{"id":46052,"date":"2024-11-22T16:04:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T23:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=46052"},"modified":"2024-11-22T16:04:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T23:04:23","slug":"were-all-in-this-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/were-all-in-this-together\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re All in This Together\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"American<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Tumbling down the rabbit hole of news spraying out from President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s transition is an easy temptation: Gaetz out, Bondi in; Mike Huckabee to solve Middle East peace; Dr. Oz…\u00a0

Wait. Dr. Oz?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of bunny tunnels, I\u2019m reminded of another famous bit from Lewis Carroll\u2019s masterpiece: \u201c\u2018Curioser and curioser,\u2019 cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English.)\u201d\u00a0

The thing is, there\u2019s precisely nothing a show like New Mexico in Focus can actually do<\/em><\/strong> about any of this, other than stay clear of the firehose of broken glass. Instead, we\u2019ve trained our eye on what could change in our state after Inauguration Day.\u00a0

We\u2019ve brought in a few guests to consider the landscape our state faces in Trump 2.0 so that viewers might better understand what\u2019s happening here at home, as opposed to at Mar-a-Lago. And we plan to have a few more of these conversations between now and the end of the year.\u00a0

We\u2019re asking each of these folks some version of the following question: What can people do in a state like ours that did not vote en masse for Trump\u2019s agenda, to stand up to it outside of the traditional, government contexts.<\/em><\/strong> How do we carry on as a community here and support one another in living differently from what Trump says he wants to do?\u00a0

I encourage you to watch Our Land Senior Producer Laura Paskus\u2019 discussion with Pueblo Action Alliance Executive Director Julia Bernal from last week\u2019s show<\/a>. Julia\u2019s long-view perspective is enlightening.\u00a0

And this week, Laura sat down with Arturo Sandoval, founding director of the Center of Southwest Culture and a co-founder of Earth Day. As is his wont, Arturo put the sharpest possible point<\/a> on what he plans to do next: \u201cSomebody asked me, \u2018What are you going to do as a result of this election?\u2019 I said, \u2018I\u2019m not going to agonize, I\u2019m going to organize.\u201d\u00a0

I\u2019m also grateful to a pair of other folks who visited the studio to chat with me about what comes next: Maria Martinez Sanchez, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, and the organizations interim policy director, Lena Weber-Salazar. This was a difficult conversation, and I appreciate that neither Maria nor Lena showed any interest in dressing up the threat Trump poses to civil rights and liberties in New Mexico. But they both offered thoughtful, from-the-heart answers to my question about what New Mexicans can do for one another during the next four years and beyond.\u00a0

I hope you\u2019ll watch our two-part<\/a> conversation<\/a>, but if reading is more your thing, here\u2019s what they told me:\u00a0

\u201cI truly think there\u2019s a role for everyone. We\u2019re all in this together, we\u2019re all part of this fabric of history,\u201d Lena said. \u201cMaybe you have access to increased levels of safety right now, or you will be afforded increased safety because of the color of your skin. Maybe you have access to financial resources. Maybe you can participate in mutual aid. Maybe you can open your home. Maybe you have access to community resources or community spaces that you can be opening up and sharing. We have so much power in this state, so much knowledge, and working hand in hand \u2014 whatever that looks like for you, for your community, in your neighborhood…I really think there\u2019s a role for everybody, and we just all need each other.\u201d\u00a0

Maria began her answer thusly: \u201cAll of us as a state, as communities: We will have so much better of a chance at gumming up the works if we as individuals just band together and protect each other, love each other and do what we can in unconventional ways.\u201d She added: \u201cThese are not conventional times, so we need unconventional ways of addressing this. Of course we will use the courts, and of course we will go to the Legislature and do all we can in those spaces. But the people of New Mexico will also have a role and a responsibility, I think, in this as well to work with us, to work with each other to protect the people who are going to be most threatened and in the crosshairs of this administration.\u201d\u00a0

The transition will continue to be what it is \u2014 a series of scares beyond our control \u2014 and that promises to continue after Jan. 20. At New Mexico in Focus, we will do our best to remain on this side of the looking glass as we continue to report on what comes in a state that took a pass on the Trump agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer<\/p>\n\n\n\n