Columns & Editorials

I will admit that these two singer/songwriter “cowboys” came along in the midst of my “oldie, country, pop, early rock era”! I was rather indecisive concerning just what song/music category I would call FA- VORITE! However, both had “hits” I enjoyed, and both will be missed in not only the Country music scene but also in the total music experience.

In spite of the cool temps and drizzling rain, my First Annual Sporting Clay Shoot drew a great crowd! I’m appreciative of Comptroller Glenn Hegar who was our keynote speaker. I stand humbled and honored at the continued support I receive from the great people of HD4!

Bye Bye Blues

Dear Aunt B,

I’ve had a lot of blogs, like a lot, a lot. It started back when I had cancer. There are only so many times you can tell your most recent doctor’s appointment story to the masses. You have stinking cancer, after all. You’re tired. You just want out of the scratchy wig. You want pajamas and hot cocoa and fur babies and an I Love Lucy marathon. Sitting down for hours long conversations with all of your loved ones isn’t high on your list of things that soothe. Expecting one person to relay your info doesn’t work either. That’s a game of telephone waiting to happen. Cancer and necromancer sound too much alike for my taste. My solution was a newsletter of sorts. I can sit down and type it up for everyone to read at their leisure while I watch the episode where Lucy’s in Cali and lights her fake nose on fire. That newsletter worked so well that it turned into a blog. And, that blog spawned a blog, and so forth. Turns out creative writing blogs are about as interesting as cold oatmeal, but guess what? I still have one. Guess what else? I scraped the bowels of my 2008-2009 blog to bring you this little ditty about the hilarious slapstick comedy of cancer treatment. All we have is laughter, sometimes. It really is good medicine. Enjoy.

Like everyone, you want to remain physically and financially independent throughout your life. But if you lose some of this freedom, the last thing you’d want is to become a burden on your family. How can you keep this from happening?

I had an interesting exchange with an educator on Twitter today. She was an advocate of public schools and acknowledged the persistent shortcomings of the public school system. However, she believes that public education can be fixed with some “radical, innovative thinking” as opposed to parents pulling their children out to homeschool or send to private schools. According to her Twitter bio, she has 30 years of teaching experience in another state. I respect that degree of experience, but at the same time, I don’t understand her logic.

Dear Aunt B,

Here we are. It’s mere days before Halloween. Yet, I’m not sure if we’re even celebrating this year.

Dear Aunt B,

When I was a member of the Kaufman County Historical Commission, I discovered the statue in question and all of its parts which had been dragged down Washington Street and basically used as land fill for a ditch at the county farm. I began researching it and found that it had not been bought by the county and, therefore, was NOT county property but was paid for by hundreds of citizens of the county. Most importantly, the statue, itself, was sculpted by a very well known sculptor who just happened to be a personal friend of Gov. Colquitt from Terrell. The statue was by Coppini, who incidentally, did the Littlefield statue at The University of Texas among other famous statues. When Colquitt was elected, he used his influence to commission the white marble statue. Several pieces of the gray granite base (I believe the are a total of 7) were done in Tyler. When reassembling the statue, I actually found a subscription ticket where someone had donated 5 cents toward the project. I went before the Commissioner’s Court and, knowing the potential situation, elicited the help and support of Mr. E.P. Shaw, a highly respected member of the black community and a prominent educator in Terrell as well as a current member, at the time, of the Historical Commission of which I, also, was a member.

The road to the presidential election should be an opportunity to teach our children concepts such as politics, bias, research, civil rights or patriotism. Instead, this election season seems to teach more rage and hate than anything useful. As a parent and educator, I am saddened by the loss of learning opportunities that are falling victim to less-than-helpful red vs. blue rhetoric. As a Christian, I am deeply disturbed by the degree of hate being flung about like bubbles through a bubble wand. What happened to society, conversation and agreeing to disagree?

The Pirates were determined to not have a repeat of last week’s game. Senior night was celebrated pregame before the players took to the tunnel. Joshua started out with the first possession of the game going three and out. Austin Cruise led the Pirates down to the twenty-three-yard line before being stopped by the Owls defense. Sophomore kicker Brandon Perez nailed a forty-yard field goal through the uprights to put the Pirates up 3-0. The rest of the first quarter was controlled by the Owls. Joshua scored on three straight possessions making the score 3-17 at the end of the first.