Current mood: idealistic
How long till my soul gets it right?
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light?
I call on the resting soul of Galileo
King of night vision, King of insight
~ “Galileo” by the Indigo Girls
Today is Governor (New Mexico) Richardson’s last day of office. Richardson, in his last non-act as governor, has refused to pardon Billy the Kid of his past crimes. The legend goes that the then governor, Gov. Lew Wallace, promised the Kid a pardon in exchange for his eye-witness testimony of other killings during the Lincoln County War. Richardson claims that there is not any tangible evidence that Gov. Wallace ever intended on pardoning the notorious gunslinger. For those of you not familiar with the Lincoln County War, watch ‘Young Guns’ for a glorified historical viewpoint.
Instead of a pardon, William H. Bonney (aka Billy the Kid) was sentenced to hang for the murder of the Lincoln County Sheriff. He escaped; taunting the law by singing ‘I shot the sheriff; but I didn’t shoot the deputy.’ Pat Garrett, an old ‘friend’ of Bonney’s, caught up with the outlaw and shot him (some say “in the back”). And it is Garrett’s grandson (who is shockingly, still alive) and Wallace’s great-grandson (who is also still alive) who claim pardoning the outlaw would be a disgrace on their ancestors’ good-names.
Forgive me for saying so; but I don’t think that pardoning Billy the Kid would do anything to the “good names” of Wallace and Garrett. The only reason anyone even knows who these people are is because they were involved with Billy the Kid. I don’t think anyone else cares – especially not Billy, who stays dead, either way. I shouldn’t say that “no one cares”, because there was a public poll taken and of the 809 responses, 430 supported the pardon. Why is this even being discussed? Are things in New Mexico so hunky-dory that they have to bring up 100 year old controversy to keep the rest of the world interested? Aren’t there any new alien conspiracies?
To honor 2011, I would like to offer all of you a pardon. It’s a clean slate, beginning tomorrow. Act accordingly!
