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Thursday, July 03, 2008

Editorial: State Director Stepped Up



      Sometimes all it takes to make a difference is one person willing to step forward.
    And for an East Mountains woman, that one person was Benito Martinez Jr., director of the New Mexico Regulations and Licensing's Manufactured Housing Division.
    Martinez got a letter from Rep. Kathy McCoy about the woman, who doesn't want to be identified. The woman's trailer off N.M. 14 was in poor shape — no heat, leaky roof, faulty wiring and mold.
    Martinez asked the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department to do a welfare check on the ill woman. And although there wasn't much he could do through his job with the state, there was something he could do as a person. He put the woman up in a motel while he went to work contacting people he knew. Fifteen people stepped forward to get the woman a new trailer and get it set up.
    Martinez made sure to let these volunteers know that he was asking a person, not a state official, to get the new home for the woman. He didn't want to come into conflict with the state's anti-donation laws.
    “I don't believe these things happen by accident,” Martinez said. “I really don't.”
    They, indeed, don't happen by accident. It takes someone to step forward first.
    When distrust of government is rampant, it's nice to see someone like Martinez, who really just wanted to help.
   

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