La Plaza: Is Elon Musk Coming to New Mexico?

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

So much news, so little time.

Our governor is currently in talks on two big issues, both of which could have big benefits for our state. Sadly, she also felt the need last week to appeal to the lowest common denominator of her party and its Reagan-worshiping base by playing the great GOP superhero, Line-Item Veto Woman. And of course, the line items that were struck were, disproportionately, programs and initiatives to help people of color and members of other underrepresented and underserved populations.

Those will get covered in a separate edition. For now, we've actually got something promising to discuss.

The big economic news in New Mexico right now is the fact that we seem to be short-listed for the proposed Tesla plant. The plant would not manufacture cars, but rather, the lithium-ion batteries that power Tesla's electric vehicles. 

La Plaza: Selling NM's Black History; Undermining Marriage Equality; Risking Young Native Lives

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

MAJOR LEGACY OF NEW MEXICO'S BUFFALO SOLDIERS NOW AWAITING DESTRUCTION

I wrote a few days ago about the impending threat to Fort Bayard, a state and federal historic site in southwestern New Mexico that embodies a major part of the state's African American history.

Since the 2014 legislative session ended yesterday with no attempt to salvage the historically significant landmark (nor to accomplish much else, as is usual with the state Lege), it appears that the old fort and its campus await destruction, with the land to be sold off to monied private interests.

Obstacles to its sale remain, to be sure, but General Services Secretary Ed Burckle appears to be pushing for a fast track to privatization:

La Plaza

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

In the oldest traditional villages across New Mexico, there is still one common feature and feature of the commons:  the plaza.

It's the public square, the place where the community meets to talk, share, argue, debate, sing, dance, and join together in common purpose.  Here, plazas predated the arrival of the first Europeans by centuries, perhaps millennia.  Nonetheless, like so much else in New Mexico, the old words for it are long since lost to public use, supplanted, accurately or not, by the Spanish labels.

And so it is with la plaza.

So I've chosen it as the name of a new series on this site: a semi-regular round-up of New Mexico news, issues, problems, causes, and whatever else from the state seems worthy of mention.

Most of the time, it won't feature the big national stories.  You can read those anywhere.  I want to focus on the stories that fly below the radar, the ones that have significant impacts in ways that are not necessarily immediately obvious, the ones that embody the essential New Mexico.  

This doesn't mean I won't write about subjects in the headlines; I may very well do a dedicated piece to, say, the leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant [WIPP] near Carlsbad.  Or I may incorporate a story like the one out of Valencia County, where a 15-year-old stands accused of the brutal murder of his 12-year-old friend, into a larger piece about the problems of youth violence in this state.  But those are more likely to be stand-alone pieces, not part of the series.  And pieces that do appear in this series may very well serve as springboards for lengthier analyses of their subjects.

With any luck, the first edition will be coming up later this evening.  I hope you enjoy it.



Copyright Ajijaakwe, 2014; all rights reserved.