Quay County Sun - Serving the High Plains

If you ask me, Thanksgiving is better than Christmas, for a whole host of practical, spiritual and personal reasons. For one thing, it hasn’t been commercialized the way the Yuletide has. Black...

Did America’s fever just break? Last week’s general election provided strong evidence that democracy remains strong in our nation, as just about all those who lost their respective elections...

Sometimes I feel like an optimist in search of a reason to still feel that way. I want to believe in what’s good about this world, but writing about the issues of our time can be depressing. I’m...

All year long, I’ve had a hard time getting excited about this election year. I’m just not into it this time around. This isn’t normal for me. For decades, I’ve told people that “politics...

As an observer of human nature and the body politick, I’ve reached the conclusion that the meanspirited attacks on both sides are largely due to the extremes. But there’s a more moderate middle...

This is altogether anecdotal, so I won’t pretend it’s based on scientific observation, but I’ve noticed something in my annual trips to Arkansas for a Thanksgiving get-together in the Ozark... Full story

Maybe you’ve read my brother Don’s column, something I run weekly in my Guadalupe County News because, well, he loaned me money. That’s why we call his weekly column “The One Percenter,...

If you ask me, a big reason why democracy in America is in trouble is because of the way we’ve set it up. First, there’s our Electoral College for electing presidents. By using state electors for...

The other day, I heard a pundit call New Mexico “purple,” as in a balanced mix of “blue” Democrats and “red” Republicans. If that’s the case, we must have some closeted Republicans...

In case you haven’t noticed, nuclear power is back in the headlines these days. Even here in New Mexico, where there are no nuclear power plants, it’s an issue. Not only do we have the Waste...

The governor is leading in her bid for re-election, as are other Democrats running statewide races. New Mexicans see crime and inflation as the biggest issues facing the state, and they want judges...

In the Great American Culture Wars of our time, two different worldviews, science and religion, continue to do battle, even though it doesn’t have to be that way. Science has reshaped our world in...

Heroes are easy to find but hard to keep. Especially when we’re young, we need our heroes, or positive role models if you prefer, as examples of what courage, sacrifice and success are all about....

I found inspiration at a burn scar recently. It was in California, which has been burning for years now as Exhibit A for the onset of climate change. I had driven into the state to pick up my...

Downsizing for an old-school media junkie involves lots of newspapers and magazines, the hardcopy kind, where the first draft of history was laid out for all the world to consume through linear...

The Governor’s Office recently boasted of record-setting in-state spending from the filmmaking industry. And while a good chunk of that is going into the Rio Grande Corridor, where Netflix and other...

Now that a 27-year-old man’s confession has substantiated a doctor’s story that a 10-year-old girl was raped, got pregnant and had to go out of state to get an abortion, you’d have a heart of st...

New Mexico’s been making the national news a lot lately, and not the good kind. First came the wildfires. The Hermits Peak Fire was making national headlines even before it merged with the Calf...

It’s being declared often these days. There’s even a book pushing the notion in its title: “America is a Christian nation.” To which I ask: Which Christian? Which version of Christianity are...

Our institutions are taking a beating in the world of public opinion, and I think I know why. By institutions I mean those organizations that provide a measure of stability and security in our lives...

Credit the Albuquerque Journal for launching a series on Title IX and its impact on sports, as this culture-shifting law turns 50 this year. The series is just getting started, and the Journal says it...

We’ve been living with inflation all our lives. That’s why old folks can remember when a gallon of gas cost under a buck and bread cost about a quarter a loaf. But now it’s getting out of hand....

We Americans like to accumulate stuff through most of our lives, then somewhere around old age we start trying to get rid of it. At least that’s true for me. I’ve been working to downsize my...

Fatigue seems to have set in over Americans following the latest mass shootings, and for good reason. The numbers are staggering. So far this year, we’ve had 27 school shootings, according to...

If you want to understand the impact that technology is having on us, consider the history of tobacco. Perhaps you know that Native Americans first introduced tobacco to Europeans, who turned it into...