Local Viewpoints

Commentary- The Pearce for New Mexico campaign released the following statement after the Secretary of State and the Attorney General filed responses to the campaign’s legal action to allow the transfer of funds from a federal account to a state account.

Commentary: Dear Sirs/Madams-  Yes, it's an old form of salutation.  However, it's not as old as going back to pre-Enlightenment values on science as in the proposed PED science standards.  Cutting out reference to the incredibly well-studied age of the Earth and to the alarming rate of climate change caused by humans takes us back to the 18th century, before Lord Kelvin, before Aarhenius, before the work of tens of thousands of scientists dedicated to knowledge about our one and only world. 

Commentary: What a disaster Susana Martinez has been!

Recent investigative journalism suggests that some of her apparent “pay-for-play” conduct involved law-breaking, at least by the folks who paid her to disregard our interest to serve theirs; and her Education Department has released new anti-science rules for teaching science.

She wrongfully destroyed mental health facilities to clear the field for Arizona companies that had contributed to her campaign.

Commentary:  New Mexico, like every other state, elects individuals to represent our best interests in the nation’s capital. To do this job well, from what I learned about leadership serving in the US Navy, one must display certain qualities, including honor, honesty, and integrity.

Representative Steve Pearce, who represents the people of southern New Mexico, continues to miss the mark on what it takes to make a good leader.

Commentary:  LAS CRUCES – The New Mexico Wildlife Federation announces the release of radio advertisements holding Congressman Steve Pearce and Governor Susana Martinez accountable for their positions that put the protection and ownership of our public lands at risk. The ads are running statewide.

  Commentary: Let’s acknowledge this from start. Football players have unique skills and talent. Most football fans are not bad folks. But the game of football has a problem and it is big.

Commentary: Dark money groups continued their attack on Steve Pearce for being the only candidate for governor who puts New Mexico above special interests, releasing a misleading and desperate ad today as part of an ongoing campaign funded by left-wing out-of-state donors with a partisan agenda.

Commentary: As an Australian citizen, I was brought to Las Cruces on a high-skilled work visa by New Mexico State University to fill a TV reporting/producing position at KRWG. The borderlands of southern New Mexico proved to be a far more interesting and magical part of the world than I ever fathomed. There is a treasure trove of important, fascinating and untold stories beyond green chile and child poverty.

Commentary: Las Cruces, N.M. – Today,  Democratic N.M.

  We thoroughly enjoyed the Las Cruces Symphony's “Pops under the Stars.” 

Beforehand, I visited with several elected officials, with people I've fought beside or against over various issues, and with folks I've known nearly five decades. So many are damned decent people!

Then the music starts. Capturing us. Lonnie Klein is an animated conductor, and seems a skillful one. Visiting vocalist Diane Penning sounds even better than last year. 

Commentary:  Jack Kerouac published On the Road 60 years ago (September 5) to rave reviews, including by The New York Times, which predicted that the autobiographical novel would become to the Beat Generation what Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" meant to the Lost Generation.

Commentary: The House Natural Resources Subcommittee passed H.R. 3668, the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act, or SHARE Act.

Commentary: LAS CRUCES – This week, Representative Steve Pearce once again voted against protecting our public lands. An amendment that would have kept public lands from being transferred to private ownership was killed thanks to the help of Pearce and public land seizure proponents in the House.

Commentary: In opening remarks at a joint open house held September 7 in Las Cruces by the Office of the State Engineer and Elephant Butte Irrigation District, State Engineer Tom Blaine commented, “This was the first time in over 18 years that the entire state has been out of the drought condition.”

Commentary: Austin, TX – For 30 years, Texas law has maintained that all state high schools must hand out voter registration applications to eligible students at least twice per year.

Commentary:  Who is really protecting America, anyway? 

Is it the President with his Attorney General, whose minds are entangled beyond deliverance in nativist myths about history, economics, and human worth?

  Commentary: Albuquerque – American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President Stephanie Ly released the following statement:

“Today’s revelation that the New Mexico Public Education Department wants to implement a perverted, watered-down version of the NextGen Science Standards is a slap in the face to our students and educators by simultaneously implementing a system of scientific skepticism into New Mexico curriculum and curtailing academic freedom for our educators.

Commentary: Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chairs Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) released the following statement regarding Senator Bernie Sanders releasing his Medicare for All bill in the U.S. Senate today.

Commentary: Over 90% of registered voters in Doña Ana County do not vote in local elections.  Over 90% of people are not being seen, not being heard, and are not being included in the decisions being made that impact their daily lives. Decisions that are meant to increase our quality of life and preserve our dignity.  This is unacceptable. 

Commentary: The Equifax data breach that released intimate personal and financial details of 143 million Americans resulted from criminal negligence.  The flaw in the Apache Struts software that allowed hackers in for over two months has been known since March, and the IT managers at Equifax failed to fix it, even knowing the tremendous risk it posed. 

Our legislators, our attorneys general in all the states, must force Equifax to provide free weekly credit checks to all of us who have been affected. They must also provide for Equifax to fail, giving way to a new company. 

Commentary: WASHINGTON, D.C. —  U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) released the following statement on cosponsoring U.S Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) Medicare for All bill:

“America is the wealthiest country on Earth, yet despite our health care progress in recent years, we still spend far too much of our GDP on health care and some New Mexicans still find themselves without any coverage at all.

Commentary: Monday is September 11th. It is a date like December 7, and perhaps November 22 or August 6. Sixteen years later, it cannot just be said. By 2033 will young folks say it as easily as they say November 22 or August 6?

Memories force themselves on anyone older than 19. After that surge of vivid memory, we reflect.

  Commentary: The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program currently allows nearly 800,000 undocumented individuals to work and live in the United States. President Trump’s decision to end the program not only flies in the face of what the United States stands for, but kicks out important contributors to the economy, undermining recent economic progress.

Commentary: My aftershave is ever so manly. Here - take a gruff, confident sniff!

  Commentary: WASHINGTON –As more than 50 million public school students head back to classrooms across the country, National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García spoke about DACA, the Trump education agenda and other relevant topics to our nation’s public schools and students at the National Press Club Headliners Luncheon today.

Regular weekly luncheons for speakers began in 1932 and more heads of state and government appear at the National Press Club than any other forum in the world, outside the Oval Office.

NEA Commentary:  "As the NM PED state evaluation of individual teachers are distributed thisweek, we remain dedicated to doing all we can to provide students with an education that inspires their curiosity, imagination, and desire to learn," says NEA-New Mexico President Betty Patterson.  " Whether we are teachers, school bus drivers, counselors, school secretaries, coaches, or custodians, all of us set high expectations for students and want to provide them with an environment that nurtures their success."  

Commentary: Washington, DC – Representatives José E. Serrano, Michelle Lujan Grisham, Hakeem Jeffries, and Grace Meng condemned the Republican decision to block their amendment to combat hate crimes from being considered by the full House. The amendment was offered this week to H.R. 3354 – Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, and would have allocated $10 million for State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance grant programs to provide support for the criminal investigation and prosecution of hate crimes at the state and local level.  

Ay, mijita,

child of the stars,

how I misled you.

I promised

you could be anything,

anything you wanted to be

in this country.

That is why we came here,

risked everything,

for you, my love.

My dreams were for you alone.

I did not intend to mislead  you.

I believed in the promise,

believed we could escape

a cruel, dreamless destiny.

How I encouraged you,

proudly watch your every step.

"Apply yourself.

Study hard."

Commentary: Hours after Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created by President Obama, editorial boards across the country slammed Trump’s decision to rip away protections from the nearly 800,000 DREAMers who were brought to this country as children. DREAMers contribute to our nation’s economy on a daily basis and rescinding DACA would force hundreds of thousands back into the shadows and tear them away from their families and communities.

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