Phone Calls from Strangers

Registering my cell-phone with “Do Not Call” has cut down on nuisance calls, but I still get some.

If busy I just don’t take the call; but I often receive legitimate calls from unknown numbers: to those seeking legal help, I recommend an appropriate lawyer; some call to confide, often confidentially, further information about someone I’ve written about; occasionally callers just thank me for a particular column, or disagree and question me.

Spam calls have long been a problem, particularly before cell-phones started warning “Scam Likely.” (NEVER provide even trivial personal / financial information! Anyone threatening you or feigning urgency is almost certainly fake. IRS doesn’t tell you to send it a Walmart gift card! If something sounds important, independently look up the real number for IRS, the police, the utility, or your bank and call to check. Don’t verify using a number they give you for Microsoft or whatever.) We occasionally got them even in my childhood. A neighbor listened to one long sales call, said it sounded great but his wife made such decisions; Fran listened silently then said she’d let him talk to the real decision-maker, handing the phone to Philip. Philip, 5, soon held up the phone, saying, “He wanna talk to you, DaDa.”

I do not always know the callers’ intentions precisely. To sign me up for some costly non-necessity, defraud me, or simply to gain a little confidential information that can be abused or sold to someone who’ll abuse it. But these ludicrous calls must sometimes succeed. So I figured, if I had time – watching a ballgame, say, or watering vegetables – I’d waste as much of their time as I could, figuring that the time with me was time they weren’t defrauding some poor sucker. When they asked name, age, and zip code, or address, I’d give reasonable but false information, get passed on to “one of our licensed agents,” and eventually, just say, “Listen, I’ve just been wasting your time so you couldn’t use it to cheat some poor bastard.” Most hung up then, some cursed me first, and a few were so dense they kept on trying to con me.

Once, years ago, after I insulted a caller, he said a familiar phrase I can’t print in the newspaper or utter on radio. He added that he knew where I lived and would kill me. Somehow, we kept talking. After awhile he mentioned that he was from the Hunza Valley – a beautiful, mountainous region of eastern Pakistan that I’d wished I could someday visit. When I said that, suddenly he was proudly praising his home region and inviting me to visit his home some day. We rang off amicably. Weird!

Sometimes if we’re discussing something, I’ll take the call and respond to the initial come-on by asking the caller’s opinion: “Would you like to donate to our radio station?” or “How can we make our country more equitable?”

Sometimes, too, spam calls aren’t labeled.

Recently, I switched to a frank but friendly brushoff: “Yes, I’m fine; but I’m really sad that you have to do this kind of work for a living, calling and bothering strangers.” Most hang up immediately. Only one woman was quick enough to respond, “Yes. I’ll stop if you send me some money.” One man said, “Thank you for praying for me,” before hanging up. A few keep on keeping on right over me.

It’s true and concise.

                                                       – 30 –

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 30 June, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper’s website (sub nom "Navigating Spam Calls") and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[btw, two podcasts i should mention: 

1. I was interviewed a while back on the national podcast "Authors over 50," about The Moonlit Path, and that's accessible at: https://authors-over-50.simplecast.com/episodes/a-wandering-soul-with-peter-p-goodman .  You can listen or subsribe at Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts - authors over 50  or anywhere you listen to podcasts. It's also on YouTube.

2. Monday afternoon, 2-3:00, I'll appear on a local podcast called "The Chips & Salsa Show," along with a conservative friend.  I know it's on You Tube.  I don't have the specific URL. ]

Thinking Back a Half-Century and More

A conversation on Juneteenth, and a small exhibit in the archives section of NMSU’s Branson Library, got me thinking about earlier times here.

Talking with Dr. Bobbie Green, head of our local NAACP, and exhibit curator Lauretta King, I mentioned that my friend Easy John Howe, an artist, had stopped in a bar in Vado and learned that Vado had been a Black community. He met descendants of folks who’d moved there. Turns out Bobbie grew up in Vado, which I hadn’t realized. I’m guessing that contributed to her strong commitment.

One archived item was a 1967 memo from Phil Ambrose to Dean Carl Hall, concerning a request by John Howe to approve a Black Students Association. Ambrose says he’s investigated, thinks the group would do no harm, and recommends approval. (Not ‘til 1967 did the U.S. Supreme Court hold that a White and a Black had the right to marry each other.)

That sparked nostalgia for my old friends and allies, a sharp memory of how things were, and the odd feeling we get when things we did or witnessed have become “history.” There’s a twinge of shock (“But I remember that!), and a recognition that folks can learn the facts but not how it felt.

When I arrived in 1969, Easy and I quickly became friends. And allies. The Movement for equality and against “racism” and war, was still a small but passionate minority here, upsetting folks by seeking change, and unpopular with a school administration profiting from defense contracts. Easy was a wonderful artist. After he went out with my sister for a while, our living room boasted a large painting by him (of a jazz musician) until a later jealous lover of hers destroyed it. Dean Ambrose was one of the few NMSU administrators we could actually talk with. Hall, by then a V.P., was the administrator who called Lou Henson to complain that Henson had hired “that rabble-rouser Peter Goodman.”

In 1969, New Mexico State honored its “tricultural” heritage but ignored Blacks, while using them as football and basketball players. By then, the worst aspects of racism had been vanquished; NMSU wasn’t forcing black students to listen from outside the classroom, like Clarabelle Williams; but a many whites here still didn’t “get it.”

What we were fighting was that much of the [white] country took for granted that “Negroes” or “colored people” were somehow very different from “us.” Nonsense. “Race” was invented to justify enslaving blacks, in a time when the dominant ethos was Christianity. Slavery had not needed justification in earlier times, when defeated armies and conquered peoples became slaves. Slaves weren’t all well-treated, but they weren’t viewed as fundamentally different (or not human), and might, in time, make money off a craft or talent, or become freed and intermarry. But by modern times, as men began speaking of freedom and individual rights, slavery needed a special excuse, and racism suited. A war vetoed that; but white southerners waged one of history’s most successful PR campaigns to rehabilitate “race” and enforce Jim Crow laws.

That vicious fiction was so embedded that no one was immune. Every white and some blacks had a bit of that assumption somewhere inside us.

Nor is that gone yet. That’s why a modernized NAACP exists here and is fighting a lot of good fights not only for Blacks but to help all groups our society abuses. Join us!

                               – 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 23 June, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and (presently) on the newspaper’s website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/).]

 

Things to Remember in November

I lunched recently with a Republican friend. He’s no Trumpist. He deeply believes that rules and laws are meant to be followed, and differing politically needn’t mean hating each other. That these are now quaint notions among Republicans, whispered by Republican political candidates lest they be punished, like Liz Cheney and many others, is one serious symptom of our disease.

Donald Trump is no Hitler. He’s neither as smart nor as ideologically driven. Hitler had embittered views on Germany and its history, and hated Jews. He had strong, if strongly bent, ideas. Trump has none. Trump is pure narcissist. His deep feelings of unworthiness spark bragging and bullying. The right course is always what makes him look good, at least to himself. Had Democrats worshiped him, he’d be protecting abortion rights, not restricting them.

But both men speak – mostly railing angrily at enemies – in ways disaffected people listen to, then follow violently. Hitler’s “brown shirts,” initially an informal group, violently helped the Nazi Party grow, and were later formalized as the S.A.

Trump uses the Proud Boys and other groups similarly. Pre-election, he told them to “stand back and stand by.” Post-election, his associates planned with them an assault on the Capitol. Then his fiery speech spurred their violent invasion.

Consider election officials who’ve been harassed for doing their job. Or the rage of “doxxing” and “swatting.”

Trump intends this widespread intimidation. Often on “Truth Social” he attacks people involved in his legal cases, and followers re-post and either threaten or act – attacking the FBI after Mar-a-Lago was searched, posting grand jurors’ names and addresses after Trump’s Georgia indictment, and shouted that the hush-money jurors should be “doxxed” or even killed. They tried to “swat” the judge in Trump’s Washington trial, and (on Christmas Day) the prosecutor. After a former police officer the Trumpists nearly killed on January 6 criticized Trump recently, his mother reportedly got “swatted.” A Proud Boy who served time for January 6 posted New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg’s photo beside a noose. (Compare Biden’ regarding Hunter’s trial: he loves his son, but he trusts the process and wouldn’t pardon Hunter.)

Wouldn’t believing Trump’s lies – that all these justice systems are rigged against him and that corruption stole the presidency – make you you want to do something?

If I thought something I wrote inspired threats against or persecution of someone else, I’d immediately (and strongly) urge everyone to desist. Mr. Trump repeats his lies and threats – and smiles, as he did when invaders shouted “Hang Mike Pence!” Now he threatens to use the DOJ for revenge.

What I hope my friend, other Republicans, and independent voters will recall is that the violence that brings an egotistical man to power can then be turned against anyone, for any reason. If they can beat and bully others, they can beat and bully you, should you ever disagree. Further, as with Europe fascism and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, often those grand movements reduce to personalities at the local level, with men using their connection to power to get the violence turned on an annoying neighbor, an inconvenient business competitor, or someone who insults them. Call him “Communist!” or “Reactionary!” and he’s gone.

What I hope I remember is that we must recognize and repair what’s so wrong that some decent people admire Mr. Trump. Lies about an unfair system are easiest to believe when folks feel victimized or forgotten.

                                                        – 30 --

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 16June, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[This is an interesting article about CEOs, who were leaning toward voting for Trump, who’d then spent an hour in a room with him and remarked on how much he meandered and appeared not to know things. That’s how it looks, of course; and it may be that the best Biden advertising Dems could do would be buying a half-hour of TV time for Donald to just talk, and explain what his plans are.]

[Strengthens my feeling that the debates will be both more and less important than ever. Less because substantively we’ll be listening to two old guys who’ve been on the stage for a long time, and newspapers, TV, blogs, and smoke signals tell us daily their every thought; but far more important than ever because the all-important how they say things, how they seem to viewers, is a bigger part of the picture: with two old men, and both sides swearing the other is sinking fast into dementia, and one whose enemies call him a bully facing one whose enemies call him weak, won’t everyone be watching for slow or wandering minds, whether Trump can control his bullying, and whether Biden can find the right manner to combat the bullying? Will the innovation (which I’ve long advocated to my TV set) of letting moderators cut off the mike of someone who’s time has ended help Biden, as one first thinks – or help Trump by shortening his answers and silencing his worst moments? Or if he shouts at a dead microphone, will he look silly to many while his supporters rage at censorship? Biden at his State of the Union was a star, although perhaps more overtly political than one might like. Debates are tougher. He does seem to forget a lot of names – as I do, being nearly as old. (I forget even some pretty familiar names, but when you’re writing a column you can look ‘em up.) On TV, too much of it could be fatal.

On the other hand, while the G7 summit was at least partially successful, video of Biden showed him off to the side as the group watched a sky-diving exhibition and joked. Biden looked almost absent, then walked away.  [NOTE: a helpful friend/reader urged me to look further into this.  While Biden does look kind of "off to the side" at the start, not the center of things, which was my observation, the "wandering off" part was in the editing.  He's actually approaching one of the sky-divers, who's putting his parachute away.  Not wandering off into an empty field. ]

[Trump admirers may not like this column, although I don't think they'll find I got any facts wrong.  But more important for other readers than Trump-bashing, is to discern and try to deal with some of the reasons decent people trust Mr. Trump, and address those reasons.  I know part of it is ethnic prejudice and the culture wars.  But I also agree that most folks in this country are being mistreated by our system.  But a bigger source of their problems than ethnic "others" or the fact that different folks have some very different takes on sex and gender, and in fact some very different natures is corporate cheating and lies, poisoning of air, water, earth, and our food, and a ridiculously unprogressive tax system.  As always, the folks doing us harm have plenty of money for slick advertising and the buying of politicians [and Supreme Court justices now!] who'll do their bidding.  Trump and his allies survive because they play on fears and uncertainty, and the fact that it's often easier for someone to  blame "the others" than it is to penetrate the details of corporate machinations.  Progressives need always to remember that some of those Trumpists -- perhaps many of them -- are not enemies but vellow victims of the same forces.]

New Mexico Moves to Link Mentally Ill Defendants with Treatment and Services

 The Competency Diversion Program (“CDP,” below) is qualified good news.

Here, and in most of the country, there’s a crisis involving crimes, mostly misdemeanors, committed by the mentally ill. Many are homeless. Citizens rage that someone gets arrested then repeats the crime days or weeks later.

A key hole in the system is that courts can’t constitutionally try a defendant who can’t follow the proceedings and help his defense lawyer. We’re each entitled to a fair trial. That precludes trying a person whose severely mentally ill. Currently, a judge can only send that person to Las Vegas to confirm mental incompetency (no treatment involved), then receive the person back. Courts can’t just toss someone in jail or an asylum without finding extreme danger. Therefore, when I served as an alternate municipal judge, I had no treatment option, couldn’t jail folks, and had to let them go. Story, who has made addressing competency a high priority, has released data showing that in 2023, just four people had a total of 576 cases in Las Cruces Municipal Court dismissed following this pattern.

This is the sorry intersection of Criminal Justice Street and Mental Health Avenue.

Story, judges, and citizens have been hoping to repair that intersection by making treatment available to nonviolent defendants as early as possible. After NewMexico Legislature bills regarding competency died during the regular session, Governor Lujan-Grisham has called a special session on public safety, including competency, to start July 18. The proposal on competency would provide for diverting mentally incompetent defendants to treatment programs in various circumstances.

CDP does that. Assuming a defendant has a misdemeanor charge, but no felony, and mental health appears a factor, s/he’s screened by a scientific process. If mentally incompetent, s/he is offered treatment and other assistance right off. Prosecutor, defendant, defense counsel, and court discuss it.

Officials can’t force it on anyone – which would likely fail anyway. But some, whether hoping to kick fentanyl addiction or to recover something approximating sanity, will grab the chance. Then the system [in the person of a “forensic navigator”] introduces defendant to La Clinica Familia. An agreed-upon 20-day to six-month course of treatment follows. Successful completion (assuming no further crimes!) means dismissal of charges.

It won’t work for everyone. Some folks want no part of anything, don’t trust authorities, or aren’t sufficiently together to maintain contact. Some will try and fail. Changing ourselves is hard work. But offering this early lifeline is a boon to defendants and the rest of us. Sure, some citizens will say, “They’re a plague. Jail ‘em all.” But even many who’ve felt that way now understand that we can’t do that in this country.

CDP is new. Last Friday a pilot program started in or county, a shakedown cruise to determine how everything works. The program was developed by a New Mexico Supreme Court Commission over many months of hard work. Key figures included Justice Briana Zamora and Magistrate Judge Alex Rossario. La Clinica and Doña Ana County Health and Human Services Director Jamie Michaels will also be integral to success.

Success – measured by statistics, not emotions – would lead to extending the program to other judicial districts, and possibly including defendants accused of non-violent felonies. The Administrative Office of the Courts is keeping close statistical track of events, creating a data bank that could help in refining the program.

And, as Justice Zamora points out, this is just the first step.

                                                        – 30 –

[The above column appeared Sunday, 9June, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to https://www.lccommunityradio.org/archives/speak-up-las-cruces-competency-diversion-program – or go to the KTAL website and look on the archives, because Walt Rubel and I discussed it on “Speak Up, Las Cruces” June 5^th, with Justice Zamora, Judge Rossario, and La Clinica]

[I know this column will sound dry and legalistic to some, but misdemeanor crime, exacerbated by the way the legal system deals with competency, has been an extremely serious problem here and elsewhere. Yeah, it’s related to the national epidemic of homelessness our economic system has produced over time; but not all mentally ill who commit crimes are homeless, and, very clearly, not all homeless folks commit crimes or are mentally ill. But the problem has made life Hell for many, both mentally ill folks and Las Crucens who are victims of frequent crime and threats.

This program is a great step toward making our system more successful for all.

But we need much more. The City, Chief Story, the Supreme Court, local judges, and the state government are all working on that. Some of the steps, such as the shopping cart ordinances may be controversial. However, critics shouting that the city isn’t interested in the problem are wrong. So are critics who say the City isn’t working on root causes. The City is working on housing and on putting folks who need mental health treatment in touch with providers. Many root causes of joblessness, homelessness, and the mental health epidemic are systemic and national.]

[Some people need to be locked up.  But locking folks up ain't the solution for all.  Jails don't rehabilitate; and the idea that punishment deters further crime "or teaches them a lesson" fails when either mental/emotional problems or need leaves someone no real choice.  Giving them a choice works for both petty criminals and their victims, by actually stopping some folks' criminal conduct and helping 'em on the road to being productive citizens again.  It'll be interesting to see how this promising pilot program works out. ]

Taking Yvette at her Word

In a recent “op-ed,” Yvette Herrell say she dislikes New Mexico’s law permitting abortion, and favors re-criminalizing most abortions, and that her opponents misrepresent her views.

She doesn’t say if she’d extend criminal liability to folks driving someone to get an abortion, as do draconian laws passed by her political allies in Texas and elsewhere. As we read of harrowing situations of women escaping to New Mexico merely to protect their health, or unable to escape, Herrell mocks our state’s compassion and tolerance as “creating a late-term abortion tourism industry.” The phrase, “Abortion tourism” insults those women. Electing a majority of Herrell allies to the legislature could be life-threatening for girls and women.

Herrell describes pro-choice voters as “liberal special interest groups smearing me and misleading New Mexico voters about my positions.”

However, for many, Herrell’s own words are the problem. She’s “pro-life. As a Christian, I believe every human life is a sacred gift from God.”

I’m truly pro-life. I believe every life [not merely human] is a marvelous gift, not mine to destroy, although I surely take out many mosquitoes and the few roaches I see. (Scorpions I carry outside. Rattlers, further away.) Herrell has no more right to impose her Christian views on us than would a strict Buddhist seeking to outlaw killing mosquitoes. (Buddhists would be far less likely to try.)

She adds, “I also greatly empathize with the many women who find themselves with an unintended pregnancy.” but her “empathy” would still advocate jailing their doctors unless the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest or clearly endangered the mother’s life – an exception she previously opposed. She says “it is important that we extend every option available to women to help them make the right decision for their personal situation,” so long as that decision doesn’t go beyond her narrow confines.

Herrell does “fully support increased access to birth control,” unlike Republicans who are banning that in Louisiana. (Oddly, in 2022 when Congress voted on a bill to protect contraception access, she voted “No!”) She also says “we must do a better job of supporting mothers — and fathers — through pregnancy, birth, and beyond.” Let’s remind her of that the next time Congress is considering SNAP benefits and other ways governments can help out poor families in need. She also promises she would not support a national ban that would overrule New Mexico’s laws on the subject, although she certainly supported such bans in the past, starting with fertilization. Those bans she sponsored made no exceptions.

Those are her words, which she wants us to understand her by, ignoring her actions. She says she’d respect New Mexico’s right to decide the issue, unlike the way she voted when a congresswoman. (One might ask why, believing her God requires her to save even a fertilized egg from murder, she’s abandoning that sacred cause. I wonder how He views that.)

I thoroughly agree with her on one point: “We can disagree civilly on difficult issues like abortion, while working together” on other issues and needs of our country and New Mexicans. I spend a lot of time encouraging dialogue among folks with various points of view. I hope Ms. Herrell will join us on radio when we try to talk with her and her opponent, Congressman Gabe Vasquez. A genuine dialogue can only help in having elections decided by the most knowledgeable voters we can become.

                          – 30 --

 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 2June, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and (soon) on the newspaper’s website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). ]

[Turnout is low. That makes your vote, for whomever, count more. Or, more likely to count. We voted Saturday at Corbett Center. It was fun. Nice people there. No one else voting. They actually had food to give away, so I grabbed some. On the voting machine, inserting my ballot moved it from 222 to 223. I asked if that was today’s total. The guy said “That’s for the whole time.”  Weeks of early voting. Assuming six days a week for five weeks, 30 days. Seven or eight people per day.  There was at least one other machine, so cal it 14-16 per day.  And we’re second in the state in voter total this season.]

[I voted for Angelica Rubio to continue working for us District 35 residents. Having written a couple of weeks ago about that race, I noticed when we got a misleading and somewhat nasty flier attacking Rubio and never mentioning her opponent. (If they needn’t, I needn’t. He’s a nice enough guy, likely being used.

Anyway, the mailer was “Paid for by New Mexico Turn Around.” I wondered who that was. Found a phone number and called it. Message immediately said, “No message left on this line will be answered. If you want to ask about real estate or anything else, call” a second number. I called. Second number was answered, “Jalapeño Corporation.” I asked to speak to Harvey Yates, a Republican oil zillionaire. “Jr. or the Third?” “Jr.,” I said. (He’s 82.) She told me he wasn’t in today. Apparently “New Mexico Turn Around” has been around for a while, donating mostly to Republican political candidates. Republicans and other backers of the challenger are sufficiently nervous about his complete lack of Democratic (or other significant civil, civic, or charitable) credentials that a new flier shows eight respected people who also back him, including conservative Democrat Mary Kay Papen (to whom Democrats owe respect for her years representing Las Crucens, but who voted against protecting women’s rights to abortions). I respect and like Mary Kay, but, sorry, I still see no good reason to replace a good legislator with a beginner who just joined the party. ]

[In such a low-turnout primary, could the money invested against Rubio bear fruit? Hope not.]