Featured

By Esmeralda Almanza and Suzanne Michaels

Omar Miranda cleans up illegal dumping in the desert near Chaparral. (Courtesy photos)

Omar Miranda and Joshua De La Rosa spent the weekend picking up construction debris and trash.

The next time you visit the Chaparral area by the old Borrow Pit, take a minute to look around. It is now the perfect desert landscape with mountains rising in the background. This area once again is starting to look like undisturbed desert thanks to the efforts of the Bureau of Land Management and the South Central Solid Waste Authority.

Last weekend, BLM arranged the manpower, the SCSWA provided the roll-off container (large trash bin), and in they went to clean up after illegal dumping. “We’ve got one full-time BLM employee and five youth cleaning up the area,” said Tom Phillips, supervisor for Recreation and Cultural Resources at the BLM.

In 2008, the BLM and several New Mexico agencies and organizations joined together to sign the “Restore the Enchantment” strategic plan, and noted: All New Mexicans are affected by illegal dumping; it causes significant negative impacts to public health and safety, the environment, water quality, aesthetics and our economy.

Starting this past weekend and continuing through the end of September, the BLM will be cleaning up in the southern portion of Do-a Ana County around the Anthony Gap. “Today we’re cleaning the Chaparral area by the old Borrow Pit and it will probably take around three to four days because the waste is scattered. There isn’t just a dumping spot were we can just find a pile and pick it up. It’s all over,” Phillips said. “We will also clean the Sierra Vista Recreation trail.”

The six people cleaning up the area every weekend of this month have their hands full. “This is a very big job, which is why we hired people to work on it. It’s just too big and too much for it to be on a volunteer basis,” Phillips said. “We meet Saturdays and Sundays at around 7:30 in the morning and we come back to the office at around 4:30 p. m.”

The areas being cleaned up are usually used for recreational shooting and picnic outings so there are a lot of bullet cases and beer bottles. “We mostly find a lot of bottle targets and paper targets, but we’ve also found tires and counter tops. It looks like someone remodeled, hauled their waste out here and just left it,” Phillips said.

If you see someone dumping illegally, please call (575) 526-0795. According to Joe Padilla, Do-a Ana County Codes Enforcement officer, helpful information would be:

• a description of the vehicle,

• a license plate number if possible, and

• the area where the dumping is occurring.

Your tax dollars are being spent to clean up illegal dumping. Last weekend, the BLM filled an entire 40-yard roll-off container with construction debris and trash left behind by people target shooting and enjoying desert picnics. It’s important to clean the trash for many reasons, but mostly because when people see the garbage others have left behind, they think it’s okay to leave their garbage. BLM’s Tom Phillips notes, “we will continue cleaning, we want to make it real obvious that we were here.”

Thank you for reporting illegal dumping, and thank you for recycling! If you have recycling questions, please visit our website at TheScrappyPages.com or call the SCSWA at (575) 528-3800.

Recycling Connections is submitted by Suzanne Michaels, Education and Public Outreach, for the South Central Solid Waste Authority (SCSWA) named 2010 Solid Waste Authority of the Year by the New Mexico Recycling Coalition. The SCSWA is the city/county agency responsible for managing solid waste and recycling in Las Cruces and Do-a Ana County.

Commentary

About Beck, Palin and Saturday’s Gathering in D.C.

By Thomas Wark

Two score and seven years ago, a black preacher brought forth upon this continent  the profound  dream of a new and better nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are riven with great civil strife, testing whether that dream, or any dream so conceived and so dedicated, can become real and endure.  Some will meet at a great symbol of that dream, there to personify the very antithesis of the dreamer and the man the symbol honors. They and the speakers they honor seek to inter in a final resting place the  ideals that Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln championed for this nation. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should denounce such hateful  views, even as we defend forever their First Amendment right to express them.

But in a larger sense, they cannot desecrate, they cannot dishonor, this ground.  Those who fought to preserve the union and free its slaves have consecrated it far beyond the haters’ poor power to subtract or demean.

The rest of the world will little note, nor long remember, what the haters say here, but Americans should never forget the sacrilege they commit here.

It is for us the rational Americans to be dedicated to the unfinished work which he who spoke here, and he who is honored here, so nobly advanced.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored men we take increased devotion to the cause for which they stood — that we here highly resolve that they shall not have spoken in vain — that this nation shall one day have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

That one day, the sons of slaves and the sons of free men, shall sit down together at the table of brotherhood. . . .

Save the Dream.  Honor the Dream.  Heed the Dreamer.

Read more blogs by Thomas Wark at http://www.bordellopianist.blogspot.com

Local

El Paso, TX, September 1, 2010: ¡La Pena de Muerte No Más! (Death Penalty No More) Speaking Tour, has added an additional event to its roster. The tour features Juan Roberto Meléndez, an internationally-known US death row exonoree. All events below are free and open to the public.

· Saturday, September 25th, 11:00 a. m. – 12:30 p. m. – Sponsored by Border Network for Human Rights at the BNHR offices at 2115 N. Piedras St. (Spanish language)

· Sunday, September 26th, 10:30 a. m. – 12:00 p. m. – Sponsored by Unitarian Universalist Community of El Paso as part of their worship service(English language)

· Sunday, September 26th, 2:30 – 4:00 p. m. – Sponsored by St. Pius X Catholic Church in the Community Center, 1050 N. Clark St. (Spanish language)

· Monday, September 27th, 10:00 a. m. – 11:30 a. m. – Sponsored by El Paso Community College Transmountain Campus in the auditorium (English language)

· Monday, September 27th, 6:00 p. m. – 7:30 p. m. – Sponsored by University of Texas at El Paso in the Blumberg Auditorium in the main library (English language)

Mr. Meléndez will speak at each of the events, sharing his gripping story of being sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. He was released on January 3, 2002, after having spent 17 years, eight months, and one day on death row. After each talk, Mr. Melendez will be available to answer questions from the audience.

Since 1973, 139 people – including 11 Texans – have been exonerated from death rows nationwide due to evidence of their wrongful conviction. Mr. Meléndez is the 99th person on the list of exonorees.

Border

By Gordon Solberg

For quite some time I’ve been asking myself the question, “Why did the bright promise of the ‘60s turn out so terribly wrong?” Why was the back-to-the-land movement such a failure?  As one of the few back-to-the-landers who stayed on the land, I’ve read several books on the subject to satisfy my curiosity. A couple of my favorites are Arthur Kopecky’s New Buffalo: Journal of a Taos Commune, and its sequel, Leaving New Buffalo Commune, in which he ends up getting kicked out of the commune by an insurgent faction. It’s a sad tale, or it makes me sad at any rate. So much idealism, so much bright promise, so easily swept aside by the culture of exploitation that has been destroying the biosphere since long before we were born. We thought we had a better way. Some of us actually thought we could change things, or at least create a “counterculture” separate from the mainstream. Some of us invested our lives into this project. We really, really tried. It’s hard to imagine, from today’s complacent perspective, how hard some people worked to create a genuine alternative to the madness. But it was like trying to stop a bulldozer with a b-b. We were unable to conjure up a new culture when as children we had been programmed to do the exact opposite.

The sustainability “movement” has remained at entry level for the past 40+ years, while the condition of the planet has deteriorated at an ever-increasing rate. The whole “living in harmony with the Earth,” back-to-the-land movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s never really caught on, not in a meaningful way. There are several reasons for this:

• Too much hard work. Post-World War 2 white people traditionally shunned physical labor, except in a symbolic sense, such as mowing the lawn or working out at the gym.  In this regard, back-to-the-land seemed like a step backward to many people.

• Not enough money. Most people prefer having a “real job” with a regular paycheck with benefits.  Such jobs used to be so plentiful that grubbing in the dirt seemed ridiculous in comparison.

• Too much isolation. The countryside might be beautiful, but you’re surrounded by teabaggin’ rednecks, and there’s not enough entertainment and “culture.”

* Lack of social support. Working for an organization, you’re part of the hive. The hive gives your life meaning and purpose, sort of. You have your place, you know your role, and you get paid for it.  Isolated on the land, people tended to feel cast adrift as soon as the drugs wore off.

There are no doubt other factors at work, but those four cover a lot of ground. I’d say that most people who went back to the land lasted anywhere between two months and two years, with six months being typical. Life on the land simply proved too difficult for most of the people who tried it. There were too many hassles, and not enough rewards.

Additionally, the peace-and-love crowd drew predators and parasites, who found the peace-and-lovies easy pickings. There were some remarkably low-tone “hippies” prowling around back then. Parasites were more interested in “something for nothing” and were fairly harmless, but predators could really do some damage. That’s what ultimately happened to New Buffalo.

New Buffalo commune, located near Taos, New Mexico, started in 1967, when a rich kid bought some land free and clear, bought thousands of adobe bricks to build a compound they called the “Pueblo,” and bought basic farming equipment such as a tractor. Then he – as they used to say – split.  By the time Kopecky showed up in 1971, the commune had undergone a complete turnover in membership, the taxes weren’t being paid, the tractor had been sold.  The commune was – as they used to say – totally untogether.  Kopecky and a few of his friends stuck around, and over a period of several years gradually bootstrapped the commune to a state of serious productivity. The flame of idealism burned bright and hard for them, despite the setbacks and occasional drug-induced mayhem. As time went on they built irrigation ditches so they could irrigate their gardens, pastures and fields of wheat and alfalfa. They bought goats and cows and started selling milk in Taos. They bought a tractor, other farm equipment, and a refrigerated truck to deliver their milk. They paid off their back taxes. They built greenhouses and solar collectors to help heat their pueblo during the harsh, high-altitude winters of northern New Mexico.

They were young, strong, and worked amazingly hard, but they never had enough money.  What money they brought in was used to buy food, equipment and other necessities, and repairing their vehicles, which were always breaking down.  Gradually, they managed to accumulate dairy equipment and a small herd of dairy cattle. They developed a loyal clientele for their milk in Taos. In addition, they started producing serious quantities of vegetables, wheat and hay. They wanted to start a new culture, living on the land, living in harmony with the Earth and each other. Kopecky obviously provided a lot of the focus and idealism that made all this possible.

One fact that stands out about New Buffalo is how hard they worked. They were working fools (at least, the ones who worked). They never had a consistent membership, except for Kopecky (from 1971-79) and a handful of others. His books are in journal form, written day-to-day, not overviews written after the fact. Kopecky, like all of us, didn’t really know what was happening at the time. (I used to say, “You never know what’s happening till afterwards.” Which is to say, you need time to consolidate the data, analyze the information, and draw some conclusions. In the moment, we’re all just winging it.)

New Buffalo always attracted parasites – people who came to hang out, get high and eat free food. But it was the predators who destroyed it. There were only a handful of them, but that was all it took. The predators had lived at New Buffalo in the past and deeply resented Kopecky, who they considered to be on a power trip. He was everything they weren’t. The downfall of New Buffalo is like something out of Ayn Rand – pathetic losers bringing down the brightest of lights. The predators used their unearned power to cast out Kopecky and, in the process, destroy the commune.

The trouble with unearned power is, a newcomer or any unqualified person can move into a situation and be considered on equal footing with somebody who actually knows what’s happening. The oldtimer has earned his power through on-the-job experience, whereas the newcomer has much less to offer at the beginning. Yet, in hippiedom they were considered equal. The hippies had a free-and-easy attitude about power. They were trying to create a non-hierarchical paradigm in which power is shared, not imposed from the top of the hierarchy. Unfortunately, this proved to be a perfect setup for predators, who could move right in and seize as much power as they were capable of, very quickly.  With hierarchical power, it would be more difficult for a newcomer to do this.

As it turned out, Kopecky didn’t have any power beyond the force of his personality, coupled with his vision and his vast amount of experience.  It wasn’t “his” commune, after all. Ultimately, the predators made life so miserable for him (such as, taking pot shots at him while he worked in the fields) that he and his girlfriend finally left, bitter and discouraged.  This was in 1979, after eight years of gradual progress.  New Buffalo was on the verge of getting a grant to build a solar-powered, Grade A dairy barn, so that they could finally sell certified milk. The decline of New Buffalo was inevitable after Kopecky left: The cattle, dairy equipment, tractor, and anything not tied down were sold, the taxes were no longer paid, and ultimately what was left of New Buffalo reverted back to the rich guy who made it possible in the first place.

NEW BUFFALO COMMUNE * REST IN PEACE * 1967-1985

In addition to being a focused and methodical hard worker, Kopecky was almost delusional in his idealism. He reminds me of my own experience. After I moved to this piece of land along the Rio Grande in 1973, after three years of homesteading in the Ozarks, I always assumed that “something” was going to happen. (It never did.) By the early ‘80s it was obvious even to me that the whole back-to-the-land thing was devolving, not evolving. But it wasn’t until the early ‘90s that I finally realized that Ecotopia was never going to happen. Quite the contrary, actually. How about calling our brave new world Antitopia?  That’s the world we’re living in now, and we’ve seen nothing yet.  Things are already becoming very interesting, very quickly, and soon even the unaware will be forced to take notice.

Americans have always believed in “freedom,” which translates, mostly, into freedom to travel, and freedom to shop. The hippies refined and distilled this concept into what could be called “Perfect Freedom,” or “freedom without obligations.” The thing about hippies and communards: They were free spirits. Free spirits come and go like the wind. They will never be tied down, which is to say, they can never be depended on. Thus: Joe is a critical member of the milking team. Those cows have got to be milked twice a day. The commune really needs him. But Joe decides, on a whim, to leave the commune, or take a long vacation. Bye-bye, Joe! Too bad, milking team! Stuff like that happened all the time at New Buffalo. People came and went like the wind. It was impossible to get any continuity.

Kopecky kept asking, “Where are all the quality people who will surely be drawn to our quality scene?” He always hoped to create a superior vibe that would encourage people to stay, but he never got more than a handful or two that could really be counted on. New Buffalo never had any trouble attracting parasites and losers. But hardworking, consistent people you could depend on? Pretty rare, and they seldom stayed for long. Looking back, the dynamics are obvious: The more intelligent ones quickly said, “This sucks!” and went back to school so they could make something of themselves.

Contrasted against the easygoing hippie ethic was the mainstream paradigm of selfishness, which still rules:  Get a good education, get a good job and make lots of money, all for the benefit of #1.  This is far and away the path of least resistance, so it’s not surprising that this is the paradigm that dominated.  Even though this paradigm is now breaking down, the damage has been done. Americans embraced the illusion of “no limits” rather than the reality of a finite planet. The sustainable path was not taken when it needed to be.  Critical decades were lost, never to be recovered. Now, we are like flies trapped in amber, hoping that somehow our positive words and thoughts will save us.  Virtually our every act contributes to the destruction of our planet in some way. And as the Arctic melts, and the Gulf of Mexico dies, we already know how Antitopia is going to turn out.

(Gordon Solberg went back to the land in 1970, and is still there.  His blog is http://newearthtimes.blogspot.com)

Environment

By Esmeralda Almanza and Suzanne Michaels

Omar Miranda cleans up illegal dumping in the desert near Chaparral. (Courtesy photos)

Omar Miranda and Joshua De La Rosa spent the weekend picking up construction debris and trash.

The next time you visit the Chaparral area by the old Borrow Pit, take a minute to look around. It is now the perfect desert landscape with mountains rising in the background. This area once again is starting to look like undisturbed desert thanks to the efforts of the Bureau of Land Management and the South Central Solid Waste Authority.

Last weekend, BLM arranged the manpower, the SCSWA provided the roll-off container (large trash bin), and in they went to clean up after illegal dumping. “We’ve got one full-time BLM employee and five youth cleaning up the area,” said Tom Phillips, supervisor for Recreation and Cultural Resources at the BLM.

In 2008, the BLM and several New Mexico agencies and organizations joined together to sign the “Restore the Enchantment” strategic plan, and noted: All New Mexicans are affected by illegal dumping; it causes significant negative impacts to public health and safety, the environment, water quality, aesthetics and our economy.

Starting this past weekend and continuing through the end of September, the BLM will be cleaning up in the southern portion of Do-a Ana County around the Anthony Gap. “Today we’re cleaning the Chaparral area by the old Borrow Pit and it will probably take around three to four days because the waste is scattered. There isn’t just a dumping spot were we can just find a pile and pick it up. It’s all over,” Phillips said. “We will also clean the Sierra Vista Recreation trail.”

The six people cleaning up the area every weekend of this month have their hands full. “This is a very big job, which is why we hired people to work on it. It’s just too big and too much for it to be on a volunteer basis,” Phillips said. “We meet Saturdays and Sundays at around 7:30 in the morning and we come back to the office at around 4:30 p. m.”

The areas being cleaned up are usually used for recreational shooting and picnic outings so there are a lot of bullet cases and beer bottles. “We mostly find a lot of bottle targets and paper targets, but we’ve also found tires and counter tops. It looks like someone remodeled, hauled their waste out here and just left it,” Phillips said.

If you see someone dumping illegally, please call (575) 526-0795. According to Joe Padilla, Do-a Ana County Codes Enforcement officer, helpful information would be:

• a description of the vehicle,

• a license plate number if possible, and

• the area where the dumping is occurring.

Your tax dollars are being spent to clean up illegal dumping. Last weekend, the BLM filled an entire 40-yard roll-off container with construction debris and trash left behind by people target shooting and enjoying desert picnics. It’s important to clean the trash for many reasons, but mostly because when people see the garbage others have left behind, they think it’s okay to leave their garbage. BLM’s Tom Phillips notes, “we will continue cleaning, we want to make it real obvious that we were here.”

Thank you for reporting illegal dumping, and thank you for recycling! If you have recycling questions, please visit our website at TheScrappyPages.com or call the SCSWA at (575) 528-3800.

Recycling Connections is submitted by Suzanne Michaels, Education and Public Outreach, for the South Central Solid Waste Authority (SCSWA) named 2010 Solid Waste Authority of the Year by the New Mexico Recycling Coalition. The SCSWA is the city/county agency responsible for managing solid waste and recycling in Las Cruces and Do-a Ana County.