home again

It's great to be home. 

To step outside to the mild weather and relative quiet of Las Cruces in April, hear the familiar chabbling of the hens, and reassure the cat that we still love him. (Yeah, I invented “chabbling” to suggest babbling, chattering, and occasional squabbling.) 

Everything suddenly seems simple. It helps that I was away from Facebook and most email for a week. 

Some of my friends are still screaming about U.S. Representative Ocasio-Cortez's “socialism” – kind of like saying “You have cooties!” when we were six. Meaningless, but effective. At that age, anyway.

Others are pointing out again that progressive states are and should be looking at state banks, a concept North Dakota implemented in 1919, and has used successfully for a century. Oh, but that'd be socialist, the bankers will shout – as Republicans shouted that social security would be socialist, and later that Medicare would lead to socialist dictatorship.

So, the Trumpists are screaming that socialism leads to dictatorship. The non-Trumpists are screaming that Trump seeks to create a dictatorship. Maybe all governments lead to dictatorships. Governments – whether monarchies or oligarchies, nominally socialist and/or democratic – seem to work for those who control them. Those in control tell us we need them, and that because someone (Muslims, Jews, Communists, Capitalists, Koch Brothers, George Soros) is trying to hurt us we had better forgive or forget the sins of those in power. 

Trumpists seem delighted to have a president that Russia (or at least its dictator, Mr. Putin) put a high priority on convincing us to elect. You'd guess patriots would be unnerved by that, unless they imagine either that Mr. Putin has our best interest at heart or that he is witless. I've seen no evidence of either.

What's not so simple is writing a column. 

When I left I was looking into whether or not the Las Cruces City Council violated the open meetings law by discussing in secret the recent policy of having certain officials sign special “at-will” employment agreements. The mayor's own reported statement after the closed meeting, that the policy was erroneous and would be corrected, suggests that the council did so; but several time zones away, on holiday with friends and family from Japan, it's hard to force oneself to pursue such an investigation. Same with several other issues people had been talking with me about.

While I was away a thousand refugees came through town. I was sad that I wasn't here to help with that. I wanted to write a column about the people busting their butts helping refugees, about what else was needed, about my love of this community; but knew little. (“Never stopped you before!” I imagine a reader or two snorting.) I look forward to discussing Las Cruces and refugees with City Councilor Gabe Vasquez Wednesday morning on KTAL-LP community radio, 191.5 FM.

Nonetheless, being elsewhere for a week is instructive – not least because a newspaper there too is busily reporting who's winning council elections, who's been appointed chief jailer, and how well or poorly various public institutions are performing. (Except that the names mean nothing to me, with no perspective on the problems being analyzed. Without perspective, it all sounds like hens chabbling.) Is it all meaningless, since the world will go on, like the sea, while we ride the waves and imagine we know stuff?

Anyhow, it's great to be home.

                                        -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 21 April, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air during the week on KRWG (Wednesday and Saturday) and on KTAL-LP (Thursday), 101.5 FM -- Las Cruces Community Radio.]

[Not sure how well the column said what I meant it to; and, as always lately, when I turn to making a radio version of the column, usually on Sunday morning, shortening the piece and changing it from something people read into something people hear, the process forces me to deepen my focus on what's essential and what's not.  Meanwhile, a host of other thoughts and experiences -- and even reactions to the written column -- intrude.  For example, since sending this in Friday we've celebrated Earth Day, I've watched an interesting film on climate-change, and I spent an interesting couple of hours Saturday evening at Las Cruces High, with volunteers and officials working to deal with an unrequested and unforeseen refugee influx.]