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What does the census really do?
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By
JIM STREET Ed
& Pub Did you fill
out your census form yet? I did. And, while I wanted to give them the number
of people in my house y nada mas, I went ahead and filled out all ten
answers. I figured they
would call me if I just filled in the only question they are required to ask.
I didn’t want any more federal prying into my life and I certainly didn’t
want to run up the cost any more. It was the
“short form,” only 10 questions. But why the other nine? Most dealt with race
but what difference does our race make? Unfortunately,
I heard a great response but only after I sent mine in. On questions of race,
just check “other” and when it asks for which race, put “American.” OPINION In years past,
they have gotten really nosy but this year, it was a much shorter form, at
least for most of us. Others got pages and pages of ever-more prying into
every aspect of their lives. The
Constitution requires the count every ten years. It does not require asking
what our ancestry is, how many telephones are in the house, how many cars we
have or what time we go to bed. They say these
demographics help merchants determine how much product to stock and the like.
Fine. But why
is the government supposed to do that? If businesses want demographics, let
them do a survey and find exactly what they need. I’ll gladly
supply that information. But I don’t want my tax dollars used for that
purpose. And why
couldn’t they have just mailed the census form to every household? They said
the forms would be mailed out this week but mine was delivered to my door two
weeks ago. It may have been the only one delivered that way but I doubt
it. They could
have gotten a bulk rate at very little cost but your government with a sack
full of your tax dollars pays someone to personally deliver the forms, at
least to some residences. Of course,
this is the same federal government that is going to “bring down” the cost of
health care by increasing its cost by $1 trillion – their estimate. Some have
estimated it will cost $6 trillion or more. Remember,
Medicare cost $3 billion in 1966. Today, unfunded liabilities are at $90
billion and rising every year. Selling you on
participating has also gotten very weird. And these ads are paid for by, you
guessed it, you and me. One ad said
there is no way you can possibly know how many kids are in your school
without the census. How will you know if you need to hire more teachers or
build a bigger school? I have a
suggestion. Just look around the classroom and count ‘em. That should give
you a pretty good idea, right? Another said
you can’t know if you need to build more streets if you don’t know how many
people live in your town. You can’t do a traffic survey without the
government telling you to, you know. Most of the
promotions say that an accurate count will help you get in on all that
federal earmark money floating around. One said each head counted is worth
$400 to the community. Another said it was $1,000. They even
suggested encouraging illegal aliens to turn in a form. The more that do, the
more goodies we can get from Washington. Am I the only
one bothered by that kind of thinking? Where does Washington think it is
going to get the money to send us $400 per? Or $1,000? Or a buck and a
quarter? It can only
get it from us. And more and more, it borrows it. But when it does that, it
has to extract even more from us to pay back the money – plus interest. Washington,
Austin or any other government cannot give you a dime unless it first takes
it from you in the form of taxes. And if it
gives you a dime, you can rest assured it has taken something like $10 from
you. The other $9.90 has gone into the huge salaries of literally millions of
bureaucrats across the fruited plain at all levels of government. There is no
such thing as “free” government money. It does not exist. Let me repeat
a story I used in this space several years ago. There was a
little boy whose parents were having financial problems. So he sat down and
wrote a letter to God and asked Him for $100. He sent the letter to God,
Washington, D.C., USA. Not knowing
what else to do, the postman delivered it to the White House. The President
read the letter and thought it was cute. He pulled out a $5 bill and sent it
to him. (Never mind
which President. That is not important to the story.) Well, the
little boy got the letter and sat down to write an answer. “Dear God,” he
wrote. “We got the money but You routed it through Washington and, as usual,
they deducted 95 percent.” Will we never
learn? Weslee
Royce Williams AUSTIN –
Weslee Royce Williams made his debut to the world here March 6, the son of
Greg and Sloan Allen Williams of New Braunfels. He is the
grandson of Royce and Martha Allen of Sanderson. Martha Allen serves as
Terrell County/District Clerk. Paternal
grandparents are Methis and Betty Williams of Water Valley. Maternal great
grandparent is Gloria Garza of Sanderson. Paternal great grandparents are
Mickey Flowers of Ira and N.B. Williams of Water Valley. Weslee weighed
in at six pounds, three ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. His mother is
a 2005 graduate of Sanderson High School, who will finish her studies in May
at Texas State University for respiratory care practitioner with
neonatal/pediatric specialty. Weslee’s
father is a 2005 graduate of Water Valley High School who was recently
honorably discharged from US Navy and is currently working as installation
technician in San Antonio. Pete A.
Gallego, Jr. ALPINE –
Funeral services were at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church here Monday for
here for Pete Almodova Gallego, Jr., 85, a lifelong resident of Alpine and son
of a pioneering Alpine family, who died March 4. Burial will be at Holy
Angels Cemetery. The father of
State Rep. Pete Gallego of Alpine was a few weeks short of celebrating the
63rd anniversary of his marriage to Elena Pena Gallego of Fort Stockton. Pete A.
Gallego, Jr., was born in Alpine on February 17, 1925. His father, Pete
Russell Gallego, worked on area ranches and opened a family restaurant in
1917. His mother,
Victoria Almodova, was an Apache Indian. She also assisted in the restaurant
and tended to a family of five surviving children. After serving
in the Pacific Theater with the US Army during World War II, he returned to
the restaurant business here, helping his mother and sisters in running what
the Green Café. Gallego was
the first in his family to graduate from college, Sul Ross, class of 1949,
and he championed educational and business opportunities for others. He helped a
local Catholic priest to establish a small credit union and, with an
accounting background, was asked to manage it. He became the
first Latino elected to the Board of Trustees of the Alpine Independent
School District, where he served five consecutive three-year terms. During
that time, he and friends Francisco Valenzuela and Alberto Rojo led the
controversial effort to end school segregation in Alpine. His leadership
on the desegregation issue also resulted in a boycott of his family
restaurant. The boycott, along with the closure of Centennial School and the
diversion of traffic away from Alpine with the construction of Interstate 10,
all negatively impacted his business. To survive, he once more became a
pioneer. He built
Gallego’s Mexican Restaurant on East Holland and expanded his business by
shipping chile rellenos, tamales and masa to stores across West Texas and
around the state. He was
predeceased in death by his son, Robert Peña Gallego, his parents, three
sisters and one brother. Galego is
survived by his wife, Elena Peña Gallego; two daughters, Imelda Gallego and
Jose Garcia, and Dr. Rebecca P. Gallego; one son, State Rep. Pete P. Gallego
and wife Maria Elena Ramon; grandchildren Maria Imelda, Maria Elena and
Briana Garcia, Cristina P. Gallego and Nicolas Miguel Ramon Gallego. In lieu of
flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Pete A. and Elena P.
Gallego Scholarship Fund at Sul Ross State University. Checks may be mailed
directly to Scholarships, P.O. Box C-114, Alpine, Texas 79831. Energize
with nuclear power To the Editor, Oil is a
diminishing and expensive source of energy and coal is dirty. Alternative
energy sources, including solar and wind power, can only provide ten to 20
percent of our energy requirements. President
Obama has increased government loan guaranties for new nuclear power plants
from $18.5 billion to $54.5 billion, which should give impetus to the nuclear
power industry. Over the next
10 to 30 years, we should add nuclear power plants, which will produce at
least 2,000 megawatts per site. There are 20
plants undergoing decommissioning and we could construct new units at these
sites for a reduced investment by using the existing infrastructure. Nuclear plants
in this country have provided clean, cheap power from 104 units with no
accidents, except for a minor problem at Three Mile Island. But that just
proved nuclear power is safe. The “meltdown” was contained totally within the
containment building. We have to
address the problem of leaking radioactive wastewater from underground pipes.
The solution
might be switching to higher-quality pipes or moving the pipes above ground
where they can be easily monitored. Another
problem is the disposal of nuclear waste, which has been collecting on plant
sites. The solution
is to neutralize and recycle the waste.
France has perfected a process to recycle nuclear waste and they are
able to generate 80 percent of their energy requirements from nuclear power. We have to
build nuclear power plants so we can counter the effects of global warming,
eliminate foreign oil purchases and reduce the use of fossil fuels. Donald A. Moskowitz Londonderry, NH Remember
Lincoln To the Editor, In regard to
the personal attacks we hear all day, remember the words of Abraham Lincoln. “If I were to
try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as
well be closed for any other business. “I do the very
best I know how – the very best I can – and I mean to keep doing so until the
end,” he said. “If the end
brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything,”
he said. “If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right
would make no difference.” Rosie Martinez Sanderson New home for
sale at cost By TUMBLEWEED
SMITH Texas Tales Two days after
Christmas in 2005, a fire destroyed some 80 homes in Cross Plains. One person
died. David Estes,
president of the Texas Heritage Bank in Cross Plains, said spirits were high
after the fire. “The attitude
was to jump in and get everything cleaned up and offer help where needed to
rebuild so they could maintain the lifestyle they’ve always enjoyed,” he
said. “Very few people moved out of town.
They stayed and started putting their lives back together.” Pat Stephens,
executive director of the Cross Plains Area Housing Initiative, said the fire
was scary. “You didn’t
know what was happening,” he said. “There was no rhyme or reason as to what
house it hit. The wind changed
directions several times.” There is a
heightened sense of awareness in Cross Plains now. When there is even a small
grass fire and the fire trucks start running with sirens, people pay
attention. Pat said if
you smell smoke in the air, it brings it all back to you. “It’s
something you won’t ever forget,” he said. David said the
things fire victims miss most are their personal effects like family photos. The First
Methodist Church was destroyed in the fire.
It has since been rebuilt. The charred cross from the original
building is part of a dramatic display on a wall in the new fellowship hall. “They took the
remains of that cross and put a silhouette of a cross behind it,” Pat said.
“Then there are pictures of the church before the fire, pictures of people
fighting the fire, then they have pictures of the rebuilding of the church.” The fire
created a demand for houses since 90 families were displaced. Four houses
across the street from the school burned. A group was formed to buy the four
lots with the idea of building new homes on them. The first one
is ready now and an open house for it is slated for Saturday, March 20. The three
bedroom, two-bath brick house is being sold at cost. The asking
price is $125,000. The 1,500-square-foot home has custom cabinets throughout,
a privacy fence and a sprinkling system in the yard. “It is a very
nice home,” David said. There are some
attractive incentives for the buyer. The bank is offering a low down payment,
lower interest rate and long- term fixed-rate financing for house. “If someone
wants the house, we want to help them get it,” David said. In addition,
the Housing Initiative is putting up money for closing costs. Local
contractors built the home and appliances and building materials were all
bought through the local Higginbotham Lumber Company. The open house
will feature barbecue and live entertainment.
“We want
people to see the fruits of our labors,” David said. “When this one sells, we plan to build
others.” This first
home took about nine months to build.
They plan to build the others in six or seven months each. David said the whole idea behind
building the new homes is to help alleviate the housing shortage that
developed from the fire. Pastures
‘fatten’ soul Last week. I
went by a small farm with a beautiful stand of green oats. In the middle of
that green stand was a small bunch of sheep and goats. That bunch of
sheep and goats was so busy eating that they paid little or no attention to
what was going on around them. It looked like they were really enjoying the
green groceries. That green oat
patch reminded of something in the Bible. There is more
to man than just his physical body and we are at least body and soul (Matthew
10:28) and maybe even body, soul and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23.) What we are
physically has nothing to do with how we are spiritually. If we have
never accepted Christ as personal Lord and Savior, we are actually dead
spiritually (Ephesians 2:1.) If we have, we
are alive (Romans 8:10 and 11) and then comes the condition of our soul. It could be
like some poor thin cows I saw the other day. What a sad sight because of no
feed. Our souls can
be fat or in good condition if we are getting enough of the right kind of
food. Good Bible
studies, quiet times, good preaching and worship services, Christian
fellowship, scripture memory and meditation and prayer and thanksgiving all
go to make a soul fat (Psalm 23:1 to 3, 3 John 2.) See you in
Church next Sunday. Brother J Galileo's Sun
and Ours Everyone knows
the Sun is a brilliant round ball that travels around Earth each day. Perfect
and unchanging, it is made of shiny quintessence, a heavenly substance not
found on Earth. At least
that's what sophisticated Europeans thought in the early 17th century when
Galileo and others began studying the heavens with the newly invented
telescope 400 years ago. That view of
the Sun began to crumble when Galileo and other early astronomers discovered
sunspots. They seemed to be clear evidence that the Sun wasn't perfect after
all. Further, the
sunspot blemishes came and went and changed sizes, demonstrating that the Sun
isn't unchanging. And seeing the
sunspots move across the Sun's surface indicated that the Sun was rotating on
its axis. However,
neither Galileo nor his contemporaries had any idea what sunspots were, or
what the Sun was made of. Galileo's
observations, especially of Jupiter and Venus, also led him to accept
Copernicus' theory that the Sun doesn't go around the Earth but rather Earth
and the other planets go around the Sun. And as
mentioned in previous columns, his promotion of these heretical ideas got him
in serious trouble with the ecclesiastical-governmental authorities. Today, of
course, the Sun-centered view of our solar system is universally accepted and
we have a much better understanding of the nature of our Sun. An ordinary
star, the Sun is a huge gaseous ball composed not of any exotic heavenly
substance but primarily of hydrogen, the most common element in the known
universe. Its heat, light
and other forms of energy come from nuclear reactions deep within its core. At its center,
the temperature is 27 million degrees whereas the temperature at the visible
surface, called the photosphere, is a mere 10,000 degrees. The sunspots
which so intrigued and baffled Galileo are now known to be areas of magnetic
disturbance. They are darker in appearance because they are cooler. And finally,
our Sun, like all stars, is not eternal. It was born five billion years ago
and will die in another five billion years. Much of this
information is from Stephen P. Maran and Laurence A. Marschall's book,
“Galileo's New Universe,” reviewed in this column. My Web site contains an
archive of previous columns.
Monday, March
15, the Moon is new. Tuesday
evening, March 16, a very thin crescent Moon is to the lower right of Venus
low in the west at dusk and above the planet the next evening. Saturday,
March 21, Spring is here – vernal equinox – the northern hemisphere's first
day of spring when day and night are about 12 hours long each. Saturday
evening, March 20, the crescent Moon grazes the Pleiades star cluster, a
sight best seen in binoculars. The star Aldebaran, the "red eye of the
bull," is to their upper right. Sunday, March
21, Saturn is at opposition – on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun –
when it rises at sunset, is up all night and sets at sunrise. Tuesday, March
23, the Moon is at first quarter. Wednesday,
March 24, the gibbous Moon is to the upper right of Mars and below the planet
the next night.
The Sun, Moon
and planets rise in the east and set in the west due to Earth's west-to-east
rotation on its axis. Evenings, Mars
is high in the east as Saturn rises an hour after sunset. Venus is visible
very low in the west after sunset. Mornings,
Saturn, low in the west, is currently the only morning planet. Mercury and
Jupiter are now in the Sun.
March 13 is
the birthday of William Herschel (1738-1822) who discovered the planet Uranus
in 1781 from Bath, England. March 14 is
the birthday of Albert Einstein (1879-1955), who set forth the theories of
relativity in the early 1900s.
Set clocks
forward, Spring forward, to Daylight Saving Time at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 14. Stargazer appears every other week, space
permitting. Paul Derrick is an amateur astronomer who lives in Waco. Contact
him at 918 N. 30th, Waco, 76707, (254) 753-6920 or paulderrickwaco@aol.com. See the Stargazer Web site at stargazerpaul.com. |
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