A journey for conversation
Americans live in a loud society. In 2017, it is likely nothing contributed to the cacophony more than politics. Blue, red, citizen, immigrant, collusion or not, it seemed as though everyone had something to disagree with.
For the past 10 years in Santa Fe, one organization has been contributing to face-to-face discourse — minus the cacophony — in an intelligent, measured and informative way. The group is called Journey Santa Fe and it meets at 11 a.m. every Sunday at the venerable Collected Works Bookstore and Coffee House at the corner of Galisteo and Water streets in downtown Santa Fe.
Its website (JourneySantaFe.com) bills the group as “a weekly, philanthropic gathering of progressive minded individuals who explore local and regional issues that influence our daily lives and those of future generations in New Mexico.”
That’s a tall order. However, thanks to the guidance of volunteer and co-founder Melissa Williams, public relations director since 2007, Journey Santa Fe has navigated the increasingly choppy waters of New Mexican and American politics.
Called the “linchpin” of Journey Santa Fe, Williams has helped assemble an impressive all-volunteer roster to help make Journey Santa Fe an invaluable resource for those interested in the who, what, when and why of local current events — with a lot less of the us vs. them that’s overtaken American discourse in the past two years.
The group includes longtime local media personalities such as William Dupuy and Ellen Dupuy; Pat Hodapp, director of the Santa Fe Public Library; Editor James Burbank; Andy Otto, former executive director of the Santa Fe Watershed; Green Fire Times Editor-in-Chief Seth Roffman; former magazine owner and now Santa Fe mayoral candidate Alan Webber; as well as digital experts Matt Gallegos and Kate Rollins.
Gallegos and Rollins keep the website running and produce podcasts of every Sunday morning session for public radio station KSFR.
Recent speakers vouch for the validity of the group’s wideranging Sunday morning subject matter. A few weeks ago, Santa Fe attorney Daniel Yohalem posed this question: “Does New Mexico’s subpar education violate the state constitution?” Earlier, wildlife geologist, First Mexican Wolf Recovery Program leader, and wolf activist David Parsons discussed the inside story of a recent agreement regarding wolf recovery between the state and federal government. These are just the tip of the conversational iceberg.
Journey Santa Fe programs are free and open to the public. We can’t think of a better way to conduct an in-person, intelligent — and quiet — conversation about the critical issues facing New Mexico and the entire country.