Home for the holidays

One of our favorite places to spend a few days each spring and autumn is Taos, NM. It's an incredible community endowed with more arts and culture per capita than Bergman, Arkansas has Tyson chickens per person.

I suspect the long, often tragic, history of clashes between the Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and new kid on the block Anglo cultures have given Taos the societal genetics to evolve into a stronger strain of community as evidenced by the wonderful creative energies it manifests.

Oh sure, these incredible subsurface tensions--the wellspring of inspirations being tapped by local residents--could at sometime erupt if human affairs mirror in any way the geologic emotions of Mother Earth's upheavels towards ever-evasive, yet ever pursued equilibrium. The result would probably be a period of new bloodshed in the settlement of old scores. But that can happen anywhere in the conduct of human affairs. In Taos it would just be more passionate.

That's what makes Taos so creatively edgy and deliciously dangerous. One can witness the wealth and sense the poverty coexisting in a tenuous near-equilibrium state of pre-Pompeian glory. It's an exciting, almost orgasmic sensory experience.

But I digress. This has absolutely nothing to do with what I wanted to say. I was drifting off to another place, triggered by the 'where' of what I wanted to say. Because Taos, NM stands apart from a lot of places due to its rich intermix of cultures, it attracts even stranger elements of society's fringes. Yes as already noted, we go there, but I'm talking about even fringier folk. I'm referring to Donald Rumsfeld.

Now I don't know how many homes our Secretary of Defense has, but one of them is in Taos. And many Taoseños are not happy about that. Maybe that's why, during our last couple of visits there, we've been entertained by an effigy of our Secretary of State reminding us "There are things we don't know we don't know," or a banner across the main thoroughfare in town which read in part, "Fire Rumsfeld."

I guess many folks there don't appreciate the permanent stain of notoriety Rumsfeld has bestowed upon their country, not to mention their community. For them, Rumsfeld is part of a cabal that has delivered the nation to the edge of a precipice of deep doo-doo. To others, he has kicked our asses over its edge. To those he is an international war criminal, which probably goes far in explaining the manifestation of their public displeasure.

Dada has no problem with this. In fact, it's admirable a community reacts negatively to the presence of someone seeking refuge from the global havoc he's wrought and the lives ruined or destroyed by his criminality. In fact, I would expect no less from any community. To welcome someone home for the holidays would imply acceptance of his atrocities heaped upon others through his illegal actions.

Nay, I commend Taos for extending the 'unwelcome' mat to our Secretary of State. Make bastards like Rumsfeld as uncomfortable as he makes me and millions of others. It's a karmic 'returning of the gift' in the true spirit of the season.

(Note: Thank you to Casandra of Taos for her input.)
Images courtesy of ACTTaos.com and the Taos News