Monday the San Francisco 49ers beat the New York Jets 32-19, and Tuesday Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump more soundly.

Skilled and well-prepared, the ‘Niners scored on eight consecutive drives, although too often they settled for 3-point field goals, not touchdowns. With football’s best running back injured, a young, unknown 49er ran all over the field.

Harris was skilled and well-prepared, with facts, Donald Trump’s own past words, and a few special plays. She won soundly on content and in the optics. She got under his skin, helping him forget his best plays and rant about his greatness instead. He resembled a football player so frustrated by a broken tackle that he just loses his temper and earns a 15-yard personal-foul penalty.

Harris, too, sometimes settled for field goals, and she evaded some questions. Her answer on tariffs could have pointed out that his more extensive tariff plans to “punish China” would punish U.S. consumers. When he completely refused to answer a simple question, she could have used her rebuttal minute well by saying, “You asked Mr. Trump whether he regretted anything he did on January 6 [or, Why he sabotaged the bipartisan border bill?], and he refused to answer, so let me yield him my minute, so he can answer your question.”

But she prosecuted him ably. On split-screen, her facial expressions and body language commented eloquently on Trump’s stupid lies and disconnections.

Then wildly popular singer Taylor Swift, who’d rooted her boyfriend’s team to a Super Bowl victory over the ‘Niners, endorsed Harris, in a well-composed post saying Harris fought ably for causes Swift thought “needed a warrior” championing them. Swift stressed her research, urged others to do research, and provided a link to vote.gov – which 330,000 used within hours. (The post quickly had 10 million “likes.”) Celebrity endorsements shouldn’t matter so much; but this one could. She has 283 million Instagram “followers.”

When Biden withdrew, I said that Trump should duck a debate with Harris. Trump, leading, should let folks remember Biden’s poor debate performance and Trump’s superficial strength. Treat Harris like the interloper Trump now calls her. But an overconfident Trump wouldn’t have listened. He knows he can do anything better than anyone.

Tuesday night, I hoped for no further debate. Harris would likely win again; but why not let this fine evening be folks’ vision of Harris and Trump? The Chiefs didn’t offer the ‘Niners a rematch just for fun.

This debate revealed important realities: Donald Trump is a petulant old man with a few fixed ideas he yammers loudly and often, without compassion and lacking patience for honest engagement. Harris was younger, sharp-witted, disciplined enough to stay on-script, and seemed genuine. A less unsettled Trump could have landed some blows. He could have calmly noted her vice-presidency and ask why, if X and Y were such good ideas, she and Joe hadn’t done ‘em. Trump’s mental acuity has long been suspect. How many Republicans now wish they could do as the Democrats did? They can’t, partly ‘cause Trump ain’t walking away. Biden cared.

Harris replacing Biden equalized polling numbers, and gave her momentum. Recent signs suggested momentum was stalling. Folks watching clips from this debate and hearing Republicans bemoan Trump’s poor performance could refuel momentum.

Harris remains the underdog. But will some politically aggrieved folks who liked Trump’s anger see that Trump’s personal anger is irrelevant to their problems? Will Swifties swiftly rescue us?

                                                         – 30 –

The City Puts the Hospital on Notice

What’s it mean that Las Cruces has written Memorial Medical Center (“MMC”) demanding compliance with MMC’s contractual obligations – mostly reporting more fully and providing “Expanded Care,” which includes medical care for indigents?

There’s no established breach; but this is official notice that the City has good reason to believe breaches have occurred. Theoretically, if MMC ignored this, the city and county could take steps to evict MMC and its ultimate owner, the private equity firm Apollo Global.

This is a great first step we should neither take too lightly not applaud too loudly.

Much will depend on the reaction of Apollo/MMC and on the City’s intestinal fortitude.

It’s a fair question whether the private-equity firm will make significant improvements. If we were starting a hospital we’d not seek Apollo to run it. But Apollo owns it. Apollo won’t just return it to us, because it’s one of the chain’s most profitable hospitals. (Litigation to evict Apollo would be costly and rancorous.) But Apollo, through MMC’s new CEO, will respond, and will deal with its landlords. How reasonably? Guess we’ll find out.

But there’s no improvement without the City standing up. Yoli Diaz and I can kvetch ‘til the cows come home.

We should thank Yoli – and Gretchen.  Yoli took people with cancer to MMC and pushed for their admission. She criticized city, county, and hospital, and screamed ‘til she was blue in the face at meetings – and talked folks’ ears off outside meetings.

She’d have gotten nowhere without her accidental megaphone, Gretchen Morgenson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Gretchen was discussing her newest book [These Are the Plunderers] about Apollo and other private-equity groups plundering health care entities. Las Cruces ain’t a big media center, but it’s home to one of Gretchen’s closest friends, Charlotte Lipson, whom she likes visiting; and Gretchen had heard of MMC’s problems.

So Gretchen gets to visit with Yoli at length and this becomes a national story. State Attorney-General Raul Torrez jumps in to investigate. Thanks, Raul! Others of us urge the city and county to enforce their contractual rights. The City’s letter to MMC cites Morgenson’s report.

As I was thinking and Mayor Pro Tem Johana Bencomo said, we also needed two other pieces. A new city manager, Ikani Taumoepeau, and a City Attorney, Brad Douglas, who would stand up and agree that the City had rights here. Former City Manager Ifo Pili and former County Manager Fernando Macias sat on MMC’s board. Were they watchdogs who didn’t bark? Or were ignored? I never heard ‘em.

Now we wait. Global/MMC is legally obligated to provide full information and start to remedy the breach, if it is one. They owe the City (legally) and the community (ethically) a lot of information. Lease section 4.9 requires an annual report describing the hospital’s fulfillment of its legal obligations. The City has [finally] requested such a report by September 30, so I hope we see it in October. It’s important that the City stick to its guns and require MMC to perform – but be fair in giving MMC time to do so. I may have my doubts about Apollo Global; but those aren’t evidence.

As I left the City’s press conference, outside, a Juarez news outfit was interviewing Yoli in Spanish, under the bright New Mexico sun. A citizen who’s done what citizens should do: be a complete pain in the posterior until leaders listen.

                                      – 30 –

 

[This column appeared Sunday, 8 September, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News

and on the newspaper's website, and will presently be up 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/ .]

[I’m not a pure bystander in this one. I’ve been writing about problems at MMC and the public landlords’ obligation to use their contractual powers to improve healthcare here by insisting on contractual compliance. ]

[I also urge City and County to investigate what their options would be if Apollo said “Take back your hospital, you’re too much of an annoyance” or Apollo largely stiffed the City on improvements and full reporting and the City got a court to say “Sayonara!” to Apollo. Neither is likely. As mentioned, this is one of Apollo’s more profitable hospitals, and Apollo is unlikely to hand it back. Litigation is expensive, time-consuming, distracting, and often rancorous, and should be only a last resort.

But we should know what our best options would be. First of all, we’d not want suddenly to be in that situation and start then to figure things out. Secondly, the more informed you are about such things, the better negotiator you are. I’m not suggesting city or county do anything untoward contractually, but merely that they should inform themselves on the “What ifs,” just in case.]

 

Getting to Write Thirteen Years of Sunday Columns -- Thanks, Ray!

This one’s for Ray Bernal and ‘cause it’s August.

I met Ray playing basketball at Meerscheidt, fifty years ago. He was a native Las Crucen and city official. I was a reporter. We became friends and stayed that way. He died recently.

When I returned to live here, Ray thought I should be writing a Sunday column. He introduced me to Jim Lawitz, then the Sun-News editor, who asked for a couple of writing samples and hired me. (I say “hired,” but the money was trivial, and was never the point.” My first column was dated 21 August 2011.

It’s been a hell of a ride! I figured to write folksy old-man columns, maybe goofy human-interest stuff. But old friends and enemies, recalling me as the young firebrand publishing what I thought was right, plus new friends presenting me with injustices and problems, torpedoed that idea.

Some columns have been controversial. Some even led friends to worry about our safety. Two successive county sheriffs got so enamored of the wrong people that they made deputies’ lives miserable. People bravely told me their stories, and we shined enough light into dark corners to help facilitate change.

It’s incredibly rewarding to hear a powerless person who’s been abused, or sees a wrong being done by our political representatives, investigate, listening to all sides, and write the fairest, truest column I can on something the public should know.

Meanwhile, I’ve tried to advocate on issues, but more to articulate a feeling: that men, including me, are too damned self-absorbed; that nature, poor folks, underlings, and ethnic minorities get unfairly short shrift; that discussing stuff collegially – speaking frankly but listening closely – often actually works. Also that none of us – surely not I! – knows the whole truth. And that, even in tough times, we’re all just folks, with more in common than we realize. 

 

Particularly during the first several years, some folks showered me with the vilest possible insults. Others liked the column. Strangers sometimes called me up or approached me in public to agree or disagree, or to thank me for putting into words stuff they were thinking. Sometimes what they said, or their tone, moves me deeply. If not for those heartfelt thanks, I’d have given up the column long ago.

A gentleman in the Farmers Market said he owed me a big debt of gratitude. How come? “Well, when my son was younger, he was turning really rightist. He lived with his mother’s family, who are more conservative. When we’d hear you on the radio, he’d say, ‘That guy is completely full of ____!’ He took your name in vain a lot. But then he’d research what you were talking about, and say later, ‘You know, that guy was actually right.’”

I ran into a man at a City Council meeting. He asked if I recognized him. I didn’t. He was a man who’d been wrongly accused, years earlier, of a particularly vile crime. After investigating, I’d concluded the charge was bogus, and wrote why. The police soon reached the same conclusion. Whole incident was tragic. No one ever fully recovers from such a situation. It gave me joy to find him working again, doing good again, and still with his loyal family.

So, thanks, Ray. Thanks for the platform, Sun-News. Thanks to friends and strangers who’ve read these columns and reflected on them. Thanks, Las Cruces!

I love this place.

                                                 – 30 --

 

[This column appeared Sunday, 1 September, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website, and will presently be up 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/ .]

[Like anything you start, then continue, the columns have taken on a life of their own. There’s a passel of Sundays between August 2011 and this morning. Because the spoken versions air each week, I’ll have folks recognize my voice and approach me in the oddest of situations. I also receive heartfelt thanks from people who’ve clearly enjoyed some of the columns. That’s moving, humbling, and a great discouragement to giving them up!]

[Idly, just now, I searched the blog posts for “Controversy.” The first listed was a 2012 post on the City giving an award to a prade float that included the Confederate flag:

The Great Confederate Flag Float Controversy? What’s sad is that the Tea Party is too cowardly to be candid. What’s important is not to let this nonsense lure us into an overreaction that would intimidate free speech.

I know that flag. I saw it on cars driven by people who threatened me and chased me back out onto the dirt roads (where the colored stayed), when I was a civil rights worker in the South in 1965.

It was the flag of a "nation" created to defend slavery.

Next came a 2015 meditation on the books Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Looking Backward, then a comment this year on book-banning, a column on the 2014 Soil and Water Commission election, then a post-Dobbs outcry (headed “Supreme Court on a Rampage – Wake Me when we Get Back to the Inquisition” that starts:

It feels rotten to be a U.S. citizen.

I recall pre-Roe times. Although abortion’s normally a safe, simple procedure, I watched a female relative endure a life-threatening situation because abortions were illegal and hers couldn’t be done in a hospital. That sticks in your mind.

Last week’s supreme court decision is horrendous for many reasons. It will mean some people will die or be jailed for family-planning, it signifies, in itself and in the court’s unnecessarily broad language, a serious eclipse of personal freedoms.

These justices did this with glee, writing the decision the way someone walking off with your wallet might unnecessarily stick his finger in your eye as he left.

[There’s no shortage of contorversies: but I can also search “Community” and “Gratitude” [“Desert”] and find more cheerful or reflective columns. Searching “harmony” yields 2019 reflections on Jesus and Patrul Rinpoche sparked by an encounter with two Catholics in the farmers market, thanks to the County Commission for voting to support Lynn Ellins’s 2013 decision that our constitution gave him no right to deny marriage to same-sex couples, and a couple on spring in the desert. It’s kind of like looking through a photo album – the sudden clear memory of a moment you’d forgotten, and then a bit of gratitude that, somehow, someone gave you a camera way back when, or offered you a weekly space to say what you thought.]

[Some of those columns I wrote rapidly, almost in feverishly; others followed many interviews, some secret, and careful hours of research; still others were spawned by a moment I loved, such as "Bicycling to the Gratitude Cafe" (2018) and its 2024 sequel Some I wrote after an hour or two of relecting on controversies I wasn’t ready to opine on, and wondering what kind of humongous ego is required to muster the assumption that I have anything to say that might interest or inform anyone else.]