Wit & Wisdom

WIT &

WISDOM

by Caren Cowan, Publisher

New Mexico Stockman

Short Chaps

Political correctness never seems to let up. Apparently now we have “short chaps” instead of what the cowboys call them. Sorry, the wokes may get after me if I use the real word chin…

The wokeness hasn’t hit all the internet sale sites, so you can still order them now under the old name.

What is woke?

I continue to grapple with the word “woke.” The worst wokes I ever had was when Grandmother turned her toy poodle Teddy in to my room every morning.

The Oxford English Dictionary, that arbiter of the linguistic zeitgeist, added “woke” to its repertoire in 2017 as “Originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice” according to PH.D. ASSISTANT Professor of Linguistics, at the University Of Pennsylvania.

David Brooks, an opinion columnist for the New York Times, said in 2018 that “To be woke is to be radically aware and justifiably paranoid. It is to be cognizant of the rot pervading the power structures. [Woke] is the opposite of cool in certain respects.”

Charles Pulliam-Moore, a NYC-based culture critic, said in 2016 that the Woke Renaissance coincided with the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement that followed the 2012 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman.

Violent Crime

A little over a year ago the hue and cry was to get rid of police across the country. Now you cannot turn on the news in any major city or nationally without hearing about the horrific shootings that are happening on a daily basis across the country.

Seattle is notable because their Mayor last year thought she was living in a “summer of love.” Today she is begging for help. The city’s police force has had 270 officers retire or quit.

Washington, D.C. is always interesting to me because it is not legal to own a gun in the District. There is of course a way to own guns for the legions of body guards politicians require today.

Federal law requires that handguns must be purchased and registered in the state you live in. Washington, DC is not a state. There are no gun stores. So where did all those guns come from that have contributed to some of the 118 homicides in that city year to date? That number is up five percent from last year.

It is also curious that as the battle over gun control wages, Congress, the Administration and the President live in a gun controlled area — that isn’t stopping gun violence. It isn’t legal gun ownership that is causing the problem, it is the illegal guns and not even our nation’s Capital can control them.

Seems to be that this would be one good reason for D.C. not to become a state. If it does become a state there could be gun stores. Imagine what would happen with all the guns stolen from gun stores.

In breaking news at press time the Mayor of Washington, D.C. is raising a white flag and calling for the hiring of 170 more police officers in the District.

Then there is Albuquerque, a relatively small city compared to D.C., Chicago, New York City and numerous other cities across the nation. Crime in this city has long been a problem with many country folks choosing not even to come to town.

One city leader noted at a recent “job interview” gathering that property crime is down in Albuquerque. He choose not to answer the question about murders. According to Albuquerque police records, there have been 70 homicides for the year through July 19, 2021. That’s about 10 a month, so the year total will be astronomic. There were “only” 84 homicides in 2019 in the city. That was an increase of 15 compared to 2018.

One might ask why I continue to live in the city. We live in a quiet neighborhood where the crime is that of opportunity. In the 24 years we have lived in this area the only crime we have seen was when we forget we don’t live in the country anymore

But Cities Have Nothing on the Mexican Border.

Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels recently told Fox & Friends Weekend that the Mexican border is the largest crime scene in America in terms of public safety and national security. And, he wasn’t even talking about COVID.

Cochise County only has 83 miles of the 1,954 mile border with Mexico. There is honestly no way of determining how many people are entering the United States via that 83 miles.

Dannels says that right now there are over 200,000 getaways that the federal government has seen on cameras coming in the U.S. No attempt was even made to capture them.

“We have no idea who they are. They’re camouflaged. They’re smuggled by the cartels and released in communities,” said Dannels.

There still is no conversation in New Mexico about the border epidemic. However, national news is that the state of Maine is sending 125 National Guard troops to the state.

Nor is there any conversation local or national about the spread of COVID that is undoubtedly streaming across the border. By the end of June over 1,000,000 people have illegally been allowed to enter our county — and that doesn’t count the getaways.

Groups of 400 to 500 hundred people are being let in at several border crossings in Texas several times a day. Federal policies demand that those people be let into the country.

On July 28, 2021 Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order restricting ground transportation of undocumented migrants who pose a risk of transmitting COVID in the Texas interior.

The directive authorizes the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to stop any vehicle suspected of carrying migrants that may be infected with the virus and to return them back to a point of origin or a port of entry, according to a statement from the governor’s office. The DPS also reserves the right to seize and take custody of any vehicle that does not comply with the rule.

If we want things to change, we must be part of the solution.

No doubt, you are like thousands of New Mexicans who believe our state is going in the wrong direction.

What would you say if I told you that, for

the first time ever, we have a positive path forward to get this state on the right track?

Imagine being part of a statewide organized coalition of like-minded people who have had enough of bad policies and corrupt politicians. This coalition is growing every day as people realize that TOGETHER, we have the power to make New Mexico better.

We are working with the New Mexico Business Coalition and over 50 other grassroots organizations to create something bigger than any of us can do on our own. The group is made up of people who share your ideas and are willing to get involved to make a difference. If you will take less than four minutes – right now – to complete this survey, you, too, can be a part of this incredible growing coalition! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ NMAgriculture

If you have further questions or need assistance, please contact me at caren. cowan1@gmail.com .

The Luck of the Draw

With the state of the state and the state of the nation, the Cowboy Channel has been invaluable this past year. Most days this summer we have been able to watch a rodeo or two a day, a sport we love, instead of watching reruns that are only slightly better than the original network biased content.

The bonus is the advertising is for products some folk’s need, not hype to drive us to One World Order at the expense of the poor.

But the best part is watching athletes from New Mexico and around the world compete as individuals in spite of real world consequences. Much is being made about the big purses that are available for today’s rodeo cowboys and cowgirls. And it should be.

However, whenever an announcer talks about million-dollar performers, it is a cumulative earning over several years, not a seasonal earning like those found in the woke sports (NBA, NFL and so on). Rodeo athletes pay their own travel expenses, which were at all times high this summer with the price of gas and the number of rodeos available to compete in.

When they are injured in competition they are not treated by team doctors who are ever at the ready and making a pretty penny doing it.

Rodeo cowboys and cowgirls are thankful for the Justin Rodeo Sports Medicine program that is available at most arenas today. But there is little health insurance available for these athletes. There is certainly no big pay check to care for them and their families while recovering from an injury.

When you add all that up, those million dollar cowboys and cowgirls are not so well paid, but it is getting better with rodeos like The American and others that are stepping up to the plate.

New Mexico has certainly been well-represented at most rodeos this year. Competitors from Lordsburg to Canlijon and all spots in between are on the road. Their events include team roping, breakaway roping, bull riding, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling and tie down roping.

There is only one New Mexican, tie down roper Shad Mayfield, Clovis, in the top 15 in any event, but there are two months for others to climb into that category.

Just about the time that someone wrote a story in the spring about what’s after roping for Arizona’s Derrick Begay, he cracks out with Corey Petska in the team roping. Both made the top 15 in a matter of weeks.

Just to spice things up, Begay tried his hand as a pickup man for one round of

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Cheyenne. That arena is so big they have six pickup men.

Petska’s wife, four time Barrel Racing World Champion Sherri Cervi, is back on the trail with two young horses that are getting better by the week.

There is great opportunity in the future for the young New Mexican cowboys and cowgirls from the National Junior High School Rodeo Finals featured in last month’s Stockman and the National High School Rodeo Finals this month. Additionally there is all of them who didn’t venture to the

Black Footed Ferret

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service and USFWS), proposes to revise the regulation for the nonessential experimental population of the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) (ferret) in Arizona. This proposed rule would allow the reintroduction of ferrets across a larger landscape as part of a nonessential experimental population and include the AVEPA within a larger

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Comments must be received or postmarked on or before August 24, 2021. Comments on the Federal eRulemaking Portal must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

You may submit comments on the proposed rule and draft EA by one of the following methods: Electronically: Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// www. regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter the Docket Number for this rulemaking: FWS–R2–ES–2020–0123. Then, in the Search panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, click on the Proposed Rules link to locate this document. You may submit a comment by clicking on ‘‘Comment Now!’’ By hard copy: Submit by U.S. mail to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS–R2–ES–2020–0123, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: PRB/3W, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041– 3803.

Federal Taxes…

We are hearing a lot about increased taxes from the Biden Administration. Changes will be coming in many sectors. If there is a 1031 exchange in your future, you’d better be paying attention.

Maine Recycling Law Could Spark Wave of Policies Across US

A new Maine law could signal a fresh era of recycling responsibility for businesses in America by requiring companies to pay to recycle the packaging on the products they sell, a policy that experts expect to be adopted in other parts of the country.

Phone: 806-655-3033 • 325-554-7434 SEC’s Climate Disclosure Plans At Cell: 806-683-4613 • steve@expressscale.com Odds With Big Tech Wishes The chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on July 28, 2021 that the agency could require companies Phone: 806-655-3033 • 325-554-7434 www.expressscale.com Phone: 806-655-3033 • 325-554-7434 to disclose climate-related risks on their annual 10-K reports, a move that would fly Cell: 806-683-4613 • steve@expressscale.comCell: 806-683-4613 • steve@expressscale.com www.expressscale.comPhone: 806-655-3033 • 325-554-7434 Cell: 806-683-4613 • steve@expressscale.com www.expressscale.com in the face of big tech firms, including Amazon and Facebook, which directly opposed such measures in a letter to the www.expressscale.com agency. ▫