Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
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As a long time, Democrat, I must admit I have mixed emotions about the way Dade Phelan is being treated by the Republican Party. While I am pleased to see the Republicans are so disorganized, I am convinced that having the Speaker of the House representing this area is a great benefit to us all. There is a time and place for an area to benefit. The time is while the Legislature is in session. The place is various committees of the House and Senate. As an example, had I not...
I am starting to think that America is becoming like the old gentleman who once said that ignorance and lack of action is what is wrong with the world. He followed by saying, “I don’t know what’s wrong, but I really don’t care.” Our news sources daily carry stories about violence we impose on one another. Shooting and killing four or five people would have made front page headlines at one point; now such incidents cause little notice. We are getting de-sensitized to these kin...
If you are reaching your so-called “Golden Years,” you most likely have a new adventure in store. I just finished eight weeks as a guest of a hospital. I escaped but learned a lot about medical practice in the USA. It is said that we have the highest quality but worst delivery of any developed nation I the world. Your first challenge is to negotiate the requirement to gain access. What insurance or what government program such as Medicare apply. Most doctor’s offices will help...
While we celebrate new things that encompass life, we should pay attention to what we are leaving. Though the auto in ways made it easier to travel, we did not think what we would have to do with piles of waste left by the thousands of horses and mules still owned and used by city dwellers. Already waste is becoming a problem. City dumps are filling up while new kinds of waste are being created. Our oceans are being fouled by plastic waste; pure water is in short supply....
While not perfect, our system of determining facts for juries is the best in the world. Usually, juries decide what is factually based on what they see or hear. Sometimes, however, juries and courts are influenced by what they do not hear. A good example is that of 61 different courts, all over the United Staes, tossing suits challenging the 2020 election when nothing could be shown to be election altering activities. In the case of the recent trial of Attorney General...
Because of my activities concerning public education, I was invited and attended a two-week seminar at Oxford University in England. Most of the participants were educators from countries just emerging from Soviet domination. In every case these officials described how the Russian Communist controls worked. One of the first things the Communists did was to make the education system a tool to support this form of government. Basic learning took second place. I fear now the...
One thing that sets the U.S. apart from most other nations of the world is the quality of our colleges and universities. There is a vast number of citizens of other countries trying to avail themselves of an American college degree. UT and A&M enjoy worldwide recognition, but Texas politics could change the academic reputation of all higher education in our state. One thing that enhances the standing of a college or university is the quality of its faculty. A major benefit of...
If you didn't watch the recent debate of candidates seeking the Republican nomination for president, you should have. It is important to know their beliefs and some idea about how they might lead. An essential way to find the truth about those seeking office is to check what they promise and what they have done. We heard the debaters' views on education, foreign policy, tax and spending, immigration and more. Some have a record while others only talk. The quality of the...
Have we as Americans grown so accustomed to bad things that we are not shocked or offended by them? It seems that we are no longer excited about the news of a mass shooting. We obviously have grown callus about conduct of some officeholders. Our former president said he would still get elected even if he were to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. If true, this is a sad commentary on the judgement of voters. There was a time when admission of sexual unwanted touching would have mea...
I have often compared serving in an elective position to skiing. The reason being that both look so easy to do until you try. Being somewhat athletic, after seeing people flow down the slope with ease, I was certain I could do the same. Boy! Was I wrong! After being fitted out with ski boots, skis and warm clothes, I felt like someone attached 2x4’s onto my feet. I tell folks that if they have question about the Texas Legislature, they should have asked me about it just b...
Any student of American history understands the importance of inform4ed citizens. Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and others of our founding fathers were great purveyors of information. Not only did they use newspapers, but on occasion resorted to publishing their own using assumed names. Jefferson in particular believed the free exchange of ideas was essential to a free democratic government. When I was a child, our family would gather by the radio to hear the six o’clock ...
After you pass your 80th year, things that were routine become an adventure. My most recent mental exercise and physical adventure was renewing my driver’s license. Thanks to our legislature this process has been made into somewhat of a challenge. You need to take your old license, insurance card, a valid passport or birth certificate. You can get an appointment, but you can’t rely on being processed at that time. The ladies processing the paperwork were nice, but only hal...
“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32 Our nation is divided more today than any time since the Civil War. A major cause of the division is because big lies are being sold to many Americans! The existence of global warming, that our election system is not to be trusted, more guns bring more safety and money spent on political campaigns to make us doubt the truth that makes us free. A classic example of denying the truth for profit is tob...
Early in our marriage Beverly and I were looking for a house to be our home in Port Arthur. Our problem, like many young couples, was lack of enough money to even produce a required downpayment. We located a home that was ideal, which later turned out to be where we raised our children. Even though the price was reasonable it was more than we could afford for a downpayment to finance. I approached our local banker who came up with a great solution. He asked if the house...
Our Supreme Court has recently issued some very controversial rulings. All the rulings create dissatisfaction among political blogs but there is one ruling I truly believe threatens democracy as our form of government. The name of that case is “Citizens United.” Even though there have been reasonable limits on amounts of money spent on elections the past few years, this case seems to have hung a “For Sale” sign on the election process as we know it. The court ruled in Citizen...
Next to California Texas leads the nation in gun ownership as well as deaths by guns. Obviously, we have a large number of gun ownership advocates. However, I have yet to meet a gun advocate who opposes keeping guns secure and away from children or criminals. I also find no one who wants to allow mentally challenged people or known violent criminals to own guns. My question for the day is that if even the strongest gun advocate favors laws to enforce these particular things,...
Oliver Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, once said the only tax that people like is a tax on someone else. It seems that for many years Texas politicians have been searching for that type of tax, all to no avail. There are so many types of taxes that will furnish adequate funding for Texas government but it seems our Legislature and leadership are about to paint themselves into a corner. Our taxes to support public education in Texas are not only unfair but inadequate to p...
There are many ways for our state Legislature to improve public education. Unfortunately, our statewide politicians are focusing on the wrong things. Several states, including Texas, have passed several statutes prohibiting educators from mentioning certain words or subjects in their classes. Some misguided politicians have launched an effort to purify books that are available to schools by purging what they consider offensive words. In some instances they have made criminal c...
How and why has there has been such a shift in politics in Southeast Texas? When I was growing up and running for office, Southeast Texas was the bright spot. The capitol income in Jefferson and Orange Counties was the highest in the state and near the top in teacher pay. Unemployment was virtually unheard of. Much of this prosperity was due to the strong unionization of wage earners in the state. Almost all local elected officials were Democrats. During this period of time,...
There is not much excitement when you reach 88 years of age. But this Mother’s Day was a little different. Saturday morning I was awakened by my wife announcing that there appeared to be a cat stuck in our chimney in the living room fireplace. If you have never had a cat stuck in your chimney, you need to know that it presents quite a challenge. A few years back our neighbor moved out and abandoned a herd of feral cats who immediately adopted us as their new homestead. A...
Our governor and lieutenant governor and other elected leaders could learn valuable lessons by watching some of the old westerns on TV. At my age I have begun to enjoy old western movies quite a bit as my weekly entertainment. Most of them have a basic formula featuring some well-known cowboy. Usually the hero, a sheriff or marshal, is called on to establish law and order in a town that is beset by robberies, kidnappings, assaults or other violent crimes. Our hero is to stop...
Around our house while I was growing up unionization was considered almost at the level of religion. My dad, a 40-year refinery worker, saw unions as the route to a better life and a way to better living conditions. He saw this firsthand as a seventeen-year-old refinery hand. Labor conditions in the 20s included approximate $.25 per hour wages, little or no concentration on safe workplaces, and little or no respect of workers by those paying these minimum wages. There was no...
As a longtime church goer from the time I could walk and follow my mother around, I have decided there is ample hypocrisy in our churches to the point that we don’t necessarily need more, especially in the field of political leadership. Hypocrisy of course is simply advocating one thing and doing the opposite. Unfortunately, we the voters of the United States are letting too many politicians get by with doing what they claim should not be done, particularly in the area of m...
For the last few days the press has had a lot to say about three members of the Tennessee Legislature being expelled by their fellow members. Allegedly the reason for their expulsion was that they had severely damaged the decorum of that august body. What they, in fact, did was enter the chamber using a bullhorn in an attempt to get the attention of the Speaker. During my fourteen year tenure in the Texas House there was more than one occasion that detracted from the decorum...
As we move into our late 70s and 80s, one of the few pleasures left for us is memories. I am told that we all have a tendency to remember things in the past as being truly better than they were. There is always a lot of talk of “the good ole’ days” in speaking of the past. In actuality we are living better today than any generation before us. Still, all-in-all, it is pleasurable to scroll through what we call “the good ole’ days.” One good measuring stick of how many things...
