I was on my way to Alpine Friday morning when I found our family dog in the highway. He had been hit by a car and was killed. I pulled over, got out of my truck and started walking toward him. I was in tears and didn?t know what I was going to do.
Just when I thought I was going to have to leave him on the side of the road the Lord sent me an angel. Mem Hall, a longtime Marfan, who is also a cowboy, stopped to help me. He asked if I had a special place to take him and I told him no. He gave me a hug and said he understood how hard it is when a pet dies. He picked him up and told me he would take care of him for me. He gently laid him in the back of his truck and drove away.
It really warms my heart to know that people like this still exist, and so fitting that it was a cowboy from Marfa.
Thank you so much Mem Hall for being so kind that day. I will never forget it.
Sarah Fellows Martinez
Marfa
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Let?s be honest, ?it? is not an easy subject to talk about. Most of us are uncomfortable talking about sex. But let?s take a moment and get past the blushing, because this conversation is so important.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and this April, communities across the country are proclaiming, ?It?s time ? to talk about it!? This year?s campaign encourages individuals and communities to bring healthy sexuality into the conversation on how we connect with and respect one another in order to prevent sexual violence.
By talking about ?it? we are making the connection that promoting healthy behaviors encourages relationships that are consensual, respectful and informed. That is what healthy sexuality is about. Healthy sexuality is having the knowledge and power to express sexuality in ways that enrich our lives. Healthy sexuality is free from coercion and violence.
It is important to understand that sexuality is much more than sex. Healthy sexuality is emotional, social, cultural and physical. It is our values, attitudes, feelings, interactions and behaviors. It changes with time and experience.
Individuals need accurate information about relationships, sexuality and positive behaviors to ensure the opportunity to make healthy sexual choices. These choices impact our lives, loved ones, communities and society.
All of us have a role in building safe, healthy relationships and communities. When we start the conversation about healthy sexuality, we raise awareness. Prevent sexual violence by talking about ?it.?
It?s time ? to talk about it!
Arian Velazquez-Ornelas
Victim/Child Advocate
Family Crisis Center of the Big Bend, Inc.
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It has been interesting following the plight of the feral burros at Big Bend State Park over the past couple of years. I believe this issue has been made way too complicated. For the price of some beer and a nice trophy belt buckle, the park could have a wild burro roping like we used to have every year at the Adams Ranch in South Brewster County. Forty-five or fifty cowboys showed up every year, and almost all of the burros were roped, put into trailers, and not harmed. A couple of weekends like that, and TP&W could have the entire problem solved for less than a thousand bucks.
Now they are in cahoots with one of the most devious and destructive organizations in the country, HSUS (Humane Society of the United States). These are not the same people as your local ?humane society? folks. This organization is made up of total ?animal rights? radicals. They want to end all hunting and all raising and use of livestock in the US. They despise ranching, and will do whatever it takes, legal or otherwise, to destroy it.
I strongly suggest you do a little research on this group, and then let Parks and Wildlife and your elected officials know how you feel.
Don Cadden
Alpine
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I am a very angry senior citizen of Marfa, Presidio County, Texas and the United States of America.
I am angry about the greed, dishonesty, lies, stupidity and lack of leadership in our government from top to bottom.
President Obama appointed Mrs. Clinton as Secretary of State where she has served with dignity and intelligence, but she took office with three strikes against her. Most of our foreign problems have been in the Middle East where women are not recognized. He has been indecisive on energy policies as well as others.
Nationally, I am in favor of term limits, 2-4 year terms in the House and 2-6 year terms in the Senate, 8 years in the Supreme Court.
I fail to see any evidence of leadership by the Democrats and the Republicans. Pensions for these officials should be very small.
In Texas, how has Governor Perry represented Texas? Poorly. Did he continue to draw his salary while he was running for the White House? Is the very expensive resort necessary for his living arrangements? School funds for the state have been cut and costs for higher education have been raised. Does this make sense?
Locally, I do not know both sides of the problems. The appointment of the Water Board was ridiculous and dangerous. I hear rumors that official offices at the courthouse are being violated. The county taxes are ridiculous considering the amount of services we receive from the county. How have we been so unlucky to have commissioners that are more interested in their high pay than in the county?
How has the city lost so many businesses to Alpine?
The school is forced by the state legislature to implement many policies that do not server our students well. Going to college is not a requirement for many students. They need a home economics department to learn how to cook and sew and to learn family management. They also need to learn practical ways to make a living.
For all my former students: I am getting old and my eyesight is failing. I love to work Sudoku and crossword puzzles and it is hard to read the numbers. Remember how I used to fuss at you for putting a bar across the seven? It works great in helping me distinguish the numbers. Thanks kids!
Katheryn ?Queenie? Steen
Marfa
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Questions by liberal justices during the first day of oral argument before the US Supreme Court, led to news reports that the Court is leaning to uphold Congressional healthcare legislation. On the second day, a question by a conservative justice; whether the government could force people to buy ?cars, broccoli or burial insurance?, has given rise to reports the court is set to overrule the centerpiece of President Obama?s legislative agenda.
All good concerns and questions, but whoa, stay tuned-in! Let?s not get too far ahead of ourselves. A series of questions from one or the other Justices isn?t a sure fire way to predict a final opinion about the fate of healthcare or any issue before the court.
I admit this is interesting for a former history, then political science major and lawyer.? An opinion is only as good as the number on one side or the other the court?s majority convinced during a review of the briefs, oral argument and behind the scenes give and take when the justices meet in-private to discuss the issues and review the preliminary opinion of the other 8.
Talking about a particular outcome is an interesting exercise for sitting around the table at the ?B & B?, watching cable news panels of experts or my law school Constitutional Law professor toying with his students like a cat with a ball of yarn. But much like a baseball game, we cannot determine the outcome of the game from any one controversial play or call by an umpire.
The question from the conservative justice about broccoli is a good one; but the answer depends upon a number of factors. And the result could change in another generation with another set of justices. The next day, regardless of result, people will be hard at work trying to convince voters; to convince their legislators, of the merit of the present or former position and the music goes round and round. The doctrine of ?separate, but equal? is a good example; but it is not the only instance. So why is that?
First of all, the law isn?t a set of concepts carved in granite for all time. Our sense of right and wrong evolves.? Civilizations accepted slavery as a given; note Moses? and Uncle Tom?s experience under the whip. Racism looked the other way; knowing full-well that facilities of ?while only? were superior ? be it water fountains, public pools or school districts.? In the South; was full citizenship possible when state legislation prevented blacks from voting?
Those with a longer memory than our retiree newcomers know about the relationship between Hispanic residents living on the south side of the tracks in Alpine and the Anglo population.? The high schools and movie theatres were segregated and the police kept an eye on the crossings least, after a certain hour of the evening, ?they? head north.?? Water pressure on the south side was a generational embarrassment to any sense of fairness.
Slavery ended for blacks more than 100 years ago and there isn?t a cop at the crossing gates by the tracks these days.? But generations of old attitudes haven?t always been as quick to change as the ink to dry on a legislative measure signed by the President or Governor.
State and federal constitutional standards determine constitutionality of any law or executive measure passed and sought to be enforced ? from the federal to the local level and everything in-between.? Here is how a court decides a matter:? First, understand that a court only has the jurisdiction provided by the constitution and laws of the state and/or federal government.? Judges have been unfairly labeled ?activist?.? They do not seek-out extra work.? If it wasn?t for a dispute presented to them by the litigants, they would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
For sake of argument, let us say that reducing insurance costs and covering every individual is a legitimate governmental interest and your state?s legislature passes a piece of legislation, signed by the governor.? Someone has standing and the matter is taken to court.? The judge?s role is to first determine if there is ?a legitimate governmental interest?.? If so, then the court asks ?is the measure(s) taken to advance that governmental interest, reasonable??
Recent examples include laws requiring voter identification or a woman listening to a fetal heartbeat, watch a sonogram of the fetus and wait 24-48 hours before undergoing an abortion.? The question is whether there is a legitimate governmental interest and whether or not the law (as a whole or a particular portion), is an overreaching of governmental authority.?? Another way of saying it is the government cannot ?take a sledge hammer to a fly; rather use measured steps to deal with a legitimate concern, such as employing a vaginal probe as an agent of the state.
Under the Federal constitution, the ?powers reserved to the states?, include public welfare and safety; including matters of public health and police powers.? Regardless of result, to the end of our days, reasonable people will more than likely differ and see things quite differently.? We still debate the constitutional merits of the 1803 SCOTUS Marbury vs. Madison decision; whereby the early Supreme Court took upon itself the power to declare acts of the Congress and President unconstitutional ? although such power was not enumerated under the Articles having to do with the Judiciary.
Having said that, whether a decision is right or wrong often depends upon which side of an issue is supported.? If you tend to agree with federal standards; such as a maximum speed limit on the Interstate or prohibiting discrimination in employment or public municipal transit systems or accommodations in restaurants and hotels ? under the ability to regulate ?interstate commerce? ? you may not consider it an ?over-reaching? of federal authority.? If you believe there is federal overreaching in the present healthcare legislation, you may be doing handstands that so many State Attorney Generals have taken the matter to the Supreme Court under the ?states? rights? philosophy, once used to deny blacks bedrock American rights.
I sincerely wish the public had a much better understanding of the legal standards applied to determine the constitutionality of the actions of a unit government ? be it the president, mayor, employee in the clerk?s office or anyone in the public?s employment.? Perhaps there would be less misinformation promulgated on talk radio and TV and around the breakfast table, concerning important issues before the courts and before going off the deep-end due to unsubstantiated, exaggerated claims about (federal, state or local) governmental overreaching.
Indeed, there may be overreaching in aspects of the federal healthcare legislation.? But if we say there is, we need to give more of a hoot when a local cop stops someone of a racial or ethnic background (defined as ?different from me?), for a spurious reason of less weight than a helium-filled balloon.? From one of my generation?s favorite movies, Billy Jack, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066832/quotes:
Billy Jack: You?re illegally on Indian land.
Mr. Posner: I?m sorry about that. I guess we just got caught up in the chase and crossed over without knowing it.
Billy Jack: You?re a liar.
Mr. Posner: We got the law here, Billy Jack.
Billy Jack: When policemen break the law, then there isn?t any law ? just a fight for survival.
A legitimate argument could be made, that ?There is much more tyranny when the police take you into custody in handcuffs without legitimate probable cause; than the government acting to reduce the outrageous cost of health insurance or to protect citizens from insurance companies bending over backwards to decline a meritorious claim.?
It is said our forefathers (and mothers) rid themselves; to our enduring benefit, of the King of England and his local representatives.? Here in Texas, we did the same with Generalissimo Santa Anna.? Each was accused of being a heavy-handed, authoritarian despot in their own, unique way.
A peasant or Apache forcibly removed from ancestral lands may see things differently than the person doing the removing and then, profiting from it for generations to come.? Substitute ?a President and Vice-President claim there is weapons of mass destruction? for ?when policemen break the law?.? Heavy-handed authoritarianism IS heavy handed regardless of whether or not our own ox is gored.? ?In a constitutional republic; such is our federal government, we?ll always have another day to advance out positions and convince enough people to sway the majority our way, were we not to prevail during an election cycle or in the courts. ?Walking a mile? in another?s? shoes is a good way of understanding their perspective.
Few among us are so intellectually pure to be ?spot-on? in every situation across the board.? Reasonable people of all political stripes can and will differ for genuine political and philosophical reasons.? Let us do so reasonably.
Rev. Barry Abraham Zavah
Alpine
Source: http://bigbendnow.com/2012/03/correspondence-25/
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This is an interesting way, by the grieving family, to preserve the memories of Trayvon Martin (RIP), the 17year old unarmed black kid shot by an overzealous self designated neighborhood watchdog, George Zimmerman (White &/Hispanic). Abovethelaw.com debates the issue:
TAKING THE MIC, 1:32 p.m.
DIARY ? VIA TWITTER?, 1:41 p.m.
DIAMOND CUT ABS?, 1:50 p.m.
