New Mexico in Focus; 247; Golden Apple Awards Part 1 and Sec. John Garcia

Paying tribute to New Mexico's A-plus educators. I had this week meet three of this year's Golden Apple award-winning teachers. Then the line panelists weigh in with their thoughts on what makes a memorable classroom leader. Scandal fatigue hits New Mexico politics and Robert Redford's plans to bring a taste of Sundance to New Mexico. All this more on this week's New Mexico focus, a show that's informed, involved, and in depth, and it all starts right now. Deming Lawmaker is fed up with the ongoing scandals hovering over New Mexico. I had this week his surprising comments to other lawmakers and the line panels, of course, their thoughts about whether or not those comments will actually do any good.

We had a lot of comments. Don't know if ours will do any good either. Also, on top remembering the Mexico's fallen heroes, the abortion debate heats back up in Albuquerque's water conservation goals go down the drain. But at first, this is the last week of school for many students, which makes it a perfect time to honor our dedicated teachers. For countless stories of educators making a difference in the classroom, but of course, we don't have the time to tell all of them. Fortunately, in April, we had the chance to sit down with several of this year's Golden Apple Foundation Award winners. The foundation is a nonprofit organization with the mission for recognizing excellent teachers. These Golden Apple Fellows give back to the profession by mentoring other teachers. This year, the foundation honored middle school and junior high teachers that are making a difference. Here are three of the winners and their stories. Having some of New Mexico's best teachers each year, the Golden Apple Foundation recognizes seven outstanding educators from around the state with the Excellence in Teaching Award. This year, the winners were all middle school teachers who made it through a vigorous and in-depth, nominating process.

They were all honored at a recent luncheon. And right now, they're all here in our studio to tell us a little more about their passion for the classroom. We've broken down the groups into two groups. In our first group, we have Betsy Van Dyke. She teaches band and chorus at Madison Middle School here in Albuquerque. Christina Monaco on the other side of the table teaches six grade language arts at Mountain View Middle School in Rio Rancho. And across the table from her is Crystal Gallegos. She is a language arts and technology teacher at Coronado Middle School in Gallina. Welcome to all of you. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Maybe a very first question. Christina, maybe start with you. Tell us a little bit about your classroom. What makes it different from other classrooms? I think in my classroom, the use of technology as a medium to communicate is what really makes the curriculum come alive. We're able to use technologies like smart boards and laptops and document cameras. So students can relate to what they're seeing, what they're hearing, and be able to adjust and manipulate as they need to on an individual basis, which makes every kid successful. And I should start by saying congratulations.

Thank you. You were all notified last month in March about this amazing award. Same question to you. What makes your classroom different from other band and chorus classes? Well, my kids come in every day ready to perform and ready to rehearse. And they're just on task all the time. You know, they have to be actively participating in my classroom. And the kids come in. They give 100% almost every rehearsal. They listen to me. They listen to each other. I ask a lot of questions. They really are in tune with what they sound like and how they should be playing. Sounds good. Crystal? Identical question. What makes your classroom different? Well, I like to create a safe haven for my students since the school is a second home for a lot of our students. And the use of technology, I incorporate technology and everything we do. I offer various classes. I do both technology classes and language arts. And they try to motivate my students and inspire them, welcome them in each and every day and make them feel comfortable. I work on an individual basis with a lot of my students.

And so it creates a comfortable atmosphere. And the type of technologies we use, we have video cameras, digital cameras. We also create podcasts and so we use iPods in the classroom as well. And so it's really exciting. The students are learning 21st century skills and this will help them out in the future. And we also do a lot of goal setting, decision making and hopefully they'll become productive members of our society. Now many school teachers sticking with you, Crystal, for a moment, I'm sure you've heard many are frustrated sometimes. There's discipline issues. I imagine that all of you have to face. What would you say is the biggest challenge that you face in the classroom? The biggest challenge that we face in the classroom and I think a lot of teachers across the state or across the nation can relate is funding. And that's one of our biggest challenges. But how does that play out in the classroom? What's an example of an area where you think to yourself, if we only had more funding, we could do this better?

Well, with the funding aspect, we're trying to create a little studio so the students can participate in more of the technologies with a video camera, maybe using the green screen and video and audio documentary. And we really don't have the funds to create a nice studio. So for enough equipment and building a little studio. So we're having to improvise and that is also great so the students can be resourceful. Betsy, what would you say is the biggest challenge that you face in your classroom? I think funding also, I've got a lot of kids that cannot afford instruments to rent them an instrument can cost anywhere from 30 to 50 dollars a month at the music store. And I do have a good supply of school instruments, but I think that's a lot of it. I supply reads to some of my kids that can't afford them and the music is so expensive. You know, a single piece of music can range anywhere from $6,200. That's for one piece of music for the kids. So that doesn't stop me, but it helps if we could have a little bit more money and a little bit better instruments for the kids.

And Christine, anything other than funding in your classroom that you would describe as kind of a major challenge? I gather a trend. Right, I think that is definitely a trend, but at the same time, my biggest challenge is that I can't control what happens when the kids are in school and that really affects what they do, how they perform in school and it's very hard to work all day with these kids, make them trust you, make them believe what you're doing and then send them home and you have no control over what's going to happen there, how to keep them safe, how to keep them motivated. And when you say that, are you really thinking about kind of socioeconomic issues, poverty issues, maybe parents who work a ton or maybe don't have a education themselves, a formal education? Is that what you mean? I think it's everything. I think it's what they see on television. It's what they're exposed to through their families and their friends. I think it's how to help them make decisions. There aren't people there, like you said, a lot of parents, especially with the economics that we have. They're working double, triple jobs, there's trading shifts, they're never home, the kids get home and they're kind of free and middle schoolers, they think that they're adults

but they're not ready yet and we work all day long trying to teach them how to make those decisions and what to do and how to be a productive person and then we feel like every morning is almost like we have to start over because of what they've seen or what they've experienced when they went home. No, Betsy, you've been a teacher for over 20 years, have some perspective on this. I'm curious, I hear people say, you know, that socioeconomic issues, you know, shouldn't be an excuse. Kids, all kids can learn, I hear that but on the other hand, it seems almost obvious that if a kid is going to a home where there's not internet, where there's not books, where parents may not know how to read or aren't there or available to tired, that that certainly must play a role in what happens when they get to your class. Where do you come down on the role that those factors play? You know, how can a kid come to school and feel good if his mother has a hangover and can't get up in the morning to take him to school, you know, if they haven't had breakfast, if they haven't had any stable things at home, how can they come to school and feel good?

And I think when they come into my classroom, that's my job as to say, hey, I'm here, what do you need? You know, let's get playing. Let's do something you're successful at, you know. And I have seen a lot of that and it does play a huge role. How can we expect these kids to come to school and be productive when they're hungry? You know, and when they have a mom and dad that's safe and fight all night. I mean, almost kind of things or they don't have the right clothes. You know, almost kind of things are really, really important. And I think middle school, especially where all middle school teachers, is that's really kids look at what you're wearing when you walk in the door, you know. And they look at those kids and, man, you can feel, make kids feel real bad, those other guys do. Crystal, just a second ago, you were nodding your head. Yes, I agree. What we have done and what I like to do is integrate the seven habits of highly effective teens into the classroom and teach them those skills to handle a lot of these situations, teaching them to be proactive instead of reactive and blaming others for the decisions that they've made. What's one example of one of those successful habits that is effective when you teach those to the kids?

I think being proactive has been one of the best habits I'm trying to instill in these students, mainly because they're in charge of, you know, their remote control. If a person makes a rude remark, they have that option to push that pause button, think about it, and determine the way they are going to react. And so if they learn that skill instead of reacting immediately, not thinking about the consequences, I mean, that's just one habit that I think can really help a lot of students and adults, you know. So Chris says that people should be in control of the remote control. Now you clearly are in control of your classrooms. Christine, I'm curious. You guys aren't in control of the school system and the funding issues. And at this table, I've had a chance to chat with school board members and superintendents and they talk about what needs to happen.

I'm curious. If you were superintendant, if you were a school board member and you could make one major change that would help the school you teach in or the district you teach in, what would that be? I think that it's really important that we're constantly looking at these proficiency levels, especially in language arts and math, and there's these high stakes testing where 75% of our kids must meet this bar, and what about the other 25% that are there? And we focus so highly on meeting these bubble kids, the kids that just need a little bit to get up there, and we focus so much on the kids that are really low and what are we going to do to get them up there. But there's always that subgroup of kids that people seem to just kind of put aside. And those are the kids again that are targeted from day one because they can't do it or they haven't done it before. Now when you say subgroups, do you mean these no child left behind subgroups, the special ed kids or the ethnic or racial minority kids? Well, yeah, every year is a special ed teacher every year when my school doesn't pass AYP because the special ed population didn't reach its proficiency level.

All the teachers look at the special ed program and say, what's the problem? You know, why aren't your kids making those strides when my kids have made 30 to 40% growth in a year? But maybe one of the subgroups. Well, no. But 40 wasn't enough. I needed to make 50 or 60, but 40% of growth for a child on a standardized test is amazing. We should be celebrating that growth. So you would take another look at those targets and maybe some of them are too high, is that what you're saying? Unreasonable. I think the expectations are unreasonable. I really do. I think that we need to look at as children as individuals and what they can accomplish and be successful at, not as every child must succeed at this level because that's what we expect as a society. That's it. If you were superintendent or school board member, what would you do? When I agree with the whole testing thing, when we were getting ready for testing this, you know, we've spent so much time getting ready and ready. I told my students, you know, what you're doing for the next two weeks is not going to depend upon your whole educational career.

You know, I think we need to look at the kids. I think we need as individuals, you know, and look at what's going on and take them from there instead of all this, you know, you have to meet this, this, this. And I think a lot of the kids, like a lot of the gifted kids and stuff, I think a lot of them, they don't get enough attention in some ways either because we're so focusing on the low-risk students, there's low-risk students that are not always poverty level kids. You can have a low-risk kid that's actually gifted and can come from a wealthy family, but they're missing something at home. And I think we need to look at individual students a little bit more, you know, this testing is just crazy. Crystal, the testing, the proficiency levels are coming up. Would you add anything? If you were that person making those decisions at the district level or at the school level to make things better? I agree with what they've said. When a student comes in to take a test, we do not know exactly what they've gone through the night before. Just recently, we tested this week and we had a tragic event in our community and everyone

is torn apart. Now will the test reflect what happened, the event that occurred? I mean, the test doesn't... We had a tragic accident where three of our former students were killed in a motor vehicle accident and the community is torn apart. We're such a small community, we're close-knit. Everyone is family and the entire school district was torn apart. But the officials said the test must go on. But we have to take the test. You know, Betsy, one thing you said before we got started was that that made me think of many of these high stakes tests, certainly don't take into account music education or arts or history or many things that many folks say are important. Is there any way that that can be changed that you can envision or are we going to be kind of stuck pushing these subjects to the side and saying the only thing that really matters is reading and math?

You know, I think it's going to be this way for a while until the down the road and people realize what have we done and we've taken art and music and out of the schools and those of the kids that need that where they can be successful. And what do all the study shows that when you're involved in music, any kind of music, fine arts, then your test scores do improve and you do learn to read better and there's all these skills. And I just like to think, take into consideration what a kid has to do to learn to play an instrument. They have to learn how to do the correct fingerings, they have to learn how to read the music on the page, then they have to learn how to read the rhythms that are on the page and then they have to realize what kind of sound they want to produce from that instrument and that deals with posture, breathing, all those things that they're doing. Look what those kids can do by the time they're 11 years old. Let me squeeze in at least one last question. It's a great point. Christine, I'm curious, for those who aren't familiar with these Golden Apple Awards, there is a laptop that you all got. I know you're very excited about that from Intel. There's a $1,500 prize that I believe you guys can spend how you see fit and then there's a $4,000 check that I believe must go back into the classroom in some shape way or form.

When you talk about how you intend to spend the $1,500 and the $4,000, what's your plan? Well, I really want to buy a bike with my personal money. I really want a bike. I want a nice bike. Okay, and for the $4,000? In the $4,000, I'd like to take a trip to Rome and Greece and take educational tours to be able to enhance my curriculum because I teach six grades, so that's what we do. Very quickly, Betsy on the $1,000 or $1,500. I'm saving it for a trip to Alaska, but the professional development, I'm going to take piano lessons, voice lessons, and jazz lessons. I'm going to go to Louisville next year and do a jazz improvisation workshop. Sounds like fun. Chris, what's your plan? For the $1,500, I like to purchase a nice outdoor grill, and I love to grill, especially now for the summer, and the $4,000, I'm still taking a look at different options. There's a national geographic photography workshop coming up, so that might be something to look into. Great.

You all have a stellar plan, again, congratulations, so well done. We had a chance to get your stories out there. Crystal, Gallego, Betsy Van Dyke, Christina Monaco, thanks so much. Those are just a few of this year's Golden Apple Award winners up next week will introduce you to three more honorees. We also want to take the time to thank all of our teachers watching this week's show. Canomy is dedicated to education issues in our state, and we recognize all the hard work that you put into your jobs. Okay, now we want to continue the discussion by letting the line panels toss around the question. What makes a good teacher, Gene, take it away. Thank you, David. First things first, let's introduce our panel for this week, starting with our regulars, Whitney Wayne Cheshire, longtime political consultant strategist here in New Mexico. Teresa Cordova, Bertilio County Commissioner formally, now Director of Community and Regional Planning at the School of Architecture at UNM. She's filling in this semester for Margaret Montoya, who is on sabbatical. Peter St. Sear, old friend of the show. He's a reporter with KKOB Radio and a blogger. I love your blog, by the way.

He's filling in for Jim Skerantino this week. Our guest, another familiar face, another blogger. Sophie Martin, managing editor of DukecityFix.com, a daily visit for yours truly. Now welcome to you all. Teresa, you've been a teacher for a while. I just have this really fundamental question. I'm just really curious from your side of the classroom. How do you know when you're really connecting with a kid? We always ask this of the kids. I'm curious how teachers feel about this. Well, actually, I did ask a kid today what makes a good teacher. And his response was someone who inspires a student to love learning, the love of learning. And I think one of the first things as a teacher, and I have thought about this question now for 32 years, first thing you have to think about is learning, the fact that different people learn in different ways. And even now with the changes in the computer age and videos and so on, students learn differently now. You have to take that into account. But I think that for me, one of the things that's really important is mixing it up the kinds of styles that you use to teach.

And I'm really big on learning through doing, learning by doing project-based learning. But ultimately, it's really for me about how do you empower the student. And so there's nothing more exciting than watching your students succeed in some way or another. But I think the question of success is an interesting one. Because if we look, for example, at Indian boarding schools and some of the history of schooling and education, we see that success there meant stripping people of their culture, taking away their language, breaking their spirit, and this whole notion that before you could educate somebody, you had to break their spirit. And I think that's the legacy of the boarding schools, for example. That's what happened during periods of colonization. You broke people's spirit. And there's still some of that that we see today, the whole issue maybe of training and tracking people for certain places in the labor force. I think it's also part of education. So thinking about this question, I went to a couple of favorites of mine, both nationally prominent in the fields of education, Anhala Valenzuela, and also Pedro Nogera.

And Valenzuela has written a book called Subtractive Schooling in which she talks about the politics of curing. And how important it is for a teacher to make connection with the student, but that those connections need to be based in a understanding and a support of that student's culture and of that student's community. And oftentimes, the alienation occurs when there's a distancing from that. You know what's interesting? You and I are both old enough, probably Peter, too, when, oh, I don't know, they would take you in a closet and wrap you on the knuckles and all kinds of things that teachers used to do. Sophie Martin, that thank God it's time. And you know, but it makes Teresa's point, there's an interesting arc that we've seen teachers have to go through to evolve over the years to address certain kind of students needs. And you've been around education a bunch, too. So you've seen this. Yes. And actually, I still teach now, although not in a private school or public school setting, I teach at the university, different kinds of classes. And I think one of the things that is really fantastic, and unfortunately I can speak more

about older students than younger students, is that you can make very deep connections with people on shared interests, and it's so exciting when you see, for me, again, older learners who go from, I don't think I'm very good at this sort of thing, I've always been told I wasn't good sort of, this sort of thing, often students who went through the kind of educational system that was a little bit more punitive, and to see them change their opinions about themselves through learning is really phenomenal, incredible, and for a long time, I also worked with high school students in this area, and it was just great to see them change their perceptions about their ability to learn about themselves through the educational environment. So wonderful. So, and it's not too late, I think, is something that we need to remind ourselves. We say, oh, if we don't get them by third grade, if we don't get them by seventh grade, if we don't get them in middle school. There are still opportunities, even for adult learners, to make changes in their lives, in their...

That's a really good point. You know, it's kind of fun. I'm in the middle of reading John Adams, and one of the points that Adams made early on was the need for education when the country was forming with him. He actually wanted to put this on the table as one of the foundations of how America moves forward, because you could see easily in the future that if you took an agrarian economy and just sons and daughters of farmers, and don't educate them, you really can't move a country too far forward, you just can't do it. And as a parent, you see this from a different side, too, when you start dealing with teachers and what they're able to do with kids. Well, and it's interesting, because my daughter is, you know, every year is a challenge, and she's getting ready to go into mid-school, and when I was thinking about what it takes to be a great teacher, I think it really comes down to whether the teacher can reach every single one of her students or his students in a way that they don't fall through the cracks. So if a child is a sea student on average, how do you get that child to believe in himself and a sister child in becoming a beer and a student? And in the same way, what do you do with the A student that doesn't take any homework home at the end of the day, and doesn't get anything additional out of his class? How do you take that student and encourage them even further?

And that's very, very difficult to do. And a lot of it comes down to, I've decided, you know, how you interpret the assessments. I mean, grades only mean certain things, standardized tests only mean certain things. How do you apply those to the individual learner and move them forward? So. You know, Peter, it's interesting, I'm the ex-husband of a school teacher, been around a lot of school teachers, discipline. It's all about discipline right now for younger students, not so much older cats that you guys work with, but the younger kids, Peter, teachers, it just seems so unfair. You know, that this is what they have to do primarily to get a class to run. And there's so many limits from the law and the, you know, the fear of litigation on what kind of discipline they can have, and as you know, if you have one disruptive student, you could probably take, you know, a couple of hours or days away from the agenda and the syllabus of the class. Sure. You know, when I was thinking about this question coming in today, I was thinking about my own education.

And strangely enough, the last college class I had, the very last one, was called the Art of Thinking. And it really should have been the first course when I got to the university level. And the thing that I liked about this teacher and what made him great was that he taught us, not only how to think rationally and to use persuasion and logic, but to form our own critical perspective on an issue. And I don't know that we spend a lot of time teaching kids how to think and to develop their own perspective on their future. Well, I could, I could make more. In fact, in my syllabus class that I just finished teaching, that's one of the first things that I say is that I want students to really build their analytical thinking powers. And the ability to think analytically is a really important point. And I think there's something else that I want to add to this conversation, which is that we're teaching in very different times now. And I think this is especially true for K through 12. But there's a lot more trials and tribulations, a lot more difficulties that families are facing. The world is a different place. And so it's not the same place where Miss Lanters was teaching the beaver, right? And there are more socio-economic challenges.

And I think that means the teachers have to adapt their styles to be able to see. I think that what we talked about on this very table, on occasion, we've got after school programs that were a huge controversy, whether they should be, you know, linked with grades, no child left behind Whitney. I mean, how you fit all this into one coherent piece that moves a majority of kids forward. Well, and I would say one thing that we haven't really talked about here that I think is critically important is how is it that the individual educator, the teacher, the school administrator, reach out to really involve the parents and how that happens? Because there is no way that a teacher can do all of the things that we really ask of them to do. And every child learns differently. I mean, I'm a big believer in a child either being a visual learner or an auditory learner. You know, what is it that your child uses to best assess and to obtain knowledge? And if you don't have somebody that's really digging in and teaching that child for them to figure out how they learn, it can be very, very difficult. So anything that a teacher can do to draw the parents in in a comfortable situation and you get them involved in the educational process, the better. Exactly right.

Now, we want to know what you think about this question, what makes a good teacher? Just drop us a line at infocuseconomy.org or leave us a comment on our blog. Newmexicoinfocus.org. All right, this weekend, also more than just the start of summer vacation for many New Mexico students. It's Memorial Day weekend, a holiday designed to remember the brave men and women who died in defense of our country. In honor of Memorial Day, David caught up with New Mexico Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary, John Garcia. New Mexico has a long and distinguished military history dating back to Spanish colonial times and continuing today with more than 30,000 men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. And our state has a long reputation for embracing those military veterans once their service is complete. As of today, there are an estimated 180,000 armed service veterans who call New Mexico home. Six years ago, Governor Richardson also created a cabinet level Department of Veterans Services dedicated to providing for the needs of our returning vets. Here with us today is the Secretary of that Department, John Garcia. Thanks for joining us. I'm very glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

You know, to start with, I mentioned just now that there is 180,000 right here in New Mexico. That's almost 10 percent of the state's population. Absolutely. Why is this so high here? Is it higher than in other places? Well, you know, there's 26 million veterans nationally since early formation of our great country over 46 million men and women have served as airmen, marine, soldiers, sailors, but New Mexico has got 190,000. But for Capita, New Mexico is always up front. We always rank up front in terms of service to our country. You know, during Vietnam, we were number one in drafty percentage. Third highest in casualty rate. During the Iraq war, we were the first into Iraq with our stealth fighters out of holoman. New Mexico just has a very rich military history, military legacy that I think is handed down generation to generation that duty, honor, and service to country is something that's very noble. And I think it runs in our blood in our families. Why do you think more so here than in Arizona, Texas, California? Well, you know, New Mexico has got a very long legacy that goes back many generations. You know, I'm a typical New Mexico family who's been here at 15 generations. But even our Native American veterans that have served with distinction and honor have a

higher percentage than any other ethnic group in this country. You know, our Batan death march veterans, that's home here. The co-talkers that sent over 600 messages during the battle via Regina, our New Mexico Arizona, the roughwriters, the Buffalo soldiers, you know, the territorial days, the Spanish citizens soldiers came up to come in a reality. We just have this rich legacy of military history. So it's not unusual to serve our country and serve with honor and distinction. You know, we have 15 metal bonner recipients since World War I in our state. Erning, last time we caught up with you, actually not caught up with you, you were there in Santa Fe for the recognition of the Baton death march that survived about a year ago. But, you know, one thing I wanted to ask to here at the start is, you run a department, I believe you have 17 field offices. Most people, I think when they think veterans of fairs, they think of the feds, right? The VA here in Albuquerque across the state, what in a nutshell, what exactly does your department do relative to what the federal veterans affairs department does?

What's interesting, when you say veterans, people think of an older veteran on Veterans Day Memorial Day, and that's the only time they think of veterans, when you say military, you think of young, vibrant young men and women serving in this country, when it's American uniform, but they forget when they take it off, they're still young and vibrant, but they're now part of the veteran population. And the governor saw that, and when he ran for office in 2003, and he elevated it was a veteran service commission to a capital-level agency, and it was now the New Mexico Department of Veteran Services. And what's very important in our office, we now have 46 employees, 21 of them are veteran service officers, they're trained and they're accredited service officers to assist veterans around the state, and our primary mission is to help that veteran file for his federal and state benefits that he's earned and that he's entitled to. Interesting enough, a lot of veterans feel they can't free owes them nothing, and they don't want to file, but once we contact their veterans and let them know what they're entitled to, what they've earned, educational benefits, housing benefits, and VA benefits, many aren't aware of it.

I, for example, I came out, went to Vietnam in 1969, got back 1970, it took me 30 years to file for my benefits, only to realize what I've lost. Why'd you wait so long? Well, at that time after Vietnam, the VA wasn't the most pleasant place to go to, they'd see you early in the morning, and they wouldn't get to you till late in the afternoon, and it just was too cumbersome, it's too bureaucratic after Vietnam, and of course, now the VA's not the, it's not the VA that my father had, it's not the VA that I came home to today, it's a very different type of VA system, it's fine tuned, it's better service, our veterans, and it's providing great service to them. Can it be better, of course, they can, and it's all contingent on funding. And so right now, I think you've got a lot of Vietnam era veterans that work within the VA, myself, Vietnam vet, trying to make sure that we don't make the same mistakes we made on our veterans that came home from Vietnam as those coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. And so we want to make sure we're very proactive and we're outreach and making sure our veterans are getting the benefits that they've earned in their entitled to.

Maybe we can talk a little bit more about VA services in a moment, but we're here, of course, Memorial Day weekend, I know you're going to be in Elf and Pute, there's going to be parades and events all over the state. One interesting story that I came across, I was hoping you could tell us about, is this case of, I believe his name is Enrique Valdez, from Santa Fe, Quadge Polyjic, he was a Vietnam vet, I believe he was a Marine Corps vet, and this year his name will be etched in Vietnam, Memorial Wall NDC, why so long, what's the story here? Well, Mr. Valdez, his daughter contacted me, he was severely wounded in Vietnam, he lost his legs in Vietnam, and he died as a result of his injuries in Vietnam, even though it was 35 years, 40 years later. The family made a special request that his name be etched on the wall with his comrades that died in Vietnam, and it's a special request that's not approved for many. And fortunately, his name was accepted and was approved and they etched his name on the wall in Washington D.C. and the Valdez family will be in Washington D.C. for Memorial Day

to witness the ceremony of their father's name being on the wall now. With the other 58,000 plus Vietnam veterans that died in Vietnam, there's a lot of walking wounded out there from Vietnam, over 60,000 committed suicide. We had the highest unemployment rate, highest divorce rate, high suicidal rate. And these are issues that we dealt with during Vietnam that we want to make sure we don't repeat them with those coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Do you think we've gotten better? I think we're improving. You know, there are over 30,000 Iraqi vets back here in New Mexico today, since the war in Iraq, Afghanistan started 1.4 million went to Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 900,000 have been discharged and we have 30,000 in our state. So these are the sons and grandsons and daughters of Vietnam vets. So we want to make sure that they get what they deserve, that they don't go through the hurdles that many Vietnam vets that came back went through. And so we have a very aggressive program of outreach, not just here in New Mexico, but

across the country. Fortunately for us in New Mexico, we have a governor and a legislative body that really supports our efforts to outreach to our veterans. We work very hard trying to find my vets, make sure they file for their benefits. We've got 15,000 women vets and a lot of people unaware of the issues of women vets. So we deal very aggressively with our women veterans, all our veterans here in the state. I should mention Mr. Valdez and Rika Valdez will be the number 400, you're not going to be on the wall there. But let me ask you this. You mentioned the governor and the legislature and no doubt, I don't think anybody disagree that those individual and institution support veterans, most politicians tend to support veterans, right? At least they say so. But I'm curious, one of the things that came out of the recent legislative session was a veterans museum. So this would, I guess, fall in the category of recognizing our veterans, but in a time of economic strife and declining revenue and cuts, cuts to education, is that the best use of money?

I believe it's going to be in Las Cruces, 11 member, Board of Trustees, to oversee it. It's going to be expensive. Well, here's expenses. Is that a good use of money? You know, David, I believe it is, and let me tell you why I think it is. When I meet with my veterans across the state, we have our town hall meetings or gather of vets, I always ask them what they feel their issues are. The number one issue, of course, is long-term care, because we're an aging population on one hand. On the other hand, we've got a young crop of men and women getting out of the military today, and these are my Iraq, Afghanistan veterans. You know what? The number two biggest issue has always been memorials and monuments. The veterans want their legacy told. They want it preserved. That's why you're seeing the World Two Memorial Monuments in Washington, D.C., they're building a Vietnam vet museum in D.C. And here in New Mexico, state that it's got a very rich military legacy. We have nothing there that's preserving this rich legacy, not just for the veteran, but for his children and their children, to know what their fathers or grandfathers have gone through, to preserve that service to country is honorable, that duty, honor, and patriotism sacrifice. Those are values worth preserving. And we need to put that story and etch it in stone and put it in a building so that

youth can see it. And so we're very fortunate that we're going to build a veteran museum down in Las Cruces, that captured this rich military history. But why Las Cruces, the southern tip of the state, why not more centrally located out with the Santa Fe? Well, everybody wants to put everything in Albuquerque's, you know. But the governor had appointed a task force committee, made up of 19 veterans from around the state, chaired by General Ed Baca, former Agenda General, the Guard, and Hershey Mirmoura, a Medal of Honor recipient. 19 veterans sat in that committee, seven cities presented their best foot forward on why their city should be looked at as a museum site. And Las Cruces presented a very strong, aggressive plan, and so the committee made that recommendation of the governor. It was introduced by Representative Steinborn from Las Cruces, who did a great job champion the bill, and it was passed unanimously on the House and Senate side. So there is a need, but the beauty about the museum also, it'll give us a format to present and study issues pertaining to veteran health care, veteran education, veterans employment. So I think it's not just a museum where tourists will come, but it'll also be a museum

that'll educate the youth, but also will help my veterans identify bigger and better issues that we can present to our legislative body. As I mentioned earlier, and the viewers of course know this Memorial Day weekend, you're off to send out a press release that really caught my attention on Thursday this week, in which it said you were irritated about how the holiday was perceived, and you said Memorial Day should be more than just the arrival of warm weather, what do you mean? Why are you irritated? Well, because I saw a study that came down, it was a Gallup poll that came into my office across my desk, it said that less than 30% of the American public don't know what, or more than 30%, at least 70% of the American public don't know what Memorial Day is all about. And it's a day to pay tribute to those that have served the country, those that have given their life and defensive of our freedom, and that freedom is not free. So when they meet this holiday season, and they're out there shopping, and they're doing barbecues like all of us, and the swimming pool is open, there's a reason for this Memorial

Day, and it's to pay tribute to remember those that have worn the American uniform, and have sacrificed for the freedoms that we're all going to enjoy, and that we all continue to enjoy. Well, tell me this John, what do you say to those critics out there who were against the Iraq war? They don't think it's about protecting our freedom, they think it's about safeguarding oil and promoting a particular foreign policy agenda. What do you say to those folks when they kind of disagree maybe with the characterization? Well, I would say, I think we need to separate the war from the warrior first, and don't punish that warrior, okay? I'm not going to get into the politics of the war, whether it's good or bad or indifferent. But when I have young men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and I have to get them into the VA, and someone's talking to me about what it's going to cost, it's like my deputy secretary, Mr. Lou Helgo, he says, whatever it costs, we're going to take care of them. And if a man or woman's willing to raise their hand to defend a constitutionist country, to serve in the front lines, no matter where it is in this globe around the world, that they ought to be on the front lines for jobs, education, employment, healthcare when they

come home. And my job is to make sure that that happens. And so, you know, I'm not here to argue the politics of the war, but to just remind people we separate the war from the warrior and to always honor that man or woman who wears American uniform. That's preserved these, the ideals of freedom that we all love and enjoy. I mean, it doesn't come free, how do we get it? Someone had to put a uniform on and go fight and defend it, you know, be at World War 2, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any future conflict. There's always American, the young men and women willing to step forward and put that uniform on to do that. And Memorial Day gives us a time to say thank you to them and to remember them. And that's what's important about Memorial Day. And I just kind of, I saw that study that came across with this Gallup poll that said 29 percent of American people know what Memorial Day is about. So, what's the other 70 percent doing it, they don't have no clue about it. Maybe we're doing our part today to help get them out. I hope so. And so, what I would say to you and to your audience, you know, if you have a family member out there that's a veteran, thank them.

Yeah. And when you're firing up that barbecue grill, just remember that it was a veteran that gave you that freedom, and let me just tell you, David, there was an old adage in Vietnam that was on the bunker walls everywhere and it just said something to the fact that for those who fight for it, freedom has a flavor that protected, we'll never know. And I think this Memorial Day, we should remember that. Maybe we can end on this. You serve, of course, a secretary of the department at the pleasure of the governor, a gentleman who's been mentioned as a potential candidate for governor as Val Kilmer, the actor. He was quoted in the story, it got a lot of attention about veterans, it was an Esquire magazine, he said, quote, I'll read just a part of it, a guy who's lived through the horror of Vietnam has not spent his life preparing his mind for it. He's some punk. Most guys were borderline criminals or poor, and that's what they got sent to Vietnam. It was all the poor, wretched kids who got beat up by their dads, he goes on. Many people have criticized that, you're a veteran, what did you think when you saw that? Well, I was born and raised in South Valley, my father served in World War II as an officer and I was in a poor, wretched kid that's beat up by my father, but I felt insulted by his statement, and when you insult one veteran, you insult all veterans, and my Vietnam veteran

served with honored distinction in Vietnam. They came back and many are corporate heads of corporate America, they're your next-door neighbor, they're good fathers, they're good family men, and I think statements like that continue to tarnish this image of my Vietnam veterans. Mr. Kilmer, who's an actor, I mean, it would have been great if I had an actor double in my bunker when I was in Vietnam, I didn't see no actor doubles there for me, but God bless him, I wish him all kinds of luck, but you know, you cannot get by by insulting the integrity of service to country, and particularly my Vietnam vets, because they've served with honored distinction. John Garcia, Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Veteran Services, thank you. David's always an honor privilege, and thank you, and happy Memorial Day to you. Thank you. You can get more information about the Department of Veteran Services by heading to our website here at New Mexico and Focus, New Mexico and Focus.org. And now it's time to take it back to Gene Grant in the line for opinion and discussion

about some of the other big topics of the week. Thanks David, a New Mexico lawmaker says he's, quote, embarrassed to serve in such a scandal plague state. End quote. That was Deming Senator John Arthur Smith, his comments came and missed the latest allegations of improprieties surrounding the State Investment Council of the SIC, the Education Retirement Board, but Smith says those are just the latest examples of possible correction that also include a federal pay-to-play investigation involving Governor Richardson's administration, some staff Whitney. We can all understand Mr. Smith's frustration. He's a pretty stand-up guy, and he's looking for some relief. But there's an interesting layer of questions here. We had some legislation passed. The governor was very, you know, forceful in getting that passed. Do we have any bid yet on what that legislation is going to do for our situation here, or our circumstances is just going to have to play out, and we just have to wipe the slate clean at some point in a couple years. You know, you know, look, the bottom line is the corruption scandals that we are dealing with are investigating people who knowingly and willingly broke the law.

They understood what the law was. The law was in place. They broke it. We're not talking about issues of what to do with campaign finance reform. We're not talking about issues of, you know, whether or not we're broadcasting the legislature. Sure. So what we're dealing with in terms of the pay-to-play scandals out of the administration and the investment portfolios and everything else has nothing to do with any of the ethics legislation that was passed. I have to hand it to Senator Johnathan Smith. I mean, he has been a continuous voice for making statements and calling attention to things that he believes in. Whether or not you agree with him is one thing. But the fact of the matter is that he bucks his party, bucks his governor, and he makes sure that people understand how he personally feels about things. And I mean, I commend him for it. And I can imagine what the frustration is, especially for his part, because of his involvement in the finance group. Exactly. And this middleman thing, I mean, anytime you have a middleman when a dollar is at play, this trouble, it's just trouble. You can't have middle people working with, you know, for the state's intro versus private injury.

It just doesn't work. I've been in the middle before and did you make any money? Did you make any money? Did you make some of that money? I don't know. I don't know. Not enough. Right. Right. In the investment industry and not in what I've been doing. So I don't fault middlemen, they often know that different players can make important connections, and in business relationships are important. Okay. You know, the thing is, the allegations have been made here for a long time that politicians have been feathering their own nest. And perhaps the chickens are coming home to Bruce. However, I think that everyone who's a dedicated public official is making a commitment to make government more transparent, and therefore, you know, we're going to see a lot more come to the surface. But one of the things this state needs to do is fund the state auditor's office so that he can have more than 30 employees, and, you know, so far, it's like 1% of the state operating budget goes for audits. An effector of Aldaris had a bigger budget, and there were more audits than people would probably start off doing what's right, rather than having to go back and sidestep or change

what's happened in the past. Well, that's critical, but there's also, we have to remember, too, that one of the auditing companies it was contracted with in order to look at the housing authority was, you know, definitely connected with Dianne Dennis and Bill Richardson. So we also have to look at how those, you know, contracts are applied as well. And, you know, I love how Hector Baldaris has handled many of these things, but again, it's subject to personalities, too. So, you know, even though he's done a good job with the next slide, you know. And on that note, Sophie, people who are inclined to steal are going to steal. I don't know what kind of, what you have in the book. I suppose that's possible, though. It's sort of hard to imagine many are going to hold up a 7-11 if that's his only option. I think that that may be too broad a statement to have born to steal. But I do think, actually, I disagree. I think that the ethics legislation that was put forward in legislature this year, in some ways, I think it was too timid. And I'm sorry that even too timid legislation sometimes doesn't make it through, because there is a continuum of unethical and in other, you know, one end criminal behavior that we do see going on.

I mean, it's crazy in this state that we do go around saying, oh, the fix is in, the more detail. The whole deal, we've known for a long time, I agree with Peter about, you know, it's not just about enforcement, but without enforcement, without investigation. Who are we, you know, we were stuck with, yeah, I know it's like that, but nobody ever does anything. Once people start doing something, there's an opportunity to make changes. And, you know, ethical behavior, non-criminal behavior in this case, it has to exist throughout the system. It can't just be, you know, we're going to behave well in one area or not, and not well in another. And I was really disappointed at this legislative session to hear senior legislators say, in effect, we're all good people here, when the evidence is mounting around them that we're not all good people, or we're not agree. I agree. There are just some of the justifications for not passing the ethics commission. I thought was problematic, not that I necessarily agree with how they were trying to take us three seconds here, please. Well, if I can a little bit more than that, for one thing, I think when we look at the

senator, I think his comment was, if he's so embarrassed to serve in, and he's glad he's on up for re-election, he just ran for re-election six months ago, and one wonders if he's so embarrassed why he, you know, maybe he shouldn't serve, but, you know, and he himself has held up a lot of really good things that could have really helped new Mexicans. But I think it's important to look at some of the state investment counsel in some of these deals with the pension funds. A lot of these fellows were out of state. They're from out of state, eldest, Dallas, Carrero, Houston, and California-based. So these were not local folks, and I think it's also one of the crisis, perhaps, that we paid, by having a governor who was interested in national running for the national level, and maybe in a lot of ways gave parts of the state to these sort of out of state interest. And I think there's also something very systematic and very structural about some of this, because it's really not, you know, it's not limited to any one party. I think we're looking at patronage politics versus politics of principles. We're looking at the ways in which some of these relationships are connected, and there's

a collection between eldest and the Carl L. Riverton folks, and Cheney, you know, they hang out in Montana together. So, you know, this is, it goes beyond, I think, New Mexico, and it's really a function of patronage politics and how they get played out. So we didn't get the berm sweep, we're all looking for in the last legislative session. I think I agree with what any of the commission issue is an issue, still hanging out there, unless we have an ethics commission, we really can't get to the none of this. Now, President Barack Obama reignited the explosive debate over abortion, as you know, when he gave the commencement speech at Notre Dame, staunch pro-life Catholics who were up and arms, about the invitation, considering the president's documented pro-choice beliefs, Mr. Obama took on the controversy head-on, however, telling the graduating folks that they're in their families, actually, that two sides of this abortion debate are, quote, irreconcilable. Very interesting choice awards there, but that both sides can and should be honored. All this at a time when a new Gallup poll and one other shows a majority of Americans see themselves as, quote, pro-life.

So if you've been digging into the numbers here, this is a very interesting angle, this pro-life swing versus pro-choice. It is, actually, you know, you look at the headlines, even at the New Mexico Independent, which I sort of expect as a New Mexico-based news blog, I sort of expect something a little deeper perhaps from there at headlines. The headlines are all majority pro-life, majority pro-life, and then when you dig a little deeper, you go to the second question, you go to the third question, you see, well, except I'm willing to allow for a lot of exceptions. The mother's health is, I think, the sort of the biggest one, incidents involving rape and incest. And so when we look at headlines that say, majority pro-life, we really do need to take a second look, look a little bit deeper, and how the numbers are compiled, what they really say. And I think, you know, it's interesting, during political season, we all get very sort of expert in what polling says, and, you know, do we trust this poll, do we trust that poll, and then the political season, the other campaign season is over, and we all go back to, like, well, I read it, so it must be true.

And I think there's so much more complexity here than just, I'm geeking out and I really apologize, than just 51% versus what is it, 43%. But I think that the key component of the Gallup poll was that they asked the same question, whether you identified yourself as a pro-life individual or pro-choice, you know, years and years in the past, and there is definitely, you know, a switch without a doubt. My question is, is what does that actually mean, you know, in the political arena, because for, like you said, to run a headline that says, majority, well, what is majority, 50.2%, you know, that does not even begin to pay in a picture of this very complex issue. So even though I would say, yeah, there has been a move in a shift, it's not that far, and it's not that much. It's a very polarizing issue, people are divided within their own minds, and in their own families, on how they feel about it. So, I think- Well, one of the things that I really appreciated about this, which, there are many things I appreciate about this speech, is probably probably the best speech I think he's ever given in terms of, and there are so many values that he articulated and so on, but with respect to this debate, he reframed the debate.

And first of all, let me just say something before I talk about that reframing. I don't think anybody's anti-life, and I don't think anybody's pro-abortion, so the language around this really needs to shift, you know. People are not pro-abortion, but I think that, in fact, I don't know anybody who is, but the way he's reframed it is that we really need to decrease the numbers of unwanted pregnancies. Right, so he completely shifted it. And then you have folks like Tim Ryan out of Ohio and Rosa Delaro out of Connecticut, who are part of also this way of folks who are saying that we really need to talk about what is it going to take to have fewer unwanted pregnancies? What do we need to do to incentivize people carrying their babies to term? Do we need to make it easier to adopt? It's not easy to adopt, and yet there are a lot of people out there who would like to adopt. There are various kind of social services that we can provide to those women that would help them carry that baby to term rather than go into the option of abortions. So this is the shifting, right, to what is it going to take to decrease number of abortions? I think it's really the conversation I need that.

And the politics of it, Peter, was the president, was there any downside to this? I mean, it seemed pretty clear that he had this well-thought out. It was right from the first word on, you just knew he was on this thing. I think that Barack Obama ever since he started running has never been afraid to address his opponents. I think that he has empathy for their messages. He hears it, he listens it, and he considers it politically speaking. He's going to get the final say based on who he appoints to the Supreme Court, and he may have several big appointments coming up there. Sure. And that could really reframe the day after. I feel like he handled this extremely well, where the group that I think has a black eye is honestly the Catholic Church. Now, I'm Catholic, and I'm practicing Catholic, but I will tell you that within the Catholic Church we have this division and an inconsistency. Why is it that the Catholic, you know, Notre Dame was not allowed by certain, you know, the Catholic bishops or whatever, to host the president of the United States, which I think is a big mistake and just does not, you know, speak well to the Catholic Church.

And yet they will go and, you know, hold a celebration for Governor Richardson in Rome for removing the death penalty in the state of New Mexico when he himself is a pro-choice politician. So within the Catholic Church, we have lots of problems with this issue, and I don't think that this was handled well, and I do think that the president handled it as well as he could have. Last word, Sophie, any other observation? Well, you know, it's just thinking in the larger context, it has been, what is it, more, it's been several generations now since Roe v. Wade. And we've gone from a population that all lived through not having, you know, availability of legal abortion to a situation now in which so many young people have never lived at a time that abortion wasn't available. And you see this in sort of feminist discussion, how do we, how do we make it clear to this community that things can be very different with and without the ability to make that choice? And that I think is a debate that's going to, that's going to have to come out as a result of these numbers is for the pro-choice community, sorry to use the semantics, but for that,

for that community, what are they doing right, what are they doing wrong? Because the polls, numbers aside, does indicate that there, there may be some concerns there for that group. Well said. Now, it's time to put these guys to the test by putting them on the clock, they'll have one minute as a group if you've seen it, you know how this works. So the name of the game is gravity, we'll see, for a stop, it's been a week since President Obama speaking of which came to Rio Rancho to push for a credit card reform. And yet we've had some weird twists and turns in the Senate. We had a bill defeated and then passed, capping limits to rest on what credit card companies can charge, but this is a major issue in a lot of families in this country. There were people who were missing payments by an hour and having their entire credit situation turned upside down, something had to give here. Well it passed today, today, Tuesday, that they were taping in, so that's a good thing. We know that our own Senator Bingham did not support the CAHPS and his fear was, first of all, that the CAHPS would become a minimum and I think he didn't want that and he was

also fearful that people would then seek riskier loans. So this is a great reform and I think, and I applaud the Congress and I applaud President Obama for it. So to be honest, I think that the credit card situation has already gotten dire for the people who are supposed to be protected by that CAHPS, you hear all the time now about people losing their credit wholesale and it seems that we will probably go back to some of the time like the 80s when people actually paid with checks for things. If it's true as marketers are concerned that we're moving back to being savers and spenders of cash and not creditors or debtors in the way that we've been in the past, that's an interesting and potentially positive thing but the conversation is complicated. It is very complicated. That's okay. Hold you guys off on that one. Robert Redford, big star parter, wants to bring a taste of his Sundance Festival to New Mexico.

His program would expand training for Latino and Native American filmmakers and screen writers. It would be located right here in the land of Enchantment Whitney, it's a very, I mean, come on. Picture the headlines in a variety, the Hollywood Reporter, I mean, people around the world. It can only elevate us that Robert Redford in Sundance is coming here. Well, I think that the question over whether or not this is Sundance or not is still one that we need to answer. I talked to a couple of reporters that covered the press conference and they reported, as was given, told them by Robert Redford and Governor Richardson that this was going to be the Sundance Institute collaborating with the state of New Mexico, Sundance Institute sent out a statement after the fact saying, no, there's no collaboration between the two. This is between Robert Redford and Governor Richardson. So this is a developing story. I want to see that. I do not want to see that. Yeah. Interesting. I think developing young filmmakers, whatever institute is involved in the state is good. Of course, you know, we all know that Robert Redford teamed up with John Nichols on the Millagro Beanfield War and what a great story to emerge out of New Mexico. And you know, just last weekend, the New Mexico Film Showcase debuted many, many films

and the more people that get involved in storytelling, I say the better. Oh, yes. 48 acres north of Espanola can either be really good for the area or it can be really bad and it can result in displacement. And the whole point of Millagro Beanfield War was people losing their water rights because of development. So we need to make sure that doesn't happen. Oh, done. Good connection there. The Mexico's new history museum opens to the public this weekend in Santa Fe. Plenty of great opening events, certainly for the museum, which is built as a state of the art facility full of interactive stuff, inspiring exhibits, let me start with Sophie on this. It's huge. Oh, yeah. And I have to just cut this me, have to ask a troubling question. Are we going to over museum ourselves here? I mean, for traffic support this, I mean, you know, it's sort of the interesting thing about Santa Fe, you know, every couple of years they add a new museum and it kind of seems to work. Yeah. You know, it kind of seems to work. I mean, I'm not sure that I believe that tourists will come to New Mexico specifically to learn about the history of New Mexico, or certainly not many of them, but it does give

them another option as they're up in that city. And it gives tourists, do you have other parts of the state options too? I mean, I'm looking forward to taking a round runner up and making a day of it, not, you know. Absolutely. I'm going to give, I'm going to give, I'm going to give, I'm going to give, I'm going to give, I'm going to give, I'm going to give, I'm going to give, I'm going to give a twist of tense at the last time. It's very interactive, which is great. I think the secret sites, the commerce and trade around Santa Fe, trail will be very interesting. The Mexico Magazine has a very interesting profile of what's coming in this place. It's a really good read. So check it out. If you have a topic, you'd like to see us tackle on the show, just send us a line here in focus at canemy.org, drop us a line as well as our blog in the mexico in focus.org. Don't forget, next week we'll introduce you to the rest of this year's Golden Apple Award winning teachers. And be sure to send us your thoughts on a teacher that made a difference in your life, or what it takes to be a good teacher. So until next week, thanks for watching, we'll see you next time.