The point that newsmen find easy to miss

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© 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “Two kinds of newsmen cover stories: those who get the point and those who do not. Most miss the point.” – My news director, years ago People are upset that all three representatives from New Mexico voted for the Waxman Markey “cap-and-trade” bill that passed the House 219 to 212. When I see stories about the anger of people in New Mexico it shows me that some of the news media are point-missers. They do not understand how the House of Representatives operates. This is especially true in the case of District 2 Rep. Harry Teague, an oilman who voted against the interests of his constituents in supporting the bill. Continue Reading

Freedom for all and for all time

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© 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. The most ironic outcome of our revolution was it later resulted in freedom for the descendants of English soldiers who tried to keep us enslaved to their King. Even with our freedom example, it took many years for the English to become truly free. There was not freedom in the world in 1776. People never experienced freedom so it was hard to visualize being free. This Independence Day, we should note that in 1776 a most fortunate thing happened. Continue Reading

The spaceport 20 years from now

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© 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. At one time I lived at McCoy Air Force Base near Orlando, Fla. People usually comment with a wistful expression about how nice it must have been. No, mostly I remember the swamp mosquitoes. I lived there before Disneyworld and the other neat attractions were built. My father was stationed at the base. The only fun was the ocean some miles away. Continue Reading

Since it has not worked for 30 years, let’s try it again

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© 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. The day the NMSU Aggie football program sends its student athletes into harm’s way not to win the game, but rather to get money for a loss, is the day the NMSU Aggies announce to the world they are losers. Shuckins, it is already too late. NMSU has been doing this for 30 years and looks forward to doing it this year and in years to come. A recent news release touts how much money NMSU will make selling losses, like there is no urgency for win-loss records in college football or in NMSU’s football program. With 30 years of data on this approach, how well does it work? Continue Reading

New Mexico is a pay-for-play state

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© 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Someone moves to our state and comes to you for advice. He wants to get a contract or an appointment from someone who runs the state government. What advice would you give him? Do you tell him to follow the published bid or application procedures, or do you tell him additionally that he must “grease the wheel” to do business in this state? If you want him to be successful you will tell him that in small ways and large New Mexico is a “pay-for-play” state. Continue Reading

Our Constitution in name only

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© 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “When I use a word… it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” – Lewis Carroll Our Constitution no longer rules our land. I do not know exactly when that document kicked the bucket, but today it is our Constitution in name only. The ink had hardly dried on our Constitution when politicians first started dismantling it “for a good cause.” Today the watchwords are: You should follow the laws of this nation, unless you want to ignore them, which you can if you are of a privileged group. Over the decades, judges have found reasons to reject what the founders wrote so they can interpret a new meaning. We do not have equal justice for all. Continue Reading

The trillion-dollar twitterpation two step

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© 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. There is rampant twitterpation in Congress. Our leaders are intoxicated by the adrenaline rush of spending trillions of dollars at a time. They live to give, using their time in office in a non-stop frenzy of giving from the national slop bucket to their political supporters back home. Their press releases are almost always about giving a million to this worthy project and a million to that. It is slow work, a million here and a million there. Continue Reading

A nation, mouth open, waiting for roast ducks to fly in

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© 2009 By Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “A peasant has to stand on a hillside for a very long time before a roast duck flies into his mouth.” – Chinese proverb quoted by Paul Theroux in his 1988 book, Riding The Iron Rooster Travel Writer Paul Theroux explored China by train in 1986. He was there as the nation stepped out from under the Mao Zedong shadow. He documents a nation trying to grasp capitalism after emerging from the darkness of the Cultural Revolution. For more than 50 years the Chinese government promised its citizens an “Iron Rice Bowl” that could not be broken. Suddenly the people did not want the security of guaranteed jobs, food, housing and health care. Continue Reading

Core identity should decide the next NMSU president

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© 2009 By Michael Swickard, Ph.D. There is a huge controversy at New Mexico State University about its core identity. Last week, NMSU Interim President Waded Cruzado was removed amid a firestorm of protest while a second presidential search started. The first search terminated suddenly last year amid charges Cruzado was the choice before the search began. For the record, I have spoken with Cruzado and personally like her, though I cannot see how her attributes align with NMSU’s core identity. Her supporters say her attributes are that she is liked by the faculty and students and is both a Hispanic and a woman. Continue Reading

Let us vote on global cooler or warmer

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© 2009 By Michael Swickard, Ph.D. 1995 Movie The American President, environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade: “…global warming is a calamity, the effects of which will be second only to nuclear war.” Later in the movie, “… 10 years from now (2005) any cars with an internal combustion engine is gonna be considered a collector’s item.” I enjoy the movie The American President, but when the lobbyist predicts a quick end to Earth unless radical changes are made, I realize changes were not made and nearly 15 years have gone by. The warnings were just political crap. These dire environmental warnings have gone on for decades. I was in college for the first Earth Day in 1970. The central message: Earth was in trouble and could not last long. Continue Reading

When a pandemic hit Las Cruces

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© 2009 By Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Foreword to the local college’s first yearbook, written in a cave near Las Cruces the last days of March 1907: “It is finished… We have found ourselves in the position of the carpenter who hurried through the narrow, crooked streets of Boston, with his arms stretched awkwardly before him, praying that no one would run into him. He had the measure of a door. He had no yardstick! We have had no yardstick. Nor have our prayers been answered: for we have been ‘run into.’” What ran into the college yearbook was a pandemic that killed many students in just two weeks. Continue Reading

Rumor: Returning soldiers are potential menaces

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© 2009 By Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “During a period when veterans were big news, every time an ex-soldier got himself in a jam the fact that he was a vet was pointed out in the headline. An ordinary killing or assault seldom rated the front page, but if it involved a jealous veteran or a battle-fatigue case, it could be sure of a prominent play… But the sad fact was that such headlines gave added impetus to the rumor that always appears in every country after a war — that the returning soldiers are trained in killing and assault and are potential menaces to society.” – From Bill Mauldin’s 1947 book, Back Home. Dateline April 2009 — Many veterans are upset with a Homeland Security report that included these words: “The return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone-wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.” Current veterans are furious. But the prejudices against veterans have gone on for generations, including during WWII. Continue Reading

The New Mexico grasshopper and ant story

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© 2009 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “A grasshopper spent his summer playing while the ant worked storing food for winter. When winter came, the hungry grasshopper went to the ant for food but was refused.” – Aesop Fable The other day I heard a New Mexico version of the Aesop fable about the grasshopper and the ant. It was told by a first grader who scores low on accountability tests but tells stories well. It makes me wonder if the accountability tests really work. Can the very best students on the accountability tests tell as good a story as the one this student told? Continue Reading

Seven results of highly destructive political policies

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© 2009 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Despite the citizen protests this week, our country will never return to the America of our founding because we have become a wholly different people. For the last century, highly destructive political concepts have been planted in our political fields.The fruits of these ideas have moved us little by little to a nation where our original values of limited government along with personal control of our responsibility and independence have been replaced by total ownership and control of the people by the government. Today, every event and crisis is seen by our government as a reason to increase control over citizens. In our future are at least seven harvests: • First, we will stop talking about the national debt. There is no will or ability to pay it. Continue Reading

Accountability testing: Grab the bull by the tail

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© 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “The trouble with people is not that they don’t know, but that they know so much that ain’t so.” – Josh Billings The above quote, written more than 100 years ago, fits education today. Billings reminds us that just because we think something is so, that belief does not change the reality. Newspapers proclaim that the public schools are broken and have said this every year for the last century. The truth is that good students are still coming from our public schools, despite what is said. And, as has been for a century, some students are still not getting good educations. Continue Reading