Diane Denish 5-29-23 on

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We all depend on the post office

By Diane Denish

Corner to Corner

Not long ago, as I left the post office, I found myself humming a 1935 tune: “I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter.” I was there to purchase a roll of “forever” stamps, see what’s new with the specialty stamps, and mail a package.

I am an unapologetic fan of what I call “snail mail,” mail delivered by the post office. And I still love to write letters. Six days a week, I anticipate seeing what has come through my mail slot. Sometimes it’s catalogs and junk mail.

The first of the month is utility, credit card and other bills. And monthly or bi-monthly, New Mexico Magazine, The Atlantic, or AARP magazine. The best days are when there is a personal letter, sometimes unexpected, from a friend or family member.

The post office was founded by the Second Continental Congress in 1775, and Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general. Seventeen years later, the Post Office Department was created, and local postmasters began to be appointed, creating jobs in communities. Two major changes to the USPO designation have occurred over time. In 1872 it became a cabinet level position, and almost a century later the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 transformed it into an independent agency. Today it has a governing board of 11 members, including the Postmaster General.

It is one of the few government agencies codified in the Constitution and employs more than 600,000 people in strong middle-class jobs with benefits. The postal service, arguably a beloved agency and institution, is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the country, 161 million of them -- residences, businesses, and post office boxes.

In New Mexico we have post offices or substations in every incorporated community, some unincorporated communities, and in Native communities. That number was hard to pin down but is likely nearing 150.

Occasionally, proposals to privatize the post office emerge. In 2018 there was a proposal by the Trump administration to institute a series of reforms designed to leverage it for sale to the private sector.

The plan received a lukewarm reception. Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan voiced the bipartisan concern that the reforms would harm those who depend on the USPO for delivery of prescriptions, business documents, and federal checks – most notably in rural and underserved areas.

Privatizing postal services is one of the rare issues in Congress with strong bipartisan agreement: Don’t do it. Each time a privatization proposal surfaces, every member of Congress starts hearing from their constituents, especially those in rural areas.

The USPO has a distinct mission, including “to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people.”

In New Mexico’s villages and towns, it does just that – binds communities together. In the smallest places, where farmers, ranchers and rural dwellers pick up mail at a P.O. Box, folks know “when the mail comes in.” The post office becomes a gathering place. In more urban areas neighbors greet one another as they wait. Many of us are on first-name basis with our neighborhood postman/woman.

In 2022, after years of wrangling, Congress passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan (79-19 in the Senate) financial reform bill that would insure long-term financial security, six-day delivery, and standards for delivery times.

Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said this: “Our country is pretty divided right now, let’s be honest. But one enduring reality is that we have a post office that ties us all together, and everybody depends on that post office.”

Next time you go to the post office, think about that, and maybe hum along with me.

President brings relentless optimism to New Mexico

By Diane Denish

Corner to Corner

Last week, President Biden returned to New Mexico for the third time since becoming president. I was thrilled to support the president and attend a private event soon after his arrival in Albuquerque. As is usually the case, there was a wait for the president to arrive. The welcome downpour didn’t dampen our enthusiasm. Folks were looking forward to giving him a warm welcome unlike the recent “welcome” editorial in the Albuquerque Journal.

For context, the editorial consisted of a 1,000-word litany of complaints with specific reference to immigration, delay of FEMA payments after the Northern New Mexico fires, and clean energy initiatives. The editorial concluded with an outrageous suggestion that Biden pardon the twice-impeached, three-times-indicted former president.

Rather than a litany of complaints, many less than fact-based, the welcome should have included some thanks for President Biden’s many successes, including funding under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and its many benefits to New Mexico.

The editorial might have included a simple thanks for the $1.55 billion dedicated to clean energy, which has so far created 170,600 new jobs nationally, including in New Mexico. Or perhaps thanks for helping to reduce methane leaks to improve the health of New Mexicans and reduce global warming.

The editorial complained about red tape, but no thanks for the FEMA payments recently made -- $14 million – and the $50 million more in process, all of which were reported in their own paper on the day of the editorial.

Perhaps the editorial could have acknowledged the president’s continued effort to address immigration even though hamstrung by Republicans who have blocked reform in every administration including George W. Bush’s. Meanwhile the humanitarian crisis at the border becomes more dire.

And there was no mention or thanks for the CHIPS and Science Act, which the president promoted, passed and signed. This act directly benefits the semiconductor industry by restoring crucial American manufacturing and creating new jobs. This act will help grow and retain New Mexico’s semiconductor industry in which thousands are employed.

So much for the way in which the “Welcome Back to NM, Mr. President” could have truly been a welcome.

In contrast, I wanted to share another perspective of how the president brought hope and optimism to New Mexico.

In his remarks, the president acknowledged his old friend, former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris, who was in the crowd. He told a story of his first days in the Senate when his wife and daughter were killed in a tragic car accident. He contemplated leaving the Senate to care for his sons. Harris was one of a handful of senators who rallied around to support him during a time of immense grief and sadness.

Randi McGinn, the host, thanked the president for appointing New Mexican Deb Haaland as Secretary of Interior. Later in his remarks he took pride in the work they had done together protecting millions of acres.

Don Schreiber, a rancher from northwest New Mexico observed, “I was struck by his relentless optimism and his pointing to the IRA and the critical way it helps New Mexico with plugging and cleaning up of orphaned and abandoned wells.”

Many others wanted to know Sen. Harris’s thoughts. Someone asked Harris if the president was still the “same old Joe.” His response was “Better. More experienced, more confident, more optimistic.” When I asked Harris directly, he replied. “Inside and outside, he made me feel he knows what he is doing and that he firmly believes things are going to turn out all right.”

Harris wasn’t the only one who left feeling hopeful. Thanks, Mr. President, for bringing your relentless optimism to New Mexico – again!

Moms for Liberty use harassment, intimidation to push agenda

By Diane Denish

Corner to Corner

When a local or national advocacy group uses words like “freedom,” “patriot,” or “liberty” in their title, it raises my suspicions. The title may be catchy but usually disguises the true intent of the organization. This is especially true in the case of Moms for Liberty.

Moms for Liberty was founded in Florida in 2021 and began campaigning against COVID-19 protections in schools, including masks and vaccine mandates. All three of the original co-founders are Republicans (although they claim to be non-partisan) and one of them, Bridget Ziegler, is the wife of the Florida Republican Party Chair Christian Ziegler.

From the beginning, Moms for Liberty has been strongly associated with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his efforts to restrict school curricula, ban books and his “Don’t say gay!” campaign. Ziegler’s husband boasts that M4L (as they are known) will be a powerful help to DeSantis in his presidential run.

One of the founders, Tina Descovich, conceived of the organization in 2020 after she was defeated, fairly, in the Brevard County school board primary by a woman named Jennifer Jenkins. Jenkins had a different view of how to protect children during COVID-19. She also supported teacher raises, in contrast to Descovich. After defeat, Descovich and her supporters used the organization to show up at school board meetings, disrupt discussion, and belittle Jenkins.

Since then, they have broadened their efforts to include opposition to curricula about civil rights, race, and a broad effort to ban books and even defund public libraries.

Jenkins is a speech pathologist with the school district, and her husband is a teacher. After one year on the board, Jenkins wrote an op-ed describing the harassment to which she had been subjected. She was called a Nazi and a pedophile. Her family endured protests and vandalism outside of their home. Protestors yelled at her five-year-old daughter, “Be careful, your Mommy hurts kids.” All of this in the name of “protecting kids.”

Moms for Liberty has grown rapidly over three years. The growth has come at a pace that requires large monetary resources. In contradiction to their claims of being supported by $50 memberships and T-shirt sales, Media Matters research shows they are supported by conservative political committees and high-profile Republicans. In 2021 they had 195 chapters in 37 states and in July this year they had 285 chapters in 45 states, including one in Albuquerque. Because they are organized as a 501(c)(4) they have no obligation to report their donors.

While growing as an organization, their tactics of harassment, like those Jenkins endured, escalated. Aggressive intimidation and threats expanded to teachers, parents, school officials. The New Hampshire chapter offered a bounty to members of the public who “caught” teachers introducing lessons they believed violated the new law restricting discussions of race. In 2022, Arkansas police began investigating the local chapter leader who was caught on tape saying she fantasized about school librarians being “plowed down with a freaking gun.”

Conservative Moms have a history of activism. White mothers’ organizations sought to preserve the Jim Crow order. Segregationist moms fought desegregation of schools. And, like Moms for Liberty, these mothers fought to eliminate textbooks and curricula that focused on white violence or white supremacy.

The definition of liberty is this: the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.

These Moms are not about liberty. Like parent groups before them, they want to put restrictions on what kids read and what teachers can teach to impose their views. They hope to hijack schools and libraries to erase and revise the past and ignore cultural changes. History is not on their side.

Sen. Gay Kernan has done her part for New Mexico

By Diane Denish

Corner to Corner

It’s the time in the election cycle when legislators decide if they are going to run again. The 2024 June primary season is 11 months away, which, to the average voter, may seem like a lifetime. But to legislators and other candidates, it’s a time of decision making. The gathering of petition signatures begins in early October and incumbent legislators will need to raise money prior to the “prohibited fundraising period” before the next legislative session.

Several members of the state Senate have already announced their departure. Democrat Jerry Ortiz y Pino and Republicans Cliff Pyrtle and Mark Moores are calling it quits. There will likely be others. The most recent announcement came from Sen. Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs, who is resigning effective August 1, making way for a replacement to be appointed.

After 20 years, Kernan has done her part. The long drive of five hours or more, come rain or shine, from Hobbs to Santa Fe is a long one.

Her resignation was more a disappointment for me than a surprise. I have known Sen. Kernan most of my life. Her family moved to our hometown of Hobbs when she was just six years old. At one point we lived in the same neighborhood, and for one year we were both students at Hobbs High School before she graduated.

The best of Gay never went away. Gay Gottshall, aka Sen. Kernan, was selected by her classmates as Best Personality. She was a member of the cheerleading squad and an officer on student council. And she was a delegate to Girls State, where she was elected to the Youth Senate. Although Kernan professes that she had never really entertained the idea of running for the New Mexico Senate, in 2002 her local community saw her as a natural to succeed Sen. Shirley Bailey, who resigned her seat to move to Texas.

Kernan was appointed by Gov. Gary Johnson, and her first legislative session was in 2003, the year I was sworn in as lieutenant governor. We shared excitement as we took office for the first time. I had a front row seat watching Kernan as a member of the Senate. She was a good listener. I always had the sense she knew what she didn’t know. (Not every legislator is so humble.) She was confident in her own area of expertise – education, specifically early education.

When I was out of office, I observed her as one of the sharper minds on the Senate Education Committee, Senate Finance Committee, and, last year, on the Tax, Business and Transportation Committee. She asked smart questions, never grandstanding or wasting time.

In 2005, when working with Gov. Bill Richardson, I led the effort to pass the New Mexico Pre-K Act. Sen. Kernan was a behind-the-scenes, invaluable source of information, sharing her experience as an elementary school teacher and early reading coordinator. She understood how quality early education helps kids succeed. Although she was unsuccessful in persuading other Republicans to vote for the act, she made a gutsy move, separated from her caucus, and cast a yes vote.

Her tenure was recently described by the current Majority Whip, Sen. Michael Padilla this way: “Sen. Kernan worked on a wide array of issues, but it was clear that her primary focus was always children and their well-being.”

Over the years, that “best personality” helped her work across the aisle. She was a cheerleader for kids and enjoyed respect on both sides for her leadership.

She made her mark. It won’t just be hard to fill her shoes, it will be impossible. Thank you, Sen. Kernan, from me and New Mexico’s kids.

No easy answers for parents in the age of social media

By Diane Denish

Corner to Corner

Almost every generation of parents says that parenting is harder than it used to be. That line of thinking is probably generated by the fact that when we become parents, although we believe we know what we are doing, we usually don’t. We have role models, good and bad, but we don’t have experience.

But for today’s generation of parents, it might be true. A recent study by the Pew Research Center in 2020 and the Surgeon General’s health advisory last month gives us a picture. The Pew study found that two thirds of U.S. parents think parenting is more difficult than 20 years ago And the most cited reason for most parents is social media and smart phones.

Just look around. It’s easy to see what is happening with children and devices. Everywhere kids have an electronic device. I’ve watched kids, some of them toddlers, on airplanes watching videos on tablets from takeoff to landing. Who hasn’t seen a gaggle of kids sitting together and everyone looking at their smart phones? My grandson gives commands to voice activated “assistants” known as Alexa or Siri, setting alarms, playing songs, and asking questions.

The Pew study found that 71% of parents are very or somewhat concerned their kids might spend too much time in front of screens. Most parents feel confident in knowing how much screen time is too much (3 hours daily is considered the limit) but continue to seek advice from doctors, teachers, and counselors.

In addition to being concerned about and managing their children’s screen time, parents are faced with trying to decipher which platforms and websites offer educational content and age-appropriate entertainment. In the same Pew study, a majority of parents said their child (or children) watch videos daily on You Tube.

Overwhelming majorities of parents (93%) say YouTube keeps kids entertained, 88% believe it helps them learn, and 75% say it exposes them to diverse cultures.

And yet, the flip side shows that a large majority of parents are concerned about their kids being exposed to inappropriate content at early ages, brutal violence, and online bullying and harassment. Parents are conflicted, if not downright confused, about parenting kids in the evolving, overwhelming world of social media.

Adding to that confusion, parents admit to having their own struggle with the use of smart phones and social media. In the Pew findings, 56% say they spend too much time on their phones. And, sadly, a majority say it gets in the way of spending quality time with their kids.

The Pew study didn’t make recommendations for stemming these concerns, but in the Surgeon General’s most recent advisory there were suggestions for parents, tech companies and policy makers.

Policy makers at all levels should make decisions centered around safety, privacy, and health concerns. Keep kids, not tech companies, at the forefront of those decisions. Require higher safety standards for kids.

Engage tech companies to put resources into research and monitoring of platforms and websites. Make them partners in raising safety standards.

Parents should learn as much as possible about the internet, privacy, and controls. Open conversations with kids about online rules and safety. Learn about their online community and get to know it as if it were their classroom.

Create family rules for social media use and be role models for them. Establish “phone free” family meals to promote conversation. Designate plug-in stations at home where kids and adults bring phones 30 minutes prior to bedtime to help promote quality sleep.

Bottom line: Parenting and social media are here to stay. We need to achieve a healthy balance, protect kids, and we will all sleep better.

Truth is out: Ice cream is good for you

By Diane Denish

Corner to Corner

May brought lots of good news for President Biden.

First things first: He delivered on his promise of making government work again. After months of hand wringing and foot stomping with demands from both sides, the House passed a compromise bill by a whopping 314 to 117 to raise the debt limit. The Senate passed the same bill, unamended, 63 to 36.

Who said bipartisanship was dead?

The bill gave the Republicans some of what they wanted – and the extreme right none of what they demanded. The president and Democrats made few concessions and avoided cuts to Medicare, Social Security, and retained clean-energy tax credits.

The country avoided the plunge into financial catastrophe, President Joe Biden used his experience to drive negotiations with firm patience, Speaker Kevin McCarthy kept his word and both parties bargained in good faith. Joe celebrated!

The second piece of good news is that the May job creation numbers exceeded expectations; 339,000 jobs were created. This is up from 294,000 in April and far exceeded experts’ predictions that the number would be closer to 190,000 new jobs. A bonus was that almost half of these jobs were in the business services, health, and education fields.

This brings the total number or jobs Biden has created in 2.5 years to 13 million. Joe is smiling! But here’s the best news of all for the president, unrelated to governing, politics, or the economy. During the campaign and now in the presidency, we hear reports of Biden’s fondness for ice cream. He makes frequent stops at local ice cream establishments, to the proprietors’ and customers’ delight. Just to celebrate Biden’s inaugural in 2017, Jeni’s Ice cream created White House Chocolate Chip using all the ingredients of his favorite order of chocolate chip ice cream in a waffle cone.

So imagine his delight when the May issue of The Atlantic published an article titled “Nutrition Science’s Most Preposterous Result,”revealing there might be a health benefit to ice cream. That’s right. In 2018 a Harvard student, Andres Ardisson Korat, concluded that ice cream might be good for you.

As he did more research, Korat also learned such findings were not new. There were studies as far back as 1985 and 2005. It’s just that no one wanted to talk about it. “Elite nutritionists,” as they are called in the article, kept digging because it didn’t seem to make sense. For years we’ve been told, don’t eat too much ice cream! Too much fat, too much sugar!

Yogurt became the darling of the Harvard nutrition crowd and started to be known as the healthy dessert. Ice cream got short shrift even as one scientist suggested ice cream was similar or greater in positive effects.

But the 2005 study said that higher dairy intake (including ice cream) was associated with lower risk of diabetes. Korat’s 2018 thesis concluded that “among diabetics half a cup of ice cream a day was associated with lower risk of heart problems.” Think of that! A half a cup a day.

The Atlantic article also explores why nutritionists and scientists have been reluctant to give ice cream and dairy credit for their beneficial effects. The data in these studies have been repeatedly verified over time despite data deniers.

But who cares?

The good news is out.

Bipartisanship and good faith bargaining are still possible. People are going back to work. And the all-American dessert. ice cream, not only tastes delicious but can have positive effects.

Good news for Joe and for all Americans. Have an ice cream cone and enjoy it.

Books can help kids – and parents – connect with their feelings

By Diane Denish

Corner to Corner

Recently, I went to see “Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret.” It’s a movie based on a novel of the same name written by Judy Blume.

Blume, now 85, is having a bit of a public resurgence as the movie opens. She had an interview on the PBS News Hour and a lengthy article in The Atlantic Monthly, as well as appearing in other publications.

If you aren’t familiar with Blume, she has long been a trusted guide for kids as their bodies are changing. She explores the impact of divorce, religion, friendships, death and, for heaven’s sake, sex on their lives. Margaret, written in 1970, and another book by Blume, Forever, about teen sexuality and first love (in production for a series), have long been on the list of frequently challenged books, according to the American Library Association.

I didn’t read Judy Blume books, but my daughters and granddaughters read them. The movie gave me an opportunity to see what all the fuss has been about over the years. It is about a 12-year-old girl whose family moves to a new community, and she must make new friends. She is invited to join a club of four classmates, whose requirements revolve around things that happen when girls are 12 – wearing a bra (needed or not), getting their first period, kissing a boy for the first time.

Intertwined is the story of Margaret’s parents’ mixed-religion marriage – her mom is Christian, and her dad is Jewish and the impact on Margaret and the extended family. Real life problems.

When I was young, my paternal grandmother had a friend who was an author. Lenore Mattingly Weber. We called her Noni. She wrote a series of books about a young girl named Beany Malone. I read them all. Still have them. They are outdated by today’s standards, but for me, as for readers of Blume’s books over decades, they provided a window into family issues, death, boyfriends, leaving home, getting married. I learned as I wrote this column that much of what happened to fictional Beany and her family happened to grandma’s friend Noni.

The stories of Beany Malone and her family allowed me to ask questions of my own mother. My mom was reluctant to talk about “personal things,” an inherited trait passed down from her reserved, quiet parents. It was these books about a young girl growing up and real life that opened the door to conversation for us.

Blume’s books and the subject matter in such books as Forever and Are you there God? Is it me Margaret?gave young girls the message that Blume knew what they were feeling. She received thousands of letters weekly soon after the publication of Margaret. Maybe these were from readers who couldn’t talk to their parents?

Books do that for people – Beany, Margaret, Deenie (another Judy character) all helped girls connect with their own anxieties and feelings. Sometimes they helped explain sexuality and sex. And, sometimes, they helped girls connect with their parents in a way that might not have been possible before.

So, it leads to the question: Why are Blume’s books some of the most frequently challenged books on the ALA list? Why are a few loud voices and ambitious politicians trying to ban books at all? I hope to explore that more in depth in a future column.

But as Blume said in a recent interview, “Banning books never stopped me from writing books.” I suspect that banning books won’t keep kids (or anyone) from reading books – especially those books that tell them their feelings are valid and they are not alone.

Taking a bite out of organized, retail theft

By Diane Denish

Corner to Corner

One day when my son was five, he slipped a little toy in his pocket while we visited a drug store in Farmington. When we got home, he proudly showed it to me as though it was a prize. I asked him where he got it. The drugstore. Did he pay for it? No! he said proudly. Thus began a lesson in shoplifting.

We immediately returned to the store. I “convinced” him he had to go back in, return the item, and admit he didn’t pay for it. The store manager was stern but thanked him for being honest. He told him people who took things without paying were called shoplifters and could be arrested.

While my son’s transgression was that of a little kid who wanted a toy, I must admit my own definition of shoplifting over the years was that it was of little or no significance – no one went to jail for it.

Times have changed. Today retail crime, organized and rampant, is plaguing retail businesses of all sizes locally and nationally. In a 2022 survey of 700 small businesses by Business.org, 54% reported a rise in shoplifting with 23% saying they were robbed daily. This has little to do with individual shoplifters although they are still around. It is driven by organized theft operations. It’s a New Mexico problem too.

Organized retail theft started to rapidly increase in the pandemic. Most retail stores began to scale back the number of employees as shoppers stayed home. Online shopping for everything exploded. This same opportunity for shoppers also presented an opportunity for theft rings. Individuals get recruited to go in and empty stores of beauty products, detergents, food, medicines and more. They get paid when theft operations turn around and resell the products online. Amazon, ebay and other sites give thieves a quick way to resell stolen goods. No tax ID numbers or verification required. This scourge of crime has costs for everyone. Large retailers like Walgreen’s and Wal-Mart are closing stores. When Wal-Mart determines a store is underperforming it is closed. The store is likely underperforming because it has repeated, costly retail theft that affects profitability.

For shoppers, prices go up and more basic products are under lock and key – beauty products, razors, detergent, allergy medicines. As retailers close there are limited shopping venues in neighborhoods. And frequently the safety of customers and employees is compromised if thieves have guns or commit assault.

As the problem has increased so have the coalitions working to find solutions. Retailers, lawmakers, business groups and law enforcement are working together to address the problem.

In 2022 with the support of local and state officials, the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce started the New Mexico Organized Retail Crime Association. This allows statewide and multi-state sharing of crime data. Local law enforcement stepped up arrests.

Retailers nationwide are rolling out more sophisticated sensors, parking lot security cameras, and facial recognition software to flag repeat offenders. And they successfully lobbied Congress for legislation requiring online sellers (aka Amazon) to collect tax ID numbers for high volume sellers. This year the Legislature passed HB 234, crafted by the New Mexico Chamber, legislators and law enforcement. It allows persons to be charged based on total quantities stolen by individuals during a 90-day period. This addresses chronic individual shoplifters.

It creates a new crime of aggravated shoplifting, a third degree felony, for use of a deadly weapon or committing assault at any point during the crime. And the law clearly defines a new crime of organized retail crime to address gangs or theft rings.

Times have changed, but let’s hope they can change again for the better. For shoppers, retailers, and communities.

New Mexico News Services LLC - Your Source for the Latest News

diane denish 5-29-23 on

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