OPINIONS MY VIEW: SALLY RODGERS
MY VIEW: RALPH A. VIGIL
State had a role in battling apartheid
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omething important has been missing from the extensive coverage of Nelson Mandela’s passing: New Mexico’s contribution to end the evils of apartheid. In 1986, Congress passed the Comprehensive AntiApartheid law, which, among its many provisions, “prohibits using U.S. funds for any assistance to investment in, or any subsidy for trade with, South Africa.” A significant historical footnote too many have forgotten is that President Ronald Reagan vetoed the act. Congress overrode his veto, the only time that happened in his two terms in office. In New Mexico, before Congress acted, Gov. Toney Anaya (1983-86) had the political courage to lead the State Investment Council in instituting a policy that would require any investment advisers or brokers to agree not to invest any of our state’s money with companies doing business in South Africa. Gov. Anaya’s action was a bold, progressive right thing to do. It was in stark contrast to many of his contemporaries, who took the easy, comfortable path of political lip service that merely denounced apartheid. Expressing moral outrage did little, but turning that outrage into a language oppressors understood — economic shunning — did. The policy was severely attacked, as was Anaya. When joined with other courageous political, religious and community leaders, Anaya’s leadership was an integral part of ending the tyranny of a privileged white minority over an oppressed and brutalized black majority. The greatest legacy is one that is universal in its gifts to any time and in any nation. It is a living one that continues in full and vital force in the present and as an unquestioned foundation for the future. While I join with millions of others in celebration of Nelson Mandela’s life and work, I fear the forgetting of his legacy and our part in it. I fear a kind of social, institutional Alzheimer’s. Mandela’s life work, the moral work of humanity, must be ongoing, for not only does much remain to be done, but in too many arenas, the forces of regression prevail. Indeed, the same issues are writ large in our country today. The power of money, largely in the control of a white male minority, is used to repress justice and equality for people of color, women, the working poor, senior citizens and students. It is used to fund the campaigns of politicians who pass regressive laws to suppress one of our of our country’s most basic freedoms — the right to vote. What would Mandela say, what would Mandela do about the atavistic Supreme Court decision that gutted our hard won Voting Rights Act? What would Mandela say and do about laws that were immediately adopted following the court’s decision in Texas, North Carolina and other states? These laws are crafted to create a nation in which power and profit trump the freedoms, rights and needs of its people. For his legacy to live on, those are the questions we must ask of ourselves, and even more, act on them. As we celebrate a life that exemplifies enlightened change when empathy replaces greed, when inclusion replaces exclusion, when forgiveness replaces hatred, can we commit to do what Mandela would do? Sally Rodgers is a longtime environmental and human rights activist in Santa Fe.
Sunday, December 22, 2013 THE NEW MEXICAN
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Organ Mountains deserve protection rotecting our land is crucial to our future. As a 12th-generation Nuevo Mexicano born in Las Cruces and raised in the northern mountains of Pecos, I understand and value the importance of protecting our land, water and culture. I use our ancient acequias to irrigate my crops, our mountains to harvest game, timber and medicinal herbs, not only to sustain my family and community, but to protect the very land that gives us all life. I have seen too often how neglecting our tierra adversely affects everyone and everything that sustains our precious way of life. When I engage in taking care of our land, I often think of our future generations and what we are leaving them. It is not fair to our kids if we don’t take action to protect our wild places so that they can enjoy what our ancestors have enjoyed and what we enjoy and love today. Being raised to live off of and to respect the land, I am concerned about what is happening here in New Mexico. Special interest groups coming into this region are threatening our land, water and way of life for profit. In Northern New Mexico, we have faced the threat of natural gas exploration and the demand for water. It saddens my heart that this threat could ruin our traditional way of life forever, a way of life that New Mexico embraces deeply. New Mexico has always attracted people from all over the world because of its natural beauty and rich culture.
However, in the south, the area in and around Las Cruces is growing rapidly, and I worry that the pressure for development and exploitation for natural resources from our lands may destroying a wilderness area that provides important benefits to the local community — the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks. Hunters use the area to bring sustenance to their families, traditional communities visit the petroglyph sites of their ancestors, and tourists and locals regularly use the area for recreation. A recent economic study by the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce estimates that protecting the national monument will generate more than $7 million in new economic activity annually. Protecting this land serves the interests of the community. The Rio Grande del Norte National Monument designation was a huge success for Northern New Mexico as it protected 242,455 acres — land that feeds our families, supports our livelihoods and preserves our traditional culture. I feel strongly that communities in the southern part of the state deserve the same security. I believe that the benefits of the economic sustenance and development that our public lands provide are felt throughout the state regardless of where they are located. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich are championing the effort to establish the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument because
A full moon emerges from behind the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces in 2007. AP FILE PHOTO BY SHARI VIALPANDO/LAS CRUCES SUN-NEWS
they understand its importance to the well-being of New Mexicans. However, dysfunctional politics in Congress make it difficult to move legislation. For that reason, we all must come together as a community to prioritize this issue and call upon President Barack Obama to use his power under the Antiquities Act to designate the Organ MountainsDesert Peaks with national monument status in perpetuity. We ask that policymakers and community members alike recognize this
THE DRAWING BOARD THE WEEK IN CARTOONS
important opportunity and take the necessary steps to protect these mountains and the communities they sustain. We have been taught not to care anymore. It seems easier to close our eyes and let the material things in life take priority. We cannot stay quiet if we wish to protect our future, the future of the land and everything that depends on it. Ralph A. Vigil is president and founder of The Molino de la Isla Farmers’ Cooperative in Pecos and a concerned Nuevo Mexicano.
MY VIEW: MIRANDA VISCOLI
Background checks for gun show buyers would work in N.M.
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ast month, the legislative Crimes and Corrections Committee met to discuss House Bill 77 — the bill designed to close the gun show loophole in New Mexico. Once again, the conversation became about anything but the problem of gun violence in our state. Several committee members expressed concern that the facts and statistics on gun violence in New Mexico cannot be linked to gun shows. Our inability to trace guns used for criminal purposes to gun shows highlights a fundamental problem. Pressure from the gun lobby has led to laws that expressly forbid the release of information regarding where guns are bought and sold. The gun lobby also has managed to pressure Congress into halting all research regarding how and where guns are purchased — or even to quantify the effects of gun violence on our country. These prohibitory amendments were attached to appropriations bills known as the Tairt amendments. They forbid the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from releasing public information about gun trafficking and guns. So, it is no surprise that we do not have all the information necessary to connect the dots. That was the idea. The National Rifle Association effectively has stopped the flow of information. Feathers were ruffled when the committee was presented with the available numbers and statistics regarding gun violence in our state. The numbers don’t lie, but it is understandable that the shocking number of women and children being killed by guns in New Mexico is difficult to accept. Pretending that gun violence is somehow not linked to guns and the easy availability of guns in New Mexico is not a viable longterm strategy. We hear the gun lobby telling politicians over and over that it is not the guns
that are killing 30,000 people a year in our country and injuring 70,000. It is time our politicians stop listening. When state Rep. Jane E. Powdrell-Culbert, a Republican from Sandoval County, was asked to explain why New Mexico is leaving the door wide open to allow felons and mentally incompetent individuals to buy guns at gun shows, no answer was given … because we all know there is no answer. Particularly scary for parents is the example of the Columbine shooters. We need to close the gun-show loophole before we all face the regret of not getting it done in time. As to the viability of HB 77 (i.e., does it work?), the NRA lobbyist reminded the panel that last year, 72,000 people were stopped from buying guns thanks to background checks. She then wanted to assert that they probably just got them somewhere else. How that kind of unsubstantiated argument passes muster is, I must admit, something of a mystery. What is clear is that background checks work — and that New Mexico would benefit from following the desire of 83 percent of our electorate for universal background checks. This hearing was designed to consider whether the Legislature should consider taking this bill up again. Yet, once again, the NRA was invited to divert attention from the issue, to deflect the focus from the facts so that the conversation became about anything but guns. Instead of addressing real gun violence prevention, the conversation became about the Second Amendment, mental illness, the education of our children, etc., etc., etc. These necessary topics warrant discussion, but they should not cause us to ignore the problem of guns. Miranda Viscoli is an advocate for gun violence prevention.
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