Santa Fe is not completely dead, yet. I believe that there’s still hope. Please understand that I do. But, it’s becoming increasingly depressing to live in Santa Fe. I’m worried that as personal agendas and vendettas continue to seep into local leadership, what’s best for our community will be lost and stupidity will become the norm. We can’t let that continue to happen.
Nine (9) months ago, I applied for and accepted a job with the City of Santa Fe. After years of playing armchair quarterback, I decided it was time to apply my skills towards improving an agency that had ignored its responsibilities for several, and I mean a crap-ton, of years. I stood on the sidelines and watched administration after administration do nothing to improve internal operations simply because they lacked the intestinal fortitude needed to develop the City. Then the Webber administration cam into power and I realized that it was going to act towards fixing the crap it inherited from its predecessors. And it has.
The thing is, I believe in the work we’re doing, but members of the community have vilified me to the point of using racist terms to describe me. If those insults derived from White Nationalists, I’d brush them off, but they aren’t. They’re coming from people who share my ethnicity and who I’ve known pretty much all of my life. Although I’ve done nothing to them, they flap their mouths simply because I took a job and believe in what I do within that job.
Now, my issue isn’t with being called names. I don’t care, really. My problem is that if we as a community continue to divide ourselves and hurl insults at each other, we will destroy Santa Fe. If we can’t cooperate on solutions, then the problems we face as a city will only get worse. What makes it all the more frustrating is that some of our current elected officials use their Council seat to further agendas that are based on ruining people who work at the City. They partner with local “leaders” who share their hate and do nothing to represent the voters who placed them in power.
In case you haven’t heard, there is a local election taking place soon. As voters, we need to elect people who are aren’t a part of that vein of hate that unfortunately is weaving its way through Santa Fe. We need to act towards reversing Santa Fe’s path towards stupidity and develop policies that will build an economy, provide opportunities (for everyone), and stop allowing hate and stupidity to rule. If we don’t and if we continue to allow people who use fear and anger as tactics, then Santa Fe will perish and it’s becoming more and more depressing to watch its descent. I am fighting what I believe to be the good fight – if you hate me for that, I don’t care. But – when you wake up and realize that we are in this together, I will work with you towards solutions.
