Writing a column requires maintaining, at least briefly, illusions that one understands something that matters and that one can shape that understanding into an effective, engaging communication.
I can’t manage that this morning.
There’s plenty that’s true and worth saying: Joanne Ferrary is a dedicated, caring, incredibly diligent public servant and Isabella Solis seems mostly devoted to Isabella Solis. Xochitl Torres-Small, a smart and moderately progressive young woman representing a sprawling, varied district, is hearing progressives say she’s too nice to gas and oil and gun owners and conservatives say she’s the second coming of Karl Marx.
Still, I feel paralyzed. By awareness that many more than usual are dying. By the vast weight of misinformation and disinformation on the Internet. By the rancor of contemporary political discourse. By amazement that we’ve elected a narcissistic conman to the Presidency, that he’s trampling on our democracy, and that good and decent people smile on him, or shout “Hillary Clinton’s worse!” or “look at Hunter Biden!”
Life feels schizophrenic. We are both more isolated (most of us, physically) and far less so (the isolation, compounded by nervousness and extra time, drives us to spend longer periods on “social media.”
Some are racked by grief for loved ones taken by this pandemic, while others shout about our personal freedom to spurn masks and infect whomever we infect. Some are fighting boredom and others fighting exhaustion from working feverishly in hospitals or meat-packing plants. Some of us are glad that large numbers of whites may finally understand the toll it takes on a person to be black in this country, while others are infuriated that too few express outrage at killings of police officers. (Can’t I hope for better understanding, demand that we face our racism, yet also deplore ANY unjustified killings?)
I feel the dissonance between the dispiriting rancor of Internet communications and the warmth of some more personal communications. While I recognize the threat Donald Trump is to our democracy, and the viciousness of some Republican policies, and feel that our country could be at an important turning point, I can’t manage to hate the Trumpists I know.
I play pickeball with several Trumpists. “I see you’re still writing columns to piss people off,” one said recently when he returned from traveling. “Hey, one thing,” I urged another Thursday, “Don’t vote!” Mostly we acknowledge our differences with a laugh and play ball. Discussions do happen, without anyone convincing anyone of much, but with one notable exception they’re amicable. Still, sometimes, as I’m praising a great shot by my partner, my mind recalls he’s part of the threat.
That one fellow Las Crucen believes George Soros funds Antifa, doesn’t keep me from feeling and expressing sorrow for his loss of a family-member to drugs. Another funds political candidates I oppose, but I’m sorry the pandemic has caused him to close a business I sometimes patronized.
Thursday an acquaintance I greatly respect, a lawman’s lawman, remarked that he truly liked and respected our current sheriff, Kim Stewart, adding: “She’s got good people in good positions, and knows her people. She and I don’t agree on political things, but I love her. She’s honest and she’s police.”
I particularly enjoyed our conversation, and appreciated his ability to work with others despite political disagreements.
Yet it’s schizophrenic. Those deep divisions ain’t going away. Which enhances the importance of talking across the canyon to each other. With mutual respect.
– 30 –
[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 25 October 2020, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website. A radio commentary will ait during the week on both KRWG and KTAL (101.5 FM, http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and will be available on demand on KRWG's website.]
[However all this comes out Tuesday, we sure need a national conversation about healing. If the Dems win, they had better not forget that a whole lot of people are sick enough of “the system” that they’ll vote for a Donald Trump, twice, while latching onto some pretty odd sets of allegations presented as facts. We need to ask “Why?” and face up to underlying problems. If Trump wins again, things will be pretty hopeless; but that conversation will be even more urgent, but it’ll be less in our power to make it happen – and many of us will be in despair. ]
[I mentioned Ferrary and Solis. Aside from generally preferring Ferrary’s stand on the issues to Solis’s, I’ve watched both at work.
A, who has spent much of her career working to curtail drunken driving, decides to run for State Legislature, feeling that her views better suit the district’s voters’ views than do those of the incumbent, a well-liked doctor with funding from oil companies and such. He wins. Two years later, she tries again. The doctor prevails, after a recount, by eight votes. Two years down the road, she runs again, and wins. She approaches her work with the same fortitude it took to run three times for the office. Throughout the year she’s extremely busy with interim committees and less formal work. She’s extremely active solving problems that aren’t necessarily left vs. right issues, but human ones, like adult guardianship, drug courts, etc. She busts her ass at the job, and seems gnerally friendly to and cooperative with everyone.
B, a former FEMA employee, runs for County Commission as a Democrat, and ends up chairing the Commission. She looks kind of lost on the dais, apparently hasn’t bothered to master Robert’s Rules of Order, and sometimes behaves oddly. Maybe she started with good intentions, but forgets them. While she reams out another commissioner for voting on a solar-industry-related issue after accepting campaign contributions from a solar power company; she herself votes to legalize fireworks sales after accepting a large contribution from THE main company that’ll benefit from the change. Maybe the decision was right. Maybe it was wrong, given that we live in a desert and we’re experiencing a deep drought. Either way, it raises questions of hypocrisy when she criticizes another commissioner so vociferously for his conduct. She also changes her registration from “Democrat” to “Republican.” (Doing so while Donald Trump is the head of the Republican Party is either a big plus or a big minus, depending on one’s viewpoint.)
Before serving out her term, she pushes herself before the voters in the Las Cruces Mayoral Election. She comes in 5th. Then she announces her candidacy for the state legislature. I know she feels strongly about some issues. But it sure appears that she cares primarily about pushing herself forward, in whatever manner proves feasible.
Solis’s top ten contributors, after the Republican Party, are mostly from the Yates family (owners of a petroleum company, which also donated), Bowlin Travel Centers (fireworks friends), and local businessfolks Lou Biad and Marci Dickerson. Ferrary’s are trial lawyers, environmental entities, and education-related entities, including the NM Federation of Teachers. Ferrary is also supported by the New Mexico Education Association and the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. ]
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