The mesa around my neighborhood is a great place to take walks. Dusty dirt-roads criss-cross the expanse of sage brush, intersecting what once was wilderness outside the Taos town boundaries. Over the years, Taos has expanded and the wild places hold housing developments and asphalt roads. I feel lucky to live in this semi-wild place. The sagebrush and sandy soil remind me of the dune landscape in Holland where tough grasses and low-growing bushes keep the sand from shifting. The mesa landscape doesn’t connect with the sea, but it gives a wide view of snowcapped mountains, the Sangro de Christo range, towering at 11- 13,000 feet above the mesa and Rio Grande Canyon. The expanse of the landscape and the monotony of the sagebrush allow me to think.
On one of my walks this week, I took a dirt path that leads to a gravel road. It crosses through a wash with a few cottonwood trees where sometimes water or snowmelt accumulates. As I dipped into the wash, the sight of a trash dump in the placer of what is often a mud hole, took me aback. Not a small number of items casually thrown away, but a substantial heap of trash, measuring at least two truck-loads. The dusty path crosses a drivable dirt road and I concluded that someone created a private dump. Although the trash is hidden from the road, it can still be found by anyone walking the mesa. Getting rid of trash is expensive in Taos. The municipal landfill on both sides of the town may not always be open as expected. The alternative and Hispanic influence creates a culture of laissez-faire, inconsistent posting online, and closing patronages whenever family matters are more important in the operator's mind than the public good. Arroyos and small canyons are the second choice for getting rid of trash (I suspect the first choice for some among us). Ugly and irresponsible as these sites are, it perpetuates a mentality of “I do what I want, this is my land and I won’t let government interfere”. As an Anglo, born and raised in an orderly rule-bound environment (Holland), I cannot get behind this outlook on things. Who dirties their own nest is my thinking?
Here we are, people making their own rules. As the student protests rage on campuses, my thoughts go back to 1969 when I was a student and we decided we didn’t like the rules society put upon us. We protested and stormed the University, and took possession of an institution that was supposed to serve us. I stood on the balustrade of the University of Amsterdam waving a flag, yelling anti-establishment slogans, “democratize the University”, “We have a say”, “this is our institution”, “away with anti-democratic rule”. Adrenaline flowed as things spiraled out of control and trash was set on fire to make a statement. It was dangerous and the police had a hard time keeping the order. We ended up getting what we wanted: a democratized institution where decisions were made with student, faculty and administration in consensus style meetings. Yes, that’s when consensus started. It had a significant impact on organizations for years.
Once more, students utilize their institution for societal change. Will they succeed? In the current political climate, with much more mistrust among opposing factions and a penchant for using force, this may make this student protest an ineffective tool for change.
Reasonable rationale doesn’t solve the trash problem in Taos. A reasonable request for a Palestinian state and a 2-country solution to the problem in the Middle East doesn’t solve the gaping cultural problem between Israel and Palestine. Short-sighted solutions to dealing with trash don’t end the long-standing outlook of I-don’t-have-to-follow-the-rules, this-is-my-land attitude. Solutions for a Palestinian state next to a hated neighbor doesn’t change the long-standing attitude of superiority and hatred between Palestine and Israel. Rules don’t work when the willingness to follow them isn’t there. Freedom to do as you wish tramples on the freedom of others.
I trudge on the sandy path that leads out of the dirty wash. I can avoid seeing the trash pile by taking a different route and hope some day someone will find a solution. I can turn off the news and hope someone will find a solution for the Israeli-Palestine territory problem. My university student years are behind me. I can look back and see we forged change in our time. Change will come to Israel and Palestine in time. Let the student voices ring out, but let’s not move into using violence to make a point.