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January 2, 2008 at 14:30:43

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Reminiscence on the passing of New Mexico Senate President Ben Altamirano

by Stephen Fox     Page 1 of 2 page(s)

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Reminiscence on the passing of Senate President Ben Altamirano

By Stephen Fox 

I. A truly great statesman

     For two years, he endorsed and volunteered to sponsor the bill to create a powerful new Nutrition Council for New Mexico, of which I was the author, and he saw the need to have express powers to challenge the FDA when it was wrong. He spoke of the need to have viejos and comadres serving on the council, if it was really going to help the people improve their health, not just industry apparatchiks. He told me many times that although he didn’t have a lot of confidence in the accuracy of newspapers, he had never gotten such good press nor such positive feedback from constituents in his entire legislative career than he had gotten from taking on the Nutrition Council legislation and its related issues.

       Then the corporate lobbyists who had nothing to gain and everything to lose if the Nutrition Council ever were passed by the Legislature, turned on him and forced the bill's evisceration in a couple of Senate Committees.

      He always had time to talk and always saw deeply into matters of ordinary people and the problems deriving from poverty, stemming from his own experiences growing up somewhat poor in Grant County. He was no "hack" like some of the very powerful in the Roundhouse; I think the main reason he rose to power was his even handedness as Senate Finance Chairman for 18 years, disbursing the state's money even handedly, fairly, judiciously, and without the faintest hint of scandal or dishonesty! Michael Sanchez noted in his personal eulogy that Ben got the Pro Tem job after he asked the Democrat Caucus after Richard Romero resigned to run for Congress if anyone objected to his being Pro Tem, because he wanted it to be unanimous, and of course, no one objected and he got the job. I was in his office a day or two later and he was beaming with happiness and saying “By golly, President Pro Tem of the New Mexico Senate: it sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?”

       All of New Mexico will miss him profoundly. House Speaker Luján noted that legislation sponsored this year by Altamirano took effect on New Year's Day, to increase minimum wage benefiting the lowest-paid workers in New Mexico. "He was a gentleman in a place that does not always treat gentlemen kindly. He was a statesman in a place that too frequently rewards those with more narrow concerns," said Luján. "He brought a calm, reasonable voice to a place that needs more calm and more reason."

 II. What Killed Benny Altamirano?

    At the Memorial Service in the Rotunda, his son Paul briefly touched on the “negative” aspects of what 36 years of public service in the New Mexico Senate really means: the 4:00 A.M. calls asking him to come to Santa Fe, the very long trip starting with the tortuous winding road over the Black Range, the 1 and 2:00 A.M. sessions in Senate Finance, the stress, the cumulative fatigue (all of which led his doctors to recommend that he “cut back and slow down.” Not Benny . . . no one was as driven as he was by a love of public service and legislating.

    After visiting him in his office, I noticed several perpetual cans of diet Coke in his office refrigerator. I was horrified for his health: the sweetener Aspartame is metabolized as methanol and formaldehyde, obviously two horrible effects on anyone, particularly someone recovering from cardiac surgery and on a later occasion, from a severe bout with bronchial pneumonia. I gave him dozens of bottles of Organic Apricot Nectar from the Italian firm, BioNaturae, but he kept drinking the Diet beverages. His physicians were right to be alarmed. Anyone would suffer from the grinding schedule of New Mexico’s Senate President.

In retrospect, maybe he shouldn’t have gone to Santa Fe in the later years, and shouldn’t have carried on those 100 hour weeks. Someone suffering from cardiac impairments and later a total knee replacement, the last of his surgeries, should have retired and told stories of his accomplishments to his eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren. But not Ben Altamirano . . .

       It was almost as if he believed his personal powers of civility and persuasion would allow him to prevail over the Grim Reaper himself. After all, he had conquered a divisive and even embittered Legislature and six different Governors with his civility, decency, and wit. Alas, that was not to be. My own theory is that a disproportionately large number of aged and ill people die after our gluttonous holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, much as Halloween is bad for all of the children goring on sugar, candy, and junk food and much as hundreds die in auto wrecks after imbibing on New Year’s Eve.

    Ben and his family no doubt welcomed the lighter load as Pro Tem, compared to the 18 years of physical draining as Senate Finance Chairman. Having grown up in the Depression in New Mexico made him glad to accept the travel and perks offered the Pro Tem, like a trip to the Netherlands to examine nuclear fuel reprocessing, and international legislative conferences in China and in California. I even warned him several times about the impact of such travel on his health.

 III. Altamirano’s Service to New Mexico

   His service to New Mexico was profound and ongoing. I won’t baste his memory with any more honorifics than those already accorded to him by his sincere and grief-stricken colleagues speaking in the Rotunda, except to say that his enduring gift of Collegial Civility will almost be everlasting, and I hope Governor Richardson will find some buildings in both Santa Fe and Silver City to name after him. Richardson prefers to bestow such honorifics on the living, when the person is still alive, and we all know that Ben Altamirano deserves this as much or more than some of those already deemed to be so worthy. He touched every single area of state government. There is housing named after him at New Mexico universities, and there is the Altamirano Leadership Conference at Luna Community College, which might be developed at all of the New Mexico state universities, in the Political Science Department or at UNM Law School. Ben would have liked that . . .

 IV. Corporate Lobbyists’ Stranglehold on Legislation

     I am still angry about the way that the corporations involved and their lobbyists robbed New Mexico of the powerful new Nutrition Council sponsored by Ben in 2005 and in 2006. Actually, on the strength of his great personality and power, the bill made it all the way through in 2005 passing resoundingly in both Houses, but died on the last day as a result of a long and destructive filibuster by Roswell Republican Dan Foley which in fact killed about six bills and five memorials. Throughout both years, the lobbyists leaned on Ben about this bill: he even shared with me in 2006 that particularly Coca Cola was upset with him for sponsoring such pro- consumer legislation, reminding him that they had donated many thousands of dollars to his slate of Senators for reelection, in golf tournaments and in outright direct contributions.

    Like many parents with large families, he wanted all in his Legislative family to be happy, even the lobbyists, although I told him many times that if you are going to do real consumer protection to benefit the families, the poor, and the minorities of New Mexico, you are going to make some corporation angry, perhaps even several.

    Ultimately, he caved into the demands of these unscrupulous lobbyists, because they too were his long time friends. The same corporations hired “friends” of Bill Richardson to be their lobbyists one year, which resulted in a 15-day delay in putting the bill on the Governor’s “call,” and in a 30-day session, a fifteen-day delay is a death knell for even the most profoundly needed legislation.

   It is a bathetic and a pathetic ghastly situation in which corporate lobbyists from Ajinomoto, a Japanese company making aspartame and monosodium glutamate, can purchase their stranglehold on government, as they do in Santa Fe, in Washington, and in every international capitol, a condition that will go on and on, even as human bodies pile up from Multiple Sclerosis, Cancer, Sudden Cardiac Death from Aspartame in Diet Cokes (please take the time to read Neurosurgeon Blaylock’s alarming article on this at

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In 1980, Stephen Fox founded New Millennium Fine Art, a Santa Fe gallery specializing in Native American and Landscape, and is very active in New Mexico Legislative consumer protection politics, trying above to get the FDA to rescind its approval (more...)
 

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4 comments


Who will replace Senate President Ben Altermirano?

From your story we can see that former Senate President Ben Altamirano was really great person and true statesman. New Mexico will have big problem finding the right candidate to replace him. These days it’s very hard to find candidates who cares, and have energy and desire to represent people in their best interest.

by Ivan Simic (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1 comments) on Thursday, Jan 3, 2008 at 6:00:28 AM

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Senator Altiamirano's Passing

It was a sad day in New Mexico.

by Eliot Gould (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 28 diaries, 200 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Jan 3, 2008 at 10:27:34 AM

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On the passing of NM. Sen. Altamirano

Nicely done...pulling in the aspartame factor. . A real human interest story as well as political insight into the personal relationship vs. political relationship that must be difficult to traverse. Eileen Dannemann, former director, National Coalition of Organized Women

by Eileen Dannemann (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 6 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Jan 3, 2008 at 3:37:23 PM

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More comments directly emailed to author Stephen Fox

For whatever reason, lack of time, not wanting to register, reading the article in many New Mexico sites, including DEMOCRACY FOR NEW MEXICO, many friends and correspondents as well as the son of Senator Altamirano himself, emailed me directly.

 I submit their words in a group, as they are most penetrating and incisive, as the mind of the Senator penetrating and incisive, especially the Philippino Nurse from Minnesota....

___________________________

I certainly appreciate the kind words and references for he was our family hero, irrespective of his career.

 

Paul Altamirano, son of Senator Ben Altamirano

 

____________________________________

 

 Thank you very much for sharing an outstanding life of a man. I have learned a lot from just reading it. It's funny how our society creates its own diseases and the people in power that have to allow products to be in the market and not care about its devastating long-term effects on the body. I see it all the time and even in my workplace they have this vending machine with full of pop choices and my psychologically impaired clients buy them everyday and drink easy 3-5 cans a day. I have to deal with all the hyperglycemia and no matter how much i educate them on its bad effects on the body they keep drinking it because it's available and very readily accessible. I just happen to see Warren Buffet interview lately with his trip to Korea and endorsing his newly bought stocks of diet cherry coke and how much he drinks it everyday and how much his family and grandkids like it-it's so sickening and he did it many times in front of the camera. My good thoughts of him change that very minute. 

I agree with you we need more people like your friend to continue the work and stop this masked poisons out there-hiding in different names in the food that people encounter everyday.

 

Nancy Padrnal, R.N. Minnesota

   

Thank you Stephen, I have linked the article from my articles on New Mexico. What an irony that, although sponsoring your bill, Altamirano was a consumer of the very stuff you wanted to get rid of. And it might  have been his undoing as well.

Kind regards
Sepp Hasslberger, Italy

http://www.lastrega.com/Hasslberger

 

What a nice article.  I didn't know the guy of course but he sounds great.  I think you are probably right about older folks dropping like flies after overeating on holidays.  I am sure it happens.  Agree on the candy at Halloween too but feel helpless about it.  I am guilty of the occasional diet coke although very little I must say. 

 

Nancy Hensleigh, Cambridge Massachusetts

 

I was moved by your article because it was so true of Senator Altamirano.  You only really respect those who are true to their roots and to the office to which they have been elected. 

Thank you for that clarity and conviction,  

Reese Fullerton

Deputy Secretary of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Dept.

State of New Mexico

 

_____________________________

   

Thank you for the passage. I never knew the Senator but reading this passage makes one appreciate what it means to live a fulfilled life of giving and never holding back. He has crossed to the other world but I hope his family finds solace not in material achievement but his sense of moral duty to his fellow countrymen, his sense of fairness, that both sides of political divide never felt sacrificed for selfish reasons.

 

 Joviah Musinguzi, Kampala, Uganda

 

by Stephen Fox (96 articles, 3 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 802 comments [33 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Tuesday, Jan 8, 2008 at 8:46:53 PM

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