local news

COVID vaccines abound for foreigners, too?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas Panhandle media are reporting that flights are arriving from Mexico carrying so-called “elites” who are getting vaccinated in Amarillo against the COVID-19 virus.

A news report from KVII Channel 7 says the flights are departing from near Mexico City, stopping in San Antonio and then going to Amarillo where passengers are getting the vaccines.

What is not being reported, and which could place this matter in its proper context, are the numbers of foreign nationals who are getting the vaccines. Is it in the dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?

I doubt it’s in the thousands of individuals. Hundreds might be a stretch.

Foreign elites flying to Amarillo for vaccination | KVII (abc7amarillo.com)

U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, the area’s newly elected congressman, said he opposes giving the shots to foreigners. He doesn’t stipulate, though, whether any local residents are being deprived of the vaccine. He said in a statement: “If this report is true, it is a serious problem. Amarillo should not be a hub for medical tourism at the expense of hardworking Texans. Non-citizens should not receive the COVID-19 vaccine in our state until all Texans who want a vaccine are vaccinated — bottom line.”

Amarillo has become something of a case study for how administering this vaccine is supposed to work. The inoculation protocol there reportedly has gone very well, and it has gotten the attention from those around the nation — and apparently across our borders.

If there remain enough vaccines for everyone, then I do not see a problem.

national news

Crisis requires urgent response

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden can dance around the use of certain words all he wants, but what he shouldn’t deny in his gut is the existence of a “crisis” on our southern border.

He used the word “thousands” today when describing the influx of immigrants from Latin America into the United States. He did not use the word “crisis” to describe what is happening there. However, that is what it is.

He said during his press conference day that more immigrants arrived at our southern border at a comparable period during the final year of the Donald Trump administration than so far during the Biden administration. He also said immigration officers are turning back the “overwhelming majority” of those who are fleeing their home countries.

As an American observer of these matters, though, I just grow weary of hearing politicians and their spokesmen and women shy away from what we all know to be true. The Biden administration has a crisis on its hands with regard to unaccompanied minors seeking entry into the United States. They need to call it what it is, not hide behind terms such as “challenge,” which is what press secretary Jen Psaki did the other day after letting slip that the administration is dealing with a “crisis” on the border.

It reminds me in a perverse way of how the Trump administration kept downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic that began killing Americans each day. The docs called it a grave problem. Meanwhile, Donald Trump refused to acknowledge the brutal truth.

There’s a bit of that occurring now as President Biden seeks to dress up what is happening now. He is dealing with a crisis and he should call it what we all know to be occurring.

national news

Not bad at all, Mr. POTUS

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well now, that wasn’t so bad.

President Biden held the first news conference of his presidency and it turned out to be, oh, pretty normal as far as these events go.

There was no berating of reporters — even though one of them kind of ventured way ahead of herself; more on that in a minute. There was some good-natured jabs, but all told the president answered the questions fairly, squarely and truthfully.

Biden holds 1st formal news conference, faces questions on pandemic, migrant surge (msn.com)

Kaitlin Collins of CNN, though, seemed to get ahead of the curve when she asked Biden if he intends to run for re-election in 2024. Biden, whose life experience has taught him grim lessons about fate, declined to say categorically that he will, although he did say he is planning on a re-election campaign.

Then she asked Biden if Vice President Kamala Harris would run with him, which seemed to be a seriously wasted moment. President Biden said Harris has been a valued partner and suggested clearly that she will be on the ticket with him if he decides to seek a second term.

Oh, and then Collins asked if he expected to run against Donald J. Trump. To which Biden laughed.

All in all, a solid effort. The president appears to be on top of matters and indicated that his years as a U.S. senator and as vice president will serve him well as he seeks to navigate his way through the legislative process.

We all will need to watch as the Biden presidency plays out.

local news, Sports news

Let’s play ball!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This news knocks me out, man!

The college students who played this past summer while the pandemic had put minor-league baseball on the shelf in Amarillo … are coming back for a second season!

The Texas Collegiate League is going to begin playing hardball at the Amarillo Sod Poodles’ home field when the Soddies are on the road. The college students’ season begins May 28 and will last through July 17. The teams will play a 22-game schedule.

The teams from across the state will comprise college students from around the nation. They are varsity athletes and, to be totally honest, they play some pretty good hardball.

The Sod Poodles will embark soon on their second season after winning the Texas League title in 2019. They now play in the Central League. I personally hope to see them this season when they venture to Frisco, near my new home in Princeton, to play the Roughriders. Yes, I’ll cheer for the Soddies when they do well on the field.

As ABC 7 reported: “We are very excited to again partner with the Texas Collegiate League,” said Sod Poodles President and General Manager Tony Ensor. “Baseball has become a huge part of our culture in Amarillo and the best and most exciting baseball environment in the country has been built at HODGETOWN because of our great fans and community. We look forward to hosting and creating more local and nationwide opportunities for these college athletes and showcase some of the best talent college baseball has to offer!”

Texas Collegiate League baseball returning to Hodgetown | KVII (abc7amarillo.com)

The return of the Texas Collegiate League bodes well for the future of baseball in Amarillo. I recall hearing former Amarillo College President Paul Matney once say that “Amarillo is a baseball town” as he sought to sell the notion of building the ballpark in downtown Amarillo. The Sod Poodles’ initial season bore that out as fans flocked the ballpark.

This year will be different only in that the team so far is planning to sell enough tickets to put about 75 percent of the park’s capacity in the stands.

Whatever. The college athletes are coming back, giving baseball fans another reason to cheer while they chew on Cracker Jack.

Joe Biden

Stand tall, Mr. POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden had expected to stand triumphantly before the media at his first full-scale press conference.

He’ll be standing as tall as ever when reporters gather Thursday at the White House. However, he’s got some problems to confront.

Sure, he has the legislative triumph of securing the COVID-19 relief package to boast about; vaccines are rolling out by the millions of doses; he has exceeded his goal of 100 million vaccines in the first 100 days of the Biden presidency.

Biden faces a flurry of new challenges ahead of first White House news conference (msn.com)

But …

He has that crisis at the southern border. The nation is reeling from two massacres and the deaths of 18 Americans at the hands of lunatic gunmen. Pressure is growing within the Democratic Party for the president to put more Asians and Pacific Islanders in key government positions.

It won’t be a cakewalk to be sure. Reporters won’t be asking softball questions, nor should they. I have every expectation that President Biden will handle the tough questions with aplomb. What’s more, I do not expect him to label any reporter as “incompetent,” or “the enemy of the people,” or a “loser” who works for a “failing” media organization. He will stand firm and he will conduct himself in a manner we had grown to expect from our president.

It won’t be a walk through the White House Rose Garden, which goes with the territory. This lifetime public servant, President Biden, knows what to expect. I trust he’ll be ready for it.

national news

Can we debate like grownups?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We have begun to debate — once again — the issue of guns, the Second Amendment and whether we can find a way to stop the madness of gun violence.

I’ll have to acknowledge that it hasn’t started off well. Republicans in the Senate, namely Ted Cruz of Texas, already have begun demagoguing the matter into insanity.

In a span of a little more than a week, shooters opened fire in Atlanta and Boulder, Colo. Eighteen people died in both massacres. The suspects are in custody and have been charged with multiple counts of murder. I feel confident that justice will do its work with regard to these two individuals.

What gives me concern is whether Congress, President Biden and all the political interests involved in this matter will allow the debate to proceed without scare tactics, lies, and demagoguery.

As I have noted already, the first signals don’t bode well.

I believe firmly that there must be a legislative — or an executive — solution to the issue of restricting gun sales without infringing on the Second Amendment guarantee of firearm ownership. Ted Cruz seems to think that any effort to enact those restrictions inhibits “law-abiding citizens” from owning a gun. That, as I see it, is a preposterous notion, because citizens who obey the law would have zero cause for worry.

Cruz then went after Democrats for chastising those whose only solution is to offer “thoughts and prayers,” suggesting that Democrats belong to some sort of Godless organization. Ridiculous.

I want to hear from constitutional scholars — from both sides of the great divide — who can tell us whether there exists a legislative solution that (a) limits the ability of nut jobs to purchase a gun and (b) doesn’t violate the Second Amendment’s constitutional guarantee that allows us to “keep and bear arms.”

I also want to stipulate that I do not have any solutions to this quandary. I know, though, that this great country is full of learned men and women who can produce a remedy to what I consider one of this nation’s existential threats.

Gun violence has turned damn near every venue that we all enter — churches, grocery stores, schools, playgrounds — into potential killing grounds. It has to stop!

national news

Cruz misfires once more

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Leave it to the Cruz Missile to blast his way into raw demagoguery.

Sen. Ted Cruz was just so darn angry at Democrats because, in the wake of the Boulder, Colo., and Atlanta massacres, they seek to limit wackos’ ability to purchase firearms.

He said those attempts are just another effort to make it harder for “law-abiding citizens” to “keep and bear arms” as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Which begs the obvious question: If a citizen obeys and abides by all the laws, then what in the hell is the problem?

According to the Boston Globe:

“But what they propose, not only does it not reduce crime, it makes it worse. The jurisdictions in this country with the strictest gun control have among the highest rates of crime and murder,” Cruz said, reiterating a false talking point peddled by gun rights groups including the National Rifle Association.

In fact, research completed on the subject thus far points to the opposite conclusion. One study, led by Boston University School of Public Health researcher Michael Siegel, found that “states with higher rates of gun ownership had disproportionately large numbers of deaths from firearm-related homicides.”

Cruz accuses Democrats of playing ‘political theater’ for proposing gun safety measures ‘every time there’s a shooting’ (msn.com)

Cruz, a Texas Republican, is among the many congressional GOPers who cannot bring themselves to buck gun lobby that opposes efforts to legislate remedies to the gun violence that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year.

What we have on our hands is a uniquely American problem, given the way our Constitution has been perverted at times by those who believe that bearing arms means we should be able to own any weapon we desire.

local news

COVID unit shuts down!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

More signs of hope in this pandemic era are springing up in North Texas.

Dallas’s Parkland Hospital announced it is closing its COVID-19 unit because, get ready for it, of a decline in rates of positivity and hospitalization of North Texas residents.

That is unabashedly good news, yes? Of course it is! For now.

Let us hope the good news continues to emerge like wildflowers in the spring.

What’s more, Texas announced it plans to open its vaccination protocol to anyone older than 16 years of age beginning next Monday. More good news? Yep.

Keep it up, folks.

State news

You go, Mr. Former Speaker!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Straus describes himself as a “stay-and-fight Republican,” but it’s unclear to me how much fight he has left in his struggle with the party to which he has belonged for decades.

Straus is the former speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. He bowed out of office before the start of the 2019 Legislature, only to watch his successor as speaker, Dennis Bonnen, implode over a treacherous act against his former GOP lawmakers; Bonnen got caught promising to sacrifice 10 legislators who had drawn the ire of a far-right-wing political action committee.

Indeed, not long after Straus announced his intention to retire from the Legislature, I implored him to reconsider. He didn’t listen to me.

Speaker Straus, would you reconsider quitting the House? | High Plains Blogger

Now, though, he is telling the Texas Tribune that he might run for public office in 2022. Straus told the Tribune’s Evan Smith that the state GOP no longer is in the same place he occupies. It’s become a cult, he said.

Texas Tribune podcast: Former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus on the GOP | The Texas Tribune

Straus has me wanting to give him a high five, an atta boy, a shout out. I want him back in the arena.

Why do I admire this fellow? Well, during the 2017 Legislature, he had the guts to stand up to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s desire to enact a bathroom bill that sought to discriminate against transgender individuals. Patrick wanted the Legislature to enact a law that required people to use public restrooms in accordance to the gender with which they were born. Transgender individuals? Forget about it. Women had to use the men’s room, and vice versa.

Straus called a halt to it and it died in the House of Representatives.

Joe Straus is a reasonable man who deserves to hold a position of power in this state.

Let me think, what’s available to him. Oh, I know: The lieutenant governor’s office is up in 2022. My hunch is that Patrick will seek re-election, or he might decide to challenge Gov. Greg Abbott in the GOP primary.

I loathe Dan Patrick. I admire Joe Straus. He told Evan Smith: “I don’t have a plan right now. I do think that in the future, people in this state are going to be looking for a different type of leadership than we’ve had right now.”

Boy, howdy!

crime news

He embodied the best of us

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The reality is stark, which is that Eric Talley’s life was no more valuable than any of the other nine individuals who died in the Boulder, Colo., massacre this week.

However, his was the first name that went public as police sought to unravel the horror of the event.

You see, Talley was an 11-year veteran of the Boulder Police Department, which I understand is a small department charged with protecting and serving the community that is home to the University of Colorado.

Talley was a husband and well as a father to seven children, the youngest of whom is 7 years of age.

He died answering the call to help. The Boulder PD received the 911 call from someone inside the supermarket and Talley was the first one there. He rushed in to protect the community. He died in the effort.

In a tragic sense, Eric Talley’s story isn’t unique. We know of men and women who have given their lives to protect others. They rush toward the signs of danger, not away from them. The first responders of 9/11 reminded us of the valor they display daily. You hear occasionally of Good Samaritans, civilians with no apparent training in these matters, rushing to the aid of their fellow travelers.

The men and women who suit up as police officers and firefighters are a special breed of humanity. Many of them are just like Eric Talley, a 51-year-old police officer who sought to save others from tragedy only to meet it head on himself.

My career as a journalist put me in touch with police officers, firefighters and EMTs frequently during many years covering and commenting on their activities. I have told many of them how proud I am of the work they do and how grateful I am that they are willing to answer the call when it arrives.

I am going to thank Eric Talley now for the sacrifice he made on behalf of his colleagues and for the people he took an oath to serve.

Our nation mourns the latest senseless loss of life.

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