which we may personally fear we could be victims of.  But I'd argue that Trump's "crime" is "higher" or more severe.  Rather than going over the legal line in partisan politics (which Nixon did with the burglary and Trump with his extortion and abuse of power), Trump's act had real-world international consequences that arguably weakened U.S. security  Congress mandated aid to help Ukraine survive the Russian aggression; not only was Ukraine a fledgling democracy, it was important in world politics -- in that, as many have said, Russia without Ukraine is just another country, but with Ukraine it becomes again an empire.  Trump was quite willing to endanger Ukrainian support to embarrass Joe Biden and push a lame conspiracy theory that Ukraine was attacking our electoral process in 2016.
That would seem to matter in a sane world.  It's hard to imagine FDR undermining some country holding out against the Nazis, just to embarrass Wendell Willkie; but the question is at least reasonable to ask, whether it warrants removal from office.  Nixon's conduct clearly warranted removal. (Of course, the real difference between Nioxon and Trump is the times they lived in.  The 1960's attacked corruption and government abuses of power, and by the early 1970's we were in a period when we expected and demanded more than the usual amount of honesty in our politicians; but one would hardly say that of the current citizenry.)  Clinton's misconduct clearly did not, and his impeachment purely political in nature.  Trump's would seem to, but in the considered judgment of his fellow Republicans in the Senate, it will not. It's a shame, since it seems to regularize extreme and even open misconduct and abuse of power.  On the other hand, impeachment should be a rarely-used weapon of last resort.]

[Of course, a second difference between Nixon and Trump is that the former had at least some knowledge of law and understanding of what was right, even if he chose to do wrong to strengthen his power.  Running through much of the defense of Trump is the idea that he may not have understood that obstruction of justice was a crime, or that he is merely being what he appeared to be when we elected him, whereas Nixon, the sneak, tried to appear a choirboy while playing legal and illegal "dirty tricks."  Trump was obviously who he is, and won election, so what's the big deal?]

A Quiet Community Sunday

Our hens are taking a break, so for Sunday brunch we bicycle to Nessa's. It's a peaceful ride on quiet streets. We pass some small but appealing houses that have seen better days. I always wish I could save them. They're like stray cats I want to feed.

Nessa's is small and welcoming – and nearly empty, because everyone's out back, where musicians are jamming and drinking coffee. Inside, at the table next to ours, two state legislators are discussing energy. After ordering, we briefly discuss with them New Mexico's overly restrictive cottage-industry laws. Then they get back to working, and we start eating. 

Nessa's daughter turned two not long ago, so we've brought along a children's book written by our friend Yosef Lapid. Retiring from his NMSU professorial duties (government), he revived an old dream of writing children's books. After ten successful books starring an adventurous and mischievous snowman named Paul, he's written this one about Yara, a young girl who wants to save the Amazonian rainforest she lives in.  (see www.snowmanpaul.com)

Leaving, we pause out back. Musicians creating, others drinking coffee and listening. As we unlock our bicycles, enjoying the music, we resolve to come back some Sunday when we've time to linger and listen.

Today, we have an appointment to pick apples. “Apple Days,” at Burke's U-Pick Mesilla Valley Apples have ended, but LuAnne Burke has agreed to let us pick the season's last apples and gather free fallen apples for the hens. We want the fresh apples for snacking, and baking in the solar oven;

but it's also a delightful outing – particularly for Foxy, a dog (Red Heeler mix) who is living with us while her person deals with medical issues. Foxy loves to run, and discovers nearby fields where she can really open up her canine throttle. Does she dream she's herding Australian cattle, as her ancestors did?

We also like talking with LuAnne about the great pies she makes and about her family's decades of farming here. Once the valley had many apple orchards. This is the last one of any size, and LuAnne is the last of her family farming here. We want to see her family legacy survive. And thrive.

Picking apples is a diverting task. Fallen apples in various states of decay cover whole areas like a slippery rug. Few apples are left on the trees, mostly high up. Some are rotten, or look fine until closer inspection reveals that a bird has absconded with a chunk. Others are beautiful. We use a fruit-picker – a very long pole with a small basket at one end. The orchard envelops us. We can't even see the mountains. Wandering from tree to tree, I lose my sense of direction. 

At dusk we water trees in Oddfellows Cemetery, having signed up for this task as part of the Las Cruces tree steward program. After nearly two years, “our” trees are almost ready to fend for themselves. We marvel at their growth.

No single part of the day is earth-shaking. It's just another quiet Sunday in a modest city in the Southwest. But it's home. It's our community. Community, which folks once took for granted, is increasingly rare. We're not strangers to nature here, or to each other. Most of us care about this land that provides for hens and cafes, music and friendship, writing and dreams, farms and foxes, and silence. 

Works for me!

                                                 -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 17 November 2019, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website.  A spoken version is also available on the latter, and will air during the week on KRWG and on KTAL, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org)] 

[Community.  Between my leaving Las Cruces (August 1977) and my moving back here with my wife (2010-11), I thought often about the concept of what I called the village.  I met many wonderful people, and formed close friendships in San Francisco, Boston, Taiwan, and Peru; I thoroughly enjoyed living in the San Francisco Bay Area; but I realized that in large cities we knew people in a very limited way, even many friends. 
I realized that in Las Cruces I knew people what I called horizontally: that is, the same person I might play chess or tennis with, or see at the pool or an art show, I might also next week act in a play with or hear speaking at city council meetings.  In cities, mostly, you know only one or two dimensions of someone's life.  You work intensely with A and B, and maybe play some tennis over at A's house on weekends, but you don't spontaneously get together of an evening.  Whereas in Las Cruces anyone lives less than 15 minutes from anyone else, if I lived in Oakland, A in Lafayette, and B in Palo Alto, it might take us each an hour -- and an hour's drive home -- to meet in some common place. In Oakland and San Franciso, I had friends I played racquetball or basketball with, and friends I saw films or went to bookstores with, and friends who lived near me, but they were rarely the same friends.  Further, most of my team at work were indifferent to poetry, foreign films, and other interests of mine, and some mocked my progressive political views.
Here, I also knew people vertically, across generations.  Depending on people's ages, I knew not only the person and partner, but kids and grandkids, or parents and grandparents, and frequently siblings.  Knowing a friend's parents or kids deepens your understanding of that friend, and enriches the friendship.  In the Bay Area, my knowledge of most friends' families was sketchy at best, and usually non-existent.
We moved here for a lot of reasons; but those included both the many specific people we loved here and the abstract desire for the richer friendships of "the village."  Community. I'd found that, mostly by accident, in this county, and I wanted to recover a bit of it.]

[I guess for a variety of reasons Nessa's sometimes make me reflect on such things. (see Bicycling to the Gratitude Cafe)  It's delightful that so many really appealing coffeehouses and small eateries have sprung up, of late.  Nessa's, the Main Street Mercado Cafe, Beck's, and Cafecito Divino are all close to downtown -- and we still love Milagro!]

[Another aspect of community was yesterday afternoon's reading at the Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science.  Eric Magrane, relatively new here, organized a project, celebrating the Chihuahuan Desert and specifically our Organ Mountains/Desert Peaks National Monument, in which a variety of poets and writers each wrote a poem (or brief prose piece) about, to, or from a specific species of plant or animal native to the Monument.  A bunch of us read yesterday -- and one enjoyable aspect of the thing was that many poets and writers came out of their caves or small groups and met one another for the first time.  At any rate, there's an Introduction to the project here  -- or, Eric has also written an "entry poem" (spiralorb.net/) made up of lines from the various poems; so another neat way of reading the overall work is to start with that poem, follow any link, read one of the poems, then follow a link in that poem to another . . . and another . . .]


[Meanwhile, a last reminder: support local community radio (KTAL, 101.5 FM, www.lccommunityradio.org) -- and have fun doing it at the Rio Grande Theater this evening 5-9 p.m., with some neat food from 5-6, some fun music from 6 to 9, and a chance to tell us "Que Tal" show-hosts what we're doing wrong.  If you can't make the event, please consider donating -- or becoming a member -- on the website.]

ss

KTAL - Las Cruces Community Radio - Is Worth a Listen, and Fun to Support

“¿Qué tal?” [What's up?] That casual greeting inspired the official call-letters “KTAL” for our Las Cruces community radio station.

Despite limited funds, KTAL-LP is a pretty neat radio station – due solely to volunteers. July 2019 marked two full years on the air. Before that, a small but dedicated group worked more than two years to get the station on the air. 

 

Las Cruces needed a community radio station, even though KRWG is an excellent public radio station of which I’m a member. I love the classical and jazz music and the NPR national news, and KRWG's dedication to covering local news despite limited budget, staff and available air time. 

 

KTAL plays an important role supplementing public and commercial radio. As newspapers shrink and local commercial stations abandon local talk, KTAL helps this community talk to itself. That’ll be even more true in the future, as newspapers disappear and right-wing national corporations buy up local radio stations.

Kari Bachman

Kari Bachman’s Thursday morning show, “Just Community,” is a great example of what only community radio can do. She interviews folks who have little say in our local politics: low-income folks, folks without homes, former convicts, people with disabilities, and other interesting fellow citizens. Her guests, often invisible to our leaders, have voices – and some have much to say. 

 

Wednesday mornings, Walt Rubel and I talk with mostly local guests about politics, climate-change, books, films, water, education, Alzheimer’s, ideas, international problems, economics, the arts, life-coaching, and alternative therapies. We try to arrange for folks who disagree to talk face-to-face on air. Walt’s new “Eye on Government” show (Friday mornings) covers local news and government in detail. Tuesday

mornings, Nan Rubin discusses our outer space and Las Cruces, then Ambassador Delano Lewis talks with noteworthy national figures such as Madeleine Albright. Monday mornings Randy Harris and Keith Whelply also host thought-provoking conversations about how we think; Fridays at 10, Lisa Lucca talks with callers about living the lives they want to live; and every other Friday at 12:30, Lynn Moorer interviews local authors. 

Delano Lewis (R)

Nan Rubin

 

KTAL has local music/variety shows too numerous to name here. They’re diverse and well-done – and wonderfully home-grown. 

 

KTAL has achieved all this on an absurdly small budget, without even a paid manager or sponsorship/underwriting salesperson. Volunteers host, produce, and archive all the shows – and download and organize the shows the station acquires from other sources.

Shows air on 101.5 FM, can be streamed at www.lccommunityradio.org/ and are stored on the Archives page on that same website. Check it out – and while there, please consider donating and/or becoming a member. At that website folks can also review the on-air schedule, volunteer, and propose shows – and buy tickets for the Roadrunner Revue.

The Roadrunner Revue, Sunday, 17 November, 5-9 p.m., at the Rio Grande Theater, will be a fundraiser, AND just plain fun. Musical artists performing will including KTAL's own Doug Adamz and Teresa Tudury, plus C.W. Ayon, and Gene Keller. We're fortunate that Doug, who grew up in El Paso, recently returned to Las Cruces with his wife, and lured Teresa here too. Their performances are a treat. Let's celebrate what KTAL has accomplished. 

 

As we watch what's happening around the nation (and globe), we need more of us, community coming together, to make good. We need the Mesilla Valley Co+Op and KTAL, because they are OURS. Join in the fun November 17^th and support our future.

                                                -30-

[The above column appeared Sunday, 10 November, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, and on the newspaper's website.   ]

[As mentioned, you can get tickets at www.lccommunityradio.org or Eventbrite. I also want to apologize for the fact that space didn't permit listing all locally-produced KTAL's shows.  That list appears below.  ]

[Feel free to call (575) 526-KTAL {5825} with questions or comments. We also have a facebook page.  With some shows, Dean Matson posts information there, the day before the show, regarding who the guests will be and what the discussion will concern.  We welcome comments, suggestions, AND CRITICISM.  You can also call in to some of the live shows, including, among others, "Speak Up, Las Cruces!" "Think Again," and "Take on Faith."]

This is current, but always changing.  At website, click on any program to learn when it airs.

This is NOT CURRENT! I'll try to replace this with a more current schedule shortly.

Doug Adamz

C.W. Ayon

Teresa Tudury