local news

Once more, with emphasis: Get out … and vote!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jJQeEQH6pc

I’ve displayed this video already on this blog.

I want to show it once more as Amarillo and the rest of Texas vote today for local officeholders.

My friend Chris Hays, the general manager of Panhandle PBS, makes a passionate case for why it’s important to vote in these elections.

The short answer? The local offices have more direct impact on our daily lives than the offices at the state or national levels.

And yet … voter turnout for these City Hall, school board and college offices tend to attract dismal turnouts.

The Amarillo City Council election might pull greater than average numbers when all the ballots are counted this evening. City officials will boast about attracting, oh, maybe 20 percent of those who are eligible to vote.

Big bleeping deal!

This is one final plea for those who haven’t yet voted to get out and do so.

It is far better for everyone if you make these critical choices for yourself rather than relying on your neighbor to make them for you.

After all, your neighbor just might have a different view of how your community should work than you do.

 

local news

Dr. Moore's greatness was beyond measure

Communities don’t get to experience true greatness all that often.

Thus, when one of its great men or women leave this world, it’s good to take special notice.

Amarillo has lost of one of its true giants. Dr. Winfred Moore, the former senior pastor of First Baptist Church has died at the age of 95. To those who knew him and loved him, his absence in their lives will require lots of time for a complete recovery, if that will be possible.

Having said that, I now must acknowledge that I did not know Dr. Moore well. He and I were casually acquainted. But I certainly knew of this man shortly after arriving in Amarillo in January 1995 to take up my post as editorial page editor of the Amarillo Globe-News. He cast the longest possible shadow over this community.

I do have a single Winfred Moore story that I want to share. Those who heard him preach — or even those who heard him speak in any fashion — will understand the purpose of this brief story.

The Rotary Club of Amarillo had selected me to be its president during 2006-07. Our service organization at the time comprised about 150 members. One of them was Winfred Moore. The club long before had made him an “honorary member,” which meant he wasn’t required to attend meetings, but he was always welcome to attend. Dr. Moore’s wife was ill at the time and he was spending a lot of time tending to her.

He came to one of our weekly meetings, which then were held at the Amarillo Country Club’s main dining room. It’s a fairly spacious venue. I was presiding over the meeting.

Before we convened the meeting, I noticed Dr. Moore sitting in the back of the room eating lunch with some of his Rotary pals. I went to the person who was scheduled to give the invocation to start our meeting and said I wanted Dr. Moore to pinch-hit with the blessing.

I then went to Dr. Moore’s table and said, “Dr. Moore, would you mind giving the invocation when we start?” Of course he agreed.

I rang the bell, we sang the National Anthem, said the Pledge of Allegiance and then I said, “To give the invocation, we have Dr. Winfred Moore with us today. Dr. Moore, would you like to come to the podium?”

“Oh, no,” he said, “I’ll just do it here” … from the back of the room.

With that, the man known around the Texas Panhandle as “The Voice of God” boomed out an invocation that — I’m telling you — brought chills to those of us in the room. Winfred Moore could make anyone a believer.

He filled us with renewed faith and inspiration.

What a man, indeed.

State news

Texas to keep Daylight Savings Time

We’ll all need to catch up on our sleep over the winter after all.

Texas legislators have defeated a bill to toss out Daylight Savings Time in Texas. The House of Representatives rejected a bill by Rep. Dan Flynn to revert solely to standard time in Texas, joining Arizona in staying away from having to spring forward and fall back every year.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/house-votes-keep-daylight-savings-time

I’m one who never quite has understood the problems people have with the time change. It’s been around off and on for many decades. It was brought back in force in the 1970s as a way to conserve energy. Longer daylight hours in the summer months meant using less electricity. What’s so terrible about that?

It’s interesting to me that Amarillo’s House delegation split their votes on this deal. John Smithee, who represents Randall County, voted “yes” on Flynn’s bill; Four Price, who represents Potter County, voted “no.” I don’t know why that’s important. I just thought I’d mention it to illustrate that occasionally the two Republican lawmakers do not vote in tandem.

I’ve gotten used to the time change since I was in my 20s. It’s no big deal to me.

Then again, I’m not a farmer or a rancher.

As Flynn told his House colleagues: “The only one who knows if it is sun up or sun down is the rooster.”

Whatever. It makes no difference to me.

local news, political news

Council hopeful reveals himself in an ugly way

Randy Burkett needs to understand something right away.

The Internet Age has opened wide the public domain of comments that politicians can make, even when they think they’re making them in private.

There’s virtually no such animal as “private communication” when it goes out on what’s known as “social media.”

Burkett is a candidate for Place 3 on the Amarillo City Council. It now turns out that he’s said some mighty ugly things on his Facebook account. They’re racist in nature. There’s a touch of homophobia in some of his rants. They’ve been revealed to the world in the waning hours of the campaign for City Council, which concludes Saturday when voters troop to the polls to cast ballots for all five council seats.

Burkett’s rants are disgraceful, disgusting and they ought to be disqualifying. Indeed, a local Realtors group and the Amarillo Police Officers Association, which endorsed Burkett over incumbent Councilwoman Lilia Escajeda are backing away from their endorsements.

Interestingly, the Amarillo Globe-News, which also endorsed Burkett — and which published the story today about his Facebook blather — hasn’t yet pulled its endorsement back. What the heck: It’s a bit late in the game to do so now, given that the election is tomorrow.

Still, I have to wonder if the folks who run the paper’s editorial page are kicking themselves today over their recommendation of this guy.

It has become a common vetting practice of employers to surf the Internet for damaging statements that job applicants make through social media. Many applicants have disqualified themselves by posting things on Facebook or Twitter that tell of drunken parties or other activities in which they participate. Employers see these posts and wonder: Should I hire this individual? I reckon not.

Given that Randy Burkett is seeking to work for the residents of Amarillo, his own statements on social media now become fodder for his prospective employers to consider when they cast their ballots.

 

national news, State news

Is this the same as yelling 'fire!'?

It’s been said many times about the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment that free speech is protected except when you yell “fire!” in a crowded movie theater.

Therefore, I’m wondering if it’s fair to ask if staging an event that you know could provoke a violent reaction from someone offended by is the same as yelling “fire!”

http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Activist-blogger-says-9-11-inspired-criticism-of-6249483.php

Pamela Geller told The Associated Press she has no regrets over playing host to a contest to draw the Muslim prophet Muhammad in Garland, near Dallas. The event resulted in gunfire by two Muslims who then were shot to death by a Garland police officer.

Free-speech advocates — and I’m one of them, to be sure — suggest that Geller was exercising her right of free speech as a leader of the American Freedom Defense Initiative. She stands by her constitutional right. Her organization is virulently anti-Muslim. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls it a hate group.

The Constitution’s right of free political expression is rock-solid. Everyone knows that.

However, is it responsible to engage in free speech when you can expect with some reasonable certainty that it’s going to result in violence?

This is a troubling question for me. I don’t have the answer. I’m looking for help.

I’m all ears.

national news, State news

Interview gives insight into a great teacher

The Texas Tribune says it’s all right to republish articles it produces, as long as you say it’s from the Texas Tribune and that you’re republishing it.

So there. I’ve just declared both things.

The link attached to this very brief post is of an interview the Tribune did with the National Teacher of the Year, Amarillo’s Shanna Peeples.

It gives you some tremendous insight into just why this individual was chosen among more than 300,000 Texas educators and 3 million educators nationally as being teacher of the year for 2015.

Take a few minutes to read the interview. It’s worth your time.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/08/shanna-peeples-tt-interview/#

 

Sports news

Thanks, Tom, for keeping 'Deflate-gate' alive

Oh, I was so hoping Tom Brady could take the air out of the Deflate-gate story today.

The New England Patriots quarterback didn’t deliver. Instead, he kept this non-story buzzing by refusing to discuss it in front a friendly crowd gathered at a long-ago-scheduled public appearance.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/tom-brady-declines-to-go-into-detail-on-wells-report-deflategate/ar-BBjosTF

He came into the hall packed with about 4,000 cheering fans and then declined to say anything about the NFL report that says he “probably” knew something about the footballs that were underinflated prior to the Patriots’ rout of the Indy Colts in the AFC championship football game.

There’s no proof that Brady did anything wrong. No proof that he “cheated.” Nothing that says he watched some mysterious individual deflate the balls to make them more catchable and throwable.

He didn’t deny doing anything wrong. He didn’t say anything.

The story won’t disappear, even though it should.

We can thank Tom Brady’s tight lips for keeping it alive and kicking.

 

local news, media news

Texan of the Year? From Amarillo? Why not, indeed?

The Dallas Morning News makes a huge deal every year about selecting its Texan of the Year.

One of the paper’s editorial writers/bloggers, Rodger Jones, has pitched the idea that Shanna Peeples, the National Teacher of the Year, should be nominated for the paper’s acclaimed award.

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/05/three-candidates-for-texan-of-the-year.html/

I concur with what Jones is suggesting.

But I’m biased. Like a lot of folks in these parts, my path crossed Shanna’s years ago when we worked for the same newspaper here in Amarillo. She went on to pursue her calling as a teacher and, well, she’s succeeded beautifully.

As Jones writes in his blog: “Shanna can tailor instruction to the needs of her students, whether she is working with refugees who have suffered traumatic events in their lives, or AP students who crave challenging curriculum or at-risk students who are attending school in the evenings to recover lost credits,” Palo Duro Principal Sandy Whitlow said. “The bottom line is that her students know she truly cares about them, and she will invest every ounce of energy in helping them attain their goals.”

How can you not consider this dedicated and talented public school teacher to be Texan of the Year?

International news

Bipartisanship returns to Senate

corker and cardin

Take a look at this picture.

You see two U.S. senators — Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland — yukking it up after the Senate approved a measure to require senatorial review of the Iranian nuclear deal worked out by the Obama administration with the mullahs in Iran.

Why is this picture so noteworthy? It’s because the measure passed 98-1 in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner.

It’s not often these days you see Democratic and Republican congressional leaders standing side by side in front of cameras to bask in something they’ve done together.

They did so this week.

Good for them.

What’s brought the smiles to both men? It’s a measure that says the Senate gets to sign off on a treaty that administration officials hope to finalize later this spring or perhaps in early summer. It calls for Iran to scale back dramatically its nuclear development program and its aim is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon — which Israel says it intends to do and which no one this side of Tehran wants to occur.

It’s good that the Senate and the House will weigh in when the time comes.

According to RealClearPolitics.com, “The legislation gives Congress 30 days to review a deal once the full details are submitted to them. They then have the right to approve or disapprove of the deal, or do nothing, which would allow it to go forward. If they disapprove, President Obama can veto that measure, which would require 67 votes to override and actually halt an agreement, an unlikely outcome.”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/05/07/senate_nearly_unanimous_in_backing_review_of_iran_deal_126524.html

The lone “no” vote came from upstart freshman Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the author of that letter that GOP senators sent to the Iranian mullahs threatening to void any treaty that President Obama signs.

Well, that’s Cotton’s view.

I prefer to hope that the Senate will deliberate this treaty carefully when it arrives on Capitol Hill.

I also prefer that it do so in the same bipartisan spirit it showed in approving the measure granting its authority to do so.

Now the House of Representatives will consider it. Follow the Senate lead, House members.

national news, political news

Let's not quibble over use of 'thug'

1 Comment

Allow me this request.

How about stopping the quibbling and quarreling over the use of the term “thugs” to describe individuals who loot, pillage, burn and otherwise destroy other people’s property — not to mention injure or kill others — while rioting?

Dennis Prager, writing for RealClearPolitics.com, seems to think liberals have gotten thin-skinned about using the term. Liberals, according to Prager, seem to think it connotes someone’s race.

I consider myself a liberal thinker. I know other liberals, friends of mine. I’m unafraid to use the term. I mean nothing other than to describe the activity of the individual doing the misdeed. A thug is a thug. Period.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/05/05/why_the_left_wont_call_rioters_thugs_126496.html

It doesn’t. Honest. The term covers many aspects of misbehavior. If you mug someone on the street, you’re a thug. If you like to fight others just to prove your manhood, you’re a thug. When I was growing up, if you “TP’d” someone’s house with toilet paper, you were a thug; these days, such activity is considered a compliment if you’re a teenager.

This notion that the rioters who destroyed businesses in Baltimore and other communities of late were labeled “thugs” because of their race is ridiculous on its face.

A team wins the World Series or the Super Bowl or the NBA championship. Fans who live in the city of the winning team are so delirious they storm the streets, turn over cars, light them on fire. Last time I witnessed one of these events on TV, I noticed a lot of white folks among them. They’re thugs, too.

Thuggish behavior knows no racial boundary.

 

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