Action and Transformation 2021

In my first essay shortly after New Year’s Day last year, I wrote “I want 2020 to be a year of action. By making it so, we can make this a new decade of transformation.” Then, 2020 happened. On the day I wrote that essay, very few of us had heard of COVID—19.

SHEPHERDS OF THE FLAME

There must be a strong pull for people who grew up in Merkel, left to have successful careers, then returned to their hometown. I met a bunch of them recently. They are confident, poised and happy to be back home. One is a former NASA scientist who is now writing poetry.

Will you choose to be a Victor or Victim in 2021?

Last week we spoke of the choice to make 2021 a better year and not remain stuck in our past. To act as if you have no power to change the course of your life only becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we want 2021 to be a better year, we must do something to make it so.

CHECK YOUR MIRRORS

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

New year can’t yet shake focus from COVID-19

It’s a new year, but the news out of the capital continues to focus on COVID-19. Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted last week that “a significant portion of vaccines distributed across Texas might be sitting on hospital shelves as opposed to being given to vulnerable Texans.

Stonewall commissioners to consider staff reductions next week

After more than six months of finger-crossing and hoping for the best, the Stonewall County Commissioners are facing a loss in county revenues that necessitate a reduction of personnel.

2 CENTS WORTH

Well, all I can say this was a different Christmas Holiday!!!!! NO kids, not grandkids, and no great grandkids playing around your feet, riding their bicycles up the street, playing in the yards, nothing.

Faces & Places

“Eugenics without Birth Control seems to us a house built upon the sands. It is at the mercy of the rising stream of the unfit. It cannot stand against the furious winds of economic pressure which has buffeted into partial or total helplessness a tremendous proportion of the human race.

A Wonderful Life

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a Christmas movie staple. Roundly considered one of the greatest films ever made, it also usually ranks near the top of any list of inspirational movies. As you likely know, Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey.

SHEPHERDS OF THE FLAME

The 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York were perhaps the most thrilling for Americans. It was the year the US beat Russia in hockey.