Ordained Outcome

The city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and the county of Dona Ana are rife with contradictions. The smiley side of the Janus face is, oh, so sweet and covers for the wormy prejudice that makes the frowning side what it is.

There are a lot of good people in the area. Their worth and sense of fairness is suppressed by a hardcore faith-based evangelical group 'embedded' in the city and county governments, formally secular fraternal organizations, civic groups, and the private Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce. The editors of the daily Sun-News newspaper and the weekly newspaper, The Bulletin, joined in. Involved churches will remain unlisted.

Working in collusion these groups forced citizens to file two federal civil rights lawsuits to remove exclusively Christian symbols from government property. One lawsuit filed in 2003 was against the Las Cruces Public Schools. The other lawsuit filed in 2005 was against the City of Las Cruces and the governor of New Mexico, William Richardson, who aided and abetted those above.

The outcome of both lawsuits was obviously preordained. While the citizens who filed the lawsuits were only seeking justice and equality, the organizations listed above mounted an attack on the plaintiffs in the newspapers, television stations in El Paso, and the city channel on local cable. Two radio stations handed out large window stickers promoting "Keep the Crosses" and "Save the Crosses." Fears clouded every rational thought.

While the plaintiffs sought their rights guaranteed by the Constitution, these above groups made it a religious battle. The lawyer for the School District, William Babington, made sure of that by his need to know what the religion of the plaintiffs was.

All those groups could have saved themselves a lot of public angst. They all knew the two judges, Robert J. Brack and Lourdes Martinez, would not let them down. Newscasts regularly show or report about courtrooms being packed when something is important to a community because the outcome is unknown. Not here! Not in Las Cruces Federal District Court! While Judge Brack had fun jerking the pro se plaintiff around during the day-long 'trial' with his superior courtroom techniques, ONE person showed up. During all the hearings before that federal Magistrate Lourdes Martinez ONE person showed up.

Judge Brack must have had a relapse and thought he was back in Backwater traffic court dealing with goat herders and vagrants and not representing the Constitution of the United States. His trois singes pals at 10th Circuit Court in Denver covered for him. They have to protect their own.