Opinion

It’s hard to believe that I moved to Eddy County four weeks ago today. I had all of my things packed up by a moving company and spent my first night here on July 16, 2024. I spent two and a half weeks living in a hotel, waiting for my things to arrive. I will never use a moving company ever again. The only reason I did this time was because on March 19 of this year, I had my right hip replaced, so I wasn’t going to lift anything myself, at least not yet.

Around Houston Medical Center are six billboards inviting its employees to come to New Mexico, where they will be “Free to Provide.” The message is repeated in full page ads in the Sunday editions of dailies in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston.

The American dream seems to be dying. No matter how you define it—whether it means owning a home or making it big—advancing in America seems harder to achieve. A parent’s ultimate goal has always been to see their child prosper more than they did. Upward economic mobility means giving your child the tools to be better off. It doesn’t always work. But why? What makes mobility possible and why do we fail? After over a decade of research, economists at Harvard published a paper last week that gives insight to the poverty trap and a way out. If our city and state are to improve, we must concentrate on one thing: jobs.

Few politicians are offering real words of wisdom today. It was Abraham Lincoln who told us, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” The following is a partial transcript of thoughts published on X from “The Executioner” podcast. It is worth repeating because it depicts progressive problems currently afflicting us. If we don’t start voting differently, Lincoln’s words will be prophetic. I have added some thoughts of my own.

Did you catch former President Donald Trump’s appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists July 31 in Chicago? It was mesmerizing, and not in a good way. The former president’s task was easy: Go in and talk about how his second term as president could help the country’s black population and criticize Kamala Harris’ record.

The intent of this letter is two-fold. One is to communicate to pet owners that not just anyone wants their unwanted animal. I live in a rural area and sometimes find stray dogs on my property that have been dropped off and abandoned by their owners. There seems to be a notion of ‘city folk’ that people on farms, ranches, or simple homesteads can benefit from stray dogs causing damage to their homes and property. Every city and county has a procedure to follow when animals are no longer wanted; please, stop dropping your animals off in the country for others to handle your problems.

“Damn! That smells good!” The woman said it out loud, with joy, as she entered Lowe’s grocery store and walked right by me. I knew exactly what she was talking about, because I’d said the same thing in my head about 30 seconds earlier.

By Grant McGee Eastern New Mexico News CLOVIS — I had to go to Roswell for a fancy eye appointment. I always wanted to be a traveler.

By Sherry Robinson Former Gov. Susana Martinez once described her first legislative session, in 2011, as “handto-hand combat.” A former DA, Martinez had no experience with the Legislature, and went in swinging.

A career of reporting on politics and a love of history has left me illequipped for 2024. Fully, and completely useless.

By Merilee Dannemann Healthcare companies should never have profit as their primary mission, don’t you think? There’s a genuine conflict between the profit motive and what healthcare is supposed to accomplish: providing a service that heals people’s illnesses or helps them stay healthy. For a healthcare institution to be successful, profit has to be tempered with giving priority to the wellbeing of patients.

Before U.S. Rep.