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Thursday, March 12, 2009 - Rockhound State Park, Deming NM

Big cat, City of Rocks State Park, Faywood NM, February 19, 2009
Big cat, City of Rocks State Park, Faywood NM, February 19, 2009

Time to hit the road, with a stop in Deming for a quick tour of the 44th annual Rockhound Roundup.

To quote an article in the Deming Headlight:

Rockhound Roundup kicks off today
By Kevin Buey/Headlight Staff
Posted: 03/12/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

Rockhounders were arranging their booths and display areas Wednesday at the Southwestern New Mexico State Fairgrounds.

They expect a crowd of people today through Sunday for the 44th annual Rockhound Roundup.

A short line was at a booth in front of Building 1, Wednesday, as folks registered for field trips that are part of the roundup.

Richard Jones, from Lajoya, Texas, is here with his wife, Donna. They are first-time visitors to the roundup. "Love the area," he said of Deming. "We're thinking of moving here.

"We bought a claim the other side of Hachita. I didn't realize there was this event. I'm interested in learning. I'll be new at rockhounding."

The first field trips are at 8:30 a.m., today, to Big Diggins, with John Ewert leading people looking for good Agate samples, and Joe Morone talking a group to Hatch to find Rhyolite and Fossils. Other field trips are Friday and Saturday, to Big Diggins, to Kilborne Hole, east of Columbus off Highway 9, and Black Dam, to the southwest in the Coronado National Forest. The registration line will be longer today.

Night camp

Site 5 - Rockhound State Park, Deming NM

Disaster and the Failure of Authority

Disasters are almost by definition about the failure of authority, in part because the powers that be are supposed to protect us from them, in part also because the thousand dispersed needs of a disaster overwhelm even the best governments, and because the government version of governing often arrives at the point of a gun. But the authorities don't usually fail so spectacularly. Failure at this level requires sustained effort. The deepening of the divide between the haves and have nots, the stripping away of social services, the defunding of the infrastructure, mean that this disaster—not of weather but of policy—has been more or less what was intended to happen, if not so starkly in plain sight.

The Uses of Disaster Rebecca Solnit, Harpers.org, September 9, 2005

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