Jose Delfino J.D. Maes, Jr 1924 – 2012

The man with the golden carbine who supervised the June 8, 1969, arrest of Reies López Tijerina by U.S. Forest Service Agent James Evans, right, backed up by New Mexico State Police officers was Lieutenant J.D. Maes, Jr., left, died December 17, 2012.

He was 88.

He was born in Maes, NM., on March 11, 1924.

In 1979 he retired from the New Mexico State Police at the rank of Major.

I met J.D. Maes Jr., August 8, 2009 at the home of his son, Chris D. Maes and wife, Dianne, of Rio Rancho. Chris Maes was also a retired New Mexico State Police officer whose last assignment was Executive Protection Unit. They both had many a tale to tell.

J.D. Maes Jr,. had worked protecting various governors including, David Cargo and John F. Simms.

J.D. Maes, Jr., was the shift supervisor at the Española State Police Office on the Sunday in June 1969, when Tijerina's wife Patsy, burned two Forest Signs. When arrests were made Maes left Española driving at high speed, arriving moments after Tijerina was taken into custody.

Ben Luján 1935 – 2012

New Mexico Speaker of the House Ben Luján died Tuesday night December 18, 2012 after a long struggle against lung cancer.

He was 77.

Luján was a life long resident of Nambé, served the House District 46, for Santa Fe County 37 years, and was Majority Whip and Majority Floor Leader before becoming the Speaker.

Though he did not seek reelection, he officially died in office, leaving the Speaker's chair vacant.

Governor Susana Martinez issued a statement:

Speaker Ben Lujan's service to New Mexico spanned four decades and his legacy will live for years to come. He fought for causes near and dear to New Mexicans from all walks of life and guided the House of Representatives through some of the most important debates in our state’s history. Speaker Lujan’s story was one that embodied the New Mexican dream and the American dream.  The son of a sheepherder, he made his living as an ironworker at Los Alamos before running for office and rising to one of the most prominent and powerful positions in the state.

Chuck and I join all New Mexicans in offering our thoughts and prayers to Speaker Lujan's wife, Carmen, his children, and his entire family during this trying time.

His standing as a senior elected office holder gave him great influence, especially within the Democratic Party.

He was only eclipsed in elective seniority by Representative Nick L. Salazar, above right, D– Mora, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Santa Fe, and Taos Counties of House District 40, who has been a Representative since 1973; Luján served since 1975.

Salazar of Ohkay Owingeh was literally a neighbor, friend, their families socialized together, their children were friends. Salazar worked at Los Alamos doing thermonuclear research and knew Luján through Salazar’s brother who was the shop forman over Luján. Salazar, is the longest serving elected official in the state having served a four-year term as County Commissioner.

Salazar said of Luján’s passing:

I’m saddened in fact by his passing.

In my 40 years of the legislature, I have served under four speakers, but Speaker Luján was my speaker.

He died in office. When he came to the last session, he announced he was dying, but he served. That was Ben; he served to his dying days.

We worked on many projects together; I supported him, and he supported me.

He always gave me good advice.

He’s going to be missed by many people.

Luján was an ironworker at Los Alamos National Laboratories and a shop steward before leaving to begin he political career in the mid 1970s.

“He was a good man, good man for labor, a fair man, honest man; did well, not just for labor, but for the people,” said Marty Padilla, organizer for the Iron Workers Local Union No. 495, based in Albuquerque. Contrary to wikipedia, he was not a contractor, but a common worker.

He didn’t leave his ironworker mentality, as he was a strong and often unbending political force. He had perfected the art of being a “union goon” (in the best sense of the word and that’s from one union goon to another), his ability to articulate at the level of the common man, his persuasive manner, his use of coercive tactics, and horse-trading.

He wielded the power of the Speaker’s gavel with an iron fist and members of the minority party often bristled at his ability to shut them out by his use of what committees he would assign legislation.

Luján, above right, partnered with then Governor Bill Richardson, above left, in standing behind, supporting, and sheepherding Richardson’s agenda through the House.

Luján’s wife of 53- years, Carmen, above left, was a constant presence at political events and helped soften his strong personality. His son, Ben Ray Luján, above right, often referred to as junior, was elected to the U.S. Congress for CD-3 Northern New Mexico in 2008. They were among family and friends as Luján passed away at Christus St. Vincent’s hospital in Santa Fe, after being admitted with respiratory problems earlier in the week.

I will leave it to Santa Fe New Mexican’s Steve Terrell to provide other tributes.

Kenneth Byron Coolidge 1936 – 2012

MAN, husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, and FRIEND; Ken Coolidge, above all, was a human being. All the other accomplishments in his life pale by comparison to what he did for and with people; those close to him and complete strangers.

Coolidge succumbed to cancer after a short struggle. He was 76.

Michael Coolidge, his son responded to an e-mail request for details of his father’s life. I present it here, because it is as complete, concise, and contains all the things I had learned about Ken, but had faded in my memory because of vibrancy of the immediacy of his life when you were in his presence overwhelms the details:

Ken was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, 5 November, 1936, to Ann Gladys Harris, a newspaper woman, and Theodore Coolidge, a professional boxer, who had a varied military, then civilian career, Ken grew up in the newspaper business as his parents owned a weekly newspaper. He grew up in Newmarket, and moved to Somersworth for high school.

His recruiter uncle enlisted him in the Naval Reserve at 17 and he went to submarine school. He got a degree in English from the University of New Hampshire in 1960. Ken and Mariette St Pierre were married 7 February 1959. Their first child, Michael, was born in March 1960, just as Ken went into the Air Force and pilot training. By the time Sharon came along in August 1962, Ken was in Nav/bomb training. His first operational assignment was in the B 66 at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina, just in time for the Cuban crisis. Ken also did his first tour in Southeast Asia from Shaw. He did two tours in the F4 Phantom in England for a total of seven years with a return to Southeast Asia in between. Then one day in 1975, his career took an abrupt change of direction when he was declared a cop. He went to Moody Air Force Base as chief of police. Three years later he got his Pentagon assignment -- only they decided that USAF Security Police Headquarters was now in Albuquerque, New Mexico! He also joined the Albuquerque Reserve Police Force while there.

He retired from the Air Force in 1982 and immediately joined a company called California Plant Protection. They moved to Camarillo Calif. as a regional director. CPP provided security for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and later purchased Pinkerton to become the largest Security Business.

In 1994, Ken left Pinkerton to start a company of our own; doing mostly guards at US Embassies overseas. That kept us busy until he was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1997. He handled the treatment well and it seemed to do the job until New Years Eve when we learned the cancer was back. Ken underwent a stem cell transplant early in 1998; after that we decided to make the most of each and every day and succeeded.

We are blessed with wonderful children and their fabulous spouses, 7 amazing grandchildren, as well as 2 great grandchildren and one more on the way who will surely be even more amazing than their parents!

I have left out many things, from Ken’s additional education, his military awards and decorations, amazing trips and adventures, but most of all the wonderful people who so blessed and enriched our lives.

Ken took enormous pleasure in everything he did. His cup always ran over!

So, What’s Wrong With This picture?

 

This is one of the last pictures I took of Ken and his wife of 53-years, Mariette, at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in May, for their grandson Alex Kingsley.

I chose this picture because it shows how Ken saw himself. If this is not a portrait of pride, you’re not going to find one anywhere else. Ken was extremely proud of his entire family and he is one of the few people who, when talking about his family, you didn’t need a scorecard to keep up with the players. From the way he so artfully told stories, you always knew exactly of whom he was talking.

The stories he told always had a flair about them; he found humor, pride and joy in his offspring.

This picture also shows the pride he had in his public service. He loved to fly! The Air Force would send him and other crewmembers up into hostile skies in multi-million dollar jets to go find and or make trouble over enemy lines. The necktie is covered with F-4s the lapel pin is also of an F4. It was the plane in which there was only one other crewmember, the pilot; it offered him the greatest opportunity to practices his skills, and it gave him the best view. His specialty was navigation, with a sub-specialty of reconnaissance, taking picture for planners of air strikes to analyze for future missions and for analysis of the effectiveness of earlier attacks. He had flown the RB-66 as navigator and was a navigator-training officer.

He has a camera around his neck. He always wanted high quality pictures and he made sure he got it.

He was not one of those often-typical fathers who have hundreds of pictures of the first-born, then fewer and fewer pictures of the other children as they came along. He was more likely to have more pictures as the grand children came along. I didn’t get to see too many pictures of his great grandchildren, but I sure heard about them.

After his family and his national service, he never looked at change as a set beck, but as a challenge. When the Air Force took him off the flight line and assigned him to a desk, he quickly realized it didn’t have a tail number, controls, or switches, and levers, so he set about learning how to be a Chief of Police.

It is quite a switch when you think about it. You are suddenly the boss in a job you’ve never done. He joined the Albuquerque Police Department Reserve program as much to learn about civilian policing as he had for his real quest to learn more so he could put his experiences into his work. He was then the wordsmith for writing Air Force wide security policy and understanding the realities of the street made him cautious about writing rules that could be carried out.

He and I became partners patrolling the streets, mostly because I allowed Reserve Officers to drive the patrol car.

Along the way he had obtained a master’s degree in counseling and put it to great use.

He prepared himself for the civilian world, in part to share his passion for flying, by becoming a certified flight instructor. I became his first student. He was not really that hard to teach how to teach.

In one of those nervous moments, while practicing night landings, at a small private airport, where turning on the runway lights was controlled by clicking the aircraft radio, we got around to practicing the problem of approaching a runway where the light went out after the set time or as an emergency procedure. To try to break the tension I was experiencing I asked a stupid question. “what do you do if you turn on the landing light and see something on the runway you don’t like (I was thinking an airplane, without lights, or a deer)? Ken’s answer, ”Turn off the light.” It broke the tension and snapped me back to reality – land beyond the obstruction or go around.

His humor was always on the surface, it wasn’t biting, but he would nip you.

He was always good counsel and a great listener. However, the true mark of his friendship was best demonstrated in those rare times he sought out my counsel, because he knew I had experience in the subject he was just entering.

We were good friends and enjoyed each others company. He also was a rare individual were the other people who were his friends, were instantly your friends also.

He was a faithful supporter of my efforts in the on-going battle to improve government. He always advocated a firm letter to open the challenge against a governmental encroachment on civil liberties and personal rights. His suggest draft was right to the point. (For my readers who don’t mind his eloquent, yet accurate choice in the use of the English language, click on the lightened area below to see his word choice).

Dear Sir,

FUCK You very much! Strong message to follow!

Love and Kisses

Mark

He will be placed to final rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

I made this personal, but I believe everyone Ken knew has an equally compelling story.

If one believes in Heaven, then I’m sure Ken is already signing up angels to take his flight navigation course for those new wings.

Drab Day, Good Photo Opportunities

What’s Wrong With This Picture? (Click on any picture to enlarge.)

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, south of San Antonio, New Mexico is its 25th Festival of the Cranes, this week.

A little photo mission with my brother Guy and his wife Barb on Thursday afternoon found the refuge sparsely populated with visitors and birds.

The day had a mid-level layer of cloud cover.

There were birds, just not in the large numbers of years past.

Speculation, lack of birds might be due to a mild fall and it is also extremely dry.

Some fields are flooded to augment the wetlands, but there was a conspicuous absence of Canadian Geese.

A Golden Eagle established a perch on a tree in the center of an area half flooded and ventured out to dive and swoop, but this duck, below, kept flying as the eagle diverted its dive, and didn't come back with anything for lunch.

Among those viewing this raptor, there was some disagreement whether it was an immature Bald Eagle or a Golden.

Referring to the National Audubon Society’s Field Guide of Birds of the Western Region, based on the size and coloration, I’m going with it being a Golden Eagle. An immature Bald Eagle is larger and darker, it is actually larger than a mature Bald; having a greater wingspan. After its first molt, wing-tip feathers are not replaced. It’s like the bird loses its training-wheels.

A Golden Eagle is also smaller, with up to a six-foot wingspan, while the Bald has a wingspan up to seven and a half feet.

There were a variety of hawks, Harriers, Osprey, and Kestrel.

The stars of the show, the Sandhill Cranes were present, as were the snow geese.

This coyote was trying to jump the cranes, but they spotted him and those close took flight, while the others kept a sharp eye out.

At least the likelihood of this coyote is probably safe from the scheduled massacre, because it is making its home on federally protected land.

Near sunset, a small herd of deer came into an open field to graze.

At sunset we arrived at a very popular viewing location, the Flight Deck, where normally large flocks return to the wet area for the night. There was little activity as the sunset was muted.

Even the moon only showed the narrowest of a sliver.

So, What Is Wrong With This Picture?

Even with all the limited situations and weak light, many opportunities presented themselves.

This was a less hectic experience than others I have had where you seemed to be spinning, overwhelmed by the numbers of birds constantly moving and dividing your attention. This trip allowed one to savor the birds.

Kenneth John Gonzales nominated to United States District Court

President Barrack Obama nominated Kenneth J. Gonzales, right, a born, raised, and educated New Mexican, who is currently serving as United States Attorney, to be the next United States District Court judge for the District of New Mexico.

The President nominated Gonzales as one of seven to District Court judgeships across the country, according to a White House release from the Office of the Press Secretary.

His nomination is subject to advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. If confirmed, he will replace retired U.S. District Court Chief Judge Bruce D. Black, who left the bench in October.

Born in Española, in 1964 he graduated from Pojoaque High School and received from the University of New Mexico Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctorate degrees.

He was a legislative assistant to New Mexico’s U.S. Senator Bingaman on, among other issues, criminal justice and Native American affairs.

Gonzales was one of five names forwarded to the White House for consideration by Bingaman and New Mexico’s other U.S. Senator Tom Udall.

Robert Merle Schwartz

The Philadelphia lawyer, prosecutor, district attorney, defeated mayoral candidate, and Second Judicial District Court Judge, Bob Schwartz died Monday from complications – Pneumonia – after having broken his leg last week when he tripped over his dog.

He was 62.

When I joined the Albuquerque Police Department in 1976, Schwartz was a young assistant district attorney establishing a reputation of winning. He soon became a premier prosecutor in the office of DA Ira Robinson. He would become Chief Deputy DA under Steve Schiff until Schiff ran for and was elected to Congress.

Schwartz, who had been a Democrat changing parties to be elected as a Republican DA and would return to being a Democrat when he had to run for district court.

He handled several of my cases before the grand jury, but all those case went to pleas. I’d give him full credit for taking my police work and convincing defendants and their attorneys they did not want to risk going to trial.

I had one encounter in court with Schwartz that was unlike any normal judicial proceeding.

On April 26, 1996, I attended a State District Court hearing presided over by Judge Albert S. "Pat" Murdouch, into a citizens group's petition request for a Grand Jury to look into the City's payment of $450,000 to Officer Bruce McAllister.

McAllister had been an Albuquerque Police Department's narcotics detective who was targeted by a former Deputy Chief and his former narcotics squad sergeant, both who had retired, and conducted an illegal (unlicensed private investigators) criminal investigation against him into allegations of murder, rape and drug dealing.

Through the union, McAllister’s area representative passed him on to me; within minutes McAllister was talking to a lawyer.

The end result was McAllister was not criminally charged, but was fired and when he demanded an administrative grievance hearing the City refused to put on a case or to reinstate him; as a result the City settled for McAllister’s resignation in exchange for a payment of $450,000.

In court District Attorney Schwartz challenged the sufficiency of citizens group's petition for presentation to a grand jury because it lacked specific charges and evidence that are required under state law for a grand jury to be impaneled.

Schwartz lashed out at supporters for not having drafted the petition to include specific charges. Schwartz pointed to the spectators in the courtroom and stated that they were supporters and included two Albuquerque Police officers, (Billy Pounders and myself) stating, at least one who had been a former Union President and they know how to write a criminal charge.

Both Pounders and I were former union presidents; Pounders had an interest in the petition process, but he had not been involved in writing it.

I was in court as an interested spectator; I was not a supporter of, nor did I sign, the petition.

My interest was in McAllister, yet he was not at any risk through the grand jury process.

The citizens group's wanted to know how the administration had mishandled the investigation and why they refused to provide McAllister a due process hearing; that was being covered up.

I first saw the petition, (which was written in the form of asking questions about the legality of the acts committed rather than as statements of criminal charges) on August 9, 1995, when the citizens group's leader, Al Leath was a guest on the APOA Forum Cable 27 Public Access TV program.

The petition was already being circulated and I had no input into or influence on the request for a grand jury.

Murdouch accepted the petition ordering the impaneling of a grand jury: Schwartz was not going to present the case and the citizens group could not find an attorney willing to step forward.

Schwartz was plagued by personal demons – drugs and alcohol – and battled them for years; attending rehabilitation several times.

Through it all, he was always regarded as strong lawyer.

Russell Means 1939 – 2012

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

International indigenous people and Native American civil-rights leader, activist, politician, actor, writer, artist, and musician, Russell Charles Means died of cancer, Monday October 22, at home in Porcupine, South Dakota.

He was 72.

The above pictures, of the multi talented man were taken February 2, 2007 at the New Mexico Capitol

An Oglala Sioux, he was born in Wanblee, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. He was baptized, Oyate Wacinyapin, which in his native Lakota language means, "works for the people".

The reservation covers all or part of three counties in the southwest corner of the state. It represent some of the poorest area of the country, yet the landscape is magnificent.

Means was one of the main American Indian Movement leaders during the 71-day Wounded Knee occupation, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, S.D., which began February 27, ending May 8, 1973.

He was charged with a number of felony crimes along with fellow AIM leader Dennis Banks for the siege at Wounded Knee. Both were represented by ACLU lawyer William Kunstler and after eight months of trial, US District Court of South Dakota Judge Fred Joseph Nichol, dismissed all charges citing prosecutorial misconduct. The ruling withstood an appeal.

This triptych, is of the church at Wounded Knee, the central gathering point during the 1973 occupation and siege. The upper left is the view of the church and cemetery from across the road, BIA 27 also known as Big Foot Trail, as seen through a cut-out in the door of an outhouse, just in front of the stream bed where the massacre at Wounded Knee took place in 1890. The upper right picture is of the cemetery from the church looking towards the site: it is also where the artillery pieces were located. The bottom picture was a neighboring girl who sold me a raffle ticket in support of her softball team. The picture below left is of a memorial at the grave of the 1890 victims.

Means participated in several other AIM occupations and events. He joined AIM when he participated in the 1969 take over of Alcatraz island in San Francisco Harbor. He also protested: Mount Rushmore, S.D. in 1970, on Thanksgiving Day 1970, on a replica of the Mayflower at Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Washington, D.C. in 1973.

Means had a mainstream political history, he ran for the presidency of the Oglala Sioux tribe in 1974. He was defeated, but due to massive voter fraud, a federal court ordered a new election. The fraudulent government refused, and the court did not enforce its ruling. He had failed efforts at national politics when in 1984, as a vice-presidential candidate, he joined Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flint’s presidential campaign. In 1988 he made a run for the Independent Party’s presidential nomination, which went to Texas Representative Ron Paul.

A part time resident of San Jose, New Mexico, Means failed to get on the 2002 New Mexico ballot as an Independent candidate for Governor, because the Secretary of State claimed he’d missed a deadline for filing by ten-minutes. However, unlike this year’s election cycle, the State Supreme Court upheld the rejection.

He wrote a 1995 best selling book: “Where White Men Fear to Tread, the Autobiography of Russell Means.”

George McGovern 1922 – 2012

Former U.S. Senator, D – South Dakota and 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, George McGovern died Saturday October 13, 2012.

He was 90.

McGovern, was defeated in the landslide re-election of incumbent President Richard Nixon in 1972,

A harsh critic of the Vietnam War, McGovern only carried the State of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia by the greatest plurality in history.

Burglars working for Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), were arrested June 17, 1972, while planting electronic listening devices in the National Democratic Party Headquarters in the Watergate office and hotel complex.

The Watergate scandal was not widely reported until after the election and would lead to the resignation of Nixon. A number of his White House and campaign staff were: indicted, convicted, and sentenced for numerous crimes.

These pictures were taken during a June 5, 1972, McGovern primary campaign stop at Old Town Plaza, Albuquerque.

Senator Fred Harris, D-Okla., left, sits with 1972 McGovern and Rep. Morris K. Udall, D-Ariz., at a press conference at the Hacienda Restaurant in Old Town.

Harris, now a New Mexican had also been a primary candidate in 1972 receiving two electoral votes.

George Buffett

What’s Wrong With This Picture? 

Former 12-term New Mexico State Representative, Republican National Committee member, and candy-maker George Buffett died Saturday, October 9, 2012 of kidney and heart failure. He was 83.

He was also known for being a cousin of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett.

As a representative, he was known as a conservative’s conservative. He produced a newsletter between January 1989 and June 2008 called Buffett’s Bullets. In the 99 editions he was known to rail against political inside dealings, calling many CROOKS. He also gave sage advice along the way.