We’re getting close to graduation time. Unfortunately, not every student will graduate. Sadder still, millions never even start. Worldwide, 72 million school age children are not in school for no other reason than that they are poor. Here are two stories — both true — one tragic, the other amazing. more >>
Five years ago this month, I found myself in front of a television set watching a news report. The words on the screen immediately caught my eye. “Victoria, Texas” it read. Didn’t one of my distant tias live there? Born and raised in Brownsville, now living in California, I was always curious when an international news story came out of South Texas. But as the news anchor spoke, curiosity turned to dread. Certain phrases remain digesting in the mind. Perhaps that is why we call them sound bites. “Worst case of human smuggling in U.S. history… 19 dead … among the victims a child and a man in his eighties…” That last detail astonished me and broke my heart. The child had no choice in his destiny, but why would a man in his 80s — who had already lived his life — bother to risk such a perilous journey? What in the United States waited for him, so late into his years? more >>
We are nearing the fifth anniversary of the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants who were striving to attain a better life in America. But their lives ended in tragedy. I remember it as if it were just yesterday. It seems like Victoria is just meant for these kinds of tragedies, because we have had several. more >>
The Pulitzer-Prize winning author of “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power,” Daniel Yergin, has summed up what many of us are thinking: “We are living in a new age of energy anxiety.” No one feels this anxiety more than the American families who are shouldering the burden of nearly $125 per barrel oil. The average mini-van owner is now spending upwards of $70 for a tank of unleaded gasoline. And it can cost up to $80 to fill up a pickup truck! more >>
A group of concerned citizens has asked me to present their position and concerns about the proposed Exelon nuclear facility planned for Victoria County. The Victoria Economic Development Committee planned a closed meeting, invitation only, to have Patrick Moore speak on the proposed nuclear facility planned for Victoria County. more >>
Editor’s note: This column was released May 2. On April 30, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he had appointed Deirdre Delisi, his former chief of staff, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the Texas Department of Transportation. As of today, I will not vote to confirm her appointment in the next legislative session. more >>
David Tewes (with the Victoria Advocate) called me. David said that he had been reviewing a plan that Citizens Hospital has having to do with expansion. When he did this review he came across the fact that there was a city street involved with it and also that we had sold that city street to the county. He said did you discuss it in executive session and vote on it? I said we didn’t vote on it. I am sure it was discussed in executive session and more than once. I want to tell you how this situation evolved. Over two years ago David Smith, Charles Windwehen, Lynn Short, Vance riley, Judge Pozzi, David Brown with other hospital employees and Tom Schmidt and I met in Citizens boardroom. We talked about this project. We decided to start working on it, start putting it together and I was not opposed to it at all, in any way form or fashion, because right across the street is Victoria College. The Victoria College campus is larger than the Citizens complex and they control everything, all their internal streets, everything. As Citizens Hospital expanded, I saw no problem with them being in control of everything. There were some issues having to do with oversized pipes, water pressure, where to put fire hydrants, how to get emergency vehicles into the hospital, if there was a fire or something of that nature. It was an administrative thing to work out these details. As work progressed and I am talking about a period of two years, we discussed the issue and it was always what I refer to as a work-in-progress. The plans were being considered by our engineering department and the county’s engineering consultant. Other times work was being done by our legal department and the county’s legal team. When all the details were worked out, we got paid for the street and we gave a deed to the County. We made a mistake because it never came to the City Council for a formal vote. It is on the agenda now to ratify what we have already done. On a lighter note I just want to say that we have some other streets that we would like to sell to the county and we have a couple of streets that we will give to the county and we will give them some money if they will take them. more >>
Teachers work to open students’ minds to ideas, knowledge and dreams. Public education and its teachers provide the cornerstone of a democratic and prosperous society. “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. … They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty,” President Thomas Jefferson once said. more >>
The on-the-field and off-the-field accomplishments have established a solid foundation on which to build our athletic program. Our softball team has received a berth in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Region VI playoffs to be held later this week. Meanwhile, our baseball team finished the season with an overall record of 33 wins and seven losses and an NAIA record of 29-5. The NAIA does not count games played against junior colleges as official games. While many are disappointed both teams did not make the regional playoff tournaments, rest assured all was done to try to change a system that does not treat independent schools favorably. more >>
Perhaps only Vince Reedy will find what I am about to write interesting, but I’ll take that chance since he addressed, for me, a fascinating subject. He wrote (April 20 Advocate) of lacking an out-of-Victoria daily newspaper, because those from Houston, San Antonio and Austin were losing money by distributing to too-far-away subscribers. more >>
According to a front-page blurb in the Victoria Advocate (April 20), 44 percent of Texas teachers are seriously thinking of leaving teaching. Low morale, not paychecks, is the reason most often cited. This reminds me of a TV ad with an executive throwing his briefcase through an open window as if in desperation. Funny how ads never show teachers doing the same thing. What would they throw? A box of chalk? A book bag they received for showing up at a workshop sponsored by a textbook company? Or a big binder interlarded with peppy cheerleader slogans? Who’s surprised? Everybody runs the class! — politicians from the president down to the local school board member, education experts from Ivy League faculty down to someone who once read an article in Reader’s Digest, and consultants from Fortune 500 companies to inservicers who assign hugging for homework or throw markers at attendees. Of course, lawyers and the judicial system also have a hand on the spatula scrambling the eggs in the frying pan. more >>
There are six reasons to buy books at the Friends of the Library Book Sale May 5-10: Reason Six – We will be closed to replace the carpeting the following week May 15-19, and we need you all to take the books away so we don’t have to move them. more >>
Nobel-Prize winning economist Milton Friedman once said, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” When Congress passed legislation to greatly expand America’s commitment to biofuels, it intended to create energy independence and protect the environment. But the results have been quite different. New evidence suggests ethanol is causing great harm to the environment. In recent weeks, the correlation between government biofuel mandates and rapidly rising food prices has become undeniable. At a time when the U.S. economy is facing recession, Congress needs to reform its “food-to-fuel” policies and look at alternatives to strengthen energy security. On Dec. 19, 2007, President Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act. This legislation had several positive features, including higher fuel standards for cars and greater investment in renewable energies, such as solar power. But the bill required a huge spike in the biofuel production requirement from 7.5 billion in 2012 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. Nearly all our domestic corn and grain supply is needed to meet this mandate, robbing the world of one of its most important sources of food. Since February 2006, the price of corn, wheat, and soybean has increased by more than 240 percent. Rising food prices are hitting the pockets of lower-income Americans and people who live on fixed incomes. more >>
K.K. Forss does not claim medical marijuana solves all his problems. His pain from a ruptured disc in his neck is debilitating. He is unable to go to work or to the First Baptist Church he used to attend because of the pain and muscle spasms. Taxpayers through Medicare spend more than $18,000 a year on his various medications. Half of those drugs are strong narcotics. The other half address the various side-effects brought on by the first half, such as nausea, heartburn, heart palpitations, difficulty sleeping, and muscle spasms. No, marijuana would not completely address all his pain, but it made a tremendous difference in the quality of his life when he tried it for over a year. It helped him regain 38 pounds he had lost. It calmed his muscle spasms and helped him sleep. In short, it alleviated many side effects and greatly reduced his need for other expensive medications. Forss estimates that being allowed to use medical marijuana would save taxpayers at least $12,000 a year in medications he would no longer need. He would also be able to work occasionally and attend some church services. more >>
I am writing to update you on our progress in the bond program that you generously supported last year. When the citizens of Victoria approved the issuance of $159 million in bonds last May, we moved into high gear on the projects. Financial adviser Anne Entreken from First Southwest quickly developed the package for the first sale. You may recall that when we first presented the bond package to the community, the plan was to spread the sale of the bonds over a three-year period to minimize the impact on the tax rate. The first bond sale was targeted at $75 million. more >>
