Editorials

The attempted assassination of a former president and presidential candidate seems to bring out the best and the worst in people these days.

I saw both yesterday evening.

Almost any person with a base of decency will express horror that such a thing should happen in our country.

[Editor's Note: Posted with permission from ?http://www.liberato.us/property-rights-report-2407.html ?]

July 2024

Rogue Forest Service Attempting to Ignore Congressional Mandates

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing amendments that call for managing all 127 national forests to "maximize mature and old growth trees." This conflicts with the Congressional mandate to "[secure] favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber." (16 U.S. Code ? 475). ? In addition to flouting land use law, the Forest Service also shirked its legal duty to coordinate and cooperate with state and local governments prior to the proposed changes. Past old growth protection has led to massive decreases in timber harvest, forest thinning, and increases in catastrophic fires and insect and disease infestations.

The Forest Service has ?released ?a draft environmental impact statement and is seeking public comment.

Residents will soon receive mail-in ballots for a special election proposing a 23% property tax increase to benefit Silver Schools. Before voting, it might be helpful for taxpayers to have some numbers to show both the financial condition of the District, and the performance of the schools.

For the fiscal year 2022, Silver Schools had total revenue of $35,795,626. The following year, 2023, that rose to a staggering $38,825,778 (source: NM State Auditor website audited financial statements). That amounts to an increase of over $3 million, which is almost 10% higher than the year before.

What do the taxpayers get for this money, one might ask?

Residents will soon receive mail-in ballots for a special election regarding the 4.1 mil levy tax increase (General Obligation Bond on the ballot) for Silver Schools. A “mil levy” is confusing, but understand that this would be a massive tax increase. Currently, someone owning property valued at $270,000 pays about $1,450 in tax. If this bond passes, the tax increases by $369, to over $1,800, amounting to a 23% tax increase! This is not just a one-time tax, but the new tax rate for every single year. Adding in persistent 9% inflation that has hurt everyone in our community, people are strained to the max.

By Ruben Leyva

My Ph.D. program research centers on the rhetorics of Apache identity and asks, "What is an Apache?" I can confidently tell you Apache bands were fluid and their interrelationships complex. Bands developed from marriages with other groups and the need for traditional and non-traditional resources. The Apache traveled seasonally for plant foods, wild game, and rations. Nation-state government interference was also responsible for the Apache movement. This story illustrates how the same Apache band was documented in multiple locations and assigned different band identifiers, sometimes according to landmarks. ?

By Paul J. Gessing

The latest edition of Kids Count provides more devastating news about New Mexico and the condition of our children. The report, created by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (a center/left non-profit that works nationwide) analyzes and ranks all 50 states based on 16 variables relating to childhood outcomes.

Surprising absolutely no one, New Mexico again was at the very bottom once again at 50th. I analyzed the report and counted 7 variables that improved, 7 that got worse, and 2 that stayed the same relative to last year's report. Based on this it is hard to point to any trend line pointing towards improvement.

Enabling the Perpetual Political Pendulum
(Part Three of Three)

Excerpted from The Unfounding of America, by Michael Russell
TheSecondDeclaration.org

"In order to form a hypothesis about the future of an individual," Ayn Rand wrote in 1971, "one must consider three elements: his present course of action, his conscious convictions, and his sense of life. The same elements must be considered to form a hypothesis about the future of a nation."

Were we to generally diagnose our republic's health by taking her societal temperature, we would find it feverish. Heart and respiratory rate? Fluctuating according to "the news." Blood pressure? Elevated. Vision and hearing? Acute within a predetermined range of acceptability. Body-mass index? Corpulent. Reflexes? Sluggish. Medications? And then some. Vaccinations? Whatever the doctor orders.

Enabling the Perpetual Political Pendulum
(Part Two of Three)

Excerpted from The Unfounding of America, by Michael Russell
TheSecondDeclaration.org

I had a friend, now deceased, who for 27 years was a prospector in the Yukon Territory. We met in the Alaska Interior in 1995, where he lived with his wife in a rough log cabin forty minutes by road from the nearest town. I fondly recall conversations about life, philosophy, politics, grizz, gold, and my friend's failing heart, but most poignantly I remember his answer to my question about where to find gold. With the certainty of a man who knows from long experience the conditions required to repeat a previous achievement, he replied, "I can't say where you're gonna find it, but I can say where you're not gonna."