All Too Common in New Mexico (Said wannabe NM Minister for the Plastering of Band-Aids) As a voter, Im not particularly keen on political attack ads, unless the individual being attacked is... well, pretty doggone creepy. I especially dont like attack ads where the politician behind them hasnt otherwise staked out their claim for the office in question in the form of what Id do if elected, or, if the politician behind the attack ads had thitherto been running a campaign that I personally felt was a mockery of what the office -should be- about, such as a political platform that solves problems in ways that do nothing to address underlying causes. I grant that I may not be like the average voter, who, possibly, for starters, gladly laps up dirt, and, for second helpings, hasnt really thought out the consequences of the political platform of the candidates. To get specific here (finally!), there are two candidates*(1) running for the office of Attorney General in the State of New Mexico: Susan Riedel (pronounced REEDl, Rep riedelfornm/), and Hector Balderas (pronounced bal-DARE-ass, bal so it rhymes with Sal, and the final s of ass trails off, such that it DOESNT sound like the body part :-), Dem hectorbalderas/). But its not so much the D or the R that informs my way of voting; usually, its the candidates position on the issues that matters to me. However, in the case of New Mexico – which is largely a Hispanic state, with too few Hispanos representing their fellows – I am inclined to vote for the Latino/ Hispano candidate (though I will gladly vote for an American Indian as well!). *(1) That may sound silly to some folk, but occasionally theres no challenger, only the one candidate on the list — in fact, the lower is the candidate in the power hierarchy, the more likely is this state of affairs to obtain. . AN ASIDE When I lived in California, back in 2007-08 or thereabouts, I recall that the one candidate for the office of AG was plugging a platform that essentially promised Californians that if he were elected, he would lock up all criminals, and in a hurry. Very big on law and order – the harsh, old-school (Old Testament?) way – that guy. The other candidate, who happened to be a female, ran on a platform that promised to figure out ways to avoid overstuffing Californias prisons, for multiple reasons, including avoiding wasting the lives of those subjected to unChristianly harsh, unforgiving justice, but also out of a concern for California taxpayers, who were already having problems with prison overcrowding*(2), and who thus faced the pest-or-cholera choice of paying the prisoner surfeit (thefreedictionary/surfeit) costs (or federal fines), OR, of building YET MORE prisons.*(3) *(2) Today, prison overcrowding unleashes federal fines, as we all know here in New Mexico, where we ship our prisoner surfeit – or any excess above and beyond what the federal guidelines allow – to Texas (causing undue grief, I might add, for family members, and doing NOTHING for rehabilitation!). *(3) And it isnt as if theres a shortage of prisons dotting the American landscape! ! Well, not being of an Old Testament bent (though I do have my Medieval Moments!), and not being big on solving what is undeniably a social problem in the USA*(4) by just slamming folk in prison for poor-folk criminality*(5), I voted for the lady who had what I felt was a platform aimed at lowering criminality by reducing the length of sentences, coupled with a plan to ensure that prisons are doing what they SHOULD BE DOING: rehabilitating, not hardening, convicts, i.e., reducing recidivism! *(4) The United States of America fails its people – miserably – compared to Europe, where there is whoppingly significantly less criminality... this country not only brutalizes its disadvantaged, its socially and mentally troubled, etc., it outright HATCHES Kop Killers, not to speak of deranged Mass Murderers! *(5) The rich, who often embezzle/ finagle their way to billions, rarely see the inside of a slammer, though occasionally one finds a prosecutor who is as willing and eager to pursue white-collar crime as s/he is willing and eager to pursue its blue-collar variant! ! END OF ASIDE I regret that neither candidate for the office of AG here in New Mexico is interested in tackling criminality – especially poor-folk criminality – in a more compassionate manner, most especially given the fact that here in New Mexico, criminality is very much the result of social malaises. In her TV ads up until recently, AG candidate Susan Riedel (I see that Im not the only person who was puzzled by that overly plush sofa in the desert : -)... though I found it kinda artsy-fartsy, in a Salvador Dali kind of way... and Im sure that Susan Riedel means well, that she truly feels that locking more folk up, for longer stretches, in New Mexico prisons is the right way to go, but I just dont subscribe to her way of viewing the problem of crime progressnownm.wordpress/2014/09/23/does-anyone-know-why-susan-riedel-keeps-her-living-room-furniture-in-the-arroyo/!) shamelessly profiled herself as a Hanging Judge, anno 2014, i.e., the type who solves the social problem that is criminality by doling out harsher sentences to an ever-increasing prison population. Her ads included what SR considers as the most common crimes in New Mexico: Rape. Domestic Violence. Child Abuse. All too common in New Mexico (nmtelegram/2014/09/18/riedel-ad-touts-her-time-as-prosecutor-judge/). Well, given that the overwhelming majority of the perpetrators of crime in New Mexico are Hispanos, this either says that, all too commonly, Hispanos are just a bunch of lowlife criminals, OR, that there exists some severe social failings on the part of state, county and city lawmakers and leaders, all across the state of New Mexico. You may decide for yourself, fellow New Mexican, but as for me, I refuse to believe that, all too commonly, Hispanos are by nature (by character!) a lowlife, criminal lot. And if criminality among Hispanos is more of a social problem than a character issue, then arent we asking our politicians to apply just more Band-Aids to a problem that is haemorrhaging faster than we can line up the Band-Aids to plaster over the problem?? In summary, I am faced with something of a pest-or-cholera choice between an AG candidate who aspires to be the Hanging-Judge Minister for the Plastering of Band-Aids (and who has now switched to attack ads criticizing the record of the other candidate... and btw, from the looks of the other candidates shortcomings, as profiled by Susan Riedel, they do not seem to be of the self-enrichment kind, meaning that if mistakes -were- made, they would seem to have been honest mistakes, not of the dishonest, self-enrichment kind!) and an AG candidate who is one part crusader against blue collar crimes (poor-folk criminality) and two parts crusader against white collar crimes (rich folk crimes of enrichment), but without a plan for emptying prisons (i.e., reducing them to the NAIRR, or Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Recidivism https://google/#q=nairu : -) and keeping them that way... by making prisons places of genuine rehabilitation, to the greater benefit of God and Country — especially the latter (no offense meant, Pope Francis!). I hope that after the election, Governor Martinez invites both Dems and Reps to take a cold, hard look at the social malaises in New Mexico that might be contributing to excessive levels of, especially, Hispano-on-Hispano crime in this state. Among the relevant social malaises might be a tendency among Latinos here in New Mexico to put all of their sanity eggs, as it were, in the one basket – called My Hispano Lifestyle – such that when a marriage (or other partnership) fails, or when one loses ones job, one has a tendency to lose it, feeling that life is over, I might as well go for broke and suchlike acts of desperation, often leading to crimes of violence. Something tells me that Hispanos who have a good grounding in mainstream American life — who straddle BOTH the gringo and the Latino world — are better buttressed to withstand such social crises without feeling the need to resort to acts of desperate, violent, vigilante retribution. There -has to be- a kinder, more Christian way to deal with the problem of crime in this state... and in this country in general! ! ! !
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 08:13:38 +0000
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