Banned Books Week Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 2010

List of Banned Books prepared by AARP for American Library Association's Banned Books Week. Exercise your rights to read anything you please and to own any written matter you please. German Nazis burned books not only to destroy a culture, but to destroy one's right to read and to control one's thoughts.

TOO POLITICAL:

1. Uncle Tom's Cabin

2. All Quite on the Western Front

3. A Farewell to Arms

4. The Grapes of Wrath

5. For Whom the Bell Tolls

6. Animal Farm

7. 1984

8. Doctor Zhivago

9. Slaughterhouse-Five

10. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

TOO MUCH SEX:

1. Madame Bovary

2. Tess of the d'Urbervilles

3. Ulysses

4. The Sun Also Rises

5. Lady Chatterley's Lover

6. Tropic of Cancer

7. Lolita

8. Peyton Place

9. Rabbit, Run

10. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

11. Jaws

12. Forever

13. The Prince of Tides

14. Beloved

15. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

IRRELIGIOUS

1. On the Origin of Species

2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy

3. The Last Temptation of Christ

4. Bless Me, Ultima

5. Harry Potter series

SOCIALLY OFFENSIVE

1. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

2. The Scarlet Letter

3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

4. As I Lay Dying

5. Brave New World

6. Gone With the Wind

7. Of Mice and Men

8. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

9. The Catcher in the Rye

10. Fahrenheit 451

11. To Kill a Mockingbird

12. James and the Giant Peach

13. Catch-22

14. A Clockwork Orange

15. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

16. In Cold Blood

17. Cujo

18. The Color Purple

19. Ordinary People

20. A Thousand Acres

My Las Cruces: A Clarion Blast of Bigotry

(NOTE: Mr. Maxwell suddenly resigned on 11 November 2010 after three months on the job.)

Mr. Jim Maxwell, Publisher Mailed: 24 August 2010

Las Cruces Sun-News

256 W. Las Cruces Avenue

Las Cruces, NM 88005-1804

Subject: My Las Cruces

Dear Mr. Maxwell:

There are some, for one reason or another, religion or economics, perhaps a combination of both, bound and determined to make Las Cruces an outpost of Christianity, thereby excluding the recognition and historical contributions of all the non-Christian Others by purposely using a modified Christian symbol to represent the city.

Many people come to this valley for their own particular reasons, while others arrive with a vague purpose as they would in any other city; some answering to the few available jobs, or health, and perhaps, to be in close proximity to relatives. Some are driven to believe the ‘bought and paid-for’ accolades of the wonders of Las Cruces promoted by the City, Chambers of Commerce, and various publications including the Sun-News.

When a city promotes the fictitious stories surrounding its birth, its early years, and uses an ever growing variety of Christian religious symbols, at the expense of citizens who do not subscribe, nor march to those banners promoting a particular religion, the heart and purpose of the city is forever blackened. But that can change with some effort.

Your newspaper, the Las Cruces Sun-News, recently began publishing “Your Neighborhood Weekly Newspaper,” the My Las Cruces, with a not-well-thought-out, exclusionary, and thereby insulting, title that does not represent the cosmopolitan makeup of the city. It’s not ‘Our Las Cruces,’ a welcoming title, which would be more inclusive of all the various peoples of color, religions, non-believers, and worldwide cultures that exist in Las Cruces and makes it a city.

Aiding My Las Cruces is the fictitious belief in the promoted tri-culture of Anglo-Hispanic-Native American makeup of the city, county, and state. This is a pathetic example of views by the ‘ruling class’ as they decide the economically feasibility of their methods. Excluding the various peoples of color, this jaundiced view results in the promotion of the belief that Anglo means ‘white Protestant;’ Hispanic means ‘brown Catholic;’ and Native American means ‘conquered and made Catholic.’

The fourth ignored category of those of the supposed ‘ruling class’ is that of some well-blended ‘natives’ who oftentimes noisily claim sovereignty over the rights of newer citizens because of their own ancestors’ earlier arrival in the valley. And all the Others, non-Christian by choice or culture, exhibiting various hues of color by culture or nature…….basically ghosts-in-residence due to the illogical, traditional exclusion from newsprint.

My address is Las Cruces. Local federal Judge Robert Brack infamously ruled, to placate his ignorant, religious-driven, 'ride-‘em-out-on-a-rail’ supporters, that I had a “right to live here,” but I can’t describe Las Cruces as my ‘home.’ Nor can I ever say that I am a ‘las Crucen’ or ‘las Cruceño.’ Not ever, as long as the City government promotes Christianity as superior over all other religions and beliefs. Then supported by the Sun-News with its ‘My Las Cruces,’ which some will say means ‘My City of Crosses.’

As you know, a newspaper can do well by its citizens by reporting societal truths, and including all the various cultural groups, as it is in the position to lead the progress of the city. After all, this is the 21st Century and bigotry, exacerbated by local courts’ rulings, has no place where a program of outreach may be in order to some groups.

Memorial Day: Remembering One's Duty

As the smoke of thousands of cooking fires waft across the parks where families gather, thousands of boats plow the lakes and rivers, balls are tossed, children are running amid squeals of laughter, and another school year ends across America. A day off from work as the door to summer opens. And thousands of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen lie in every corner of this country and dozens of cemeteries in foreign countries, unremembered but by families, friends, service organizations, and some government offices. New graves are dug daily and our national flags are seemingly forever at half-mast.

The spiritual passing of the legacy baton of the service to one’s country by the dead to the living can only be shared by those who have participated in the noble service and sacrifices that go with that duty of the common citizen. As the living look forward to their future, some willingly and some reluctantly, reach back and grasp the proffered symbolic baton of one’s continued duty to country and neighbor.

The innate formulation of responsibility to justice and fairness is not lost in service to one’s country, but rather, it is solidified by that service. The moral code is not surrendered! The strength of the grip on the baton provides insight into the continued worth of the individual.

Those citizens who were never afforded the opportunity, especially those who declined the opportunity, to reach for the baton, cannot understand the duty-bound camaraderie of service.

One particularly troubling area is that of public officials, especially federal judges with lifetime appointments like that of Judges Robert Brack of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Lucero, Ebel, and Hodges of 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, who take the same, supposedly selfless oath of devotion to the duties prescribed by tradition and our laws: “protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Then in their own courtrooms, they openly mock and discredit their oath and duty to the country with “judges’ discretion” for their own selfish domestic ex parte personal beliefs and in support of domestic ideological groups.

Meanwhile, the children and grandchildren of those fathers and mothers who did their duty are filling the graves we honor today and on future Memorial Days.

Six Volt Jump-start in a Twelve Volt World

This Sun-News photo from 5/24/10 shows beginnings of an expenditure by the City of Las Cruces dba Las Cruces Downtown Partnership of over $350,000 of public funds to construct an entrada, entrance, in this alleyway (callejón) to the St. Genevieve's Catholic Church monument. This church was torn down during the 1960s urban renewal frenzy under circumstances not clear in the minds of parishioners even now. The property was sold to a local banker, some money reportedly went to a new church by the same name, and the Bishop retired to El Paso environs. Pavement soon covered those molding bones left by the so honored dead. (This expenditure is about 1/30 of funds spent so far in the development to recover one block of Main Street to the Anglos' dreamy glory of the 1950s. Most of the public funds have gone to advisors, planners, and local architects.)

Mesilla has its landmark church, Basilica of St. Albino, on the town square and Las Cruces has been using that church's picture to advertise Las Cruces. Now Las Cruces is going to have its own church monument entrada called the quaint name of La Placita ("Colonial NM Spanish, placita, dim. of plaza: small populated area in the New Mexican countryside." From Cobos.). It's best not to ask what the words mean in Las Cruces.

The whole purpose to this construction, while appearing to be an innocent development, is to use public funds to create a Christian-religious, park-like affair with the focus being the St. Genevieve's Catholic Church monument. This is part of the on-going project to create the purposeful illusion that the old downtown Las Cruces is the anchor of a 'truly Christian city.'

Greg Smith, president of the board of directors of the Partnership is quoted as to the other underlying purpose of this entrada: "This will be a gateway for downtown," Smith said. "People from the nearby historic neighborhoods will be able to come here to socialize and enjoy THEIR (my caps) city." Funny. Never mind the rest of us. Just how many of the planners/supporters live in the old area and weren't even here in the 1950s? Right, Heather?

From the City's religious venues on Spruce Avenue north of this new site, those being the Fire Department, the Police Department, the only Public Library, the Culture Center, and the new City Hall, to the three large Latin crosses flower beds on the south end of Downtown, the religious illusion is becoming set in the minds of many citizens and visitors.

In the meanwhile, the New Las Cruces has been rapidly developing several miles away along the I-25 and Highway 70 East corridor as planned.

Welcome to Christian Cruces

NOTE: The sunburst is an example of how a design can represent 'God.' The fourteen points of the sunburst are for Chapter 14, Gospel of John. The City changed the number of points on a later edition of the symbol to fifteen points for Chapter 15, Gospel of John, to include more verses. The three crosses were painted dark brown to hide the center cross and the intent of display to proselytize.

While many sources of the mainstream Christianity are of late picking up on the illusion that the single Latin cross or a Trinity display are not Christian symbols in order to promote Christianity, those citizens who do not subscribe to Christianity know exactly what any display of the Latin cross represents.

Click on picture to enlarge.

As you approach the city from the east and from Alamogordo, it is shown on maps and highway signs as 'Las Cruces,' but it actually turns into 'Christian Cruces' at the intersection of Highway 70 and Interstate 25. A warning that non-Christians and non-believers are really not welcome nor appreciated, but will be tolerated if they behave and, hopefully, accept Jesus. Working in collusion with the City of Las Cruces, the local Chamber of Commerce, and blessed by Governor Richardson, the New Mexico Transportation Department had the company that rebuilt the Interstate 25 and Highway 70 interchange also construct a large stone edifice with the crosses of the Trinity/Calvary mounted for all to see and to be reminded of the intolerance in Las Cruces.

After protests, the New Mexico Transportation Department agreed to remove the illegal symbols as above and the two installed at the new Spruce Avenue underpass. Governor Richardson issue Executive Order 103 ordering the Department not to remove the offensive symbols. Associated Press carried the story and Governor Richardson denied issuing the order.

Continue past this warning sign for about two miles on Main Street/Highway 70, which some Anglos call the 'entrance' to Las Cruces, and you will see the illegal, divisive, and insulting black steel crosses which are lighted at night with red, white, and blue lights.

These crosses are on public property and maintained by the City with taxpayer money. Some still believe the totally fictional story promoted by the Chamber of Commerce and the City about some massacre by Apaches. A total lie. The original crosses were raised by the local Catholic Church across the street on the Gonzales property to honor Coronado who never passed through the area. These steel replacements were raised by a local religious leader and some NMSU students in the 1970s.

New Las Cruces City Hall Church

It was a usual morning with the usual faces for the dedication of the new city hall that is reminiscence of the large Catholic Churches in Europe. The mayor as seen behind the crosses-laden podium is wearing his church-black suit with his Latin crosses pin. All the 'dignitaries' are seated under the Latin crosses symbol, seen above, of the city that the failed federal Judge Robert Brack declared was "not religious." They all know the judge lied, but they are safe in their Christian hegemony.

It's entertaining that the pair who could be counted as the Saviors of the Crosses of Las Cruces, federal Judge Brack and his minion federal Magistrate Lourdes Martinez, were not honored guests. They were not seen anywhere. Did the City forget their shame already?

The timing of the dedication to the day following the events of Easter Sunday is noticeable.

The mayor pointed out that the last two mayors, Smith and Mattiace, were absent. What is one to think?

Off to the left was the Conquistadors contingent from the Chamber of Commerce all aglitter in their blue blazers festooned with the colorful pins of their adventurous meetings and the proud patch of yellow Latin crosses next to the profile of the Church-revered Onate, Conquistador and butcher of Native Americans, who only left his spoor on the way north, and probably during his retreat south.

Waiting on the right was the Hispano Chamber of Commerce with its three crosses proclamation to hang in the building.

Note: In the above picture of the City Council meeting room that the non-religious Latin crosses symbolizing the events at Calvary have not been installed yet. The crosses are on the podium so guests can be proselytized while listening to the speaker.

Dona Ana County, NM, Catch-up

The top picture is from a recent mailing from the Dona Ana County Assessor's Office to help citizens understand their 3% increase in property taxes. Middle picture is banner in Dona Ana County Commissioners' public meeting room. Bottom picture shows the new signs going up around the county.

It continues to be entertaining to live in a county that doesn't even know where its name came from. Then the County Commissioners have been hegemonized (from 'Christian hegemony') by the evangelical Christian factions whose fears of minority citizens demanding their constitutional rights is apparent. First the commissioners added the dripping yellow cross to the county seal while still reeling from the Millennium scare of 2000. Then they lied and said the design has never been changed. Following that lie they made-up another and now claim the dripping cross represents "our sunshine."

Not to be outdone by the proliferation of the still illegal Latin crosses on all things public by the City of Las Cruces, the County has started putting the illegally modified seal on the byways to proselytize anyone who looks.

As part of the continual denial by the governments of Dona Ana County and the City of Las Cruces, the Conquistador Onate has been elevated locally to a deified position. That is the Conquistador Onate astride his horse on the seal of Dona Ana County above. The Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce goes further with its Conquistador unit that goes to ribbon cuttings. Their identification patch on the de rigueur blue blazer of the unit exhibits the profile of Onate and three yellow crosses of the Trinity. Historical note: The Conquistador's were later banned by the Spanish king due to their excesses against the Native Americans. Locally they are held up as 'heroes.'