The first rule of democracy club is you have to talk about democracy club. No repeating slogans without understanding issues, no reinforcing falsehoods because you can’t be bothered to investigate the truth yourself and, most of all, no laying claim to your rights as an individual under the Constitution if you can’t also accept the responsibilities of individuals in participatory government. Democracy must be an ongoing public dialogue.

Early in September, while Santa Feans readied their gloom for the combustible catharsis of Zozobra, I snuck into a friend’s metal shop and prepared a descanso for my father. He died in June of this year, in a sudden accident on Highway 395 in California.

As election season points toward us with stunted political logic—blue or red? Left or right? Bad hair or worse hair?—we need to remember how to identify ourselves with the values that really matter to us as individuals. But we also need to identify others with similar sensibilities so we can form blocs and get out the vote that best represents our needs.

The recent deployment of members of the National Guard along New Mexico’s Mexican border delicately straddles the Posse Comitatus Act, and smudges the already blurry lines between police, military and private contractors.

New Mexico now has offices in Munich, London and Paris! Sort of. According to an Aug. 25 press release issued by the New Mexico Tourism Department, European management and consulting company Mangum Hills Balfour will “consolidate the Department’s activities under one agency and act as the office for New Mexico in Europe.”

City Councilor Rosemary Romero wins the award for “most reasonable proposed ordinance” this summer. In a season that has seen suggestions for panhandling permits and bans against nudity and quasi-nudity, Romero’s proposed revamp of the city’s ethics code is stunning in its legislative relevance.

According to popular definitions for “mission creep,” there has been a recent textbook example here in Santa Fe. The Plaza Roundtable, established by city resolution in March 2009, recently delivered its recommendations on how to manage and maintain the Plaza.

It’s a damn good thing City Councilor Ronald Trujillo has taken a proposed ordinance to ban the feeding of prairie dogs and stuffed it down a mysterious hole in a city park. It makes no sense to legislate such a thing—as numerous critics have pointed out—but that doesn’t mean Trujillo’s sentiment was wrong.

The planet should collectively thank BP for the Deepwater Horizon accident. With public opinion regarding oil and gas at an all-time nadir, and 63 percent of Americans willing to pay more for clean and independent energy, the impetus to finally jump on renewables is here.

Serious business is afoot in the halls of government in Santa Fe. The city that once proposed leash laws for cats is now angling to license panhandlers and toughen up laws against nudity.