Correspondence, 6-30-11
Editor:
Tax breaks for the wealthy only create jobs in places like China and Korea. When the Bush tax breaks were introduced, major corporations used to money to outsource jobs to countries where they could avoid paying decent wages. Unemployment, which had been low during the Clinton administration, rapidly began to rise to their current heights. If tax cuts resulted in American jobs, many of our citizens who want to work would be able to find it.
We are not in debt because of expanded social programs. When George W. Bush entered the White House, our country had an annual surplus and was paying down our national debt. We are still paying off the debt caused by two wars being fought at the same time that large tax cuts were being awarded to the wealthiest of our citizens.
We can’t solve our national debt problems without raising taxes on the top one per cent or ending some of the unnecessary subsidies to large corporations. Forced austerity which rewards the rich has resulted in violence by those who have suffered from it in Greece and Spain, and throughout the Arab world. One hopes that we will not be forced to see if desperate Americans would do the same.
The Congressional Budget Office, whose results are accepted by both political parties, estimates that we could get rid of our national debt in five years by retaining health reforms and eliminating the Bush tax cuts.
Last week, Eric Cantor walked out of the committee working for a budget compromise when the Democrats suggested eliminating the subsidies which our government gives to individuals for owning private jets.
Marilyn Dell Brady
Alpine
Editor:
I renewed my driver’s license at the local Texas Department of Public Safety office. I had to fill out a couple of short forms and on one it asked if I was a citizen of the United States.
Now I’m wondering if that was discrimination. I guess if I were an illegal immigrant it would have been but since I’m not it was okay. Sometimes political correctness confuses me.
Joe Cole
Weatherford
P.S. Congratulations to the Sentinel and International for your awards. You earned them.
Editor:
While passing through historic Shafter yesterday, June 28th, on US 67 I noticed that re-activated mining concerns are hard at work. That’s good. Our region needs jobs and economic activity.
Also I noticed that some of the earth moving was ranging dangerously close to the old rock-walled multi-room structure just south of the village on the west side of the highway. While working on my Master’s degree in history at Sul Ross State University in the early 1990s I studied U.S. manuscript census data from the mining era. Found was a consecutive list of names from all across the world. Australia and Germany, I recall, were but two of the nations represented.
At the time I thought, and still believe, that these datum represented individuals who resided in the aforementioned building. In addition, numerous ruins and intact historical structures remain scattered along Cibolo Creek and across the surrounding hills. Those include stores and habitations, not to mention a large historic cemetery.
As a historian I should hope that the Presidio County Historical Commission and other Big Bend entities such as the Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross as well as the Presidio County Judge and Commissioner’s Court would insist upon historical preservation at the Shafter mining site as well as in the adjoining area.
For reasons both scholarly and aesthetic, all these artifacts and relics of a by-gone day deserve to be protected.
Glenn Willeford
Big Bend
Editor:
Re: The rest of the story; the big gas company lie.
Before we petition the Vatican for canonization of former gas company management, or consign current and previous gas boards to Dante’s ninth level of hell, perhaps we should get the perspective from the other side (what a concept!). One of the main arguments against dissolution (I prefer the term “reorganization” as being more accurate) is that life was wonderful and the company was achieving financial greatness. We have heard the same argument, by the same people, on the same topic, time after time ad nauseum. As we have all read from the likes of Peter A. Smyke and Joseph L. Goldman, the company was $3 million in debt. Due to the divine intervention of former management, not only was the shortfall erased, but it was replaced with a $1 million surplus. I found this just a little hard to swallow, so I decided to get “the rest of the story” from a couple of former gas company board presidents.
A couple of days ago, I sat for two hours in the living room of former Alpine Mayor Mickey Clouse and was told that the story was patently not true, that no such deficit ever existed. In fact, there was so much money that there was some revenue sharing with the owning cities.
Continuing in my quest for the truth, additional verification was sought. Last Friday evening I spent about an hour on the phone with my old friend Col. Hal Craig, U.S. Army retired, who now lives in South Carolina. He categorically denied that any shortfall existed and certainly not to the tune of $3 million. As far as the $1 million surplus is concerned, the only time I recall seeing anything in black and white on this was when I was on the Alpine City Council when an individual presented us with one sheet of paper that was handwritten. To me, this fell a little short of reconciled bank statements, and audited financial reports.
My final thought is this: we currently see a relentless attack on the integrity and motivations of Alpine Mayor Johnson, Alpine council member Diana Asgeirsson, city Utility Director Hollander, and City Manager Chuy Garcia.
Some council members want lengthy, detailed updates of everything happening on the gas board at every meeting. Indeed, council meetings have turned into gas board meetings.
I question where was the long-serving member of the gas board and why wasn’t the council alerted to the supposed $3 million shortfall. Surely, it took a long time for this to accumulate, if it ever did. Why are these things being brought up only in the last year. Could it be that the way things are going interferes with the agenda of a certain element in town? Just a thought for your consideration.
You have now heard from two very reputable sources that this financial disaster and subsequent resurrection is a hoax. You, the members of the public, are free to decide for yourselves.
This is the first in a series of letters to the editor, intended to present facts that elected or appointed officials cannot or are encouraged not to write about, but a humble private citizen can. The title is dedicated to the late Paul Harvey.
Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald
Alpine
Editor:
There was a mini-MHS exes reunion in Dallas recently with about 25 former Marfa High School alumni, including John Patrick Ryan and his wife Rikki, his brother Kevin and his wife, Charles Stover, Dan Martinez, Benny Beauchamp, Mark Thornsburg and his sister Joni, Becky Belt , Jessie Chavez and his wife, two guests, Joan Foy and Norma Uranga, formerly of Alpine, and several others whose names I didn’t catch or forgot.
I have posted some photos of the group on my Facebook page.
We all had a wonderful visit and reminisced about our days in Marfa prior to our departure to other parts of the world and in particular, Texas. Those in attendance were from the North Texas area and elsewhere, including Bryan, Weatherford, Flower Mound, Sanger, Lewisville, Arlington, Dallas, Carrollton, Rowelett, and Garland.
We gathered at Pappadeaux , a Cajun and seafood restaurant with exotic dishes of wonderful tastes.
Everyone appeared to have had a great time and talked about having another get-together of this type again in the Houston area within a few months.
It is great to see and visit with folks who have had the honor and privilege of having grown up and have been educated in Marfa High School. Most also have ties with Sul Ross, but the one most significant quality that we all seem to share was that we were like a big family reunion complete with hugs and handshakes like politicians gone wild.
Quintin Guerrero Williams
Carrollton
Editor:
Re: 800 years later
Did America wake up in the middle of a bad sci-fi flick?
Its plot allowed for our present economic inequities to continue unabated; while irresponsible leadership re-enforced it by touting or accepting the mantra of ‘supply-side economics’ aka ‘trickle-down’ and ‘privatization’ as if our recent experience with the failures of that doctrine mean nothing.
Wealth shifted direction faster than sawing one leg off a pool table with a game in progress. Authorizing legalized bribery, the Supreme Court’s unprecedented Citizens United, handed corporations the same rights to freedom of speech as “We, the people.”
We celebrate historic events and honor those who labored to make life better for future generations.
In 1215, feudal barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, limiting monarchical authority. In 1517, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses challenged the prevailing religious order in Europe and altered the way we relate to the institutions holding sway over us as we exercise our God-given conscience. In 1776, brave citizens marched against King George III’s brand of despotic authority. The principle is the same almost 800 or 600 or 200 years later. We’ve the right to a society with rules fair for all.
If English barons, Martin Luther and our Founding Fathers could, as inheritors of that legacy, we’re able to question the present paradigm, letting those in positions of political and economic power know exactly what we think about their machinations. Ask Thomas Jefferson his thoughts about that.
We’ve established precedence, entitling citizens to bring about meaningful change. Among them is voting against purveyors of this state of affairs and, for example, demanding campaign finance reform to remove the corruption of money which impairs representing the people’s concerns through responsive government.
I’m not advocating armed insurrection. But Americans need to develop a spine and some savvy to delineate sound fiscal policy from sound-bytes. We can change the ending of that bad sci-fi flick. We’re not slaves of an elite which benefited from writing their own script – noting similar is happening closer to home – witness the display of anti-democratic authoritarianism displayed by the Southwest Texas Municipal Gas Company (SWTMG) and difference in Brewster County tax assessments between County Judge Beard’s “Agricultural Exemption” holdings and your tiny city lot or humble acreage with a scenic view outside Alpine.
Ask yourself your thoughts about all that, too.
Sincerely yours,
Rev. Barry A. Zavah
Alpine
Editor:
Several years back, the residents who live on FM170 were notified that we would no longer get mail delivery out our way. The Post Office said that it was too costly to continue the service. We all complained about it but without any results. They did give us free post offices boxes in Presidio, so we now have to drive 16 miles to get our mail.
We recently went to renew our Post Office box like we do every year. This time they tell us we will either have to pay $30 a year for the box, which they forced on us in the first place, or set up a mail box at the intersection of FM 170 and US 67 (17 miles from our house) to continue to get mail service.
I know that we will have to pay for the mailbox, because we weren’t successful in keeping our mail service several years ago. I do know that the U.S. Postal Service has an $8.5 billion deficit for fiscal 2011 and that they are going to go before Congress to bail them out.
If you are tired of standing in line for 15 minutes to get stamps or get a package or listen to the rude Postmaster tell you that he has the final word on anything dealing with his Post Office area and that you have no further appeals, then we need to tell our elected representatives to say no to their bailout request.
Randy Ridgway
Presidio
Editor:
While passing through historic Shafter yesterday, June 28th, on US 67 I noticed that re-activated mining concerns are hard at work. That’s good. Our region needs jobs and economic activity.
Also I noticed that some of the earth moving was ranging dangerously close to the old rock-walled multi-room structure just south of the village on the west side of the highway. While working on my Master’s degree in history at Sul Ross State University in the early 1990s I studied U.S. manuscript census data from the mining era. Found was a consecutive list of names from all across the world. Australia and Germany, I recall, were but two of the nations represented.
At the time I thought, and still believe, that these datum represented individuals who resided in the aforementioned building. In addition, numerous ruins and intact historical structures remain scattered along Cibolo Creek and across the surrounding hills. Those include stores and habitations, not to mention a large historic cemetery.
As a historian I should hope that the Presidio County Historical Commission and other Big Bend entities such as the Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross as well as the Presidio County Judge and Commissioner’s Court would insist upon historical preservation at the Shafter mining site as well as in the adjoining area.
For reasons both scholarly and aesthetic, all these artifacts and relics of a by-gone day deserve to be protected.
Glenn Willeford
Big Bend
Editor:
Tax breaks for the wealthy only create jobs in places like China and Korea. When the Bush tax breaks were introduced, major corporations used to money to outsource jobs to countries where they could avoid paying decent wages. Unemployment, which had been low during the Clinton administration, rapidly began to rise to their current heights. If tax cuts resulted in American jobs, many of our citizens who want to work would be able to find it.
We are not in debt because of expanded social programs. When George W. Bush entered the White House, our country had an annual surplus and was paying down our national debt. We are still paying off the debt caused by two wars being fought at the same time that large tax cuts were being awarded to the wealthiest of our citizens.
We can’t solve our national debt problems without raising taxes on the top one per cent or ending some of the unnecessary subsidies to large corporations. Forced austerity which rewards the rich has resulted in violence by those who have suffered from it in Greece and Spain, and throughout the Arab world. One hopes that we will not be forced to see if desperate Americans would do the same.
The Congressional Budget Office, whose results are accepted by both political parties, estimates that we could get rid of our national debt in five years by retaining health reforms and eliminating the Bush tax cuts.
Last week, Eric Cantor walked out of the committee working for a budget compromise when the Democrats suggested eliminating the subsidies which our government gives to individuals for owning private jets.
Marilyn Dell Brady
Alpine
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