Opinions

The Health Nazis have resumed their attacks on everything that is good and wholesome about life.

Last week, the pinko commies at the United Nations’ World Health Organization announced that bacon kills people. The breakfast staple – and one of the clearest signs that God loves us – is, they said a carcinogen in the same class as tobacco and asbestos.

They did, however, hedge their statement in saying that bacon was not equally dangerous as asbestos or tobacco. The Enterprise would also point out that to our knowledge there has been no evidence that bacon, unlike asbestos or tobacco, has ever been linked to lung cancer. The WHO maintains that bacon causes colorectal cancer.

And it’s not just bacon that they want you to cut back on, it’s sausage and other processed meats, including the all-American hot dog. And if that’s not enough of an attack on life’s pleasures, they also threw red meat into the mix.

There’s a chance, these folks say, that if you eat bacon, sausage, steak, and hot dogs, then you will die. Of course, leading statisticians with our local funeral home will probably point that regardless of what you eat, you will also die.

It was, in fact, former US Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders who pronounced years ago that “we will all probably die of something.”

Research by The Clarendon Enterprise seems to bear Gen. Elders out, and it seems to hold true for people who eat nothing but tofu and bean sprouts as much as people who eat bacon, french fries, and Blue Bell ice cream (if you can get your hands on it.)

Never content to just ruin one good food, Health Nazis this week published an article in the British Medical Journal going after soda pops. And this time it’s not diabetes you have to worry about. This group says if you’re a man, sodas can cause heart failure. The effect, they say, is the same whether it’s sweetened by sugar or by artificial means.

Tea, coffee, and fruit juice were not included in the heart-stopping study, and it only focused on older men in Sweden. Bizarre, but we can’t make this stuff up.

We don’t have enough room to go into everything that “they say” is bad for you. Salt, sugar, butter, donuts… the list would go on and on.

Your editor isn’t a nutritionist, a doctor, or a biologist, but he has stayed in several Holiday Inns and conducted extensive non-scientific research on bacon and red meat. The health advisory from the Enterprise then is go easy in all things but don’t deny yourself life’s pleasures.

Eat your bacon, have a hot dog, have a Coke, and smile! You’re an American for goodness sake. This is what you’re supposed to do. But be warned, if you eat a pound of bacon a day, engage in competitive hot dog eating, or drink several 44-ounce Cokes in one day, that might have deleterious effects on your health. We’re not saying you’ll die (although you will… eventually), but we are saying “go easy.”

Don’t let these nut jobs with their tax-funded attacks on the pleasures of life get you down. You deserve happiness. There are plenty of other things to get depressed about… the Obama presidency, Daylight Savings Time, the growing scarcity of the world’s helium reserves, or the fact that you still can’t buy a margarita in Clarendon. If eating a slice or six of bacon makes you feel better, do it. All the studies confirm it. Life’s too short, so make the most of the time you have and bon appétit!

 

It’s election time.

No, it’s nothing flashy, controversial, or even interesting really. It’s the regular, every-two-years Texas Constitutional Amendment Election.

Election Day isn’t officially until November 3; but if you’re a registered voter and have some way of proving you’re not an illegal immigrant who snuck into this great land to vote for Democrats, you can cast your ballots early now at the Donley County Courthouse Annex.

Most of you won’t. In fact, most of the rest of the state won’t vote either. A Texas Tribune reporter has noted that only about two or three of every 100 Texans will actually be deciding new rules the whole state will live with.

It is no secret that the state constitution is an overly complicated mess of a document. It has been amended more than 480 times since it was adopted in 1876. It is, to say the least, imperfect and almost begs to be tweaked; and that gives politicians a chance to propose changes we really don’t need but do make somebody feel really good.

This time there are seven amendments on the ballot. The Enterprise will go out on a limb here and predict all seven will pass, but nonetheless we’re going to encourage you to vote against all of them… just because.

Take a look at what we have on the ballot…

Amendment No. 1 – The constitutional amendment increasing the amount of the residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation for public school purposes from $15,000 to $25,000. Well now, who doesn’t want a tax cut?

There’s no way this doesn’t pass. Never mind that it cuts revenue to school districts (which will supposedly be made up by state funding and politicians would never go back on that promise). It’s stupid things like this that allow state Republicans to say they’ve “cut taxes” without really cutting state taxes. They effectively cut local taxes and, in this case, your school boards will end up dealing with it.

Amendment No. 2 – The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the residence homestead of the surviving spouse of a 100 percent or totally disabled veteran who died before the law authorizing a residence homestead exemption for such a veteran took effect.

Ah, yet another sympathy tax cut. Easy passage. Who doesn’t feel sorry for the surviving spouse of a disabled vet who died before he or she could get his or her taxes cut? Let’s not even talk about how much money the surviving spouse may or may not be making. They were dealt a terrible hand by fate and deserve some relief! Next time, we should amend the constitution to freeze taxes on one-legged midgets, red-headed albinos, or male lesbians. Maybe cancer survivors should get a tax benefit, too. Shoot a mile! Why tax any one? Everybody has a sob story somewhere in their life. Did I mention my beloved cat got run over last year?

Amendment No. 3 – The constitutional amendment repealing the requirement that state officers elected by voters statewide reside in the state capital.

Why would we want to make them live where they have to work? Let ‘em live in Ardmore, Oklahoma, if they want to. That’ll be fine.

Amendment No. 4 – The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to permit professional sports team charitable foundations to conduct charitable raffles.

Why should the Dallas Cowboys booster club get to have raffles if the Clarendon Bronco Parents can’t? Lift all the restrictions on charitable raffles and be done with it.

Amendment No. 5 – The constitutional amendment to authorize counties with a population of 7,500 or less to perform private road construction and maintenance.

I don’t really see the line of people wanting to hire Donley County to build private roads. Next.

Amendment No. 6 – The constitutional amendment recognizing the right of the people to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife subject to laws that promote wildlife conservation.

Is there some threat in the State Legislature to hunting and fishing? Are we in a parallel universe where this is a problem in Texas? This is the stupidest and most purely political thing since we added “under God” to the Texas Pledge of Allegiance. What’s next a constitutional amendment to protect your right to fly the Lone Star Flag, your right to eat pecan pie, or your right to attend a high school football game? But it will pass… just watch.

Amendment No. 7 – The constitutional amendment dedicating certain sales and use tax revenue and motor vehicle sales, use, and rental tax revenue to the state highway fund to provide funding for non-tolled roads and the reduction of certain transportation-related debt.

Hmm… more dedicated funds for TxDOT mostly going to the I-35 corridor, no doubt. Let’s pass on this. In fact, let’s pass on any more extra funding for TxDOT until rural Texas starts getting some love. I’m tired of overgrown medians and rights-of-way, tired of closed down or dismantled picnic areas, and tired of excuses that Clarendon can’t have a “Chamber of Commerce Office” sign on the highway. You want more money? Go pound sand, TxDOT. Come back when you can play nice.

So there you have it. Your Official Enterprise Voting Guide for the 2015 election. No, no, no, no, no, heck no, and no. Happy voting!

 

They say time flies when you’re having fun, and it certainly appears to be the case as your editor marks 20 years on the job this month.

Two decades is a milestone to be sure. Some folks might say that’s a good point to shift directions. In my case, it puts me just under half-way to my great uncle George Wayne Estlack’s mark as having the longest tenure in our paper’s history.

To say that a lot has changed since 1995 would be a vast understatement. Clarendon has changed, the newspaper business has changed, and Lord knows our world has changed. Some things we could see coming, and many things have caught us by surprise.

My position gives me some advance notice of things to come from time to time. For instance, I learned four weeks ago from a press release that there is “A strong likelihood that October 7, 2015, will be the End of the World!” This column is being written October 6, so I’m assuming you’re going to be around to read it. If you’re not, well, I guess I just missed the biggest news event of my career and I apologize in advance for not forewarning you last month. I just didn’t want you to panic.

If I thought tomorrow really was “the end,” I’d write a more appropriate column for our final issue. But honestly, the world has ended, the anti-christ has come, and the country has gone to hell many times since October 1995.

We do our best to deal in the facts as best we can discern them and leave the prophecy and nail-biting to others.

Surprises have been in abundance. If you had brought two fifth graders and a pre-Kindergarten student into my office that first week I was on the job and told me that I would be married to one and the others would largely run the paper by 2015, I’m sure I would not have believed that. And yet here we are… and with a Cub Reporter and a Cub Photographer learning the ropes to hopefully follow their old man someday.

My professors at Texas Tech prepared my generation of journalism students for what they thought the digital revolution would bring to the newspaper business. They weren’t far off with how our paper is now read on electronic devices, but I don’t think anyone expected how totally dependent people would become on their “telephones.”

We can disseminate information now quicker and to a wider audience than we could in 1995 when we were bound strictly to the printed newspaper. But our obligation – my obligation – remains unchanged… to bring you the most accurate information we can, to connect our readers with the stories they care about, and to do what we can to improve our community.

This year’s National Newspaper Week theme is “Power of the Press.” That power or influence is derived from the trust that you, the reader, places in your local newspaper. Your faith in us and our advertisers’ support of us allows us the privilege of keeping you abreast of everything you need to know about life in Clarendon and Donley County. From what your city council is doing to what’s going on with this exciting waterpark opportunity to how the Broncos, Owls, and Bulldogs are doing to who has the best sales this week, it is our honor to serve you.

Thank you all for your support these last 20 years. Your confidence has meant the world to me and my family, and we look forward to continuing to serve this great community.

 

What an exciting time to live in Clarendon!

Opportunities seem to keep cropping up at a consistent pace, and then last week the announcement came that a benefactor wants our city to have some type of water recreation facility. (See full story here.)

Such an enormously generous thing does not happen every day. One half of a million dollars is the offer to our fair city… if we can match it.

Even successfully matched, the community will still have work to do to make the dream of generations come true. Can we possibly have a swimming pool or, even more fantastic, a water park? The answer is simply “yes” if Clarendon will pull together.

In meetings, visioning workshops, and conversations for the last 20 years at least, people have always listed a pool – and more recently a splash pad – as something that would be an asset to Clarendon, something that would enhance the quality of life for families and visitors here. Of course, money has always been a stumbling block. How would you ever pay for such a facility; and if you got it built, how would you pay to operate it?

But now comes someone who believes in Clarendon… someone who we’re told isn’t from Clarendon and yet has an interest in Clarendon. That’s a pretty big interest at $500,000!

As city leaders have been quick to point out, nothing is finalized at this point. No checks have been written, no contracts have been signed, and nothing is absolute. A soon to be formed steering committee will take charge of many questions that still have to be answered. Where will it be? What will it be? How much will it cost? Will be people support it? And most importantly, will people give to it?

We need contributions of all amounts… from 25 cents to $250,000. There is room for everyone to give something, and every penny will add up.

Consider the benefits of such a facility. Number one, increased quality of life. The age old “there’s nothing for kids to do here” will finally be addressed. Kids not only from Clarendon and Donley County will have something to do, but kids from surrounding towns can also have something to do.

And think of the business that will come with those visitors. Wellington, in less than 60 days this season, drew 14,000 visitors with 70 percent of them from out of town! Just imagine an extra 14,000 people coming down Kearney Street during the summer months to get to a water park of some kind. What a boost that could be for local merchants and restaurants, and in turn a boost for our city’s sales tax revenues!

And better yet, research being done by the city into other communities that have built water parks is showing that such projects can actually be self-sustaining. In other words, done right, a water facility can bring in enough revenue in gate fees, concessions, and rentals to meet its expenses.

Surely, no other project at this time can hold such a broad appeal as a water park or swimming pool. We have the potential to do something special as a town, working arm in arm with each other to make Clarendon a better place to live, work, and play.

Our benefactor has given us a great opportunity… a great challenge… to pull together as friends and neighbors and businesses and organizations for the sake of our community.

As Clarendon’s oldest business, The Enterprise accepts the challenge and offers to do its part to help get the ball rolling. This newspaper will commit $2,000 to this project in the next 12 months and asks our fellow businesses to meet or exceed our contribution.

This is something our families want. It is something our community desires. And it is something our economy needs.

Let us roll up our sleeves, set ourselves to the task at hand, and tell our benefactor, “Challenge accepted.”

Editor’s Note: If you want to make a commitment to this project, contact City Administrator David Dockery at 806-874-3438

 

The Republicans have produced a bumper crop of presidential candidates for 2016, and ten of them were in the primetime spotlight last Thursday evening on the Fox News Channel.

A few other also-runnings (including our beloved former governor) were on television earlier in the day hoping to break into the news.

I confess to tuning in a few minutes late to the debate. I skipped the self-aggrandizing opening statements.

With all the people running for office, you would hope you would have a lot of good choices. Instead, it’s more like buying shampoo… lots of products on the shelves and they all basically do the same thing. If the country elects one of these guys president, it’s like the results will be the same at the end of four years… government will still be big and Islamic terrorists will still hate us.

That being said, there are some differences in the group. Take Donald Trump… please. He’s got a lot of supporters. I even really like his straight-forward, no-nonsense comments on the issues of the day. He’s very successful financially, and he’s obviously got a lot of business savvy. I appreciated his honesty in not pledging to support the eventual nominee. I’m not taking that pledge; why should he?

Trump, however, reminds me a lot of H. Ross Perot. He’s done well in the private sector. He’s got a lot of support from regular folks. And he’s got the same “We just need to get under the hood and fix it” attitude that Perot had. But like Perot, I don’t think Trump would ever be elected president. (Although it would be nice to see someone like him in the White House and just tell it like it is.)

Let’s move around the dais and see who else we have on the menu.

Gov. John Kasich I think is a decent guy with a level-headed approach. He’s certainly good with government budgets and has the rare experience of actually balancing the federal budget. He makes a lot of sense and could be a good president given the chance. But I don’t see him getting much traction.

Gov. Chris Christie I’m not a fan of. He’s a little too much “to hell with your rights if means we might catch a terrorist some day” for my liking. He would be good for comedians though.

Dr. Ben Carson is likeable and clearly thinks things through. But like Kasich, he doesn’t seem to be getting traction.

I think probably the last thing we need is former governor Jeb Bush. Bushes have a habit of running conservatively and then dramatically increasing the intrusiveness of the federal government. Consider this: Daddy Bush gave us the Clean Air Act (which killed the evil gas Freon) and the Americans With Disabilities Act with has raised the cost of all kinds of construction projects and made life more difficult in lots of ways. (Ask hotels how much that lift chair in the swimming pool cost and how much it gets used.) GW then gave us Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, and, of course, the PATRIOT Act. Go home, Jeb. We don’t need you.

Former governor Mike Huckabee is very principled and a good speaker. I just don’t like him. Too preachy for me. Maybe it’s the former pastor in him. The State of the Union might turn into a hellfire and brimstone sermon, which could be fun, I guess.

Marco Rubio I don’t know enough about to form a good opinion. He seems to have some good ideas and is well spoken.

Ted Cruz. Oh, Lord. Can we get Rick Perry moved up to represent the Lone Star State? This guy is the Bozo the Clown of the Grand Old Party. I’m sorry, but I want to see Ted’s birth certificate before we risk having a Cuban-Canadian faux Texan in the White House.

Scott Walker has something weird going on with his hair. Hard to take him seriously.

And then there’s Rand Paul. He also has funny hair, but he does have a passion for libertarian principles. He has this insane idea that the government should respect our rights, follow the Constitution, not collect our cell phone records without a warrant. He’s crazy. But in a good way.

The interesting thing going forward will be to see if whoever’s the Republican nominee, can they possibly win against the overwhelming entitlement mentality in America. With a larger and larger group of people on the government nipple, it may be impossible for anyone other than a Santa Claus, give ‘em everything Democrat to be president.

The 2016 American comedy tour is getting well underway. Future episodes will no doubt provide a lot of good editorial fodder but little substance for the voters.

 

Clarendon has been celebrating freedom for a long time. Since that first summer in 1878 when those Christian colonists first observed Independence Day, our community came to be known for its Fourth of July festivities.

A lot has changed in the last 137 years. Singing and the reading of the Declaration of Independence have given way to parades, turtle races, and rodeos. But the spirit remains the same as our community rallies together to trumpet the greatness of America and the promise of Liberty and Opportunity that our Founding Fathers risked their lives to secure.

America, too, has seen a lot of changes. We’ve seen freedom expanded in many ways as the definitions of personal liberties have been broadened, and we’ve seen freedom limited in other ways as federal taxation and regulation constrict the free marketplace and the economy.

As a country we have much to be proud of about tolerance and the rights of the individual. And yet we also have much to learn as we all still figure out how to live together in what has been called a great melting pot of different people with many different beliefs.

Last week, the United States Supreme Court again upheld the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. Republicans acted with surprise and outrage and continued to issue calls to repeal that law. Many people, your editor included, think the ACA is an abomination and a gross intrusion into our private lives. But after it survived its main Supreme Court challenge, that law has no more chance of being repealed than does Social Security or Medicare. It is here to stay.

Then on Friday, the High Court expanded the rights of same-sex couples to marry in all 50 states, saying those individuals deserve equal protection under the law. This caused the expected backlash from many people, but most puzzling came from Republicans in Texas and elsewhere who basically feel like religious freedom is under assault or at least threatened by this ruling.

It is an age old problem that America must still wrestle with. Freedom must be for everyone… or there is freedom for no one.

People are entitled to their beliefs and their opinions on same-sex marriage, for example. But the highest court in the land has determined that these marriages are legal. Your church doesn’t have to condone it; and you don’t have to attend a gay wedding; but if you’re a public official, you do have to provide them the same service you would be legally obligated to provide anyone else. Politicians and demagogues who encourage public servants not to provide government services based on their religious beliefs, are dangerous at best. For if you can refuse to give a same-sex couple a marriage license, what is to keep other people of strong faith or beliefs from refusing to prepare alcohol permits, serve mixed-race couples, or serve people of other faiths?

Freedom also means that sometimes you have to stomach things you don’t like. The Confederate battle flag in recent days has become a lightning rod again in conversations about race. Some people, like your editor, see the flag as a symbol of Southern heritage and the standard of a lost cause and a people who fought for their homeland. Others see the flag through the single view of racism, noting the Confederacy’s support for slavery and the use of the flag by hate groups.

Freedom means you can put crosses on your property up and down the highway, but freedom also means the travelers who are creeped out by what appears to be an overly zealous town can take their business elsewhere.

Freedom means you can put a Ten Commandments monument on the Courthouse Square and call it a historical marker, but it also means someone else could erect a monument to Jews and Muslims who have also called the same county home.

Freedom is hard. Freedom means you can do what you want, believe what you want, and say what you want. But so can I, and so can the other guy, and so can the Democrat and the Republican and the Communist and the Baptist and the Atheist. And most of all, for it to work, you have to be able to stand up for the rights of those you disagree with.

The biggest problem America – and indeed Texas – faces right now is that our two-party system wants freedom in different ways. The left largely wants personal freedoms with a strongly regulated economy, and the right largely wants a more deregulated economy with low taxation and gives lip service to personal freedom… as long as you’re an evangelical Christian who isn’t gay or wants an abortion.

We need to get back on track. We need to recognize that freedom comes in many forms and it benefits many people… not just ourselves or those who believe, worship, or think the way we do.

Jefferson said it best: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” America works best when we let those words be our guide.

 

Tex Selvidge led a life of community service, and this week his community is in mourning for the man who was one if its best known and best respected citizens.

Rev. Chris Downer said he did not personally know anyone who knew more people or was more influential than Tex Selvidge. If you went to any town in a four or five state area from Clarendon, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t know someone who had gone to Clarendon College and known or been influenced by Tex.

I remember getting my own acceptance letter to CC and reading Tex’s signature on the bottom of it. I already knew Tex by that time in my life. In addition to seeing him at numerous college alumni reunions that I attended with my father and grandfather, I had known him from the time he ran the clothing store which was next to the West Texas Utilities office where my Dad was the manager. Even as young boy, I knew Tex, and I knew he was a good and well-respected man.

During my two-year stint at old CC, Tex offered me advice and friendship the same as any other student, and I always knew I could go to him if I ever needed anything.

My favorite memories of Tex are from his time as mayor of our little city. When he stepped down from that position in 1996, he told me, “I’ve always felt like if you’re going to live somewhere, you ought to give something to it.”

Tex gave and gave to this community. He told me he thought serving the community was something everyone should do. “It would thrill me if every election we had 10 or 12 people running for every spot on every board in the county,” he said.

For his part, Tex always tried to put the community’s interests first; and he said on the rare occasions he was called on to break a tie, he tried to vote for his convictions. He was proud to have been a part of several accomplishments during his time with the city, including the 2006 street project, numerous grants received to improve the city, updating and codification of the city ordinances, and the development of the city-county library downtown.

“I’m not saying I did a better job than anyone else would have, but I hope I contributed something to the community,” he said. “I’m sure some would disagree, but everyone is entitled to their opinions.”

Agreeing to disagree was another of his hallmarks as mayor. It never seemed to be personal with Tex. Occasionally, he and the newspaper editor would have different views on matters, but we always maintained a friendship and could joke about things.

I was standing next to him at reception one time while he was mayor when he was asked how he was doing. “I’m fine,” he said “if I could just get the editor off my ass.” Then he busted out laughing and threw his arm around my shoulder.

I’ll miss that arm. I’ll miss the smile and the laugh and the words of wisdom.

Tex Selvidge led a life that we should all strive to emulate – a life devoted to community, dedicated to helping young people, and committed to friends and family.

How lucky the Selvidge and Jack families have been to have enjoyed the presence of so great a man! How deep their sense of loss must be now without him here on Earth. Our prayers and sympathies are with them as we give thanks to God for having blessed us with the privilege of knowing Tex Selvidge. Our community is stronger, our college is better, and our lives are richer because of him.

Editor’s note: the family requests that all gifts be directed to the Leonard “Tex” Selvidge Memorial Scholarship, c/o Clarendon College, Attn: Ashlee Estlack, PO Box 968, Clarendon, Texas 79226.

 

The Donley County AgriLife Extension Office held a community planning workshop last Tuesday evening, but it turns out the community wasn’t much interested in making plans.

Your editor showed up 30 minutes late (more on that in a moment), and that brought the total number of people at the event to… four.
Extension Agent Leonard Haynes was there along with Clarendon Interim Director of Tourism & Economic Development Jack King, city clerk and Chamber of Commerce board member Sharon Braddock, and myself (newspaper guy, CEDC secretary and Chamber president).
Mr. Haynes sent out about 80 personal invitations to the event, and it made the front page of the Enterprise twice. And then there were four of us.
Granted, it was a busy night. Clarendon ISD’s Gifted & Talented Showcase was the same night and started at the same time. (There we go with the editor being 30 minutes late.) But surely not everyone on the invitation list was at the GT program.
Maybe it was just a bad day or time, but when is a better day or time? That’s always an issue planning any community event. It always comes down to just picking a day, pulling the trigger, and hoping for the best. Mr. Haynes did due diligence to avoid any possible conflicts, and considering the GT program was going on, he thought he had a good date. And yet, there were four of us.
It’s been suggested that perhaps food would draw more people. Shoot a mile, free beer would probably help, too. But surely there are more than four people interested in the future of our community.
Perhaps things have changed from a decade ago when Mr. Haynes held his first such workshop and more than 40 people attended. Perhaps we’re busier now. Or perhaps – and this is the scary part – we’re a society that is now largely disengaged.
But again we come back to the four of us who were there. We didn’t plan the future for the rest of you. We waited around for another 30 minutes or so and then folded up the tent and went home. But we left knowing that the idea of getting input from the community is a worthy goal.
It may be that we need to go with an online survey of our citizens. What do you want and more importantly what do you think we truly need?  What are assets in your opinion and what our weaknesses? What do you think will make Clarendon and Donley County grow? And more importantly, how can we pay for the improvements you would like to see?
All these questions your civic leaders are interested in having answered, but you have to get involved and be part of the process. Join the debate, write a letter to the editor, come to a city council meeting, or call Jack King and tell him your thoughts.

The City of Shamrock welcomed an American hero last week as former astronaut Alan Bean gave the keynote address at the Friday banquet that preceded the big St. Patrick’s Day Celebration in that city.

A product of the Texas Panhandle, Bean was born in Wheeler, and surely no one on the second floor of that drug store in 1932 ever imagined at the time that this boy would one day walk on the surface of the Moon. But as fate would have it, Bean would eventually join the Navy, become a fighter pilot, and then… get turned down to be an astronaut. The rejection stiffened his resolve, however, and he worked harder to gain a spot in NASA’s fledgling space program. His hard work paid off, and he eventually found himself on a 250,000-mile journey to Earth’s nearest neighbor on the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969.

Bean was the fourth man to walk on the moon during a program that many consider as the greatest technical achievement of the American civilization. This boy born not so far from here was part of something that typified American greatness or, as some like to call it, American exceptionalism.

In all of human history, only 12 men have ever walked on the Moon – all of them Americans and no one since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Your editor was two years old then. Those younger than 42 have never seen someone do what Bean did.

Capt. Bean isn’t concerned by this. He notes that the Pilgrims didn’t land at Plymouth Rock until 128 years after Columbus sailed to the New World. But there was a lot of exploration done in those ensuing years… new lands and peoples discovered… new records set… and boundaries pushed further and further.

Politics is largely to blame for the languishing of the American space program. We haven’t gotten a man out of earth orbit for four decades, and right now we can’t even put an astronaut in space without hitching a ride from the Russians. In 2004, President George W. Bush outlined a new program designed to return humans to the Moon by 2020 and launch missions further into space. In 2010, President Barack Obama pulled the plug on the program.

Americans still have it in them to accomplish great things like Alan Bean did. But we have to stop worrying about how many calories are in a school lunch, how to make life easy for the non-productive, or how to have a government program to take care of people from the cradle to the grave. We need leaders who lead, a government that sets goals which actually push us to achieve greatness, politicians who respect and understand the importance of science, and a president who will inspire to again be the greatest nation on God’s earth.

But until that happens, I will be thankful that my kids got the opportunity to meet an American hero and hope that they understand the greatness of the man and the enormous importance of what his generation did for all mankind. My son says he wants to go to Mars. (Shoot a mile, his old man would like to go to Mars!) And who knows? Maybe someday, when things are right, maybe he – or his sister – can follow in the footsteps other kids from the Panhandle, like Alan Bean and Rick Husband, and blaze a trail in the sky.

Meanwhile…

No one is safe while the Texas Legislature is currently in session. The most uncompromising elements of the Republican Party are running the state, and this week they’re making headlines with the passage of an open carry bill out of the Texas Senate. The measure now goes to the House, and the governor has already indicated he’ll sign the bill into law.

Other than returning Texas to the wild, wild West, it’s not clear what the advantage of this law would be. Concealed carry is one thing, but having a good number of the population walking around with a gun on their hip just seems to increase the likelihood that some nut job will get his hands on a firearm.

Open Carry is getting all the press, but here’s some other things the boys and girls in Austin are up to. The budget proposed in the House zeroed out funding for the Courthouse Restoration Program that Donley County and others have benefitted from. It also zeroed out funding for the Texas Trails program that has helped boost heritage tourism to rural communities.

And more good news… no fewer than six bills have been filed to curtail your right to know what’s happening in your local governments by eliminating or truncating public notices in newspapers. Instead of making government more open and more transparent, there are forces in power who would like to see things kept out of the public’s view.

All of this and we still have the real issues to deal with… education financing, out of control standardized testing in public schools, and a little deal of not having enough water for our growing state. But, hey! They’re on top of the gun thing.