Democracy, War, Blood-Lust, Greed, and Flowers
Victor Higgins Mural Old County Courthouse
The Americans have been steadily losing the battle for the “moral” leadership of the world ever since the Vietnam debacle and President Jimmy Carter’s exit from office. President Ronald Reagan was implicated in wars of aggression against “Grenada” and torture in Central America, never mind the guns for hostages’ controversy. The Bush and Obama administrations have been implicated in war crimes: torture, indefinite detention, assassination, killing innocents, while targeting journalists and whistle blowers at home and abroad.
In a practical and real politick sense, the Bush and the Obama administrations have destabilized the Mid East and stirred up historic feuds among various ethnic sects about whom this country’s establishment understands little or nothing. Even Saddam Hussein was surprised and couldn’t predict American stupidity. Now, we have become a bull in the china shop and the rest of the world has tired of it. If we are exceptional it is because we have all the listening devices and spy satellites imaginable but are blind and deaf to the consequences of our actions on the ground. Having made the world unsafe for democracy and daily life, we should give it up, retreat behind our oceans and refocus on rebuilding the nation state in North America.
The organizing principle behind American expansion has never been about bringing democracy and freedom to the world but about diverting the citizens’ attention from purse snatching and pocket-picking at home, privatizing endless war and intelligence contracts at the taxpayers expense: transferring the wealth from the many to the few. The negation of bankruptcy statues for students means generations of young people are growing up as indentured servants. They will be forced into hard labor in order to pay off debts in a country where the wages continue to decline even as the income-asset-wealth gap grows greater. Even the fast food workers and Walmart wage slaves are beginning to strike.
On the local front in Taos, you can see the way town Mayor Darren “The Legend” Cordova, Councilors Michael “Contracts for Cuates” Silva and Rudy “Asbestos” Abeyta have emulated their corporate models, pursuing private contracts at the expense of the public—advertising, excavation, real estate. The greed merchants have sought to annex county tax receipts while playing politics with the public safety at the Command Center. The sheer excess and focus on secret maneuvering by the Town was in evidence at the County Commission meeting on the Command Center last week.
Councilor Fred Peralta, a sometime mayor, threatened to walk out because the public was invited. During the discussion, Peralta would not say why the town abandoned a perfectly good E911-Facility and talked in circles, saying nothing, in order to muddle the issues. Peralta has much to answer for when it comes to violating the state procurement code during his own reign per the swimming pool scandal.
At the end of the recent Command Center meeting, County Manager Steve Archuleta challenged the KCEC Coop to offer the alleged dispatch facility rent-free since community members were already paying for by the facility per the fee on electric meters. Course the Coop CEO was having none of that. The Coop wants the town taxpayers to share in their folly and buy a “pig in a poke.” Now that they have seen it, insiders simply describe the shoddy building as a “pig.”
In recent headlines, The Legend of the Sandbox disparaged the County for subtracting some $450 from “his” Mother’s Day allotment and giving the dough to Los Jardineros, the garden club of Taos. The same garden club and its volunteers are responsible for highlighting hospitality in the form of flowers and flowerpots in the town’s historic district, one of the few bright spots in an otherwise decaying downtown.
Unbeknownst to the Legend, La Cultura begins in the pride taken and the care displayed in nurturing the Plaza, the center of Taos. One can learn much from contemplating the serene display of blossoms and beauty on a peaceful day. Due to the Town’s negligence, the County has been obligated to step in and provide money and leadership for the Mainstreet Project, an attempt to revitalize the historic district. The Mayor and the Council show up occasionally for fiesta or while listening to The Legend entertain on an occasional Thursday night. The volunteers from Los Jardineros show up everyday to water the flowers. May a thousand flowers bloom.