Still dreaming of home rule one day in Taos

Our dream group meets each week to discuss two dreams.

A recent dream is offered. The dreamer explains its meaning. We imagine her dream as our own. We offer our interpretations. We replay her dream in our minds, extending or changing it to achieve favorable outcomes. These results are discussed. We thank the dreamer.

You sneeze. I say “Home rule” instead of “Bless you.” We talk about local control. It would allow us to be ecologically accountable. We’re discussing a near future, returning to our roots as clean, sane people of the land. May we wake and remember, someone says, her voice floating over us. I wake.

They say all politics are local.

Group projects like home rule take time and forward motion. Wouldn’t council members Darien Fernandez and Pascualito Maestas care to send an email blast to their 1,000plus supporters saying 250 signatures are needed? The signatures could be collected in a few weeks onto a paper “petition.” (That’s what the first step of the home rule process is called. The signers aren’t begging. They can’t be rejected or ignored; home rule is an inherent right.)

The various interest groups banging their heads against town hall could band together under a home rule banner to accomplish their goals.

Two-hundred-and-fifty signatures, then six months for a citizen committee to redraft the town code (charter). Residents vote to keep the current rules or adopt a fresh set.

Somebody get Councilman Nathanial Evans a horse dose of Homerulecillin. The young leaders are from Taos. Each has a local perspective. They represent the ideas of their constituents. Why aren’t we hearing the council members’ voices?

The town code was redrafted in 1998. Let’s try anew. Let’s have a town code that empowers council members to speak freely. Eternal optimism, my fellow Rickbellistanis. See you in town!