There are moments when writing a column like this feels easy. This isn’t one of them.
Cibola County is reaching a pivotal moment where economy collides with history and culture. You can see it in the quiet return of uranium drilling rigs. You can hear it in the rumble from Washington. You can feel it in your chest every time someone says “Mount Taylor” and you realize the decisions being made about our mountain are no longer in our hands.
Let me be blunt: Mount Taylor is sacred. It’s not just a mountain, it’s a memory. It’s our connection to the people who were here long before us, and to the visionaries who built this country with the idea that we all deserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I’ve always believed that. I still do.
But I also know this: Vladimir Putin is a tyrant. His war against Ukraine is not only brutal—it’s evil. It mocks every value America stands for. The idea that our nuclear fleet, our national energy security, still relies in part on uranium enriched by Russia is, frankly, un-American. We cannot preach freedom while buying the materials of war from a man who tramples it.
That’s why this issue is so painful. Because I love Mount Taylor. And I love this country. I don’t want Mount Taylor to be desecrated. I also don’t want Cibola to be left behind, again, while decisions are made for us by people in Washington or Santa Fe who’ve never stood at the foot of that mountain and felt what it means.
The economic opportunity here is real. Clean energy matters. So does water, culture, history, and trust. We need to build a future that balances all of it—not one that sacrifices our land, but one that finally lets us lead. Not a single new uranium mine should move forward without Cibola’s full voice at the table. But we cannot pretend that doing nothing is the answer either.
I believe there’s a responsible path forward. Maybe it’s ISR, if it truly proves safe. Maybe it’s Cebolleta, not Mount Taylor. But I know it’s not silence. And I know it’s not hypocrisy.
I’m tired of being told what we’re allowed to care about. Yes, we care about the land. Yes, we care about jobs. Yes, we care about stopping dictators. That’s not contradiction. That’s what it means to be American. Mount Taylor deserves reverence, not ruin. But our country deserves independence, and our community deserves prosperity. We must find a path that gives us both. If we can’t, someone else will decide for us—and we know what that’s looked like before.
This is our home. This is our mountain. This is our moment.
Let’s make sure we rise to meet it.