Texas, Gotta Love Us!

"We’re hearing from parents and grandparents that are not very happy. They really feel like it is political indoctrination," said Stephanie Klick, Tarrant County Republican Party chairwoman. "People don’t like this. I have heard from some families that are planning to keep their kids home."

– Star-Telegram, Ft. Worth, Texas 9/2/09

There is a ruckus in Texas that has parents of school children in some north Texas school districts up in arms. What could possibly drive these parents to threaten to pull their kids out of school? Are the schools planning to pass out Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book? Are the teachers reading from the Quran and asking students to recite their favorite passages? Are they openly discussing sex? What’s all the hub bub? Why are they so hot under the collar? It must be something pretty outrageous!

Well… it is outrageous. The President of the United States of America wants to address the students of this great nation. And what does he want to talk about? He wants to talk about the importance of education and staying school. Oh, the horror of it all! The audacity! To make matters worse, he wants to do this on the Internet via live streaming video, something very familiar to today’s youth. How dare he use this modern technology to talk to students! I just have this vision of parents, teachers and school superintendents rushing out to Radio Shack and Best Buy and Office Depot trying to purchase V-chips and programs to block internet content on the school computers lest the impressionable minds of Texas students be corrupted by…the President.

According to Arne Duncan, the President’s Secretary of Education, President Obama wants to address the students of America about “a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens," Plug your ears Texas students and shout as loud as you can, “I can’t hear you!” How dare the President of the United States of America attempt such a blatant indoctrination of our youth! This is Texas.

• Texas is #49 in verbal SAT scores in the nation (493) and #46 in average math SAT scores (502).
• Texas is #36 in the nation in high school graduation rates (68%).

-from Texas State Comptroller, Susan Combs at website: http://www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/wwstand/wws0512ed/

Well, our ever popular, conservative Governor Rick Perry, who’s running for another term, is talking about Texas seceding from the Union. Yes, you heard me right.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up an anti-tax "tea party" Wednesday with his stance against the federal government and for states' rights as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, "Secede!" …
Perry called his supporters patriots. Later, answering news reporters' questions, Perry suggested Texans might at some point get so fed up they would want to secede from the union, though he said he sees no reason why Texas should do that…
“But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot."…

-from Associated Press 4/15/09

So God love our ever popular Governor Perry. If he ever gets off the fence and gets his act together, we might just secede in time to stop the President from filling our students with a lot of nonsense about the importance of education in America. We can only hope.

Food for THOUGHT…

Time to Get Away

It has been a long, hot summer here in south Texas. After 50 some days of over 100 degrees and very little rain, I have watched my garden dry up and my lawn become dry patches of dirt. At some point in this exceptional drought, watering was no longer an option. It was money down the hole since the subsoil was just too dry. I did my best to save our potted plants on the patio, but the rest of my yard took a direct hit. Only my cactus and native plant gardens came through the dry heat intact. What a lesson that was. I have plans to plant more native stuff in the future.

No, this summer was very stressful indeed. I had a number of medical test done from a blood work up to my heart and then to my colon. Each test brought visions of unthinkable horrors and results. I’m not much for doctors, hospitals, and procedures. I just don’t like to be put into a flimsy gown with no back and then poked and prodded, run on a treadmill, hooked to a dozen wires or scanned in a dark room all the while wondering what they are going to find. Well, thankfully the results were pretty good. I still have visits with my ophthalmologist and a dentist, but things look good so far. It just took a lot out of me.

My boss at the Alamo retired this summer and I was asked to take on some additional responsibilities for my new boss. Our Alamo director also retired this summer and several of my coworkers were let go. We finally have a new management team at work now. We have brought some new people on board. The sadness of seeing some old friends leave is tempered with the new faces, new opportunities and new ways of doing things. We seem to be coming through the transition just fine, but again it has taken its toll on me.

My wife has been very busy with her art exhibits, teaching and a commission she received for a local church this summer. She spent long, hot days in her studio and traveling to see her mother and brother in Ft. Worth. In addition, we have both worked hard on restoring her home studio this summer. That involved painting, building a work table and mounting display boards on the walls. Most of the work is finished and it looks good, but we are both exhausted at the end of the day. We miss not being able to sit out and have our glass of wine in the evening because of the heat.

This month is our 9th anniversary and we decided to take a few days and get away from it all. Lisa went online and found a nice little cabin up in the Texas Hill Country. We are going to pack some wine, some food, our CD player and some DVD’s from the library and head out. We can sit out and read all day or go hiking in the nearby state park. It sounds almost too good to be true.

Our lives get so filled with things we HAVE to do that we often forget the things we would LIKE to do. Sometimes we just have to stop and smell the roses as we take stock and count our many blessings.

Food for THOUGHT…