Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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The truth is that within Christian churches we have a history of allowing people to “identify” as something they merely feel or wish they were, but for which there is no objective evidence. Not only have we done this consistently, but we have a little sub-culture in which this is enthusiastically encouraged. We make quasi-celebrities out of the preachers who can convince the most people to make this (false) identification. We call this evangelism. Sometimes we hold special services called revivals, in which the goal is to get as many peo...
Rare earth minerals are more abundant than their name suggests. Mineral-rich deposits are scattered around the United States, but our country has only one rare earth mine, in Mountain Pass, Calif. There are other potential mineable deposits, but they are many years away from starting production. To meet our increasing need for rare earths, we rely on imports, mainly from China -- and that’s boneheaded given the brittleness of U.S.-China relations and our own resources. U.S. policymakers are well aware of the peril to our national security a...
Most politicians remind me of bungling bank robbers who get foiled in their clownish attempts to rob a bank. Rather than being sorry or changing their ways, they decide they’ll rob two banks tomorrow. Instead of robbing banks, though, they keep committing the greater crime of “gun control.” New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, seems to want to be on the Most Wanted list for gun-law criminals, right up there with the worst dictators in history. On one hand, how embarrassing for anyone to support such a politician. On the other hand, I...
As this year’s legislative session gets underway, there’s one wedge issue already getting lots of attention. Rest assured that any and all gun-control proposals, no matter how reasonable, will get plenty of attention by the usual band of Second Amendment reactionaries and their demagoguing leaders. Remember last September when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order limiting the carrying of firearms in Bernalillo County? It was specific to metro Albuquerque, but some of the most aggressive demonstrations came in the more rur...
While reading through the Bible last year, I came across an “I am” statement by Jesus I hadn’t previously recognized as being one of his well-known statements (John 6:35; 8:12; 10:7-14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1-5). But it struck me as one of the best “I am” statements, encompassing all those and more. I searched for “I am in the Bible,” finding a website (bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/I-Am-The-Lord) listing 62 Old Testament occurrences of “I am the Lord.” Space prevents me from listing all those or their references, but you can check the website for...
In a recent meeting about upcoming stories, the Pasatiempo editorial staff discussed ways to put Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the spotlight. Only a handful of New Mexico communities hold events tied to the holiday. Perhaps that’s not a surprise in a state whose population was 2.7% Black in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. One could argue that the late civil rights leader should be celebrated regardless, but I’ve lived in enough states to understand that locally cherished celebrations often reflect the demographics. I’m sharing some...
Let’s talk about Claudine Gay, the first Black person and just the second woman to serve as Harvard University’s president, who resigned after months of turmoil. Many on the conservative right celebrated Gay’s resignation with delirious fanfare. Christopher Rufo, the far-right activist and charlatan, obnoxiously announced Gay’s exit by tweeting the word “SCALPED.” In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, he gleefully cited it as a case study in how conservatives can successfully manhandle left-wing institutions. Initially, it appeared that even after...
I heard there was another Republican presidential debate last week. I didn’t watch it. I’ve suffered enough, thanks. I don’t care how few political masochists tuned in to CNN Wednesday night to watch Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis engage in another meaningless debate. I don’t care who the big-shot media think “won” or “lost.” Twelve hours later, it already didn’t matter one bit. Everyone knows the ultimate winner was the same guy who won all the previous GOP debates and was appearing simultaneously Wednesday night at a town hall on Fox – Donald T...
At one point in the Gospel story, Peter confesses his belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus responds with a promise that he himself would build his church, and that the gates of hell would not overcome it. They were in a city called Caesarea Phillipi when this happened, and the location is important. Caesarea Phillipi was set on a large shelf or terrace 1500 feet up the side of Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon marked the northern border of Israel. On the other side was Syria. The slopes on the southern side of the mountain are called...
Regardless of your perspective, Harvard looks bad right now — and that’s good for America. The resignation of Claudine Gay as president has brought the university unwanted attention for lacking both academic standards and moral clarity. She made mistakes, but in many ways Harvard set her up to fail. Like all of America’s top universities, Harvard has taken on an unhealthy role in the U.S. economy and society. America’s best universities need to return to their original mission: producing academic excellence, not just signaling it. These s...
Americans routinely plugged into the news cycle are aware of the fact that much ado was made about something (yes something) when Nikki Haley responded to a question from an audience member at a New Hampshire town hall about the cause of the Civil War. The Republican presidential candidate awkwardly (arguably intentionally) sidestepped the real issue that resulted in one of our nation’s most pivotal events – slavery! Rather than confront the truth head on and provide an honest response to the questioner, Haley attempted to dance around wit...
It’s a brand new year. But it’s beginning to feel like I’m stuck in the movie “Groundhog Day.” Nothing ever seems to change. We still have two bloody wars, a border invasion, a growing $34 trillion national debt and, sadly, we’re still living in a divided country of haters. You turn on the news and everyone’s still angry. People are still not talking to one another. Blind partisanship is everywhere. There’s so little to feel good or optimistic about in Washington or around the world. President Biden has already started his 2024 reelection camp...
Well, another new year has begun! It seems the years are flying by and, now, even generations, because I can recall my childhood and also have over 10 grandchildren. I remember during high school that teachers having their first child looked old, but now, even some teachers whose children are grown look like kids to me. A generation is considered to be 20-30 years, the average time from birth to child-bearing. But that doesn’t fit Bible times because Abraham was 100 years when Isaac was born, and Isaac was 60 when Esau and Jacob were born (...
Here’s a great New Year’s resolution: get a pet. As we wrap up a very inflationary 2023, pet shelters across the country are at maximum capacity and they don’t have room to house the pets people are turning in. ABC News reports that animals entering shelters began to climb in 2021. During the COVID pandemic, you see, many people adopted pets, but as they began to go back to the workplace, some decided they no longer wanted to care for a pet, so they turned them back in. The past year was significantly worse for pets because adoptions are falli...
Latchkey kids. Slackers. Caffeine lovers. Grunge. That’s how a lot of people have referred to Generation X, the 46 million Americans, like myself, who were born between 1965 and 1980. We were a generation that has been perennially pegged as cynical, self-indulgent, aimless, contrarian, and often peripheral when it comes to life and other everyday matters. But if we’re being honest, there are a lot of good reasons why many of us are cynical and disillusioned with life. Turmoil and instability have been major factors in some of our lives. Gen...
Having a happy New Year this year won’t be easy in California. The state is a fiscal, social and economic train wreck that just keeps on wrecking. As we roll into 2024, we’ve learned we’re looking at a projected budget deficit of $68 billion. The Los Angeles Times explained the cause of California’s huge shortfall last week in its usual biased way – without pinning blame on the Democrats in Sacramento whose policies are responsible for it. The deficit is not just because the state’s tech economy has cooled, unemployment is up and state incom...
So 2023 is in the rearview, a little tattered and torn, thoughtfully packed away with all the bits and pieces tucked into their proper spaces. It’s hard to jump into the new year with old business cluttering the path. It’s also hard to reach for something new when our hands are filled with baggage from the past. Change is hard for most of us. Sometimes, it’s easier to keep holding on to something that no longer serves us than it is to find something new that fits. While wearing the expectations and opinions of other people can weigh us down,...
The new year stares us right in our faces like a gunslinger in a classic Western. Its gaze narrows. Its trigger finger twitches, waiting for a signal. The last several years have come after us like low-down, mangy desperados. After what we’ve seen, it’s normal to wonder what fresh misery has been brewed up for us in days to come. You may think you’re prepared, but you’ve thought that before, and still wound up having to ask, “Where in the world did all that come from?” This is a completely understandable way to think. We’re gun shy. We’ve be...
One of the fundamental principles of our representative republic is the concept of “checks and balances” to ensure one branch of government does not dominate the other branches. While this concept has been an accepted component of governing throughout our country’s history, sadly, the concept is often forgotten among the halls of the Roundhouse. In far too many cases over the past five years, the Democrat-controlled Legislature has refused to take action to preserve the constitutional authority of the legislative branch and has allowed the gove...
Most of us are aware of Donald Trump’s habit of routinely espousing devious and derogatory rhetoric. What we apparently were unaware of was the boundaries he was willing to cross, and his willingness to parrot the words of one of the most sadistic and scurrilous human beings to ever walk this earth. During a campaign stop at a hockey rink in New Hampshire, Trump echoed the words of Adolf Hitler with comments about migrants from mostly Africa, Asia and South America “poisoning the blood of our country.” This phrase is mentioned a number of ti...
Last week America said its final goodbye to Sandra Day O’Connor. The first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court was eulogized at Washington National Cathedral by President Joe Biden and Chief Justice John Roberts. Justice O’Connor was appointed in 1981 by my father, served nearly a quarter century and died Dec. 1 at age 93. As Roberts said, she was “a strong, influential, iconic jurist. Her leadership shaped the legal profession, making it obvious that judges are both women and men.” Most people know about Justice O’Connor making history a...
My little sister, Margaret Grace, succumbed to COVID on Dec. 22, 2020, while in a nursing home in Hazard, Kentucky, near where we spent most of my childhood and she spent nearly all her life. While I knew her first name came from a longtime family friend, I never knew where she got her middle name. My father’s sister passed away right before Thanksgiving. I don’t recall ever meeting her because she and my father were estranged over her husband, which is really sad, but I learned her middle name was “Grace” when I read her obituary. So, I email...
Two emails caught my attention last week – one about the future, the other about the past. The future came from Mario Caswell. He’s a proud dad whose daughter will likely be seeing her name in the newspaper a lot these next few years. Caswell tells us: “My daughter Janaeh Caswell is an eighth-grader at Yucca Middle school. “They had a game Thursday against Lovington. They fell short, 33-31. But my daughter had an amazing game. “I’m a youth coach and also have coached at the Freshman Academy so I record her games and stats. “This game she fini...
The late author Maya Angelou once stated, “When people show you who they are, believe them.” Nowhere is that saying more applicable than the latest rantings of Donald Trump. The former president was asked twice during a Fox News town hall if he would rule out any abuse of power as retribution against his critics if he ends up returning to the White House. “Except for day one,” Trump responded, noting he would use his presidential powers to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling. “After that, I’m not a dictator....
We’ve got Israel looking for billions. We’ve got Ukraine begging for more billions. And the president and Democrats can’t wait another day to cut fat checks for both countries. Thank God the Republicans in charge of the House of Representatives are telling Democrats that before we dish out money to help Ukraine and Israel defend their borders, we have to defend ours first. Naturally, Democrats don’t want anything to do with that sensible deal. They’re calling it outrageous. They’re saying Republicans are bad guys who don’t care about dead Is...
