Where is the Outrage

My latest issue of the National Geographic magazine arrived in the mail, yesterday. I'm sure it should have been here a week or more ago - but Santa Fe mail is famously bad.

I immediately turned to my favorite section, in the back of the magazine - "Zip USA". Maybe I enjoy its similarities to Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways and anything by Charles Kuralt; or maybe I just like meeting new people and cultures as they look on paper – hence my subscription.

So there I was reading the article about a wealthy Houston subdivision and its ‘ladies of stature’ - as written by an obviously enamored ‘non-journalist’. I was appalled at the decadence. The heart of the story revolved around the “grande dame of Houston’s elite” which is “a woman of a certain age, but she looks great: She’s still blonde, still appears at charity galas, and is still featured in the pages of Vogue and W.” She is a billionaire. She is also the wife of Oscar Wyatt – recently indicted in the UN oil-for-food scandal. One look at the full-page photo of her in smiling regal glory and anyone can tell she is unfazed by the ethical dilemma.

Another woman is a former litigator that made her money as a trial lawyer in the Exxon Valdez oil spill case – defending Exxon! My personal favorite was a former publicist that married a billionaire (that is actually the majority of the candidates’ claim to fame) and is now known for throwing the most extravagant fetes where “the chic are fussed over, the overweight not permitted…”

Meanwhile, across town I’m sure life is no different for the working class… or maybe it is just like Santa Fe, where I hang my hat and toss the occasional ‘fete’. Maybe the Houston wealthy, like my neighboring Santa Fe citizens, hire the massive illegal immigrant population to do their day-labor (construction, gardening, etc) for an average rate of $13/day.

In two previous states, before stepping-up to self-employment in Santa Fe, my wife and I were teachers. Both college-educated spouses with three young children, working in the education field and we qualified for government assistance (though our pride refused to allow us to accept it). We have since pulled ourselves up from the “poverty of working in public education” to where we are now – self-employed. I am an artist and she is a speech-pathologist. We have become our own American dream – and neither of us married for money. Where is our story in National Geographic magazine?

Better yet; where is the story of the migrant illegal workers? The reality of their story is the very fact that they are ‘not counted’. The most recent US Census states 76% of Santa Fe is white, yet they refuse to count the additional 40% of the actual population that are non-white illegals – because they are illegal. My Midwest upbringing would typically make me believe that these immigrants should do everything possible to ‘become citizens’. Now though, as a resident of an affluent southwest city, I am awakened to the reality that our economy would crumble if these workers left. Not ONLY because they are cheap labor, but because they are some of the hardest workers I have ever encountered. Long days, few breaks and grateful for every bit of employment they can attain. But National Geographic doesn’t want their story. Your ‘society’ is too busy placating the egos of the Houston affluent for future endowments. - DN