Don’t Cry For Me Taosenos!

Statewide Politics

Regardless of the failure of the Democrats at the White House or the Roundhouse, we must support the common decency represented by Diane Denish’ candidacy for Governor. She isn’t Bill Richardson. The self-righteous Republican prosecutor Susana Martinez has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from Swift-Boat insurrectionists who attacked war heroes like John McCain and John Kerrey in the past. She would blame poor Mexicans for the devolution of Mexico into a Narco State—due to the Americano lust for cheap dope. She would deny the historic and homegrown healing remedy—marijuana—to those suffering from disease. And the huge border cities of El Paso—Juarez and Texas et al want Taos County Water to flow down the Rio Grande to irrigate their cotton fields.

Our forebears fought off Los Tejanos at Glorieta during the civil war. We won’t be able to pay our property taxes if La Martinez takes away our water or assuage our pain if she takes away our weed. . Like Stella, Velma, and Churchill, all we have left is blood, sweat, and tears.

Email wearenewmexico@gmail.com for a bumper sticker that says “SAY NO TO SUSANA.”

Velma and Stella

In the Sept. 24 Albuquerque Journal, Bloomberg News’ Margaret Carlson (“Mr. Hope and Change Should Try to Feel Their Pain”) writes about Velma Hart’s deeply moving confrontation with President Barack Obama in Washington D.C. Hart, a black woman and financial officer with the veterans’ group, Amvets, voted for Obama. And she told the President that she’s “exhausted of defending you” and “deeply disappointed with where we are right now” to “change things in a meaningful way for the middle class.”

Amen, Velma, amen.

The Sept. 24 Journal North features a front page story by Andy Stiny “Taos To Face Property Tax Hike” that clarifies the recent bombshell. Near the end of the story, Stiny describes board member Stella Gallegos’s frustration in voting to continue with the bonding process despite the pain inflicted on property owners, due to her support for student benefits from new construction. “`This is the hardest decision I have made on this board,’ board member Stella Gallegos tearfully told friends after Monday’s meeting. `We were damned if we do and damned if we don’t…people are hurting in Taos,’ she said.”

Amen, Stella, amen.

At Monday’s painful TMS meeting, regarding the issue of “tax lightning,” one board member blamed his own ignorance even as he said “the buck stops here.” One board member said, regardless, the community needed to confront and support the renovations for the kids.  The board president was conveniently out-of-town and deferred voting until the other members voted; she has refused to take responsibility despite a lifetime of government service and experience. Later, another board member was quoted in the news as blaming the administrators for the mishandled bond sales.

We don’t know exactly who knew what when but we hear that the Bond salesman and his company benefited—to the tune of an estimated million dollars in commissions, according to Flavio’s sources. Unlike Barack Obama, who Carlson unfavorably compares to Bill Clinton, who could “feel your pain,” Stella at least acknowledged the painful difficulty—choosing between kids and ancianos or those on fixed incomes.

Truth be known, there are probably more folks on unfixed incomes in Taos as a percentage of the whole than in most communities. We true Taosenos, the ones born here and who have chosen to live here, hustle around, taking small jobs, borrow from Peter to pay Paul, and in general, we wing it. We clutch our metaphorical St. Jude medals to our chests—praying on our own behalf despite the appearance of a lost cause. We are the scufflers and the hustlers.

I don’t know about you but when I read about high salaries for public officials, excessive travel vouchers for the likes of trustees or the legendary Don Francisco, or the mis-use of funds at the County, Schools, Town, or Coop, I feel like my friends—the ones I supported and voted for—have kicked me in the stomach. And, apparently, they like to kick you when you’re down if the current situation is any example.

Whether we admit it or are aware of it, this El Norte journey is an intense adventure—subject as much to the whims of politicos and incompetence of administrators as it is to Wall St. swindlers and Washington D.C. decision makers. We are not unlike farmers, who watch the skies for reports of rain or explorers like Kit Carson, who must keep a vigilant eye out for man and beast and weather. Fate and chance are our true gods, tears, followed by laughter, our true solace.

Yes, we will always fight among ourselves. You can’t have political loyalty without betrayal. More often than not, envidia leads to stupidity. T’was always thus.