Opinion

Throughout our lives, there are those few special people who touch us in a way that sets them apart from all the others.

For me, it was Mr. Eberhardt, Doc Spooner and Col. Matheson.

These three helped shape my way of thinking, gave me insight on my life and the world around me and guided me toward adulthood.

I will always remember them as life mentors. All were teachers.

We are undergoing a test as a nation.

Just days after our 244th birthday, we face real challenges from our streets up. From what we believe our government — at every level — needs to provide, to our part in what might be considered a free-for-all with our culture and economy at stake.

Consider that the July 4 news shows found the economy on the lips of nearly every talking head. Bottom line: Our nation’s bottom line looks to be heading south again.

My finest memory from childhood is sailing a kayak my clever brother had made out of plywood and canvas.

The sailing adventure was on a lake in Glacier National Park. The wind was good, my beloved dog was tucked between my knees for ballast, and I scooted over the water like a rocket – or so it seemed to an 11-year old.  I have a black-and-white photo of that event (the world was black and white in those days) and I cherish it greatly even though it’s faded.

I recently watched a video taken by naturalist John Walthen, flying over the Gulf of Mexico. There were columns of thick black smoke from oil burned on the surface, through which unwary birds were flying. There were pods of dolphins in the oil; some already dead; some still struggling to live.

There were miles of oil-covered water, in which nothing will survive. Unseen were the subsurface plumes of “disbursed” oil that is sucking all the oxygen from the sea, killing everything in the area.

It was gratifying to see a positive outcome for KRSN in this week’s decision from the Planning & Zoning Commission. While the fact that the AM radio station got a green light to proceed with construction of an antenna on school property does not guarantee its future, had the commission’s decision gone the other way the media outlet’s fate would have surely been sealed.

It was only when I was unpacking my hundredth box that it occurred to me that moving house is similar to having cancer.

It’s a major upheaval in your life: a time when there are new challenges, new people and new environments to deal with.

For instance, when I heard the word cancer come out of my doctor’s mouth I burst into tears, and then cried for another two months every time I thought about it. The same thing happened when my husband told me he wanted us to leave Los Alamos.

Both were life-changing events.

I was saddened to read the Monitor’s article about the closing of Brownell’s camera department and the departure of Eric Johnson from our community.  The camera department of Decol’s, which then continued on successfully to become Brownell’s, has been an institution in this community for as long as I can remember and Eric Johnson became the “go-to” photography expert for all of us.

Imagine the scene. Two poverty stricken, uneducated men are chatting somewhere in Mexico. One says, “Ese, vamos p’ Albuquerque pa’ cometer delitos.”

The other replies, “Que buena idea!”

Such was the primary election portrayal among Bernalillo County Republican sheriff candidates. Drug cartel types aside, the occasional immigrant may come to New Mexico with an explicit criminal purpose. But not many. Getting here is too much work. For nearly all, jobs are the attraction.

I find that recent unsigned and undocumented editorial comments to be more the rule than the exception in the Monitor these days.  Sunday, June 20, “The sinking of the presidency,” was unsigned and one-sided and may indicate the bias of the current Monitor editorial staff, while Wednesday, June 23, “Obama and Clinton: The best and brightest” was written by a Jeffry Gardner. Just who is Gardner, what are his credentials and why are such vitriolic and poorly written opinions allowed to be presented undocumented?