{"id":42073,"date":"2015-03-16T13:49:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T19:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=42073"},"modified":"2015-06-01T00:27:43","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T06:27:43","slug":"nmpolitics-net-is-coming-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/03\/nmpolitics-net-is-coming-back\/","title":{"rendered":"NMPolitics.net is coming back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Heath<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Armed with a deep hope that we can overcome our state\u2019s poverty mentality, I\u2019m restarting NMPolitics.net. We\u2019re best when we work together, and I want to help pull New Mexico in that direction.<\/h4>\n

We can be better than this.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I wrote in my last column for NMPolitics.net, when I shut down the site in September 2012<\/a> to move on to a new job with New Mexico In Depth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Back then we were in the middle of a bitter election season. I wrote that we were living in one of the most divided and dysfunctional times in our nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s still true. Too many of our politicians and others with power and money, our citizens, and even some of our journalists are engaged in a partisan and ideological battle between left and right that encourages us to pick sides and fight instead of working together.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not bogged down by gridlock in New Mexico. Whether you agree with what\u2019s happening, there\u2019s lots of action. For example, Las Cruces, where I live, sits right between the state\u2019s two largest economic development projects \u2013 the industrial park at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry and Spaceport America.<\/p>\n

The successful effort to legalize same-sex marriage in New Mexico started in Las Cruces. It\u2019s the third city in New Mexico to raise the minimum wage and likely the poorest in America to do it. And the largest national monument President Obama has created surrounds the City of the Crosses.<\/p>\n

But voter turnout is at an all-time low. And New Mexico remains at the bottom of most of the important lists, no matter how any politician spins things. In many ways New Mexico remains stuck, as it has for decades through the tenures of Democratic and Republican governors, and in spite of various efforts to improve quality of life that came from across the ideological spectrum.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re trying. And we can be better than this.<\/p>\n

A deep hope<\/h3>\n

Armed with a deep hope that we can overcome our state\u2019s poverty mentality, I\u2019m restarting NMPolitics.net. We\u2019re best when we work together, and I want to help pull New Mexico in that direction. I\u2019m a native New Mexican. I\u2019m raising my daughter here. I\u2019m committed to helping better this state.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned a lot from my time with New Mexico In Depth. I have some new ideas to make NMPolitics.net sustainable and influential. I\u2019m also developing plans to mentor young journalists and students to help improve the diversity and quality of journalism in our state.<\/p>\n

I helped create NMID, I care about it, and I support its work. And it\u2019s time for me to focus where my heart is pulling me \u2013 on doing journalism that\u2019s relational and, as I did at NMID, looking for ways to mentor young reporters.<\/p>\n

While journalists are trained to be observers, we also live in communities. In an era where people are flooded with information but\u00a0often feel excluded from public discourse, journalism can do so much more than inform: It can engage.<\/p>\n

Even informed people sometimes don\u2019t know how to get involved. Their time is precious and they may feel like their participation isn\u2019t valued. Journalism in the 21st Century should give people an entry point into the conversation, challenge them to be involved, and value their participation.<\/p>\n

We can also help involve people in the system by better reflecting our society\u2019s multiculturalism and gender diversity. Most journalism in America is still done today by white men. If we want people to engage in public discussion, to vote, to run for office, to be involved in other ways, our media must reflect our diversity, both in the stories we tell and the people who tell them.<\/p>\n

Going live around June 1<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m working on ideas to help make journalism in New Mexico more diverse. And I\u2019m committed to making journalism a conversation at the new NMPolitics.net. I will aim to foster discourse on serious issues, bring new people into the discussion, and help build understanding that undercuts the forces that seek to divide us.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited to take another stab at running a news organization that treats politics as serious business and people as partners in our democratic experiment instead of bystanders or consumers \u2013 a site that engages all people, holds power accountable, cuts through back-and-forth spin to find facts, and seeks common ground to help us move forward together.<\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019ll join me. Look for more updates in the coming days and weeks. The new NMPolitics.net goes live around June 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armed with a deep hope that we can overcome our state\u2019s poverty mentality, I\u2019m restarting NMPolitics.net. We\u2019re best when we work together, and I want to help pull New Mexico in that direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[630],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-42073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-about-nmpolitics-net","tag-news-about-this-site"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}