Commentary: On a recent crisp, chilly night, several cars slowly toured Doña Ana Road in Deming, riding the brakes while looking for a particular ranch house where a small party was underway. Ultimately the party's host had to walk out to the road and wrangle his visitors in through the appropriate gate. In the backyard, food was cooking on two grills under a sky full of stars. One guest said in between bites, "I've been here twice before and I still wasn't sure that was the right gate." This degree of privacy is valued highly by property owners, but the occasion and subject matter of this dinner party was a matter of public business.
Our hosts were game hunters, as confirmed by a collection of trophies that greeted us when we moved indoors for conversation. They had invited friends, neighbors, and some organizers with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation to talk about the controversial Gila diversion project that has nimbly made its way past critical questions about the feasibility of the project and the transparency of the process. As is often the case, those who made it to the party were already informed and concerned; supporters of the project, and some undecided, had been invited but were not present.
With little air for debate on the project, the conversation shifted to organizational strategy: the art of the issue campaign. How do you raise public awareness of an issue, spread truthful information to support your cause, inspire effective activism, and generate enough pressure that insulated institutions must respond?
An observation expressed at the meeting is that proponents of this project have institutional authority on their side despite the haphazard state of the proposal, giving proponents a huge organizational advantage. Those who view this project (correctly, in Desert Sage's view) as a wasteful and costly project with uncertain benefits and unfunded obligations can hope that the U.S. Secretary of the Interior chooses not to execute the agreement by November 23 as mandated by federal law. They would be wise, however, to lay the groundwork for an issue campaign and organize, just in case Secretary Jewell moves the project forward.
Back in June, at the meeting where the Luna County commissioners heard public comment and voted to join the NM CAP entity (the body charged with designing and executing the Gila diversion), I shared the courthouse elevator with a member of the Deming school board who said of the commissioners, "You know, they've already made up their minds. This is just for show." That perception of our elected bodies is widely shared in our community, but it is rare that an elected official states it outright in a public space.
When it comes to addressing power, the public is taught to do so politely if at all and to be "reasonable" (which in this context is usually a synonym for "tractable"), to funnel our questions and dissenting views through the channels extended to us by our institutions. At their best, these channels help focus public meetings and maintain order; by the same token, they make the public easy to ignore if a decision has been made out of public view. The Gila diversion looks very much like a done deal, negotiated out of the reach of popular power.
The answer is to organize. It can start as simply as welcoming people to one's backyard, forging coalitions with others already working on the issue. You organize events that educate, set goals, and go to work.
It is sometimes the duty of a free people to breach the insulation between themselves and their government.
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Algernon D'Ammassa is Desert Sage. Write to him atDesertSageMail@gmail.com.