Columns & Editorials

In just about any endeavor, you’ll benefit by showing resilience – and that’s certainly true when it comes to achieving your financial goals.

I have had more time to watch television the past days of winter, and especially during the “deep freeze” and its associated trials and tribulations. My wife asked me what I was doing one afternoon when the snow was deepening and the temperatures continued to fall a little lower each night and received this answer as I leaned back a little farther into the recliner’s safety, “JUST THINKING,” and waiting for the weather forecast for the following week.

This week’s example of misplaced priorities in education comes in a memo from the top brass of Dallas Independent School District. Like all districts in the nation, DISD is also wading through the uncertainty in education this pandemic season. However, DISD made an announcement to faculty last week that made me wonder what they are thinking. Apparently, students’ choices of attire while on campus has stirred the ire of some educators.

“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

Today I turned 65 years old. But as my daughter says I still have a young soul. I am blessed beyond belief. My sweet wife keeps reminding me that I could just draw Social Security and retire, but right now that just doesn’t feel right. There is always something to do on our property or around the house, but I have worked since I was ten years old and I’m not anxious to stop now. I would like to play more golf, hunt more and fish more, especially with my kids and grandkids. But my kids are usually too busy and my grandkids are only 8 and 9 and still can’t seem to be able to figure out how to hold a golf club right yet.

From the folly files comes yet another exasperating example of how millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent in schools without much, if any, return on investment as it relates to student achievement, or in this case, student safety.

Teen-age Christians today worship GOD in a different way than seniors. It is only different in the outward appearance. True worship comes from the same place that it has always come from which is the heart of humans. I believe GOD loves that kind of worship because GOD looks at the heart of His children to see if they are sincere. If we look back over time we will see that each new generation wants to be different from the last or “older” generation. I remember some things about our older generation that I did not like so we set out to change our form of worship. It is the same GOD and the same Holy Spirit that has always been directing us to serve GOD as we should, but we just wanted our own style of worship. With that in mind we should respect and encourage the youth of today. Our Church, First Baptist, here in Forney Texas has been upgraded to accomplish that. I praise GOD for supplying the ways and means to build such a Church building. This building GOD has provided is a great service to the community of Forney Texas. The Church has many services and operations above and beyond the normal Sunday Services. I feel humble and proud to belong to a Church like that.

Dear Aunt B,

Because of COVID-19, I hadn’t taken my grand-kids to a movie in over a year, and it’s something I love to do. I have thought about taking them to the Drive-In down in Palmer between Ennis and Corsicana, but that’s a long way to go and I’m old enough to remember what Drive-Ins are like in the winter time. The windows of the car fog up constantly and you have to keep wiping the windshield just to see.

As virtual learning rolls on, it is becoming more evident how much parents rely on schools being open. It seems with each new day, more parents want their children back in the classroom. I read a news story out of Los Angeles where parents took to the streets in downtown LA for a morning caravan, demanding schools be reopened immediately so their children “could get an education.”

Dear Aunt B Readers,

I have just started an adventure that I have always wanted to embark on. I am jogging the entire length of Hadrian’s Wall from near the North Sea on the Eastern Edge of Great Britain to the Irish Sea to the West. I started at Walssend and jogged along breathtaking views of the River Tyne, and at a pace of 30 minutes a day I finished the first of thirteen legs of the Hadrian’s wall jog in two days at Quayside. The best part is the weather was a perfect 70 degrees with not even a drop of the rain that Central England is notorious for and I never left my living room. I jogged the path on my treadmill with a computer monitor mounted on top.

Our actions and how we spend our money tell us more about our priorities and motives than anything we tell ourselves or others. This sentiment is accurate when you consider public education in Texas is moving forward with STARR testing in the spring. According to a January 4th article in the Texas Tribune, $388 million in assessment contracts have been awarded to two companies, one of which has a 30+ year history of providing assessment services for Texas students.