Missing Mark Medoff

When I wandered here in August 1969, a college dropout, I immediately met three professors I respected and liked: poet Keith Wilson, playwright Mark Medoff, and filmmaker Bud Wanzer. 

We lost Bud in March and Mark in April – and weeks after Mark, fictionist Lee Abbott (Mark's student and close friend, who played sports with us long ago) also died. 

The Dalai Lama teaches that there's no point worrying about death -- that it's as normal as changing your clothes when they're old and worn out. (I can't share his faith that we return to this Earth in other forms, or – others' beliefs in various heavens.) 

I know too well that feeling attached to people (or anything) inevitably brings the pain of loss; but we do get attached, and we do feel that loss, sometimes strongly.

You can't not miss people you love, or friends and community members who've created wonderful families and done important things for the community. Mark was a vibrant, imaginative, extremely talented person who kept it real. He spent the solitary time, daily, that a writer must, and constantly took time and energy to help or counsel not only students but other writers. He and Stephanie spurned moving to a coast, to stay in this enchanting valley, and made a loving, creative family. 

All these deaths are hard, but they are important opportunities to celebrate the lives we got to share some part of, and to contemplate and even recalibrate our own lives. 

Death is certain. What is not is each person's wonder, uniqueness, and capacity for love. Especially true of Mark (whose family stressed that Sunday's event at the Mark & Stephanie Medoff Performing Arts Center was a celebration), but true of everyone. Death puts a period at the end of a life, and a comma or semicolon in other lives. We stop and recognize what we've lost – and express our gratitude, not merely our pain.

We know we'll die, but often don't feel it. Not feeling it, we don't prepare adequately. A loved one's death is an alarm bell, reminding us. This reminder of death's inevitability urges us to live each moment fully, to speak the love we feel, and to do what matters. 

We'd each like a peaceful death, though preferably not too soon. To die peacefully, it helps to know who we are. And come to terms. 

Mark had done that work. A good writer must; and certain changes in him were evidence he had.

Too often we let negativity and fear cripple us. Superficial ambitions and attachments. Status, habit, and pride distract us. And gadgets! We say, as one Buddhist nun's mother did, “Whattaya mean? The last thing I'd want to do is be alone with my own mind!”

Bottom line? Life is finite. To be used on what matters. For Mark, that's creative work, community, and (above all) family. Whatever it is for each of us, knowing what matters and how best to work toward it means looking honestly inward, often through contemplation, meditation, even prayer. Not because of any civil or religious law, but because we're on this Earth and might as well take full advantage of it.

Everyone and everything will die. Impermanence is a given. Accepting that in our hearts, even welcoming it, eliminates much confusion and futility. And helps us live our best possible lives.

So, as Mark did, let's say “Yes!” to life.

                                    -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 26 May, 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-LP, 101.5 FM (streamable at www.lccommunityradio.org).]

[Mark Medoff was a helluva guy.  Plenty of others are making that point.  Talent and hard work had made him quite successful, but he was still a teacher, saying yes to students and to other writers seeking his thoughts on their work.  When I met him, he was probably 28, a fun and helpful creative-writing teacher (who held classes in a lounge up on the second floor of Corbett Center) and a fine athlete.  We played tennis twice a week for a while, as soon as I got here.  (He had a marvelous lefty spin-serve I could never deal with; and when I dimly recall those matches I feel as if he beat me 6-0, 6-0 every time, which can't be true or we wouldn't have played much!)  He recruited me for his regular touch football games, where he was a fine quarterback (and our games occasionally attracted a couple of NMSU Aggie wide receivers, a real challenge to cover!); and our softball teams won a lot of intramural championships.  (One year we not only played slow-pitch, where we were a real good team, but tried the fast-pitch league with only our slow-pitch pitcher -- and got to the finals before losing.)  Mark was a fun and charismatic friend and teacher.  I moved away, and we weren't in touch for decades; getting to know him again when we were old guys, I could see clearly some of the changes in him that he himself described when we talked.  He had grown as a person and an artist, although I think older Mark was probably a little touch on young Mark in his comments on his youth.  Family life -- a wonderful wife and three fine daughters -- had changed him for the better, as he acknowledged.  I don't agree with him that he was "arrogant" in youth; but he had changed from a friend one would enjoy and respect to a friend one might love, if that makes any sense.  I didn't see a lot of him, but miss him, and can't imagine the huge sense of loss his family feel now.  As he said in a conversation we had on radio, "In the end, it's all about family"; and he and Stephanie created a strong and loving one.]

[Too, I've seen a rapid-fire series of deaths this year -- plus, a week or so before the Memorial for Mark, some really bad news about another close friend and mentor.  Meanwhile our community lost another important member recently, Jack Soules, though he got to live 91 years.  He was an inventor and writer who held many patents and wrote many books.  I knew him only as a feisty presence, well into his 80's, making cogent arguments at various meetings for things he believed in; and his three kids,  David, Bill, and Merrie Lee are all living evidence that he was quite a father.  (Another family full of love, talent, and a capacity for hard work.)]  

[Regarding impermanence: Buddhism urges us to remain aware of impermanence; and, in a sense, Christianity does, too, by urging us to recognize the transitory nature of this life, and take refuge in the powerful permanence of God and the afterlife.

The Buddha spoke of the way deaths heighten (for a while, at least) our awareness of impermanence.  He said that a man who feels impermanence when someone in the next village dies is like the horse that runs at the shadow of a whip; the man who feels it when someone in his own village dies is like the horse that runs when its hair feels the wind of the whip; the man who feels impermanence only when a family member dies is like a horse that runs when the whip strikes its flesh; and the man who's impervious to all that until he himself is stricken by a deadly illness is like a horse that runs only when the whip strikes his bones.]

Something Is Happening Here . . . Maybe an Illegal(?) Art Show

We enjoyed related events last weekend, all organized by our friend Saba, a Diné (Navajo) artist. At NMSU's Kent Hall, Pictograff: the Art of War Prayer opened; meanwhile, as part of the 8^th Annual Illegal(?) Arrowsoul Art Show, visiting indigenous aerosol artists muralized walls at Cruces Creatives, the old Coors Building near the railroad tracks, and elsewhere. 

Friday evening, artwork hung inside Kent Hall; and in the courtyard stood a temporary structure, its blank walls waiting to be painted during the opening. 

We talked with Orlando Cruz from Santa Ana Pueblo, and listened to his haunting songs and drumming. A Standing Rock Water Protector, he's friendly and interesting – and so popular on Facebook that he has reached Facebook's limit on friends. 

Native Artists in Action had a table. This collective uses art and rap music to help kids find better ways to live, including healthier eating, Bishop Undurdog (Zuni) said. “We found ourselves through art, and we're trying to do the same thing, let young people find themselves through art.” 

On the structure's three walls, three artists created interesting art pieces as the sun set. One artist, 40+ (and even sometimes using little reading glasses), was Doug Miles (San Carlos Apache), a nationally-known artist/activist. He once painted a mural in Fort Apache (a Bronx neighborhood the police once considered highly dangerous) exploring the similarities between the two Fort Apaches, and did a residency at the DeYoung Museum.. 

These are energetic, creative, caring young people. They feel doubly marginalized, being both indigenous and artists. They're forging a subculture that welcomes them, nurtures their art, and helps them help others. No one should feel threatened by this – unless it's inherently threatening when people who are different (ethnically, culturally, or socially) try to express themselves, make a buck, and raise families. 

These artists exhibit an appealing mix of creativity and activism. Several protested at Standing Rock. NAA sells a t-shirt with a painting and the words, “The elders say . . . never forget 1680,” a reference to the Santa Fe revolt. 

Introducing the music, Saba said that while “graffiti culture” started on the coasts, Native Americans here have made it their own. “Don't forget, we've been writing and painting messages on the wall forever. So this is a rebirth of that. This is how we pray.” 

He thanked Kent Hall and the University officials for “being cool with all this.” 

We bought a painting by Rezmo ("Rezzie McFly" on Facebook) of a traditionally-dressed young girl reaching up toward a hummingbird. The painting is somehow sweet, and seems sweeter when a friend explains that the girl is Rezmo's daughter. It also reflects her Diné-Aztec heritage. Rezmo, talked with us about how, artistically and personally, traditional tribal concerns mesh with new ideas and styles. 

The temperature was perfect, the moon peeked at us between tree branches, and the music was lively. Blood-pumping. The NAA folks sang rap-style music with rap's hard-edged sound but softer lyrics. We met some neat people, learning later that many are cultural rock stars with legions of fans, though mostly unknown to us older white folks. We saw some great art, some made right in front of us. Both the art and conversations reveal a very old culture blended with a new one, and artistic self-expression mixed with strong desires to make things better.

I wished more Las Crucens were enjoying these moments; but I was also glad the evening was so intimate. Everything seemed just as it should be.

                                                    -30-

[The above post appeared this morning, Sunday, 19 May 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 on KTAL-LP 101.5 FM -- streamable at www.lccommunityradio.org .   I should note that the "Something is Happening Here . . ." in the title is from a Bob Dylan song, the line, "Something is happening here . . . and you don't know, what it is, . . . do you, Mr. Jones." ]


[Here are a bunch more photos from the event.  (I'm still adding captions). Below those are notes on some of the artists and links to further information on them.  Some, as noted, are somewhat famous.  Others are "emerging."  (I'll add more later.)  If interested, scroll down through the images.]

Even the Dead Can Paint

but Don't Forget What Weekend this Is!

Painting Cruces Creatives

Saba takes a hand

Saba runs the "Barricade Culture Shop" (https://www.barricadecultureshop.com) on Solano near Kansas in Las Cruces.  Here's a New Magazine piece on him and it.

Interestingly, when I dropped by a day or two after the Arrowsoul Art Show, a group was discussing with him the possibility of bringing Saba and other indigenous artists to paint at a planned gathering.

Orlando Cruz drumming - Kent Hall

Pleased with her Purchase?

Rezmo is a Diné married to a Pima and living on the Pima reservation in Arizona.  Her art doesn't quite fit any specific categorization.  See below a link to her Facebook Page and the text of her October 2017 post on a sited called "Arizona Artist a Day." 

Douglas Miles, who did a residency at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, started and runs Apache Skateboards, which he says "started out as a father, making art for his son, but since then has grown into a movement sparking interest in skateboarding across Native communities for over 15 years."  See below for link to Wikipedia's article on him and info on a 2019 short film featuring him.

At the old Coors Building Saturday morning

At the old Coors Bldg

Saba in Coors Building

Painting Johnny

Painting Detail near Buffalo

Randy Painting at Dereks Place

Johnny w chair

[I hope to supplement these notes to cover a couple of additional artists, and perhaps add a bit more on some of these four:]

Douglas Miles also did a residency at the De Young Museum in San Francisco.  He started and runs Apache Skateboards, which he says "started out as a father, making art for his son, but since then has grown into a movement sparking interest in skateboarding across Native communities for over 15 years."  Wikipedia describes him as known for his "street art, skateboard art, stencil art, painting, and printmaking." 

Here's a link to an Indian Country Today article/review discussing a 2019 short film (The Mystery of Now -- watch here.) on Miles and  San Carlos Apache skateboarding.   The official statement on the film says that in it, “artist and Apache Skateboards founder, Douglas Miles shares socio-political context [and history of] life on the San Carlos Apache reservation [and] the personal history of how and why he started a skateboard brand and a team of local youth leaders.

He offers advice on cultivating resilience, creativity, and joy, provides guidance in a time that for many feels uncertain, polarizing and divisive in our own living rooms and around our dinner tables. The film was directed by Audrey Buchanan and released by The Woods Productions." 

 Milestone Films described Miles in a recent post (""Apache Skateboard's Doug Miles Brings his Art and Activism to the Screen").

Rezmo is, as mentioned above, a Diné married to a Pima and living on the Pima reservation in Arizona.  Her art doesn't quite fit any specific categorization.  In an October 2017 post on a sited called "Arizona Artist a Day,"  she writes:
"

Growing up on the Navajo Reservation the only graffiti I saw as a child was gang related graffiti.I even helped my elementary class paint park walls that were covered in gang tags during Earth Day events. There was no appeal or dazzle behind graffiti being from a small town.It wasn’t until I went to college in a bigger city that I was opened up to a bigger spectrum of art. I went to college for fashion design then painting then drawing. In that time I traveled a lot, met other artists and seen so many different forms of art.I still remember though, the first burner piece I saw.(A burner is referred to as a piece that is more elaborate and takes more time and effort by the artist.) It was in Albuquerque,NM and a friend of mine invited me to see the wall that she and a few others were working on.It was beautiful, it was alive and the energy of the artists, the wall, everything just spoke to me.In that moment I fell in love with graffiti.

Since then it has been my voice.I use my Native American roots as my source of inspiration. My ancestors before me left petroglyphs and now I leave my own.I am currently part of art collective made up of all indigenous aerosol artists called Neoglyphix.I myself as an artist strive to take my art to the next level.To inspire my children as well as others."

Her Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/natasha.l.martinez.5

Orlando Cruz
                                                                                                             
Here's a link to the publisher, Clear Light Books, of his book, Vibe Tribe.  The publisher says:

"Santa Ana Pueblo, Orlando Cruz, takes us on a journey from the front lines of the standoff at Standing Rock, North Dakota, to the Indigenous Peoples March, in Washington, D.C. 
As we listen to the story told in Orlando’s own voice, we are transported to the places he describes and feel as if we are traveling along with him. His kind spirit and gentle voice make us right at home and we slip into the story, unaware we have become a part of it as he draws us in with his open heart, insightful anecdotes and songs. 
His story is speckled with humor, mixed with deep thought and emotion, giving us a glimpse into what it’s like to be a Native American activist and water protector today. Throughout the book, Orlando, asks the questions that get people thinking in the direction of “How do I be more conscious in my life?”"

 Here's a video in which he plays a hand-drum and chants.

 

Saba runs the "Barricade Culture Shop" (https://www.barricadecultureshop.com) on Solano near Kansas in Las Cruces.  Here's a New Magazine piece on him and it.

Interestingly, when I dropped by a day or two after the Arrowsoul Art Show, a group was discussing with him the possibility of bringing Saba and other indigenous artists to paint at a planned gathering.

x

NM Supreme Court Considers an Interesting Energy Question

New Mexico's Supreme Court heard an important argument Monday on what's fair and lawful with regard to our push toward renewable electricity sources. 

Big utility companies have a legal monopoly on distributing our electricity; but should we let them use that power to gain a monopoly on producing electricity?

PRC Hearing Examiner Carolyn Glick said, “No!” After reviewing much evidence, she said it wasn't even a close call. She found that PNM had rigged a 2017 request for proposals on a 50MW solar generating project so that bidders could only succeed if their bid involved PNM owning the solar fields. Affordable Solar, Inc. won the bid.

Noting that the public interest is always paramount, and the utility's interest secondary, Glick recommended ordering a fairer rebid, with a 90-day deadline, not the 31 days she found unfairly brief. 

NM's PRC overruled Glick, 3-2. Coincidentally, Affordable's registered lobbyist was a campaign consultant to two commissioners. In 2018, Affordable was those commissioners' major campaign contributor, and PNM Resources gave $440,000 to a PAC supporting them. (Their challengers, including Las Crucen Steve Fischmann, won.) 

PNM had a huge financial incentive to ensure it owned the land and generating facility; but such an arrangement would cost consumers a lot more for their juice. The Supreme Court has stated that, “the public interest is to be given paramount consideration; desires of a utility are secondary.” Glick obeyed that mandate. 

PNM seeks to charge us: for the electricity (at a higher rate); 9.5% annual “return on equity” on the solar equipment; plus 9.5% annual “return” on the land. Without PNM land ownership, we'd pay less for the electricity (including the producer's 4-5% profit), plus minimal interconnection and distribution or transmission charges. 

PNM gets 9.5% guaranteed return only because hundreds of millions (coal) or even several billion (nuclear) were beyond what normal investors could handle without a “risk premium.” This project totaled only $72 million. We no longer need hugely expensive centralized plants or such handsome PNM profits. 

Since solar generated on non-utility-owned land is generally cheaper than on utility-owned land, effectively limiting bids to proposals using PNM-controlled land should be suspect. Two bids (disqualified by PNM) proposed producing on non-PNM land, at $34.50 and $29.63/MWh, respectively. Plenty lower than Affordable's $44.63. 

In 2016, on another project, three bids (including Affordable's) using non-PNM land were far cheaper than $44.63, despite declining prices for solar. Four months after overruling Glick to approve Affordable's $44.63 bid, the PRC reportedly approved a 50MW proposal with a $29.98 independent competitor bid.

PNM argues that there was no legal requirement to use a Request for Proposal; but RFP's are standard, transparent, and (theoretically) fair. There is a requirement to show that the proposal is cost-effective and in the public interest, and that alternatives were considered – and RFPs are a good way to do that. Further, PNM chose to use the RFP and claim it was fair, so when it actually wasn't so fair, who cares whether an RFP was required? 

There's sure no public interest in PNM owning the land.

State law mandated that the PRC require PNM to prove, with reliable evidence, that it was proposing the most cost-effective course. PNM didn't. 

PNM and the PRC claim the bidding process was fair. Since the Supreme Court must give the agency's conclusion significant deference, PNM might win.

But New Mexicans would pay way more for electricity than they should, for decades.

                                                -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 12 May 2019, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website, and a spoken version will air during the week on KRWG and on KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM (streamable at www.lccommunityradio.org).]

[I'm no energy expert, but I have read parts of the briefs on both sides, and the Hearing Examiner's Recommended Decision, and the PRC's decision overruling her.  I'll hope to have a current member of the PRC and perhaps someone from a utility on a radio show to discuss these and related issues in the foreseeable future.  This is or should be a time of major change in the industry, not only with a steady increase in renewable energy sources, and probably major further improvements in storage, but at least to some degree decentralization and decreasing reliance on the grid.  I think all that is positive -- and the move to renewables not only economically prudent in the long-term but essential to help avert the worst consequences of climate-change.  (Still, I want to ask someone about where we'd be if, as has happened in the past, something -- asteroid striking Earth, or an unusually large volcanic eruption, say --  seriously cuts down on the sunshine reaching the solar panels for an extended period.  I hope that's both a foolish question and an academic one.)]  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Soil and Water Conservation Commission Needs More Conservationists

The New Mexico Soil and Water Conservation Commission (NMSWCC) is an obscure group one could easily overlook. The NMSWCC could do us a lot of good. Climate-change makes protecting our resources even more critical; but the NMSWCC seems to think climate-change is a shuck. 

NMSWCC is not a conservation group. In appointing NMSWCC commissioners, our previous governor reportedly just rubber stamped a conservative group's suggestions. So NMSWCC is run by ranchers for ranchers. It oversees dozens of soil and water conservation districts around the state, and appoints two of each district's seven board-members. Some districts – like Valencia, in Belen – do great work; but many don't.

Doña Ana Soil and Water Conservation District (DASWCD) board-members represent themselves, their extremely conservative ideology, and ranching interests, but not so much the public. They got elected and re-elected, initially because the public knew little about them, and later by rigging their election process. 

DASWCD often opposed real conservation efforts, demonized the BLM, and alienated other locally elected officials. When the Las Cruces City Council (unanimously) and the County Commission (4-1) supported the Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks National Monument, the DASWCD unanimously opposed it and wrote President Obama urging him (purportedly on our behalf) NOT to approve OMDPNM. While some soil and water districts did actual conservation, these folks spent time passing a resolution decrying the county commission's alleged obedience to U.N. Agenda 21 – a well-meaning and generalized global sustainability resolution with no legal force. 

In 2014, the District asked voters to approve a mil levy to net hundreds of thousands of public dollars to finance District activities. We rejected that in a landslide – although Las Crucens willingly invest in our community and environment. 

This referendum, and DASWCD's monument opposition, drew public attention. DASWCD conceived, and the NMSWCC approved, an unfair and obviously unconstitutional measure creating four voting “zones.” Zone 4, which includes Las Cruces and more than 50,000 voters, elected one supervisor, while Zones 1-3, with a total voting population under 50,000, elected three. 

The U.S. Constitution requires “one-person, one-vote” elections. When a Zone 4 voter, Grant Price, sued, Judge James Martin rejected NMSWCC's argument that it shouldn't have to follow the U.S. Constitution, and ordered it to rescind its approval of the unfair zoning districts. (Full disclosure: with Mike Lilley, I represented Mr. Price in the lawsuit.)

At a meeting in Las Cruces, the NMSWCC ignored conservationist candidates and reappointed two ranchers. Several Las Crucens wanted to speak at that public meeting. Chair Dudley Hunt prevented them from addressing the Commission before the appointments were made. Commissioner Charlie Sanchez from Valencia SWCD spoke up against this muzzling of the public – and soon found himself tossed off the Commission by Governor Martinez. In 2017, we elected two conservationists to the DASWCD.

Our Governor should appoint actual conservationists to the Commission. Ranchers absolutely should be represented, but they should not control it or continue appointing fellow ranchers (or right-wing ideologues) to local boards. Mr. Hunt probably should not be re-appointed.

Our Legislature created this system to preserve New Mexico's water, land, and wildlife for all of us, stressed how important conservation was, and even empowered districts to get around the anti-donation clause when necessary. 

Let's refocus NMSWCC on its true mission, by appointing commissioners dedicated to preserving our environment and resources. A fair mix of environmentalists, ranchers, soil/water experts, and others could really do some good.

                                         -30- 

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 5 May 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 both KRWG and KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM.]

[Bottom line: as a citizen of New Mexico, I hope Governor Lujan-Grisham will appoint a conservation-minded set of commissioners who represent all of us -- including, but not limited to, ranchers.]