Hormones, again!

By Patricia L. Sharpe

A few days ago I was in Silver City, New Mexico, where a friend was searching for affordable housing. Silver City’s heyday was the late 1800s, when the city was home to mining money. The ore-meisters built cupola-topped red brick mansions on the main drag, but mining, in it’s usual cyclical way, crashed. Then a flood came and washed away much of the center of the city. A surviving old house is now the wildly quaint city museum.

The next memorable era in Silver City was the hippie phase, which the museum does not recognize. Sixties-recalling murals, second hand shops and cafés dominate the historic city center today.

Now a third phase is underway. Real estate values are so depressed and/or reasonable that Silver City is becoming a retirement destination. So my friend decided to check it out.

That she did, for a day and a half, after which, last Wednesday morning, it was time to leave. Since our quaint B&B served the world’s most horrible breakfast, with swill as coffee, we stopped at a place called Java the Hut (Har! Har!) to fill our thermoses.

Java the Hut is also the place to go for a morning gab session. Three guys of the retiree variety were lounging on comfy couches taking about the primary in Pennsylvania. I hadn’t heard the late results, so I asked if any of them knew what the final vote was. The spread, one said, was nearly ten percent, with Clinton leading, which led one of his buddies to observe, “Twenty-five percent of Obama’s supporters would throw their weight to Clinton. Only 19 percent of her supporters would do the same. It’s racism,” he concluded.

I couldn’t resist. “If one is racism, the other is sexism. Why aren’t you denouncing that?”

The three of them laughed (Har! Har!). “A woman in the White House! Can’t risk it. Once a month, you know, women lose it.”

The curse of the curse! A monthly warpath! Was I really hearing this?

I muttered something about the 24/7 effects of testosterone on the current White House resident and his closest advisers, but I was so dumbfounded that didn’t think of the other perfect comeback. By the time any woman is ready to run for the presidency, menstruation is likely to be history.

But maybe my lapse was just as well. Sexist popular culture has nothing good to say for the business of being female during menopause either.

In short, if you’re a woman, young, middle-aged or old, you can’t win. And that’s what these guys were hoping, until Clinton grabbed the lead in Pennsylvania.

But sexist? Not them!

So if anyone’s still wondering why a lot of white men of the normally (covertly) racist variety are going to vote for Barak Obama, this little anecdote may shed a little light on the phenomenon.

Comments

[Courtenay Barnett]

Point well taken. However, in brief historical context consider this, that Frederick Douglass, the black abolisionist fighter defended women's rights and in December 1847 wrote “Right is of no sex,” and so stated in the first issue of his abolitionist newspaper, the North Star. Indeed, it makes best sense to assess the world and policies in reasoned and fair terms. Sadly, I have discerned that while the gender card has played implicitly into Hillary Clinton’s campaign, she has so, so, unfortunately been playing the race card, or stooping to whatever other low level she can to get the Presidential first place prize. Nothing to do with her gender there, but a hell of a lot to do with the contents of her character ( or lack thereof). And, as Douglass did note those many years ago – “Right is of no sex”. And, these few observations may shed some light on Hillary’s campaign and character, without detracting one iota from your valid commentary.

[Kathy Coombs]

Just a note to say that you caught the worst of Silver City. Java the Hut is our local den of close minded retirees who are often rude to anyone not in agreement with them. They have a track record of insulting customers and offer little of the friendly Silver City spirit. If you had gone to almost any other coffee shop in Silver, you likely would have seen our community for what it is, progressive and charming. As for affordable housing, we have loads of it. Rentals and properties for sale abound. Unfortunately to outsiders, much of this information is spread by word of mouth. With the right realtor or just some patience, there is a home for any budget. I moved to Silver 5 years ago and can't think of another small town that compares. We're three hours from Tucson and El Paso and 5 to Albuquerque or Phoenix. On three sides we have millions of acres of National Forest which makes camping, hiking, and hot springing accessible. Like many small towns it sometimes takes more than a couple days to find Silver's true value, but she's priceless.

[pls]

Thanks for giving another, happier view of the Silver City scene. Someday I'd like to check out those hiking trails and get to know you better, but priority went to my friend's quest. Meanwhile, I don't consider the anti-heroes of the piece as representatives of Silver City. They represent an ossified, but potent (sort of) demographic segment and I was truly astonished to stumble over them.

[Mitch Helllman]

Frankly, you have done such a poor job of understanding and describing Silver City that I think it affects your basic premise. Your info on the mining industry, the 'hippie phase,' and the real estate market are all wildly inaccurate, but I will spare your readers the details.

Java the Hut used to be operated by Paul Carlson, one of the truly infuriating curmudgeons of our time. Paul liked nothing better than to issue outrageous pronouncements to anybody in the shop; I suppose you could say that he was doing so to air opposing or contrarian points of view, but I think that basically he liked to piss people off. Paul died a few years back, and his patient wife continues to run the place.

What I think happened is that you walked in with an obvious chip on your shoulder... and the denizens of Java the Hut neatly removed it, whittled it into a piece of Western folk art, and handed it back to you-- with the ghost of Paul Carlson watching gleefully from Somewhere while yet another tourist got his or her feathers ruffled.

Ask yourself this: with all your years of foreign service experience, why did you expect that a stranger inflicting her political opinion on the locals would be any more welcome here than say, Asia, Africa or Latin America?

[Joanne Cross]

Ms. Sharpe, where do you get your facts? I'm a fourth generation Grant Countian. Firt you made it sound like mining was the only thing that this area depended on. Not true! Cattle ranchers and some farming also were big contributors when mines were on strike. Also we have a large Forest Service Department here and the "well recognized" University that has turned out wonderful Teachers, Geologist, Computer Geeks, Nurses, etc; Not all the houses were mansions with red cupolas, most were adobe in the beginning and stand today. We have a varied amount of different architectural styles in this community and always have. Yes, we had some big floods, because a lot of trees were cut down, the town was built in a low area where the water came through, with a couple of streams that come together (that's why the Indians and Mexican people settled here.). The flood left more than one building, in fact many are still here, including one being lived in today, that stands on the bank of the Big Ditch (formerly our main street). The quaint old house you spoke of, is not even near where the flood occurred. The Ailman House, which later was our fire department, then later turned into our City Museum.

You speak of the next "memorable" era being the hippie phase, which really doesn't compute. After the floods (more than one) we had many memorable events, including the fight to either be part of Arizona or New Mexico, Whether to back our money with Silver or Gold, To get a Public School going and then to win the University placement, The Red Cross, and many more equally important events. All dramatically affecting our area and the southwest part of New Mexico. I failed to mention some very important Indian battles, Fort Bayard etc; etc; and many more that I haven't remembered. World War I and World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Desert Storm and the current, have all had a dramatic affect on our community.

You talked about the sixty murals, but you missed some that are more historical, that you could hnve visited in our old Court House, that go back much further and are true works of art.

Cafes and second hand, antique shops do dominate a lot of our downtown, now, but that is compareablly new to the history of this town. The downtown used to be a bustling one main street town, that served all of the S.W. corner of New Mexico and parts of Arizona. The town has grown and changed, and bigger business have come into town, some put smaller business our of business, and some business people just retired. Through the efforts of The Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Project, Arts Council, etc; our town is surviving and holding onto our past as well as our future as best we can. We who have lived here, are very proud of our town, and hope to keep it friendly and inviting to many.

Our Real Estate is not depressed as you expressed, but thriving. Some of the over priced properties, that speculators thought they would make a killing on, have had to adjust to a slower economy, something the country in general will do sooner or later. But sales are still happening. Slower growth is not all bad. To grow too fast, could cause us many more problems in the future. We welcome all peoples, as we have always been a diverse community, but don't come in here for a short period of time and start slamming us or our businesses. Or you won't be welcome. I would never go where y;ou live with a chip on my shoulder and insult you, no matter what I felt. It's rude!

As for your specific comments about your Bed and Breakfast and the food, you have many choices in the town. Aren't you smart enough to go somewhere else? Or is it easier just to complain.

You really downed one business, the Java Hut. You took your frustrations out on a widowed woman who depends on this business for a living, because you couldn't take the heat for your remarks. The regulars gave back what you deserved. You are correct about it being the place to go, for a drink, for good, intellectual conversztion and friendliness. As for the politics part of the conversation, everyone is allowed their view. After all, this is America. And everyone that goes in speaks their mind, but they do not snub their noses unless attacked. I think you have forgotten what a sense of humor is about. We regularly kid everyone about everything.

So, Pat, we wish you well. Vija Con Dios!

[jinx]

Pat, I'm reminded of a blog comment my daughter made once when, on her way home from a tiring work day, she was caught in the huge traffic jam of two major sporting events which happened to end simultaneously. Keeping her sense of humor, she titled the paragraph "I Hate Sports!" Somehow word of the thread got out onto the Web, and it took on a life of its own which continued for years, with heartfelt attacks on all sports mostly from guys who'd been bullied, and tough-language often homophobic paeons to sports which seemed to come from the bullies. It was obvious that the commenters weren't bothering to read the original post, which really wasn't about their issue... just as your post isn't really about Silver City, NM, its happenstance setting, nor is it an attack on Silver City.
Knowing nothing about the town, I read of it and thought the place sounded interesting. "Java the Hut" is clever, I thought. I read your comments on the antique sexist gibes as a general reminder that this thinking is very much with us in general, not a condemnation of this town where you happened to hear it. I'm sure you could happen to hear the same kind of remarks in my town, or any other.
The indignant comments here tell us that at least some of the residents can be a bit prickly, but that, too, is true of any town. The more important reminder is that America is by no means beyond racial or gender bias, with the latter perhaps the more deeply entrenched.

[pls]

Thanks, Jinx. You got it.

Mitch: An FSO abroad is a diplomat in all senses of the word, and I can do that very well. When I'm in America, however, I'm not a Foreign Service officer. I'm an ordinary citizen. I'm part of the political process. I'm embedded (so to speak)in the socio-economic system. Your city is part of my country and my state. Your political choices affect me, too. So I engage in a frank open way that I avoid, even when I am traveling abroad in a purely private capacity.

As for all you Silver City people who are unhappy with my impressions,look at it this way: people all over the world are reading your responses and learning more about Silver City. As for criticizing other people's cities, come to Santa Fe and write what you like. Love it or trash it. Your choice. I do apologize for not mentioning that Java the Hut had very very good espresso. That's why we went back a second time. Dinner at Diane's and at Isaac's was good, too. I didn't mention the name of the B&B because I did trash the "breakfast." Otherwise the acommodations were fine.

[Mitch Hellman]

You have made an error common to many bloggers. There's a vast difference between the blogosphere, where you can bloviate to your heart's content to an audience that *chooses* to read your comments-- and the real world, where a lot of us would prefer to having the option of *asking* for somebody's opinion rather than having it foisted upon us by a total stranger.

You insinuated yourself into the conversation, at which point one of the participants apparently said something that was deliberately meant to rile you up. Har! Har! right back at you-- you took the bait, left in a huff and proceeded to write a snarky piece in an effort to tar the entire town... simply because somebody didn't meet your high standards and had the temerity to remind you about heat and kitchens.