State of Affairs

The Year of Our Lord 2021 is here. What a dangerous, scary and dark road we walked to get here.

We have a long way to go before COVID-19 is beaten. We have even further to go before we address the racial inequities and injustices in this country, and not just those for the African American community but the Hispanic, Asian, and Indigenous communities as well. Have faith, though, we are going to get there.

Why are we going to get there?

Because we know, now more than ever, the importance of good stewardship for Mother Earth, we understand that we need to help shepherd the youth of today into a better world than the one they entered.

We will get there, it may take time, and it may continue to be painful, dark, and even hideous. We will triumph over the stains of our past, we will recognize its importance in moving forward. There is no better example of this than Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which was celebrated just this past Monday. The Rev. Dr. King was and remains today an American hero; he will persist in the memory of not just America, but the world for all time for his great sacrifices in the name of equality.

The power of Rev. Dr, King’s sacrifice would have meant nothing if 64 years before his birth President Abraham Lincoln had not abolished slavery. It was the most American of achievements any citizen since our Founding Fathers had accomplished, and the value of it appears to be completely lost on modern America.

The insurrection at the United States Capitol building on January 6 was the greatest disgrace this nation has ever suffered, done in the name of the leader of the so called “Party of Lincoln.”

Well, I did not know him personally, but I wager if Abraham Lincoln had seen a Confederate battle flag in the hallowed halls of Congress, he would have been furious, sickened, and disappointed that people who claim to be in his party would support such an anti-American, anti-democratic act. People make the argument that the Black Lives Matter protests were just as bad, but no - they were not.

BLM supports equity and equality, much like Rev. Dr. King, and yes, some of the protests got out of hand. However, none of those protests disgraced this country. There is a huge difference between a Target store being looted and the invasion of the United States Capitol building. One is a store owned by a huge corporation that has insurance; the other is the bastion of democracy and a champion of peace across the globe and that symbol has now been tarnished.

How do we effectively create change? It starts with the very thing the insurrectionists were trying to destroy – American Democracy. You see, the U.S. is a Democratic Republic, Democratic because we directly elect our leaders in Congress, a Republic because the Electoral College elects the President and Vice President on the behalf of the American people. (That is a very rudimentary explanation of those two terms.)

The Founding Fathers built our government in this fashion so that the people could effectively redress their government by voting out the officials they do not feel are doing a good job. But, somewhere along the line we forgot about that – or we stopped caring. Most Americans do not even know who their congresspeople are, and if they do, they have not researched that politician’s opposition. It is beyond time to turn that around.

People often ask, “Why hasn’t there been any change or growth to Grants/Cibola County?”

It is because we keep electing the same leaders. Again, and again, and again. These leaders are not all failures, in fact some of them are incredibly effective, like the Golden Sentinel Vivian Brumbelow from the Village of Milan.

To be very clear, I’m not talking about first-time or even second-time elected officials right now, I’m talking about the ones who have been in the same position for a decade or more, because a leopard doesn’t change its spots. Those leaders get stuck in their ways and snuff out new ideas before they can even create a spark. The significance of research, and knowing who you are voting for, is incredibly important because sometimes a fresh face in the political field is just as dangerous, if not more so, to the chamber where they hope to serve.

The counter to this is to find out if your elected official is a leopard, or a person who can adapt and welcomes change. Then, if they are a leopard, vote them out.

The takeaway? Know who you are voting for, and make sure that they serve your interests and the best interests of this community. This is for everything, from schoolboard to city council, county commissioner and state/federal representatives.

Do not resort to violence like the fools at the insurrection did; resort to peace and use the system to make change like the good Rev. Dr. King did.

Cibola can have a bright future, but it takes all of us to understand our elected officials and to research their credentials to make this change and make our county – our community - better.