As we begin another trip around the sun A6 Sunday, January 2, 2011
A new year is upon us. It is that time of the year when we accidently write “2010” or “10”and then have to figure out how to make the “0” into a “1” so it is correct. It will take a while, but after a number of “mess-ups” we will finally remember that it is “2011.” There are many who didn’t make it to the end of 2010. The newspapers and magazines’ year end editions are full of tributes to individuals who passed away during this past year. Some of us around today will not see it to the end of 2011. There are a lot of things each of us do not have in common. But one thing we do have in common is that we have one less year to live than we did last year at this time. So as we launch into another trip around the sun, what does this new year mean to us? Well, as you read this, the year ahead is an empty tablet. It is a story yet to be written. And it can have many story lines. Just for the fun of it, why not sit down and write your 2011 Christmas card letter today? What would it say? How would it be different written the first week of January at the front end of the year instead of the first week of December? Each day in 2011 we will get up, make decisions, live our lives,
GENERAL
RICK KRAFT
JUST A THOUGHT
and then close our eyes and fall asleep. A year from now, it will be too late to change anything that we do or that happens to us in the year ahead. Much of our experience in the year ahead will depend on the attitude we choose to carry. Ghandi’s philosophy was “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” I would modify the second part of his quote to say “Grow as if you were to live forever.” But maybe learning and growing are the same. The core concept is to get the most out of every day as it can only be lived once, but equip yourself better each day for the future days that lie ahead. Joan Baez has her own spin on how we should live, “You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Now.” John Lennon shared “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.” Regardless of your view of the world, life will
4 children, 1 man die in suburb fire
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — A mother could only watch in agony as her four young children and a man were killed by an intense apartment fire that broke out a few hours into the new year, her neighbors in the apartment complex said Saturday. Neighbor Jared Wilson said the 30-year -old woman was able to escape the two-bedroom ground-floor apartment and stood outside as heavy smoke and flames engulfed her home. All four children were 10 or younger, fire officials said. “She couldn’t speak — she was just hysterically screaming,” said Wilson, 27, who lives on the building’s third floor. A 32-year-old man in the same apartment also died, said police spokesman Officer Matt Peringer. The woman was taken to a hospital where she was reported in stable condition, said Fire Battalion Chief Ed Carolan. The names of the victims and the relationship between the man and woman were not immediately available. No other injuries were reported and the residents of all 12 apartments in the three-story wooden building were evacuated and found temporary housing. Peringer said a cause hadn’t been found before investigators secured the scene for the night. They planned to resume their work this morning, he said. Chris Champoux and his wife were sleeping in their apartment in the building across a driveway from the units that burned. “The heat actually woke my wife up,” he said. “It was an inferno — very horrific.” Crews from six fire departments responded, and investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Washington State Patrol and a Seattle Fire Department canine arson detection unit were at the scene, though there were no immediate signs it was intentionally set, Peringer said. Carolan said the fire was reported around 2:30 a.m. at the Sammamish Ridge Apartments and quickly burned the two units above it. All three were heavily damaged and the apartments next to them have smoke damage, he said. Wilson said only about 30 seconds elapsed from the time he first heard shouting until his apartment was surrounded by heavy smoke and he was forced to flee. As he ran down the stairwell, he saw the woman, whose children he had often seen playing, screaming outside the building. Wilson said he and another resident grabbed a fire extinguisher and the two tried to enter the smoke-filled apartment. “At that point, the whole place just went up” and they were forced away by the flames. “It’s tough thinking about the fact that she lost her whole family,” Wilson said The building is one of a complex of three-story buildings in a wooded area just northwest of downtown Redmond. It is about two miles north of the Microsoft Corp. campus and about 12 miles east of Seattle. The buildings have smoke detectors but not sprinklers, which weren’t required when the complex was built in the mid-1980s, Peringer said. “It is an awful tragedy,” said Teresa Lunsford, resident manager of the complex. She declined further comment. According to Sammamish Ridge’s website, it is managed by Pan Pacific Properties, a Seattle company that has nine apartment complexes in the Seattle area.
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things went well. She expressed her appreciation for the “really good nurses and doctors.” “It’s nice to receive all these gifts and stuff,” she added. “I’m just happy to have the baby here.” Kevin expressed his pleasure at becoming a father. “I’m happy the baby’s healthy,” he said. Liana has a brother and sister, Chris-
happen in 2011. Don’t let the past rob you of what you need to be accomplishing in 2011. Charles Kettering said “You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.” We need to throw away the rear view mirror. And sometimes it is our anxiousness about the future that robs us of what needs to be done today. We need to live in the present ... today provides the best opportunity we have to make a difference. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” What is inside you? Because what you are on the inside will manifest itself on your outside. In the year ahead we need to make sure that we are not just spinning our wheels or getting bogged down in things that are trivial. Oscar Wilde shared, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” Woodrow Wilson said “We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world.” And Will Rogers tells us the importance of living in the present, “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” Then there are those who sit around and waste the days they
Martinez
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Martinez confronts high unemployment, a more than $400 million budget shortfall and an economy still sputtering from a national recession. Besides the fiscal challenges, Martinez must deal with problems that have long nagged New Mexico — one of the highest rates of poverty in the nation and a public school system in which a third of students fail to graduate from high school. One of the first tasks for Martinez and the Democratic-controlled Legislature is to balance the state’s more than $5 billion budget. Martinez pledged during
Roswell Daily Record
have been given. Some people have the philosophy that once appeared on a sign, “Don’t look, you might see. Don’t touch, you might feel. Don’t walk you might fall. Don’t try you might fail. Don’t breathe, you might live!” Much of what we need to be accomplishing in 2011 will not occur because of fear of failure. I don’t want any of us to wake up a year from now and play the “what if?” game. What if I had put my name in for that position ... what if I had taken time to go visit her ... what if I had not borrowed that money ... what if ...? We need to expect failures in 2011, and hopefully many of them. If you make it through this next year without failing, you will never have the chance to be a success. Nelson Mandela addressed this issue when he said, “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Theodore Roosevelt used this same concept applying it to mistakes when he said, “The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.” But I like Michael Jordan’s statement on failure the best, “I can accept failure, everyone fails sometime. I can’t accept not trying.” My challenge to you today is to make 2011 the best year of your
her campaign not to raise taxes. She’s also vowed to shield Medicaid and public school classrooms from cuts. Medicaid provides health care for nearly a fourth of the state’s population, mainly uninsured children and the poor. In her speech, Martinez acknowledged the difficulties ahead. “I assume the duties of governor understanding this is a challenging time,” she said. “Our state and its leaders must have the courage to make the kinds of changes that will positively impact people’s lives and put us back on a course toward prosperity.” She also portrayed the state’s problems as a shared challenge.
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to some die-hard conservatives. Economists and scores of political leaders say the alternatives are much worse: Let the nation default on its debts, which could trigger a global recession, or drastically cut federal spending to levels neither party has imagined. The current debt ceiling is $14.3 trillion, enacted last February. The federal debt, nearly $13.9 trillion, grows by $4 billion a day. “Where the rubber will hit the road will be on the debt limit,” said John Feehery, a Republican adviser and former top House aide. “What kind of budget concessions will Obama agree to in exchange for keeping the government functioning?” Lawmakers might buy some time by passing temporary extensions of a budget and a higher debt ceiling. Eventually they must work out a long-term solution. Obama has made it clear that Republicans share respon-
“New Mexicans have known hardships before, and overcome them. They’ve suffered setbacks before, and faced them undaunted. No generation has been free of adversity or excused from the responsibility of making our great state better,” said Martinez. “We can, we must and we will prevail over the adversity that confronts us now. We have a debt to honor from the generations that preceded us and a promise to keep to the generation that follows. Our parents built a future better than their past, and we must do the same.” Shortly after taking of fice, Martinez issued several executive orders, including ones to prohibit
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j.entzminger@roswell-record.com
tian, 5, and Brissia, 4. Merchants giving gifts to the new baby include Tinnie’s Mercantile Store & Deli, Apple Blossom Flower Shop, Tractor Supply Co., Chewning Footwear, Gift Pantry Flowers, The Medicine Shop, The Jeweler’s Bench, House of Flowers, Bealls Department Store, Albertsons Food Center, midwife Callie Dodson, White Mattress Co., Primm Drug, Hippie Chicks, Aveda Concept Salon, Bank of the Southwest, Pioneer Bank, Inspirations Unlimited, Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Otero Federal Credit Union and Rio Pecos Medical Associate Ltd.
departments and boards from hiring lobbyists, directing agencies to cooperate with any federal investigation and limiting the administration’s use of executive privilege to deny public records requests. Federal prosecutors have a pending investigation of possible influence peddling in the awarding of state investments. After her inaugural address, Martinez was to greet the public at a reception and dance with kids at a free children’s ball. The festivities end with an invitation-only, $100-a-ticket inaugural ball Saturday night at the city’s downtown convention center.
sibility for finding one. “Nobody, Democrat or Republican, is willing to see the full faith and credit of the United States government collapse,” Obama said in early December. No one enjoys voting to raise the debt limit, he said. “But once John Boehner is sworn in as speaker, then he’s going to have responsibilities to govern. You can’t just stand on the sidelines and be a bomb thrower.” Boehner essentially has acknowledged that. He said of the debt ceiling, “We are going to have to deal with it as adults, whether we like it or not. The federal government has obligations and we have obligations on our part.” Lawmakers say the likeliest scenario calls for a promise of future spending cuts, even if somewhat vague, that might persuade enough House Republicans to agree to raise the debt ceiling. Some predict a fierce fight. The national Republican Party chairman, Michael Steele, seemed to encourage lawmakers to vote against a higher debt ceiling shortly before the November elections. “We are not going to compromise on raising the debt ceiling,” he told CNN.
Party
nowhere to go on New Year’s Day,” Gonzales said. “They have to find a place where they can go.” The Community Volunteer Program accepts donations throughout the year to fund its programs that reach thousands of local residents. To make a donation call 624-7579.
life. Live each day to the fullest. Don’t get slowed down by your past or over anxious about your future. Make sure that you grow and that you end this year a different and better person than you are today. Take some risks and don’t be afraid of failure. If each of us acted as if it were impossible to fail, what could we accomplish in 2011 both individually and collectively? Do something that adds value to another or to others each day. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Just in case 2011 is your last trip around the sun, invest in others so you can leave a legacy behind when your days are done ... because we are each just passing through. I pray that in the year ahead you are richly blessed, not necessarily with what you want, but with what you need and that 2011 will become the best year of your life. Just some New Year’s thoughts ... Rick Kraft is a local attorney and the exec u t i v e d i r e c t o r o f t h e Leadership Roswell Program. To submit comments, contribut i o n s , o r i d e a s , e-mail to rkraft@kraftandhunter.com or write to P.O. Box 850, Roswell, NM, 88202-0850.
LETTERS