Commentary: Seven years of this column have led to a better understanding
Today is the seventh anniversary of our move back to Las Cruces. Within months I started writing these columns. I doubt they've changed Las Cruces much, but they've changed me.
Strangers express their appreciation of the columns and radio commentary in strong terms, thanking me. I feel a mixture of gratitude and the sense that I'm not doing enough to deserve such generous praise.
Nor do I deserve the insulting lecture someone gave me Thursday, “you people have your mind all made up” and “you don't want to listen to all the facts.” Actually, I do. As I explained, I do have strong views, but I try above all to be fair and accurate.
This week saw an unusual number and variety of events and conversations generated by the columns. A county commissioner joked with regard to my column on DASO enforcing immigration laws that “you're dictating our agenda to us.” An acquaintance sent a two-year-old spaceport-related column around to his mailing list. That column was an example of an occasional phenomena: sometimes someone tells me of a situation, or I read something, and quickly write a first draft; but when I talk to the subject of the column and hear the other side, I scrap the column or enrich it by articulating both sides. That one I muted, turning predictions of certain doom into questions with alternative answers.
Sometimes acquaintances and strangers express concern, asking whether I get a lot of abuse from people for my columns. (Not so much, actually.)
Such concerns, like the criticism, spark inner questions about why I continue. Why do I? I suppose because public figures sometimes forget to tell the truth, and someone should remind them; and because I can fill that need reasonably well.
In another life, I'd write more about coyotes, toads and roadrunners, or appreciative (human) character studies. I'd write gentle, folksy columns full of practical wisdom – if I had any wisdom.
But stuff happens; and people tell me about it, sometimes confidentially, fearing retaliation. Like many of us (maybe more so, having grown up rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers) I like underdogs. Sympathy won't convince me inaccurate speculation is fact, but will motivate me to investigate and, if appropriate, shine what light I can into dark corners.
I really started these columns in 1975, as the Las Cruces Bureau Chief for the El Paso Times. They appeared three times a week. I called them, “130 South Water” – our address. Sometimes, passing there or contemplating the unchanging Organ Mountains, or noticing names of friends like Bob Munson, Jake Hands, Albert Johnson, Gerald Thomas and Pete Domenici on buildings, I wonder how it would be, and how I would be, if I'd stayed here writing columns and stories for four decades.
I love this place. Writing hundreds of columns has helped me know it and love it better than I otherwise might. I'm grateful for that. And for so much gracious support.
I'm also grateful to people who talk to me when telling the truth ain't what their bosses want done, or could be dangerous; to the Sun-News and to KRWG; and to people I disagree with. I think they usually see that while I may reject some of what they say, I do not reject them as people. Neighbors who disagree are still neighbors. Our candid disagreements are the best road toward truth.
Thanks!