Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
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Recently I have heard much discussion about fear that the United States may descend into a socialistic type government. Generally in my conversations with folks, I have found that few of them can give an accurate definition of socialism. Socialism is defined as government controlling major means of production and distribution of goods and services. We have a republic governed by the people, but it has many socialistic features which I doubt many citizens would advocate doing...
Early in my struggling law practice I was inclined to accept almost anything in order to gain a new client. I regularly swapped legal services for goods or services. On one occasion I was employed by a group of industrial painters who were charged with a rather serious crime. In view of the fact they were short of cash, I agreed I would represent them in exchange for them repainting a garage apartment behind my house. As agreed, they showed up bright and early one morning...
Texas public education has not been adequately funded since the 1940s. Under the party now in power it has gotten worse, not better. Growth in charter schools is one reason why. While some charter schools supported by well-intended nonprofit groups have done a decent job educating our children, far too many are just money-making machines which fall short on providing quality education to many of our children. Public schools and charter schools are not required to play by the...
In this column I recently wrote about the quote of P. T. Barnum that there is a sucker born every minute. I now believe the quote was wrong. After watching the trial of Alex Jones, I am now sure there are at least two suckers born every minute. The guy made hundreds of millions of dollars peddling lies and crazy rumors about aliens being from outer space. He caused great pain and anguish by claiming the slaughter of school children at Sandy Hook School was a hoax. And, the...
There has long been discussion about whether or not elected officials should have limits on how many years they should serve. The concept can be both good and bad. Arguments for term limits include the fact that they would require a periodic turnover and would imbue new ideas in government. Another argument in favor is that when politicians hold office too long, they begin to adopt the feeling that they, not the people, actually own the office. In my opinion, the best...
If you are with a group of teens, more often than not you will catch them engrossed in looking at their cell phones. I have been blessed with bright children and grandchildren (Grandaddy has the right to brag a little.). But they don’t read enough. Reading can open new worlds of thinking and bring not only pleasure but an immeasurable amount of knowledge. Lack of reading can be one reason too many Americans do not appreciate the free and democratic life we enjoy. I s...
Democracy works best when all of the people of the nation participate. Unfortunately, today, less than half of the eligible voters in our country take time to exercise their privilege to vote. The most common excuse I hear is that voting will simply make no difference. Today one of the most dangerous threats to American democracy is the practice of gerrymandering. The name originated with Eldridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts in 1812. Gerry devised a special district to...
P. J. Barnum once said, “There is a sucker born every minute.” He made millions using that philosophy with his circus. If democracy is to survive, we need to not be suckers when we vote. Our record so far has not been so good. Millions are now being spent to convince us that climate change is a hoax. The money is coming from those fearing loss of profits. Lessons should be learned from past history. Remember when we were told that cigarettes did not cause cancer, or that asb...
Roy Dunn, publisher of this paper, and I can be cited as a good example of how politics in America should work. Our relationship began over 50 years ago. A close friend of Roy’s was my opponent when I first ran for re-election to the House of Representatives. The race was competitive, but there was no name calling or dirty politics. Later we were on different sides of an election for the Senate. Even so, we remained friendly and grew to be really good friends. We could, and s...
The Texas House of Representatives is made up of 150 members elected from individual districts throughout the state. Traditionally they are re-done to accommodate changes in population every ten years. The only exception is recently when the Republicans chose to re-apportion the state while there had been no recent census carving the state into districts that assured a Republican majority in the House. The House according to the state’s constitution is required to meet at n...
The constitution grants very little power to the lieutenant governor of Texas. The misconception concerning the power of the position comes from the fact that for traditionally the Senate has armed the lieutenant governor with the authority not only to preside but to name committees and committee chairs. A notable Southeast Texan became governor when Governor Beauford Jester died. That lieutenant governor was Allan Shivers who had previously been state senator from Port...
In answer to last week’s questions I posed, here are some of the answers: • The governor of Texas serves for four-year terms. This was changed in 1972 when John Connally was the last governor to serve a two-year term. • The state Legislature meets every two years and is made up of 31 senators and 150 house members. The pay for legislators is $600 per month. • The basic document of Texas government is the Texas Constitution which was written in the late 1800s. • The chief exe...
Almost none of us, if any, would begin any game hoping to win without knowing the rules. Unfortunately, for all of us, too many of us begin our game of citizenship in life without really understanding or having full knowledge of the rules (government) that we must live by. In the next few weeks in a series of articles I will attempt to present some facts that should have been learned in high school government, but unfortunately is lacking in too many Texas’ citizens. The g...
I have a lifetime honorary membership in a gun range. I have owned a gun since I was eleven years old. I have enjoyed hunting, skeet shooting, target practice and own more guns than most. No one can accuse me of being anti-gun. It is now, however, time to do away with silly arguments such as advocating that more guns with less restrictions make us all safer. Or, that any legislation passed such as prohibiting silencers or twenty round clips will lead to the government taking...
I had an old gentleman once tell me the biggest problem in the country is ignorance and apathy, but he said, "I don't know what to do about it and furthermore, I don't really care." As a practioner of politics all my life, I am constantly amazed at how some citizens who claim to care about what's happening with the country waste so much effort when there are better ways to support good citizenship. As an example, the women's march and mass gathering along with demonstrations...
There is no doubt I care a great deal about education. It is not only something which increases the quality of life, it underpins the American way of life. Thomas Jefferson once wisely said that ignorant people cannot sustain a democratic society. We only need to look around our homes to catalogue the thousands of ways that education has benefited us: cell phones, air conditioning, television sets and medicines without which many of us would not be alive today. However, I...
Things have certainly changed since I was a freshman at the University of Texas in 1952. I stayed at a boarding house which charged me $55.00 a month for room and board, tuition was $25.00 a semester and a student could purchase what was called a “blanket tax” which gave free admission to all athletic events, concerts, lectures and every other curricular activity at the University. Currently, there is much to do about how college graduates are suffering because of having to...
Among some of the nice things about serving in the Legislature for 32 years is the opportunity I enjoyed meeting people, some famous, some not-so-famous, but most very interesting folks. One of the most interesting acquaintances I made during my tenure in the Legislature is Molly Ivins. Molly became nationally well-known by writing a couple of books. She had a great sense of humor and possessed great insight into politics. She came as a reporter to the Legislature the same...
We have all heard the phrase: “swallowing camels while straining gnats.” Generally, the phrase is applied to persons we designate as hypocrites. It seems to me; however, the phrase can be appropriately applied to our current lieutenant governor, Dan (Danny Scott Goeb) Patrick. Texas is faced with several giant problems which it seems our state leaders and legislators have been unable to adequately address. Some of these include voting, health care, adequate provision for dep...
Recently, I was extremely disturbed by the results of a poll which asked “How many Americans would remain and fight for our nation’s government as are the Ukrainians?”. Unfortunately, only a bare majority vowed they would stay and fight rather than flee our nation for safety’s sake. What is frightening to me is the large number of American citizens who were polled claiming they would flee America to avoid conflicts of war. What are these people thinking? Where on earth w...
We in Southeast Texas need to wake up and realize that we are blessed in many ways; but the most valuable commodity available to us, our homes and our business entities is fresh water. We are blessed with two great rivers, a brackish lake that provides us with sailing, fishing and other recreational opportunities. We should truly count our blessings, particularly in light of the fact that many parts of Texas are rapidly running out of water. In San Antonio, for example, when...
As a confessed political junkie, I sit around wondering many times about why some things are as they are. As an example, when I see a candidate flooding the news media with ad after ad which costs millions of dollars, I just wonder where in the world, he or she, got all the money and why. When I live in a world in which all politicians claim to be the freest democracy on earth, why do so many of our members of legislative bodies vote for measures which increasingly make it...
It’s very difficult to write about the state Legislature without including a few stories about lobbyists. Lobbyists represent various interests in the capitol and do their best to influence legislation in such a manner that it will benefit or not harm their client’s interest. All kinds of people are lobbyists and all lobbyists have different methods of reaching members of the Legislature. Most are bonified characters and after 32 years in the Legislature I recall many and som...
How often do you hear someone say, "Nobody tells me what to do!"? After watching the recent election results, it seems that over 80% of Texans, including those in Orange County, are willing to let someone else tell them what to do. Most folks, if asked, would claim to be good, loyal Americans as well as good citizens. Unfortunately, their conduct, or lack thereof, at election time belies their claim. How could you be a good citizen if apparently you do not care about...
All politicians have egos, particularly after winning a hard-fought election battle. I must confess, I too was pumped up quite a bit after winning my election to the state Senate. It was enforced by the fact that I had been invited to be the parade martial at the pre-rodeo festivities in Liberty, Texas. I was told to dress western; so I put on my finest cowboy-looking coat, hat and cowboy boots. As I arrived in Liberty for the parade, I was assigned to sit atop a Cadillac...
