The Texas Legislature will be going back to work next month after Gov. Greg Abbott this week called for a special session so that lawmakers can tackle a host of issues that would really best be left alone.

Your editor agrees with the governor on one point. He said that a special session was entirely avoidable, and it was. But like happens too often, some self-important politicians got caught up in pursuit of an agenda. The result is that real issues get pushed aside and a circus takes over.

The driving, burning issues of the day that are so important to our state’s political leaders are these: local property taxes and bathrooms.  Some of them are also still focused on abortion.

Local property taxes is an issue that Austin loves to meddle in. Despite touting themselves as champions of “local control” for decades, Republicans are more and more showing themselves to only be in favor of local control as long as it doesn’t interfere with their world view.

For one state senator, Paul Bettencourt, that world view is limited to the county and area in which he lives. Folks down there have a problem with rising property values and rising tax rates. Bettencourt and his buddy Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are really hot and bothered to fix a few people’s problems by hamstringing local governments across the state and their ability to raise revenue.

Texas already has provisions to control rising property tax values, and the ultimate solution is the ballot box. If you truly believe that tax rates are out of control, and enough of your fellow taxpayers agree with you, elect someone else to run your county or city. Bettencourt, however, prefers the ham-fisted approach and cares nothing about how his proposals will impact economically disadvantaged counties like Donley County.

A full treatise on the foolishness and potentially damaging impact of “property tax reform” is a subject that would require its own column. Suffice it to say that this issue is not one critically important to our part of the state; but if it passes, it will potentially put local boards in quite a bind.

Another burning issue of the day are bathrooms. Apparently, there is a crisis about who’s peeing where. This was not something that was even imagined until a year or two ago, and now it has some people’s drawers in a real bind.

In short, Gov. Abbott is really intent on making sure that the folks using the women’s room are genetically female as listed on their birth certificate, and likewise legal “men” should use the men’s room.

The question becomes, who’s going to enforce this? Are we all supposed to carry our birth certificates with us just in case we need to take a leak in a public rest room? Will we have to show our papers to some toilet cop or potty supervisor?

The entire issue is beyond ridiculous and it is an embarrassment that our state legislators are going to have to debate this topic and likely put a law on the books about it.

Abbott says the issue is one of safety for the children of Texas. He apparently thinks that transgender people are all pedophiles. But as a father, I don’t worry about cross-dressers. I worry about real predators – who I think dress pretty normal. In fact, who lets their small children use a public rest room without proper supervision or being nearby?

If Abbott wants to do something to protect children, he should focus on making the laws tougher on people who actually hurt children instead of bringing up a debate that makes the state look like a laughing stock.

Forget about checking birth certificates for going to the bathroom. Let’s check intelligence before serving for public office. Let’s check on caring about what’s best for Texas instead of rabidly pursuing agendas.

The children of Texas – and the grown-ups, too – are generally at far greater risk when the Legislature is in session than from any man in drag using the women’s room. If we really want to keep our society safe, we need to do our damnedest to keep our lawmakers limited to their usual sessions once every two years and keep them out of having special sessions. It’s just too risky to let them run loose like this.

The Clarendon City Council should approve a variance request for Allsup’s Convenience Stores after it holds a public hearing next Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The company, which has been in business here for more than 40 years, is in contract to buy a large tract of land on US 287 and says it plans to invest $2.6 million to develop a larger nicer store.

So what’s the problem with that? Allsup’s sells beer and wine, and the new store location is right across the street from the Clarendon public schools, specifically the backside of Bronco Stadium. Unfortunately, city ordinance prohibits establishments from selling alcohol within 300 feet of a church or a school. A business can ask for a variance on this issue, and Allsup’s has done just that.

The request from Allsup’s has led to naysaying and fearmongering from Clarendon’s usual Prophet of Doom, who once predicted that we would have drunken bums sleeping in Prospect Park and a host of other maladies if we legalized the sale of alcohol in this town. Now, we’re told that Allsup’s plans will attract transients, bums, and whores.

The biggest concern the Prophet and others say they have is safety. The proposed site for the new store is about a block and half west of its current location at US 287 and Koogle Street. This site is supposedly too dangerous because speeding traffic coming over the hill will cause accidents with vehicles pulling in and out of the new store.

It would be a crying shame if we had to slow traffic in this town. TxDOT and law enforcement certainly have it in their power to do that… if it really is a concern. But where was all this worry when Best Western, Sonic, Dollar General, and Pizza Hut were built across the highway from this site?

In all honesty though, safety would not even be on anybody’s radar if it wasn’t for the alcohol issue. If someone wanted to build a hotel or a McDonald’s on that property, everything would be just hunky-dory. But propose something – anything – that wants to sell beer, and some people will just lose their freaking minds.

The next supposed problem is that this new store will somehow send “mixed messages” to the children at Clarendon ISD, which tries to promote a strong anti-drug/anti-alcohol theme. The school board even approved a resolution opposed to the city granting Allsup’s variance request.

The school board might want to keep in mind that a $2.6 million improvement will generate a significant amount of tax revenue for the school. And here’s a news flash for the school and the naysayers… the school kids go to Allsup’s every day already. So what difference will it really make? None.

People concerned about the new Allsup’s location have also been quick to suggest other more desirable, in their opinions, locations for the store. The Prophet himself has even suggested one location that is outside the city limits and would bring no sales or property tax revenue to the city, but it is just about as far away from the children as you can get. Ultimately, the location of a new Allsup’s store ought to be up to Allsup’s and whoever is selling the property. It’s a business decision. Likewise, what happens to Allsup’s current property is for that company to determine.

It’s important to point out that a majority of people in Clarendon want to see businesses grow and thrive here. Your editor firmly believes that most people want to welcome Allsup’s and appreciate the firm’s willingness to invest literally millions of dollars in this community.

The City Council must look at the big picture in this case. Allsup’s new store will mean more property taxes, more sales taxes, and more jobs. It will also further the image that positive things are happening in this community… just like in the case of the new Family Dollar, the Buckin’ Bean, the Whistle-Stop, and other developments. Many other communities our size don’t have these things going on.  It’s a sign of progress. That’s what this really means for Clarendon, and that’s why the variance should be approved – because business expansion is good for our city.

Beyond this instance, the council also needs to consider that highway frontage in this town is limited. The distance requirements on establishments selling alcohol are potentially limiting on development and therefore should be abolished altogether. Alcohol sales should be allowed anywhere along the 287 corridor and in the central business district. There shouldn’t have to be a fight every time someone wants to put in a business that sells beer or wine.

Clarendon must be open and welcoming to development. The fate of Allsup’s request will determine the message that we send to other potential businesses.

Your right to know what is going on with your government – from City Hall to the White House – is a cornerstone of a free republic. It is appropriate then to reflect on the defenders of that right at this time as America observes Sunshine Week March 12-18.

Some might say that the sunshine has been eclipsed somewhat over the last couple of months by the shadow of a larger than life personality that now leads this great nation. For those of us whose job it is to report on the goings on of government there are signs of trouble emanating from Washington.

Journalists are not unfamiliar with people taking exception to what they write. In fact, if you haven’t taken some arrows in your time, you probably haven’t done much as a reporter.

Your editor has been called many things in the last 21 years. Some of them can’t be repeated in a family publication. The funniest was this week when he was labeled a “Democrat.” But perhaps the most interesting came last month from the highest levels of the federal government… an enemy of the people.

That moniker came from President Donald J. Trump who has repeatedly labeled the press as “the enemy of the people” and derides media outlets he disagrees with as “fake news.”

There is, of course, an adversarial relationship between the press and those in positions of authority. This is nothing new and it is not limited to the national stage. It happens on the local level, and your editor has at times been at odds with different local officials to the point of even being lectured or ridiculed in public meetings by county commissioners, city aldermen, and school board members. It’s not fun, but you develop a thick skin and realize you’re doing your job when a public official squeals for having been called out for his actions.

The troubling thing about Mr. Trump is the level and intensity of his rhetoric. “Enemy of the people” is phrase that students of history know has been used by some pretty bad company… people like the Nazis, Lenin, Stalin, and other dictators.

If the president doesn’t like the press nosing around his business, calling the press “the enemy of the people” was probably not the wisest thing for him to do. Because now “the media” is going to be on him like stink on a cow patty. That his appointees and even the president himself can’t abstain from saying stupid things isn’t helping the administration either.

Now our conservative friends will say that CNN, The New York Times, and MSNBC are clearly biased against Republicans and are not the equivalent of The Clarendon Enterprise. And, they would say, that the president’s comments are against those leftist news organizations.

But truly you need to understand one thing… the First Amendment does not discriminate based on political persuasion. Freedom of the press covers The Washington Post, ABC News, and the newspaper you hold in your hands. And when a president starts labeling “the media” as “the enemy of the people,” then rest assured all media will – or should – lock arms to defend one another. If you need an example of that, you need to look no further than FoxNews’ Sheppard Smith defending a CNN reporter who was belittled by the incoming president earlier this year.

CNN is not fake news. The New York Times is not fake news. You may disagree with their editorial points of view, but these are organizations that generally uphold the highest standards of journalism.

The problem with our society today is that people will believe anything they read on social media and take it for face value. They follow “news” sites that simply espouse a political viewpoint. The right and the left have their chosen sources, and many people don’t take the time to read anything that doesn’t fit their world view. That’s fine. It’s all covered by the First Amendment. But not taking a balanced approach to news consumption is a large part of what has led to the extreme polarization of this country.

You have a right to know what’s going on with your government. That’s what Sunshine Week is about. The biggest defender of that right is not breitbart.com or World Net Daily. It is the traditional media – the often vilified “press” – that people love to hate. The big boys will hold the president’s feet to the fire – and even help bring him down if necessary, while the Enterprise and thousands of other hometown newspapers across this land will continue to shine the light on city councils, school boards, college boards, and county commissions.

Together we’ll fight in state legislatures and in Congress to keep government practices open so that you can see what your elected representatives are doing and find out what they are up to… even when they don’t want you to know.

West Texans have a name for things like the state’s new school accountability system. We can’t print it here, but let’s just say it rhymes with “pull spit.”

Always on the lookout for a way to pander to voters, Texas Republicans, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and others, dreamed up the idea of ranking schools from A to F.

How simple is that? Texans don’t need highfalutin things like percentages and or “met standards” to determine how well their schools are operating. Why not just give your local school district an A or a B or an F? And then, presumably, when enough public schools get Ds and Fs, we can pass legislation to encourage more “school choice,” whatever that means.

And so, the nimrods in Austin came up with a plan to “grade” schools based on a myriad of figures and statistics.

The result has been widely panned since the “preliminary” grades came out late last week that show how schools would be scored if the new system was in place. Clarendon ISD got three C’s and one F, which is curious considering how the state said the school met all its standards just five months ago.

But like so many things the Tea Party hacks have put forth, this new accountability system is all about politics and doesn’t make much sense.

Schools are scored in four dominions: Student Achievement, Student Progress, Closing the Gaps, and Post-Secondary Readiness. Let’s look at those one by one.

Student Achievement is basically how well students do on the STAAR test. There’s plenty to be said about high stakes, standardized tests… and none of it is very good. When you’re stressing a third grader out to the point he can’t sleep because of how he might do on a state test, something is wrong. The damnation of standardized tests is something that would take more room than this one paragraph will allow. Suffice it to say, Texas used to do just fine without them.

Dominion Two is Student Progress, which throws back to Dominion One. Basically, it’s based on how well a kid performs on the high stakes, standardized test this year compared to the last time he took the test. If you pass the test, but don’t score as well as the last time, the school system suffers. Getting back to the problem with standardized tests, no one takes into account what is happening in a kid’s life. This is just a snapshot of one day, one test, that we base whether or not a school is good or bad, passing or failing.

Dominion Three is pure social engineering. It wants to know how well the school performs in “Closing the Gap.” In other words, we’ve got poor kids and more affluent kids. Statistically, economically disadvantaged kids face more challenges in school. How you address that is beyond me. It doesn’t matter how good your school is if little Johnny’s dad has never been around, his mother can’t find work, and he had nothing for supper last night. The fact that little Johnny’s home doesn’t have Internet access and that the gas got shut off last Tuesday could have some bearing on his performance on the state’s stupid test. But the Austin pinheads want to judge your school based on how close we can get Johnny’s scores to those of his friend The Beaver, who lives in a perfect family with two bread-winners and a beautiful home.

Dominion Four is Post-Secondary Readiness, and there’s a lot of junk in that score as bureaucrats try to determine if everyone is ready to go to college. Clarendon High School does a pretty good job at that and has a lot of cooperative efforts with Clarendon College, so the very idea that CHS got an F in that category shows that something is horribly flawed somewhere… either with the methodology or the data itself.

Can Clarendon ISD be improved? I’m sure it can. But it nowhere near deserves the kind of scores this new system would have given it. Quite the opposite.

Clarendon has a good school system. The biggest problem with it can’t be found at the local level. The biggest problem our school has is the same problem Texas has in general… the Texas Legislature. In an ideal world, we’d separate politics from schools. The ongoing political pandering with our children as pawns is sickening. Schools can’t get used to one “accountability system” before something else is thrown at them. And all of it just ends up putting pressure on our kids and pressure on teachers… all for the sake of some petty politician being able to thump his chest.

We need our Legislators to man up and do something positive for education for a change… get the hell out of the way and let our teachers and administrators to their jobs.

As 2016 draws to a close, a final act of weirdness befell America this week when Donald Trump was actually elected president of the United States.

This was pretty much a foregone conclusion in November, but with the ups and downs we’ve seen this year, nothing was certain as members of the Electoral College cast their votes – the only ones that really mattered – on Monday and formally elected Trump.

One article I read from a reliable news source said this was the first time since 1872 that there has been more than one “faithless electors.”  Two Texas electors did not cast their ballots for Trump – one went with former US Rep. Ron Paul and the other went for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Hillary Clinton had four of her electors from Washington state defect and vote for other people.

So unless something extraordinary happens, Trump will become president next month, and America is in for an interesting time to be sure.

Trump is loud, brash, and unrestrained. The decorum of the presidency, therefore, will be markedly different than anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.

There is no controlling Donald Trump. For better or worse, he’s his own man and will do as he damn well pleases, no matter whose toes he steps on.

There are some toes that need stomping in Washington. Some bureaucrats need to be reminded they are not omnipotent, and the government as a whole needs a lesson that “business as usual” just isn’t working for many Americans.

The challenge for America is how it responds to Trump. He needs to be supported when he’s right and working for the common good, but he needs to be challenged – by both parties – when (not if) he goes off the rails. And we need to stay true to the things that have made America great in the past as the new administration seeks to make it great “again.”

America is a nation of immigrants. The nation needs to be mindful of that and cognizant of the strength that the “melting pot” of cultures has been for this country.

Some of our basic tenants are freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. These freedoms must be applied equally or they are meaningless. Free speech covers the right to offend or it is not free. A free press will by its nature step on the toes of those in power. And religious freedom does not just apply to evangelical Christian nationalists. It applies to Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Native Americans, and any other faith you can think of.

If we can’t rally around those simple liberties, that there is no way America will ever be great… either now or again. Soon-to-be President Trump has indicated he has trouble understanding that. It will be up to the People and members of his own party to make sure he has some clarity on the subject as we move forward.

God willing, the new president’s better angels will guide him as the new year gets underway.  Let’s hope so.

Meanwhile…

Looking back on 2016, we would like to thank each of you for your continued support for this newspaper. Since 1878, we have been bringing you the news each week and chronicling our community’s ups and downs. But that could not be possible if it were not for our advertisers and readers.

We also want to thank the contributions of Morgan Wheatly and Tara Allred. Without them, you would not be reading this because they play an extremely important role in producing this paper each week. And let’s not forget Kari Lindsey, Sandy Anderberg, Peggy Cockerham, Kathy Spier, and everyone who contributes pictures, articles, and information to help us bring you the news. Ashlee and I appreciate all of you. We thank you for your efforts and look forward to working with you in the new year.

Speaking of Ashlee, I would personally like to thank her for all her contributions to the Enterprise and for keeping me sane but most of all for putting up with this crusty old editor for these last 12 years of wedded bliss. Happy anniversary, Sunshine!

To everyone, Merry Christmas from our family to yours, and may God richly bless you in the new year.

The 2016 election was certainly one for the history books, and now the nation looks to see what Donald Trump will be like as president.

Most people were surprised by last Tuesday’s outcome. Hillary Clinton was leading all the polls, and Trump had offended almost everyone at some point during the campaign. But two things were key to Trump’s victory. First, perhaps even the man himself did not fully grasp the anger of the working class toward Washington, DC; and second, the Democrats possibly didn’t understand how much people absolutely hate Mrs. Clinton.

The campaign then set up the clash of a brash Washington outsider and a classic poster child for DC corruption. Or, depending on your point of view, a racist misogynistic bigot vs. a champion of women and the downtrodden.

For your humble editor, it was a case of an exceptionally unpalatable Republican who seemed to demean the very things that makes America truly great (i.e. a free press, freedom of religion, and the strength that has come from the melting pot of a nation of immigrants) and a lying, conniving, vindictive witch who sounded like nothing more than an angry white woman. Which is why I voted for Gary Johnson, and went to bed with a clean conscious.

The most amusing thing has been to see the people on Facebook who two weeks ago were posting memes touting the abolition of the Electoral College become last Wednesday the biggest fans of the Electoral College.

So what are we left with? A second Clinton administration would have been easy to predict – an extension of B.O.’s policy’s, more liberal judges on federal courts, an even larger role for the federal government, and a former president molesting interns in the East Wing of the White House.

But a Trump administration… now that’s a wild card!

Donald Trump is beholden to no one. He’s independently wealthy, and largely bankrolled his own election. Someone like Trump could make tremendous positive changes in Washington by taking on the established bureaucracy, finding compromise solutions to actually fix things like the tax code or Social Security, etc.

Someone like Trump could do that, but it remains to be seen if Trump is that person. And in fact, right now, it looks doubtful.

Diehard Republicans like to tell you that the party works for limited government, reduced taxes, reduced spending, and conservative judges on the courts. Unfortunately, their record is spotty at best, giving us the PATRIOT Act, No Child Left Behind, expanded federal programs, uncontrolled spending, and Chief Justice John Roberts – the traitor who single-handedly kept Obamacare as the law of the land. You do get generally lower taxes though.

Trump is not a typical Republican. Indeed, many of his positions aren’t very Republican at all. So it was quite curious that he became a hero for the Grand Old Party, and even more curious how evangelicals rushed to embrace the man who exhibited the least Christian attributes of any major candidate running. But he had one thing going for him… he wasn’t Hillary Clinton.

The president-elect may quickly become a disappointment for his backers. He has now come out and called the question of gay marriage “settled” (which should inflame many of his supporters), and he’s already softened his position somewhat on repealing Obamacare, indicating that he may decide to keep the provision that requires insurers to cover pre-existing conditions (although, frankly that seems like the one thing that is driving insurance rates through the roof). You can’t really take those positions to the bank though. They will likely change a couple of times before he takes office in January.

Which is the problem with electing a man to office that doesn’t seem to have any core principals when it comes to political philosophy. That being said, Donald Trump is a smart man. You don’t build the empire he has without some high level of business acumen. But how well can he translate business smarts into running the government? And more importantly, will the divisive language he used to get elected actually reflects his true feelings and the way he will govern?

Trump realistically has one year to prove himself. If he can somehow watch his tongue – and tame his Twitter account – and act sensibly, there may be some hope for him as president. But if he can’t, then you can look for the divide in this country to get even wider and expect the Democrats to take control of Congress in two years.

Donley County history lovers are in for a real treat if they attend this weekend’s Clarendon Arts Festival.

One of the booths at the festival will feature a former local resident who has written a fascinating new book that details a horrible crime from Clarendon’s past.

Weaving in and out of the timeline, Louva A. Hunt tells a story that puts local history in context with state and national history, and even ties in the works of the great science fiction writer H.G. Wells. In fact, Little Weena’s Flowers gets its title from Well’s The Time Machine.

Hunt was a young girl living in Clarendon on October 30, 1938, when she was awoken by a Donley County deputy calling her father out of the house with instructions to get his gun and join a posse.

A black man had attacked two white women on their way home from church. Similar cases had provoked racial violence in other Texas cities, but this case would be different thanks to the deft handling of the situation by the Donley County sheriff and the newly minted state department of public safety.

Hunt would largely forget the details of that night for 40 years until a most unusual anniversary rekindled the recollections of that night. It was the same night that Orson Welles had sent many people in to hysterics with his radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds.”

Hunt’s well documented book is a masterpiece in terms of Clarendon history with a depth of research that is impressive to say the least. The story is brought even more to life by photographs taken by her father from the 1930s.

With a style that keeps the reader’s attention, Hunt sets the stage with the story of race relations not only in Donley County but in Texas. She also does an excellent job of describing the lives of the victims and of the man who perpetrated the crimes.

In a case of swift justice, the attacker was found, tried, convicted, and executed in a matter of about six weeks.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the history of Clarendon and Donley County.

If you can’t make it to the Arts Festival this weekend, you can buy a copy of Little Weena’s Flowers at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.  It is definitely worth your time.

This is National Newspaper Week across America, and like all good members of our industry, the Enterprise always joins in with the celebration. But this year, as we looked at the material designed to help promote our craft, the editorial cartoon shown with this column, struck home.

That image of a child sitting in her father’s lap could have been any number of days at my own home growing up. It was a Sunday tradition for my brother and I to sit in Dad’s lap as he read us the Sunday funnies. And it was very often that he would tell us about some article or other that was in the Amarillo paper or in what would one day become my own paper.

Never did I imagine at the time, that someday I would be responsible for publishing the news in Donley County.  But the one thing that was constant up until the day he died, was the image of Dad sitting down with the paper and reading it from cover to cover.

My father was always extremely well versed in the issues of the day, because he thrived on a steady dose of news. He watched the nightly news, but his best source was the regional daily paper and this newspaper.

I’m sure it was something he picked up from his father. It’s hard not to get that habit in a newspaper family, and my grandfather had grown up in the print shop of the Donley County Leader. He, too, took the Amarillo paper daily, and even had the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram delivered… mainly for reprints of Will Rogers’ columns, I think.

Much has changed since the time of my father and grandfather, but people’s thirst – and need – for news remains the same. We deliver it in many forms now… on the web, by email, through social media, and, of course, still through print. But our committment as a newspaper remains unchanged… to bring you the best, most accurate coverage of your community and to inform you of the critical issues that you need to know to be an informed citizen.

One wonders what the future will hold for this tradition of the news. My own children are having a very different upbringing with the newspaper… one that is more hands-on in producing the news as opposed to my upbringing of just consuming the news. And yet, I believe that they will have just as much – or more – appreciation for the value of what we do here and of what other journalists do throughout this great country of ours.

The newspaper is an important part of America. It has long been a cornerstone of our society, and even though our industry may be going through some changes technologically, the core mission and the need for that mission is as clear today as when our Founding Fathers penned the Bill of Rights.

My challenge to you, as parents and grandparents, is to share the news with your kids and grandkids. Take them away from the distractions of the day, and talk with them about the events of the week. Above all, remind them of the importance of learning about their world of being informed.

It’s a tradition worth passing down to the next generation.

The first presidential debate of 2016 is now history, and it appears almost certain that the United States is in heap big trouble. Unless, of course, people wake up and take this country back.

Businessman Donald Trump is a bombastic firebrand with a questionable grasp on the issues and apparently no concrete plans for much of anything. He has made some major flip flops on important issues and has put forth some proposals that are totally counter to the Republican ideals he’s supposed to represent.

His redeeming qualities are that he’s rich, he’s not afraid to step on anyone’s toes, and he has little or no use for the political establishment that has made a wreck of this country.

This all means that Trump is just infinitesimally a better choice that his Democratic opponent, a former first lady turned senator turned Secretary of State now making her second run at the White House. Hillary Clinton is, to be kind, a pathological liar who is corrupt, arrogant, angry, and above the law. Clinton wants bigger government, more regulations, more rules on business, and for the rich to “pay their fair share”… whoever “the rich” are.

The secretary’s best attribute, for many, is that she isn’t Donald Trump.

Most people on both sides of the aisle, if they are honest, will tell you that they wish there was someone else to vote for but they plan to hold their nose and vote for one because he or she isn’t the other.

There is another option. You don’t have to vote for Trump or Clinton. You have another choice., and that person is Gov. Gary Johnson.

The Libertarian candidate is polling higher than Ross Perot was in the 1992 election, but due to the rules of the “non-partisan” (and yet run by Republicans and Democrats) Commission on Presidential Debates, the former governor of New Mexico has been excluded from the national stage.

Johnson polls high with young people and with active duty military people. He’s a two-term former Republican governor from a strongly Democratic state, which demonstrates his ability to work with people with different views.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a presidential candidate who could do more than hurl personal insults or work to force their will on other people?

Our problems today have been created by our two-party system, but Johnson offers a fresh approach. He offers the chance to have a president who will govern from the position that We the People should be afforded the most liberty possible.

That will surely freak out some conservatives who want everyone to fit perfectly into their morality cookie cutter as well as some liberals who want the government to regulate and control the economy. But I think it’s safe to say that most people want the government to just leave them the hell alone. And that’s what Gary Johnson stands for… leaving people the hell alone. Get the government, as much as is reasonably possible, out of our daily lives so that we can live up to the best potential that our God given talents will allow.

Do I agree with every position that Gov. Johnson has taken?  No, I don’t. And that’s okay.  We don’t have to agree on everything, but we agree on the big things… free markets, personal liberty, and limited government.

If either Donald or Hillary are elected, the partisan divide will only deepen in America. And I’m not sure how much further we can divide before this nation gets finally torn asunder.

Johnson offers a third choice, and I dare say it’s a better choice. We’ve tried a Clinton before, and Trump represents the worst of the conservative stereotypes. Let’s at least look at something else before casting a vote.

At the very least, America deserves to hear what Gary Johnson has to say. And the only people who can make that happen is the Commission on Presidential Debates. They have denied him that right once. Let us hope they can be persuaded to join the next two debates. He’s on the ballot in all 50 states, and he has earned the right to be heard. And then the People can listen and decide for themselves the fate of this Union.

 

Meanwhile…

Your humble editor is waiting patiently for the hand-wringers and the nannies to call for imposing waiting periods or perhaps background checks for purchases of pressure cookers.

This comes after a terrorist earlier this month killed people in New York with a bomb made from a pressure cooker. He didn’t use a gun, so we’ve been spared the onslaught of demands for more gun regulations, but the anti-gunners have not yet clamored for measures to keep us safe from pressure cookers. The suspect behind the bombing has, however, been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

I personally have been quite leery of these weapons ever since the lid blew off my Memaw’s pressure cooker about 30 years ago and sent frijoles all over her kitchen and sent my cousin’s wife and I running for our lives. I’m here to tell you these things are dangerous and scary and ought to at least be used only by people who are properly licensed.

Of course, I don’t know what we do about it. Even if you get some new rules in place, there are already a lot of pressure cookers out there in houses all over America. And this guy – the madman that he is – probably did not go buy his at a reputable dealer like Bed Bath & Beyond or Henson’s. No, you can bet your beans that this guy got his pressure cooker at some back alley garage sale where the serial numbers had been scratched off.