I can't quite brag that I survived the Fourth of July in the epicenter of New Mexico tourism--Red River--but it was close. I bailed out on the weekend after the Fourth and headed for Colorado. In part I was inspired from that scene in "Jurassic Park," when the idealistic vegetarian girl expressed disgust about dinosaurs eating meat. The paleontologist shrugged it off by saying, "They just do what they do."
Indeed, 'free moral agency' is a pernicious doctrine. Why not just think of tourists as one more species of animal life that behaves in a way that is genetically determined? Why not stop judging them as moral beings?
Unfortunately I can't seem to extend this equipoise to merchants in a tourist trap. They are as voracious as a new insect hatch in the brief summer of the Canadian Arctic--and for pretty much the same reason. I sat down in a nice coffee shop, spread out my laptop computer on the table, and then ordered my drink. The proprietor wanted to charge me for using his Wi-Fi. When I explained that I was using Verizon's internet signal from their cell tower, he just said, "Well then I have to charge you for electricity." Why bother to explain that an hour of laptop electricity is worth about 1/2 cent? I got my coffee and left. That gives you an idea of what the merchants of Red River NM are like.
Soon I was out of the forests of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Ahh, it looked so good to see wide open panoramas again! Ute Mountain commands the view-scape of the Rio Grande valley in northern New Mexico.
I was sorry to be leaving New Mexico, and had to stop for one last adobe ruins. Doesn't this look like it could be a movie set for a Spaghetti Western? These will be scarcer as I drive north, away from the Spanish influence.
Indeed, 'free moral agency' is a pernicious doctrine. Why not just think of tourists as one more species of animal life that behaves in a way that is genetically determined? Why not stop judging them as moral beings?
Unfortunately I can't seem to extend this equipoise to merchants in a tourist trap. They are as voracious as a new insect hatch in the brief summer of the Canadian Arctic--and for pretty much the same reason. I sat down in a nice coffee shop, spread out my laptop computer on the table, and then ordered my drink. The proprietor wanted to charge me for using his Wi-Fi. When I explained that I was using Verizon's internet signal from their cell tower, he just said, "Well then I have to charge you for electricity." Why bother to explain that an hour of laptop electricity is worth about 1/2 cent? I got my coffee and left. That gives you an idea of what the merchants of Red River NM are like.
Soon I was out of the forests of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Ahh, it looked so good to see wide open panoramas again! Ute Mountain commands the view-scape of the Rio Grande valley in northern New Mexico.
I was sorry to be leaving New Mexico, and had to stop for one last adobe ruins. Doesn't this look like it could be a movie set for a Spaghetti Western? These will be scarcer as I drive north, away from the Spanish influence.
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