{"id":46057,"date":"2024-11-26T09:06:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T16:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=46057"},"modified":"2024-11-26T09:06:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T16:06:06","slug":"dont-agonize-organize-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/dont-agonize-organize-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Agonize. Organize."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Earlier this year, Arturo Sandoval, founding director of the Center of Southwest Culture, spoke with me about his role organizing the first Earth Day in 1970. (That conversation aired in two parts, \u201cArturo Sandoval on Earth Day in 1970 \u2014 and the decades since\u201d<\/a> and \u201c’At the end of the day, we’re on this ship together.’\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now he\u2019s back<\/a>, talking about how to protect the environmental laws Congress passed in that era. These are laws that corporations and some politicians conspired to weaken and dismantle for decades, but they\u2019ll face unprecedented challenges in the second Trump term, especially given the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court and the incoming U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandoval acknowledged that New Mexicans will suffer in the Trump administration. But he\u2019s not despondent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\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,\u2019\u201d Sandoval told me. \u201cI think that’s the rallying call: that we need to keep doing what we’re doing, positively to build community, but we need to do it with much more intention. We have to really reach out to other groups and organizations and neighbors to continue to build the positive things we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n