HESONER IS AT IT AGAIN

To be filed under: "I only know what I read in the newspapers." Seems "the city's plan" (read the Mayor) wants to install a 210 foot reflecting pool at our obscure International Balloon Park Museum. It would cost "about $2.5 million" and that would give us a pool, fountains, landscaping and park. No one seems to know where that guess came from. I think they call it an estimate. (When I was in the business, I always pointed out that an estimate was really a guess.) The chairman of the board of the museum complains that the museum looks like a building that was just "stuck there." He suggests it would make a great place for "weddings and 'other events'," too. He doesn't say what other events. Just other events. We know Hesoner is all for it. The first warning came from his office a few days before this article. He even said he approved of making it look better. Marty loves landscaping. While our schools still don't have enough rooms, teachers nor supplies. And many seniors go without household help in their golden years because they can no longer physically do the household chores. But I guess Marty feels looking good is better than helping someone . It seems to me that our brand new "museum" needs to take more time, use the money it has available and prove itself worthwhile from the admision fees it charges. If it can't make it from these methods, then let the "directors" come to the taxpayers and ask for their help. We have a tremendous number of minimum wage earners here who would undoubtedly be willing to pay to help out a rich man's facility.

BE CAREFUL ARNIE

A cat and a dog sharing closeness. A pleasant, smiley type picture. They seem to be pretty good buddies. They are among those who have lost, or never developed, mankind's sense of open warfare, shown in this kind of picture. I like it. But I like it because I have always been owned by cats and dogs. We three types of beings get along just fine. And we play and laugh together as though we all had the same forebears. We appreciate and recognize our differences. Hooray for wisdom.

Unfortunately, in politics one often finds him/herself in a quandry. We might share a belief in a certain candidate. Or a disbelief in a certain candidate. What's this got to do with Arnie? Well, Governator Schwarzenegger appears on the front page of our local newspaper The Albuquerque Journal. With him (both showing big smiles) is New Mexico's Governator Bill Richardson. Bill is joining the effort to support five Western state's Governors in a regional effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Boy, that sounds terrific to me. I am really all for that concept (I read Lives Per Gallon and it scared the heck out of me).

The problem I see here, however, is that my Governator is very, very good at getting money from Big Oil. You know, the people who tried to bribe the scientists to turn thumbs down on the facts of global warming. The people who make obscene profits everytime you buy a gallon of gas. The people who really don't want fuel efficient automobiles and trucks. Now, Governator Scwartzenegger is, and has been for a long time, a fighter for less pollution from our transportation methods. I applaud him for that. WTG Arnie!

On the other hand, Governator Richardson only got on this bandwagon when the scientists report came out. His campaign crew finally figured out that there are a number of conservationists in our state. Every vote counts and the more smoke one can blow, the more cloudy the real issues become. And from what I have seen, Bill is very good at blowing smoke. But not very good about solving local, state-wide problems. In my opinion, if a person is incapable of solving the difficulties in a small population state, how could that person be any good at solving the problems of 300,000,000+ people? (And that doesn't include our problems with the vast population of illegals, either.) I rather admire California's Governator and his constant, consistent efforts to make the people of California's life better. I have a problem with our Governator's lack of consistent efforts to make our lives better.

Bill, you have to do a lot better in order to get my clique's votes.