Cooperation and Respect

It has been a couple days now and the initial shock is over for me regarding the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, though I still cry on occasion when I think of it.  I still pray for Gabrielle and those affected.  I believe Rep. Giffords to be one of the most reasonable, fully engaged with her constituents congresspeople to grace those halls in many years.  I see this incident more as a way to potentially bring about some restraint on our political leaders in their divisive rhetoric.  The direction of the national media in particular to try to put cause and effect of hate mongering speech with Jared Loughner’s actions, however is missing the point.  Below is my thoughts that I have sent to Diane Sawyer as well as one of our local media stations.  You will not find me speaking on such things often, but this is something I felt compelled to do

I would like to ask that people stop focusing on if fear mongering rhetoric caused Jared Loughner to want to kill Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  These people are missing the point, whether or not political rhetoric was an influence with him, people are expressing their fear that hate and fear speech is degrading to society and will call the weak minded and unstable people out to do the actions the ‘leaders’ speak of.  There is a great NEED to become a more civilized society, where disagreements can be discussed with respect and solved with some meeting of the minds.  We are all someone’s loved one, we all feel, most participate, and all struggle with something.  Cooperation and respect are the keys needed if this country has a future.

Musings - winter in the desert

John and I recently returned from a trip to my mother's house in the mountains of southern New Mexico and I realized along the drive that I still love my desert the best.  My mom's place is nice as it lies among the pinyon pine/juniper ecological zone with better summer temperatures and minimal snowfall.  But it is quiet.  I mean REALLY quiet.  Where we live in the rural Sonoran Desert, there is just a little sound of humanity, planes, distant trains, and the occasional barking dog or passing vehicle.  But there is bird song, lots and lots of bird songs.  It is not really quite here.  But my mom's place has no sound but the occasional sonic boom from nearby Holloman AFB and a rare vehicle or chainsaw.  It is eerie, hardly ever any animal sounds.  I have thought about moving to her general vicinity, but the cons still outweigh the pros.  Among them are jobs, though I haven't found one in my field of landscape architecture yet, and the fact I own property here that I love.  Part of the draw to stay is the proximity to a medium sized metropolitan area (Tucson), John's ample family, and the fact the desert stays green in the winter time.

Back to my trip home from mom's.  We start in the mountains; go uphill to see the aspens and firs before heading back down to Alamogordo.  This is the nearest town of decent size to my mom's and while I enjoy its small town charms and historic district, it is barren.  There are hardly any trees and many shades of brown.  So onwards we go, through the White Sands of NM to Las Cruces.  This town is closer to the size of Tucson with more trees and the Rio Grande 'flowing' through it.  But it is still many shades of brown.  Further down the road is a repetitive scene of creosote and yucca Chihuahua Desert.  I happen to love these scenes; I am one of those who enjoy geology, ecology, and I still love to look out of the windows in airplanes – but when we finally enter the Tucson area where the Chihuahua Desert transitions to the Sonoran, I light up.  I love the similar geography as found in southern New Mexico (basin and range) but there are trees; trees that stay green in the winter time.  And there is one of the greatest diversity of plants and animals found in the world.  When we arrive at our place, we are greeted with birdsong and running rabbits.  In the winter here, palo verde trees stay green due to their photosynthesizing trunks and colors range from pale greens to reds in the vast variety of plants from various chollas, shrubs like creosote and triangle leaf bursage, columnar cacti like the famous saguaro and the less famous barrel cactus, and six species of trees.  There are dozens of bird species that stay here, as well as cottontails, jack rabbits, antelope squirrel, pack rats and kangaroo rats, many lizards and a few snakes, the occasional coyotes, bobcats, and rarely a deer.  This place feels ALIVE and I am home.

                                         Mom's place

                                         Aspens at Karr Canyon

                                         Historic downtown of Alamogordo

                                         Overlooking White Sands, NM

                                         Home looking west