Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

Sun News Desert Sage column changes focus, will appear monthly

For nearly 21 years, this “Desert Sage” column has expressed concern, asked questions, proposed arguments and reflected on the state of New Mexico, the world and the human condition.

Win Mott created the column for the Deming Headlight in 2001, intentionally playing on the ambiguity of “Desert Sage” as either a human character or part of the natural flora of southwestern New Mexico. For over a decade he wrote about ecology, economics, ethics and faith, sometimes politics and always the human spirit.

In 2014, Win moved on to other things and, with his blessing, the Headlight asked me to take over. I had already been submitting monthly pieces since 2009, the first being a hymn to Thomas Paine and civic principle.

After a few years I was hired on as a reporter and the column migrated to the Las Cruces Sun-News, where it has quietly meandered from humor to polemics addressing national politics, popular culture, economics, arts and letters, parenting, technology and more .

The column has been a staunch supporter of keeping our postal service public and frequently extolled the benefits of writing letters. It has encouraged you to run for local office or help someone else do so; it has nudged you to vote, show up for public meetings once in a while (so the rascals know you’re watching), to speak up, demonstrate and organize; and never bow to despotism or nihilism nor embrace the meanness and vitriol modeled every day on Twitter and similar sites.

Reporter and 'Desert Sage' columnist Algernon D'Ammassa is seen during a hike at Rockhound State Park in Deming, NM on April 24, 2022.

Against the mood of our day, Desert Sage hath upheld a sense of optimism about our capacity to converse with and help one another. It has gone out on limbs and sometimes, as when I filed columns in verse, tested the indulgence of editors and page designers.

It has sought to be a friendly voice on your Sunday opinion page, an alternative to the “hot takes” served up by syndicated political pundits and a buoy of friendship in turbulent waters.

It has found a small audience and received honors from the New Mexico Press Association and Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

If you smell an announcement coming, here it is:

Gannett, the company that owns the Sun-News, is making far-reaching changes across its network of newspapers and websites, including how opinion pages are managed. The deadlines now fall in the middle of my regular work week as a reporter. It’s a good time for a shift.

Desert Sage will stop running weekly. While nothing is set in stone, the tentative plan is for me to write a monthly piece instead, perhaps telling longer stories or incorporating deeper reporting. Desert sage, after all, is famously adaptable to changing conditions and elevations.

A new direction the monthly Sage might take is to tell stories from all over New Mexico, stories demonstrating the beauty and wisdom that persist in our communities. Consider the tip line open for suggestions of problem-solvers, builders and healers, creative weirdos and magicians who brush past the daily drumbeat of nothingness and ruin emanating from online media.

Concurrently, we could document the best walks throughout this mad, beautiful state. Jean-Jacques Rousseau left behind an unfinished book of essays organized around several long walks near Paris. Desert Sage is no Rousseau, but he knows strolling, stories and thoughtful companions make a potent elixir whose essence may be shared. Together, let us saunter and reflect. Shout out the best walks and unique sites you cherish.

Failing that, just send an email ― or a letter written with a pen you enjoy holding ― and let old sagey know how you are holding up.

Algernon D’Ammassa has written the Desert Sage column since 2014. Write him at [email protected] or PO Box 84, Deming, NM 88030.

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