Another Bill to Consider

Here's a link to the presidential exploratory committee for Bill Richardson, currently the governor of New Mexico, a place near and dear to me. I've been following Governor Richardson's career since I first became aware of him in the early 80s when I was living in Albuquerque the first time (I moved away from New Mexico in 1989 and back to New Mexico ten years later). I was never a resident when Richardson was governor of the state, but I have followed his administration closely via good friends who still live in Albuquerque, and Richardson was a Congressman from NM's Third District for 14 years (1983 - 1997).

One subject that Governor Richardson shines on (and an issue that matters a great deal to me) are issues that impact Native America. Richardson served one term as Chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Native American Affairs in the 103rd Congress (1993-1994). While in the House, Richardson sponsored some of the most prominent Native American bills that were signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Those bills include the Indian Tribal Justice Act, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments, the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act, the American Indian Agricultural Resource Management Act, the Indian Dams Safety Act, the Tribal Self-Governance Act, the Indian Tribal Jurisdiction Bill (commonly known as the “Duro Fix”) and the Jicarilla Apache Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act.

To read more about Governor Richardson's 2008 Presidential Campaign, click here.

Or see America for Richardson.
Here's Governor Richardson's web site.

Indian Country Today did an interview with Bill Richardson.

David Brooks on Bill Richardson (NYTimes, March 4, 2007).

A POEM by Muriel Rukeyser

This poem came into my inbox yesterday, sent by a wonderful woman who maintains a listserv called simply "Democracy," a magnificent list of likeminded souls that allows me to belong. It was just what I needed to read at the moment - my blog was losing steam as was I, with all the talk of war and the typical political debates, senseless and stupifying - this poem spoke to me. I hope it speaks to you, too.

POEM

I lived in the first century of world wars.
Most mornings I would be more or less insane.
The news would pour out of various devices
The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories,
Interrupted by attempts to sell products to the unseen.
I would call my friends on other devices;
They would be more or less mad for similar reasons.
Slowly I would get to pen and paper,
Make my poems for others unseen and unborn.
In the day I would be reminded of those men and women,
Brave, setting up signals across vast distances,
considering a nameless way of living, of almost unimagined values.
As the lights darkened, as the lights of night brightened,
We would try to imagine them, try to find each other,
To construct peace, to make love, to reconcile
Waking with sleeping, ourselves with each other,
Ourselves with ourselves.
We would try by any means
To reach the limits of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves,
To let go the means, to wake.

I lived in the first century of these wars.
--Muriel Rukeyser

Sent to me by Martha Nell Smith.