By Margaret O’Hara mohara@sfnewmexican.com
Shared with Permission from the Santa Fe New Mexican

​EL RITO — The library’s back room was anything but quiet.
 
A group of people gathered one recent Thursday around a table in the El Rito Library. On one side of the table, two sewing machines hummed. On the other, sewers dug through boxes of fabric scraps. The weekly quilting circle — which celebrated its 25th year this month — was in full swing.
 
Desiree Maestas sat at the corner of the table, crocheting a creature with leaves on its head.
For her family, the rural library in the remote Rio Arriba County community has served as “a place to grow up.” Her two children, 13-year-old Anelicia Maestas and 17-year-old Andres Maestas, have been active participants in library programs since attending its summer reading program a decade ago. On Jan. 2, both teens joined the quilting circle.
 
“We found a really great community of people who are in El Rito and who support both my children and me,” said Maestas, who also serves as one of the library’s volunteers.
 
Advocates of rural libraries across the state, many that serve as community centers in far-flung areas, are expected to return to the Legislature this year, calling for lawmakers to continue to contribute state funds to the Rural Libraries Endowment.

Though lawmakers have contributed $30.5 million to the fund since its founding in 2019, Shel Neymark, director of the New Mexico Rural Library Initiative, an advocacy group, said the state is only “halfway there” in terms of guaranteeing about $45,000 in consistent annual funding.
During this year’s legislative session — which begins Jan. 21 — Neymark plans to push legislators to contribute another $29.5 million, for a total of $60 million, for 60 rural libraries.
He could face a tough challenge.

Sen. George Muñoz, a Gallup Democrat and chair of the powerful Legislative Finance Committee, said the committee’s initial budget framework doesn’t include additional funds for the endowment.

That proposal provides an outline of what the state’s budget bill might look like, but the final spending plan will be hashed out during the 60-day legislative session.

Nonetheless, Muñoz said the Rural Library Endowment’s current payouts — which Neymark said should total around $20,000 per library next year — are adequate.

“I don’t know what else they want. I mean, they’re such small libraries,” Muñoz said Tuesday.
Neymark, who has been advocating on behalf of rural libraries for more than seven years, remains committed to the cause.

“I’m not young; I’m 73,” he said. “I’ve taken on this big project and kind of increased my workload instead of lessen it, like people my age usually do — but it’s so gratifying.”
Keeping doors open Neymark is more library lover than lobbyist.

In the 1990s, he was one of a group of people who established the Embudo Valley Library and Community Center in Dixon. After the library opened in May 1992, Neymark said, “It was immediately successful. We had no idea what was going to happen. People started using it right away. We started doing programming.”

It enhanced the sense of community in the unincorporated area, which, until the library was established, didn’t have a central meeting place beyond the school, post office and houses of worship.

“Once we had the library — especially when we bought the property right in the middle of town — I just saw things changing. People got to know each other,” Neymark said.
​
But there are challenges that come with establishing libraries in New Mexico’s rural towns. Libraries often rely on funding from the counties or municipalities in which they’re located, but Neymark said such funding isn’t available in unincorporated communities.

As he spoke to other rural library officials in Rio Arriba County, Neymark said a consistent question emerged: “How are we going to keep our doors open next month?”

The idea of a rural library endowment started to percolate.

More than two decades later, in November 2017, The New Mexican honored Neymark as one of its 10 Who Made a Difference for his volunteer work with the Embudo Valley Library and Community Center.

After that, Neymark was determined to increase his impact.

“I have to up my game,” he recalled. “That night, the night of the award ceremony, I said, ‘OK, I’m going to go after this rural library endowment.’ ”

He did, and he was successful. During the 2019 legislative session, a bill establishing the Rural Libraries Endowment garnered near-unanimous support from lawmakers. The state budget bill included a $1 million appropriation to establish the fund.

Hoping for the ‘bare minimum’ In the years since, lawmakers have repeatedly contributed additional dollars to the Rural Libraries Endowment, allocating $2 million in 2020, $10 million in 2022, and $15 million in 2023, state budget documents show. During the 2024 legislative session, legislators set aside another $2.5 million for the endowment.

Neymark said he’d like to see a $1 million endowment per library, a sum that would yield about $45,000 per library each year.

“$45,000 a year is the bare minimum to keep the libraries open, to have a poorly paid executive director for the library,” Neymark said.
​
The first significant payout from the endowment came during the current fiscal year, when each library received $15,363.84, according to the New Mexico State Library.

Camille Ward, a spokesperson for the New Mexico House Democrats, was mum on whether more library funding might be considered this year.

“We cannot comment on specific line items in the Legislative Finance Committee recommendations until they are published on Wednesday, January 15th,” Ward wrote in an email.

She added, “Going forward, the state is in a fortunate position to be able to provide funding for critical programs like these without necessarily relying on long-term trust funds, which may be less flexible and responsive to the needs of our communities.”

Neymark said he doesn’t understand hesitancy to fund the endowment. “If they want to help rural areas, this is such a good way to do it. ... They say a lot of words about wanting to support rural New Mexico, but they haven’t really figured out an efficient way to do that.”

At the El Rito Library, the $45,000 annual payout from a fully funded endowment would be a “lifesaver,” said Lynett Gillette, who has served as the library’s director since 2015.

It would cover nearly half of the library’s annual budget, she said; it would make the difference between hoping to do more community programs and actually doing more programs.

“Libraries have existed for so long because they’re where we store our past and the hopes for our future — in each one of those books,” Gillette said.
​
She added, “I just think there’s not a better thing that the state could invest in — a place that archives the past and has information and entertainment to make our future better.”

Carol Bondy

A reader this week reached out to us.   Her property and the property along their road about 1/4 mile north of the Chevron station have seen the water table rise significantly in the past two months as the river water levels have risen. Water is flooding three out of six families living here.   This is downstream from where the channel work was done.

Water is seeping up from the ground so that the road has been continually wet since November and is worsening significantly. Minerals are leeching from underground and killing all the vegetation.  

We are wondering if the people living north of us are having similar issues. We believe this situation has something to do with the flood mitigation efforts up river. We would like to organize all being effected by this so we can get help before the spring run-off. 

I have lived here 32 years, since I bought my property at age 25. I have never seen anything like this here. I have worked very hard to build a home for my daughter. Watching what is happening to my neighbors is frightening. As for the three of us not flooded yet, we will be by Spring.

Abiquiu News has reached out to various agencies.   We urge the agencies to have a joint town hall meeting.   

This is a story in progress.   Please leave comments if you are continuing to be affected by flooding.​

Despite dry weather the road has remained wet.

For a fifth time, state lawmakers will make the case for a fundamental right to a clean environment
By: Austin Fisher 
​Source NM

A proposal to create a fundamental right to a clean environment on par with other rights found in New Mexico’s constitution will return to the Legislature in the coming days.
 
The sponsors will prefile the legislation this week, Sen. Harold Pope (D-Albuquerque), said during a news conference Tuesday with other sponsors and advocates. Lawmakers have already turned in bills dealing with tribal education, retired public sector workers’ health care and foster care in advance of the session starting Jan. 21.
 
If passed and signed into law, the legislation would create a ballot question asking voters whether to add a Green Amendment to the New Mexico Constitution.
 
Traditional environmental laws often fail to prevent harm because they focus on regulating how much damage pollution does, rather than preventing it altogether, argues Maya van Rossum, founder of the nonprofit Green Amendments for the Generations.
 
Three states have constitutional Green Amendments that protect people’s right to clean water and air, a safe climate and a healthy environment, van Rossum said during the news conference: Pennsylvania, Montana and New Jersey.
 
Similar amendments have been proposed in 19 other states, she said, with an ongoing ballot initiative in one state.
 
If the amendment passes, New Mexico would be the first state in the country to explicitly recognize in its state constitutional Bill of Rights the right of all people, including future generations, to a safe climate, she said.
 
It would also be the first to lift up critical environmental justice protections to that highest constitutional level, she said.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration has passed strong regulations to protect the environment, said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo López (D-Albuquerque), but she is worried about how the federal government could try to roll back those gains.
 
The Green Amendment is a way to protect New Mexico from the excesses of the incoming Donald Trump administration, she said.
 
It will be the fifth time the Green Amendment has been debated at the Roundhouse. The proposal has been introduced every year since 2021.
 
Previous versions of the bill would have repealed an existing part of the state constitution that recognizes that the Legislature has a duty to protect commonly owned natural resources and ensure the public can use them. This year’s version keeps that in place, van Rossum said.
 
It took 10 years of persistent advocacy and some changes in who had power at the Roundhouse to end the death penalty, Sedillo López said.
 
“We have some changes in the Legislature, and we have a growing number of advocates who continue to provide sustained advocacy,” she said of the efforts around the Green Amendment. “And, we have persistent legislators. We will get this done.”
 
It also took five years of legislative debate to create New Mexico’s community solar program, Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) noted.
 
Roybal Caballero said so long as New Mexico lacks necessary guardrails like the Green Amendment, the state’s inhabitants remain at risk of declining children’s health, raging wildfires and flash floods.
 
“Our right to clean air, water, soil and environment should be protected above profits for the elite,” Roybal Caballero said. “Let New Mexicans decide if we prefer drinkable water for ourselves and future generations, or to continue to line the pocketbooks of the elite few.”

​By: Danielle Prokop
Source NM

The start to the 2025 New Mexico legislative session is still several weeks away, but some lawmakers have already introduced proposed changes in state laws.
 
Legislators started putting forward proposals known as prefiles Thursday, the first day they file bills before the opening gavel on Jan. 21. Three state senators filed five bills on the opening day.
 
Proposed bills would develop a state and tribal schools partnership, amend the constitution on retired public worker’s health care funds, and expand eligibility for a state program for youth aging out of foster care.
 
Sen. Benny Shendo (D-Jemez Pueblo) introduced legislation to expand tribal and pueblo governments’ ability to enter into agreements with the state’s education authority for cultural and language schools, and allow schools to access public funding. The schools would develop the curriculum and agree not to charge tuition. Schools would report enrollment, and receive funds like any other public school, and could apply for state grants.
 
There would need to be a public rule-making process for how the process would work, if the law is passed.
 
Sen. Roberto “Bobby” Gonzalez (D-Ranchos de Taos) introduced a state constitutional amendment, which would have to be approved by voters. The bill would require the state to create a trust fund for health care programs for retired public employees, and prohibit spending and investment of that money outside of the needs of the retirees.
 
Sen. Micheal Padilla (D-Albuquerque) introduced three bills on opening day. Two related to public works construction, by requiring projects to offer minimum wage to specific workers and increase financial support for apprenticeships. Padilla’s third bill expands eligibility to youth held in state custody into a state program supporting foster youth who have aged out of state support.
 
The House released 14 prefiled bills on Friday. Some bills would make small changes such as motorcycle licence designs, or removing deductions for tips paid with a credit card.
 
Rep. Kathleen Cates (D-Rio Rancho) introduced a bill to protect libraries from losing funding for refusing to ban books based on the subject or an author’s sexuality, race or gender, countering a rise in book bans across the nation. This law wouldn’t impact the right of individuals to challenge specific materials in a library’s collection.
 
Rep. Joy Garratt (D-Albuquerque) introduced a bill to make a shooting or bomb threat a fourth degree felony, raising it from the current penalty of a misdemeanor. The law also adds a provision putting the person who made the threat on the hook for costs incurred because of a threat – loss of business or lost wages, among others.
 
Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Galisteo) put forward two state constitutional amendments, requiring voter approval. One to make all legislative sessions 45 days in length, rather than alternating between shorter and longer sessions. The second would remove the governor’s pocket veto power, which means any bill that goes unsigned by a certain deadline after a session dies. The bill would also require the governor to send an explanation for any veto, which has not applied because of the pocket veto.The last day lawmakers can put forward bills before the start of the session is Jan. 17.
 
Prefiles only contain the language of the proposed legislation, and don’t have official numbers yet. No analysis or actions such as committee assignments are made until the lawmakers convene officially.

​By Gabriel Puckett
Casa de la Cruz
​
​“Look at that mountain!”, we said as we came over the hill from the north. “What is this place?”
We had never seen anything like it. The desert landscape so varied and diverse - hills, valleys, and canyons were ebbing and flowing like cresting waves. Light shifting in the setting sun, the colors seemed magnified by the canyon walls and desert rocks.

One mountain stood out and held our singular attention as an anchor in the landscape. It looked like a classic mesa but was unique in its stature and form. It seemed to hold an authority in the landscape. We would later discover that this mountain was Pedernal, the crown jewel of Abiquiu. This was Georgia O’Keefe’s mountain - the one that God told her, “If you paint it enough, you can have it.”

The magic of the landscape stirred something deep inside us, and we began to dream out loud. “What if we owned property out here? What if we had a healing retreat center?”

My wife Leah and I were on a road trip from Denver. It was the middle of Covid, and we lived in the heart of the city. This high desert landscape was a massive reprieve from the experience of pandemic city life. This was a vacation/scouting mission. We were looking for a landing place for the dreams that God had put in our hearts.

Our spirits were being stirred with excitement at the potential. Needless to say, we were smitten. This northern New Mexico gem had captured our attention. We’ve always been dreamers, but this place made us feel like our dreams weren’t big enough. The expanse of the sky and the terrain were beckoning us to look further and challenging us to dream bigger.

We had first learned about Abiquiu because Leah’s brother had a dream a few years back about a monastery in the desert. He later discovered it was a real place. The Benedictine Monastery of Christ in the Desert has since become one of our favorite places to visit.

From that first road trip that sparked so much excitement to now, so much has happened. We purchased our Abiquiu dream home, and it feels like a little slice of heaven. Sitting on the porch and watching lightning storms roll in over the Sangre de Cristos in the distance, seeing the baby quail scurry in a row across the dirt road in early spring with their hurried tiny steps, sitting by the kiva fireplace as we watch the snow come down outside in winter, it almost doesn’t seem real. Something lost in our modern world is found here.

The Celtic saints had a description for places like this. They called them “thin places”, referring to the veil between heaven and earth feeling thin. I believe that the whole earth is a burning bush ablaze with the glory of God. There are some places, though, where that flame is just more obvious. Abiquiu is one of those places.

Check out Casa de la Cruz

I, too, am relinquishing my post at the Washington Post.
​By Zach Hively

We need all the light we can get in these times. Unfortunately, I’m no longer shining one.
​
Quite the opposite. I’m turning one more light off: I hereby resign as a contributor to the Washington Post, whose editorial board has yet again neglected to publish my opinions in their once-proud newspaper.

Ignorance of my work is no excuse for the editorial board. Neither, if you ask me, is the allegation that I have yet to submit any work for consideration.

This is a simple case of quid pro quo—or it should be, since mutual back-scratching is fast replacing a free press as the fourth estate in this land that I love.

Follow the bouncing ball: The Washington Post is owned by billionaire American Jeff Bezos, who undoubtedly made most of his fortune from newspaper subscriptions and paper delivery routes. Now that he’s hemorrhaging subscribers and drones are delivering the remaining few physical papers, he must rely on sale of goods from his side hustle to stay afloat.

Now I can’t claim to be the reason that Amazon the website will outlast Amazon the rainforest. But I have dedicated a portion of revenue from at least two copies of my book to the company’s bottom line, plus more than one subscribe-and-save order of dish sponges.

That adds up to, mathematically speaking, a non-zero contribution to keeping the Washington Post afloat longer than some other newspapers I’m still waiting to hear back from. And that doesn’t even tally up the personal information that Amazon has curated for its own gain, which if nothing else ought to inform the algorithm that my writing is ready and waiting for syndication.

But apparently money can’t buy ink these days—an election, maybe, or some well-curried favor, but not one measly weekly column in a paper with dwindling but still international distribution.
I was not even going to criticize my boss’ boss’ boss and his other billionaire buddies! At least not right away! I was going to leave that for the editorial cartoonists. Alas, now even they are getting shut down for leaning too heavily on that word “editorial.” (Picking up the slack from the editorial board, I guess.) This must be why job descriptions in journalism tend to include that catch-all other duties and obeisance as required.

So it is my sad duty to inform you, dear readers, that I have not changed my mind. The Post has forced my hand, and I have my own moral code to consider—a code that demands I place the First Amendment first—a code that believes journalism can and should rise above partisan positions to keep a citizenry as well-informed as its own media literacy will allow—a code that says “quit before you even try”—a code that, above all, means I really should stick by my words, no matter how unfit to print.
​
That’s why, if nothing else, I can begrudge the Washington Post its honesty: it keeps doing its damndest to turn out light after light so that democracy can die, as promised, in darkness.