Author: bobreagan13

My day job is assisting individuals and small businesses as a lawyer. I taught real estate law and American history in the Dallas County Community College system. I have owned and operated private security firms and was a police officer and criminal investigator for the Dallas Police Department.

I am interested in history and historical research, music, cycling, and British mysteries and police dramas.

I welcome comments, positive, negative, or neutral, if they are respectful.

Categories
Uncategorized

New Year Dawn

Scott Adams’ Dilbert cartoon character doesn’t subscribe to the magical thinking that one random point in the space-time continuum is somehow special (See Dilbert 12/31/2011 in numerous newspapers and periodicals). Another character, offering a hug, tells him he’ll enjoy it. Perhaps.
New Years Eve bacchanals have long since had little attraction for me. For the past three or four decades my celebrations have consisted of little more than a home movie, dinner, and early to bed. It is amateur night for those who imbibe alcoholic beverages, and insist on operating two-and-a-half ton machines on the public highways and byways. But enough for curmudgeonly carping.
A new year on the calendar is a useful point for marking the beginning and end of a period. Like Dilbert says, it is random, and arbitrary. Events and eras do not usually fit nicely into defined time spans. While we speak of decades to describe cultural and social, and some times political, trends, there is always overlap of the numerically described periods. Still, we measure time and appoint certain periods and points as significant. For most of us the calendar marks the end of an accounting year for taxes, among other things. Age is significant for an number of things from being eligible to vote to becoming eligible to receive social security payments, and it is marked by birthdays. Legal remedies are foreclosed by statutes of limitations; a claim that could be worth millions of dollars becomes worth nothing at the stroke of midnight on the day limitations runs. So dates are significant. As a history pedagogue, I tell students that I do not usually expect them to memorize a bunch of dates, but they should have vague idea of what happened on 7/4/1776 and 9/11/2001, and that World War I came before World War II. It’s also a good idea to know when they were born. Fortunately, most know that, if for no other reason than they can’t wait to legally buy whiskey or similar liquids.(though those who wish to have no trouble illegally acquiring substances with similar effects.)
The New Year custom or tradition of making resolutions for self-improvement, while probably more honored in breach than in the observance, is useful for those with the self discipline to follow through. In my household, we signed up for a year membership in the Tom Landry Fitness Center (named for the legendary Dallas Cowboys coach of their first three decades) in our ongoing attempts to mitigate the effects of Father Time. Because we are both notoriously thrifty – in my case some would say miserly – we might follow through and take full advantage. This blog was conceived at the New Year in 2007, and lasted about a month. Why? I have no answer other than I just didn’t do it. However, a couple of years ago, I began writing from time to time and sending my observations and comments about current events and other items to a select group of friends and acquaintances in e-mail form. Some I submitted to the Dallas Blog of my long time friend Tom Pauken, which he usually published on line. In June of last year, I began posting my missives to this blog, and notifying my e-mail list, which has grown to over 50, when I post. I hope to continue this practice, and, of course welcome comments, both public and private.
Another tradition is necrology for the year just past. This practice marks the passing of persons who have been noteworthy for accomplishment or celebrity, which are sometimes but certainly not always the same thing. At or about when they occurred, I gave my take on the deaths of Steve Jobs, Christopher Hitchens, and Peggy Railey (there is quite an extensive article in today’s Dallas Morning News for those interested in the Railey imbroglio). There is no necessity to mention the many others in this space, as other publications have done an adequate job.
As far as the traditional prognostications go, here is my take.

International:

While recognizing that anything can happen, there is certain to be conflict of all kinds throughout the globe, mostly in southwest Asia, and sub-Saharan as well as north Africa. I believe the “Arab Spring” has sprung, but we’ll see.
I will not be surprised if the Euro goes away. The British, Scandinavians, Swiss, and Czechs wisely stayed out of the Euro Zone. Germany, France, and the Benelux countries should get tired of propping up their neighbors to the south who cannot manage to manage their economic affairs.
The futile international “war on drugs” will continue with results no different than those of the past 40 years.

National:

Again, anything can happen. But I believe Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee for President and the election will be close. The campaigns will be personal and nasty. The House will barely stay Republican and the Senate will be evenly divided, or closely so.
Unemployment rates will stay pretty much the same. The stock market will fluctuate.

State and Local:

Rick Perry will resume being governor full time. (Actually, it’s a part time job for most purposes, except getting paid.) He has been what I call the Hippocratic Governor, that is, he has done no harm. His foray into Presidential politics seemed to be a Peter Principle exercise, though.
Our drought will continue, those maybe less severe. The terrible drought of the 1950s lasted seven years; less severe ones have come in similar cycles. Hope I’m wrong that it continues at all. I am informed that the seven year cycles predicted around 3000 years ago by Joseph in Genesis, which curried favor with the Pharaoh, occurred in the same latitudes (Cairo and Austin are both close to 30 degrees North). Regardless of what authority one considers the Bible for, it is a historical document and many of the events that occurred have been independently verified, and those dependent on an agrarian economy for survival could observe weather and such.
The Texas Rangers will win the World Series. Out on a limb here, I know, but won’t be Armageddon if they don’t.
A custom or tradition Martha and I have observed for the past 15 or so years is to great the New Year dawn at White Rock Lake here in Dallas. Some have been cloudy and even rainy, but most have been bright and clear. Nearly all have been rather cold. Here is the first sunrise of 2012. May we have one as comely often this year and 366 days (it is a leap year) hence.
Here comes the sun
Cheers!
Categories
Uncategorized

A whipping escaped?

The news media today announced the death of Peggy Railey, who succumbed after almost 24 years in a persistent vegetative state. That length of time is easily a generation, so there are many adults today who are completely unaware of who Ms. Railey was, how she was so severely injured, or what the significance is or was. For the last of these, think of the recent acquittal of Casey Anthony, the decade and a half old not guilty verdict of O. J. Simpson, the 30+ year old imbroglo involving Fort Worth’s Cullen Davis, and any number of alleged perpetrators whose guilt seemed to be a forgone conclusion, but were acquitted by a jury.

Shortly after Easter in April 1987, Peggy, the wife of Walker Railey, the then Senior Pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Dallas, was found strangled nearly to death in the couple’s home. She did not die then, so it was not technically a death or legally murder, but her brain damage was so severe that Ms. Railey was left in a coma (technically a persistent vegetative state) from which she never awoke. For all purposes other than biological metabolism, she was dead. Her family was left with nothing but hope, which now is permanently unrequited. What if anything, can we learn from Peggy Railey’s hideous fate?.

Walker Railey was the obvious suspect, as spouses nearly always are in homicides where the perp is not immediately known. An investigation revealed he had the means, motive, and opportunity. But no hard evidence ever linked him to the assault on his wife. He later lost his pulpit, his ministerial credentials, and was found to be civilly liable to the tune of $18 million (which he was unable to pay) in a suit he did not contest. After nearly 5 years, Railey was indicted for attempted murder, tried before a Bexar County jury on a change of venue, and acquitted in 1993. The prosecution could not get beyond a reasonable doubt.

There are those who will say that the Railey affair, and the others mentioned, were miscarriages of justice brought about by the naivety or gullibility of jurors, and the entire system should be re-thought. Those who protest usually have not heard the evidence, or lack thereof, that the jurors heard, but they often do have a point. Jurors are swayed by emotion and prejudice, like other human beings. But so are judges and arbitrators and other decision makers. Nevertheless, most jurors do their jobs, dependent upon other human beings of varying abilities – witnesses, lawyers, judges – to present ambiguous facts to be sorted out. In a criminal trial, though, it is the reasonable doubt standard that creates the hurdle where those who, by logic and common sense most probably did the deed, may escape criminal conviction.

The concept of “reasonable doubt” seems to be self-evident, but some courts and some legislatures have attempted to further define it, although without much success. Beyond re-phrasing it as a doubt beyond reason, it appears incapable of further elucidation. For a century and a half prior to the 1900s, the Texas courts did not give a jury instruction defining “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” considering it to be understood by adults of normal intelligence. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals took a plunge in 1991 and defined it as the “kind of doubt that would make a reasonable person hesitate to act in the most important of his own affairs” and made that definition a mandatory jury instruction. Yet, several years later that court reversed itself, explaining that “reasonable” and “doubt” are commonly understood.  While it appears to exclude the whimsical and fantastic, or “shadow of doubt” hypotheses. It nevertheless remains the highest standard of proof required by the law.

While often criticized, especially by victims and their advocates, this standard of proof is the bulwark of the Anglo-American criminal justice system that holds that it is better that many guilty go free rather than one innocent be wrongfully punished by the power of the state. This makes paramount the interests of individuals over those of the collective, in this case, the state. Recognition of the value of the individual in this manner brought us our of the darkness of feudalism and hierarchical classes that existed in the millennia before the emergence of the modern Western World.

Still, it can be galling when the bad guy escapes the clutches of the law. One of the things I learned as a police officer, as well as a lawyer, is that happens quite a bit. I also observed that, while one might get away with criminal behavior for awhile, it eventually catches up with him. The perp that gets away today will be caught and convicted of something else later on. O.J. Simpson exemplifies the proposition that what goes around, comes around, eventually. Of course, eventually may take awhile. In the meantime must we have justice? If we do, bear in mind that if we were able to achieve it in all cases, in the words of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who among us would escape a whipping.

Categories
Uncategorized

Glory, Indeed!

From an HSBC ad at the Paris, France airport: “There are five times as many people learning English in China than there are people in England.”
 
 
In this season of Christmas, the foregoing observation brought consideration of the following passage, often sung during this time to some of the most magnificent music ever composed.
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned …. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed…. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shine. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 40: 1-5; 9:2, 6) 
These words from the King James Version of the Bible, set to music by George Frederick Handel in his great oratorio Messiah, have captured the imagination of countless believers and unbelievers since. Regardless of its theological authority or faithfulness to the original Biblical language, the KJV is a masterwork of the English language, and very nearly its apotheosis. It was translated and composed by a group of some forty scholars commissioned by James I of England between 1604 and 1611. Their story is recounted in God’s Secretaries by Adam Nicolson (2003) and The King James Bible: The Book That Changed the World, a made for TV film directed by Gillian Bancroft (BBC, available on DVD).
 
The English language, which originated on a small, not particularly hospitable island has essentially conquered the linguistic earth, and the words and sentences crafted by “God’s Secretaries” as well as Williams Shakespeare, William Faulkner, and all the speakers and writers between, are no small reason why. Other languages may be as expressive in their own sphere, but how many have the same inventiveness of expression let alone the sheer volume of words? We all get our quota of yuks from reading instructions that come with Japanese, for example, manufactured products. The diction is not odd because the writers are less than fluent in English; what is written usually is literally correct. It is because there are so many synonyms and different shades of meaning in English words and allusions that the foreign writers cannot possibly be familiar with all of them without having lived and used our language on a constant basis. Linguistic chauvinists such as the French, whence this word was derived, have seen their tongue slide from the international language of culture and diplomacy to more-or-less provincial status. English, on the other hand, has had no compunction about coining a word as well as borrowing one and then claiming the word as the language’s own. The expression of nuance and subtle difference is, according to linguists, unmatched in English in its universality.
There is no question that the British Empire was responsible for the propagation of English throughout the world, but that Empire has been gone for a half century. In an economic sense, if not in a political one, it was replaced by the United States, whose language is English. Another nation that is an upcoming economic power player is India, whose language is English. Yes, there are those who will take issue with this last statement. India has several “official” languages, but the only one that is widely understood and almost exclusively used by the educated and commercial populace in their occupations and professions is English. Without English, polyglot India would be ungovernable and would have fragmented long ago. It actually did upon independence, along religious lines, mainly, but also linguistic. Pakistan, essentially a bastard country, has been propped up by the United States for geopolitical reasons. I am not ignoring China, but the opening observation in this essay makes my case in that regard.
Speaking of language chauvinism, we have today in the United States those who fear that the immigration, much of it illegal, from Spanish speaking countries to our south somehow threatens our culture, which means our values, and threatens to Balkanize our nation. Comfort to ye my people, it is not going to happen. We have had polyglot immigration before. After the Constitution was drafted, and before ratification, Pennsylvania required that the proposed draft be published in German as well as English. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigrants came in droves from southern and eastern Europe, and many came from east Asia. All of these people brought their languages and formed their own communities, both rural and urban. Most adults clung to their native language, at least within those communities. But their children didn’t, and their grandchildren learned not a word of the “old country” language. Their great-grandchildren married descendants of other immigrant groups who had no language other than English. Furthermore, in my visits to Europe, I found that nearly everyone speaks English, except in France, where, I have heard, they can but won’t unless absolutely necessary. French linguistic chauvinism dies hard, I suppose. Except, perhaps at the Paris airport where the air traffic controllers speak English to pilots of Air France airplanes.
 
Which brings me to my final observation. Most of we Americans would not understand one or more of the following phrases, while there is little doubt that a native speaker in their own country would understand the English equivalent.
God Jul

Craciun fericit

Wesolych Swiat

Linksmu Kaledu

Hyvää Joulua

Sretan Božic

Veselé Vánoce

Frohelich Weihnachten

Buon Natale

Joueux Noel

¡Feliz Navidad (If you live in Texas and don’t know what this means, you reside in a cave.)

In other words, Merry Christmas (to all and to all a good night.)

P.S. By the way, Mr. Scott Cantrell, the music critic of our Dallas Morning News, informs us that “saith” is correctly pronounced “seth.” Who knew?

Categories
Uncategorized

No problem with income inequality.

From the Daily Kos:   (Authored by Shawn (sic) “Bottom Line: I’m a Liberal” Russell)
“[Presidential candidate] Rick Santorum said,
‘They talk about income inequality. I’m for income inequality. I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality.’” 
Predictably, Shawn (sic) selectively quoted Santorum the full quote is
“The reason you see some sympathy among the American public for them is the grave concern — and it’s a legitimate one — that blue-collar workers, lower-income workers, are having a harder and harder time rising,” the former Pennsylvania senator said at a presidential campaign stop. “They talk about income inequality. I’m for income inequality. I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality.
“President Obama is for income equality. That’s socialism. It’s worse yet, it’s Marxism,” Santorum said. “I’m not for income equality. I’m not for equality of result — I’m for equality of opportunity.”
“The key in America is that people can rise, that there are opportunities to move up. In that area, America is falling short now. We are not as income-mobile as even some western European countries, according to a lot of the data. So that is something that as Republicans we should be talking about and be concerned about.” DesMoines Register, 12/20/2011
Shawn (sic) goes on to say:
“If working hard meant an escape from poverty, then many American single mothers would’ve been millionaires by now. Had Santorum studied sociology he would’ve been introduced to a term called the feminization of poverty.”
(My Comment): Sociology ranks slightly above basket weaving as a college major that provides a marketable skill. The “feminization of poverty” to the extent it is exists, is a result of teenage children having children, too soon and too many, and is a direct result of dependancy on government.
“Furthermore, poor people work greater hours than their wealthier counterparts, often having multiple jobs. Yet they remain poor!”
(My Comment): The number of hours one works has little to do with productivity. Individuals get paid for the value they create and that is a function of what they know, not what they physically do. When I was in the locksmith business, I was called upon to open a safe that the shop-owner couldn’t. I asked him for the combination, dialed it, and whacked the door with a large plastic hammer I sued for such things The door opened. I cleaned and adjusted the lock, and put it back in. The whole process took me 15 minutes. I charged him $200. He complained saying that price was outrageous for 15 minutes work. I then itemized the bill: $10 for doing the work; $190 for knowing what to do. There are countless similar examples.
“If having better ideas was a guarantee to be richer than Antonio Meucci (the first inventor of the telephone) and Heinrich Goebel (the first inventor of the Light bulb) would’ve died rich. They died in poverty.”
(My Comment): Inventing a better mousetrap is only the start. You have to promote it and it has to be practically useful. It doesn’t matter how much you know unless others know you know it. The world is full of unrequited geniuses.
“Finally taking risks does not always translate into success and money. Many Americans have taken risks by investing all of their money on failed businesses, or buying a home only to have it foreclosed, or spending their money on college, only to be unemployed.”
(My Comment): That’s why its called “risk” – duh! Homes are usually only foreclosed upon if you don’t make the payments, and it’s worth less than you owe on it. Lesson is, don’t by a house unless you can put enough equity into it to begin with. Spending your money on college is a great investment if you major in engineering, or even liberal-arts that teach you to think, write, and communicate effectively. It’s not if you major in basket weaving – or sociology.
“Hence, all of the conditions Rick Santorum mentions, which separate the poor from the affluent, really are not sure guarantees of being affluent. Many Americans have done all the things Rick Santorum exalts and glorifies but with futile effort.”
(My Comment):  Bottom line: Work hard, but more importantly, work smart.
“So what happens when the American people fail by following Santorum’s guidelines? Will he compensate them for selling them an unrealized dream?”
(My Comment): No. He’s not selling them anything. He’s is describing reality.
Some who agree with Santorum (Alana Goodman in Commentary for example), believe “… he may have been better off framing this in more optimistic terms – like Jeb Bush? did with the ‘Right to Rise’ earlier this week – rather than supporting ‘income inequality,’ which has a distinctly negative connotation and cedes the language to the political left.”
When asked why she chose to use the emotion-loaded word “selfishness” to describe her anti-collectivist, ani-altruist philosophy rather than a more nuanced, explanatory phrase, Ayn Rand replied: “For the very reason you fear it.” Fifty years later Rand has the left wing in a tizzy, and her ideas are gaining more credence than ever. I am not a particular fan of Santorum, but he has it right, and maybe more plain-spoken rhetoric is just this thing our vapid, politically correct culture needs. The only downside is that I probably don’t have 50 years left to wait for a similar phenomenon.
Cheers!
Categories
Uncategorized

Good riddance? Yes, but …

One is tempted to say “good riddance” upon hearing of the death of Kim Jong Il, the North Korean dictator. It is. On the other hand, personality cults tend to moderate as well as hold together otherwise rogue and unstable regimes. I recall when, as a second-grader among relatives who were politically informed and interested in foreign affairs, I thought it was time to cheer when hearing that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had died, only to have an WWII veteran uncle remark that they would find someone just as bad or worse to take his place. So true. The Cold War got a lot worse before the Soviets finally imploded. Even if nuclear armed, North Korea is not the threat the USSR was, and probably does not have the same staying power, but it’s not yet time to cheer.

Categories
Uncategorized

The Hitchens Post

Christopher Hitchens, British American writer, has died at age 62. Hitchens was a regular columnist for Vanity Fair magazine, wrote for many periodicals, and published several non-fiction books. Known as a polemicist – a writer of screeds, to some of those who disagreed with his viewpoints – he had a superior command of the language and was always an interesting read. An outspoken leftist throughout his early and middle career, his later writings cut across the ideological spectrum on a number of issues. He was an admirer of George Orwell’s works and wrote a book-length biographical essay Why Orwell Matters in 2002. It seems that 9/11 was a defining moment in his life – probably somewhat akin to Orwell’s epiphany in the Spanish Civil War that Communism was not all it was cracked up to be. He saw militant Islam as a threat to humanity, and endorsed President Bush’s aggressive foreign policy and military action against al Qaeda, while expounding and promulgating his atheism in the 2007 book God is not Great.
Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in June 2010, which was no doubt partially a result of his prodigious half-century of consumption of cigarettes and Scots whisky. His – apparently last – essay published in the January 2012 issue of Vanity Fair seeks to refute the Nietzschean (allegedly) adage that adversity that doesn’t kill us makes us stronger when describing the ordeals of the various treatments for his cancer. All the while, he maintained his atheism in the foxhole.  While militant atheists like Richard Dawkins tend to be even more obnoxious than televangelists, Hitchens was more amusing than insulting, except toward Islamists. He only bemoaned the prospect of leaving the party earlier than he had expected. I have never been sure why atheism implies there is no immortality of the soul or some kind of life after physical death, or why the existence of God necessarily implies there is. I suppose the former is irrelevant to nonbelievers. In any event, Mr. Hitchens now knows he was wrong, or doesn’t know anything at all.
Here are a few quotes from Hitchens:
On identity politics:
“People who think with their epidermis or their genitalia or their clan are the problem to begin with. One does not banish this specter by invoking it. If I would not vote against someone on the grounds of “race” or “gender” alone, then by the exact same token I would not cast a vote in his or her favor for the identical reason. Yet see how this obvious question makes fairly intelligent people say the most alarmingly stupid things.”
On the pleasures of the senses (which may have been his early undoing):
“I was met by immaculate specimens of young American womanhood, holding silver trays and flashing perfect dentition,” he wrote. “What would I like? I thought a gin and tonic would meet the case. ‘Sir, that would be inappropriate.’ In what respect? ‘At this altitude [a ski resort in the Rockies] gin would be very much more toxic than at ground level.’ In that case, I said, make it a double.”
On Howard Dean’s 2004 candidacy for President:
“I have now several times seen Mr. Dean saying that there is Islamic terrorism in Iraq now, but that there wasn’t any before last March. If this means anything, it means that the activities of the bin Ladenist mercenaries in that country are the fault of George Bush. You can, I suppose, believe that if you care to. But watching, I realized something even more depressing: It’s not just that Mr. Dean doesn’t know anything at all about Iraq, it’s that he doesn’t care. His bored shrug at, first, the overthrow and, second, the capture of Saddam Hussein was a shrug of indifference as well as ignorance. And how can a man who flirts with moral equivalence between Washington and bin Laden expect to be listened to when he talks about a “distraction” from the hunt for the latter? He clearly thinks that the main enemy is at home.”
Anyone with such a flair for prose, even if you disagree with their viewpoint some of all of the time, makes us all richer.
You can read much, much more at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB107646066913926371-search.html and numerous other online news sites.
Categories
Uncategorized

Serfdom Redux

As a result of the decennial 2010 census, the Republican controlled Texas Legislature drew new Congressional and State House and Senate districts. The Democrats objected, ostensibly because of racial discrimination – assuming that means discrimination against Democrats. A three judge federal court in San Antonio drew new district lines, supposedly “fairer” to Democrats – oops, they meant “minorities.” The Supreme Court stayed the lower court’s redistricting order and will hear arguments January 9, 2012.

Meanwhile, the redrawing and challenge left many candidates uncertain of what legislative or Congressional district they were in and eligible to run for. The primary elections were originally scheduled for March. In order to keep the original primary on schedule, but give time for the candidates in limbo find out where they stand and organize a campaign, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott suggested that the state hold two primaries: one for the Presidential candidates and local and statewide offices; the other for Congress and the Legislature. An attorney for one civil rights group protested saying, “when you have an unusual election day, minority voters are less likely to turn out.” See the story here. Assuming that she took minority to mean folks with darker complexions or whose, or the first language of their proximate or remote ancestors, was something other than English, isn’t that terribly insulting? Isn’t that saying that those persons are too stupid, too lazy, or too uninterested to find out when election day is? 

Of course, the condescending attitudes of the American left-wingers know no racial or ethnic boundaries. The so-called progressives are the ones who really want a return of the plantation economy and serfdom, a nicer word for slavery. They just know better than to call it that.

Categories
Uncategorized

To hear the Robin go tweet tweet tweet.

Apropos of my long time friend and follower (and former DPD colleague) Bob W. who calls me “Robin” (after the Hood, I suppose).
I have updated myself and joined Twitter  — @BobReagan13 — The “Tweets” seem to be a useful way to let those who follow know when I have posted.
Those of you who recognize the title reference are doubtless eligible for AARP membership.
Cheers!
Categories
Uncategorized

Up with which?

Headline in today’s Dallas Morning News; “43 Dallas ISD schools make Texas’ growing list of low-achieving campuses”

Yesterday, we received a newsletter from the Dallas Independent School District. It contained an article about the 100th anniversary of Ben Milam Elementary School. A special guest was a 98 year old former student who attended in 1920, whose photo with cutline appear in the story.
　

If the errors in gender and number are not readily apparent to you, then God bless. One might forgive the cutline writer, who may have acted in haste up against a deadline, but not the editor. Perhaps he/she is a product of one of the low achieving campuses. I feel sure that editor was not an alumnus of former pedagogue, and occasional commentator of these pages Gary B.

Or is my gripe pedantic nonsense up with which we should not put?

Categories
Uncategorized

Postal Going

____________________________________________
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” — Herodotus, Histories.
At the corner of Bryan and Ervay Streets in downtown Dallas, there is a five-story, gray stone building occupying the entire northeast block. On three sides, above the second -floor bank of windows the inscription “United States Post Office and Court House” is carved into the stone. This edifice was completed in 1930 to house the regional postal center and main post office for Dallas, as well as the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, and various other federal government agencies. It remained the principal locus of the federal government’s presence in the city until 1971, when a new 16 story behemoth opened at 1100 Commerce Street to reflect the humongous growth of the government and its presence in the everyday lives of citizens in the intervening forty years. Of course, in 1971 we had not seen anything yet.
For the first century and a half of our nation, the Post Office was the only federal agency that average citizen came into frequent contact with. Of the enumerated powers of Congress in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, the establishment of post offices and designation of post roads is the only one that empowers the lawmakers to provide a direct service to individual citizens. All others powers have been implied – most of the time in Procrustean fashion – by Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary in the inexorable centralization of power. The Post Office was by far the largest federal civilian activity and employer for most of our history. In major cities, the main post office was where one went if they had any business with our national government.
The inclusion of postal service in the Constitution as an enumerated power seems to have been a national security consideration as well as a means for raising revenue. The debates in the first Congress on the establishment of the Post Office and the office of Postmaster General as well as correspondence between Founders such as John Jay, Washington, and Franklin indicate that was the case. There seems to have been little discussion of the merits during the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
It made sense that the national government should have the facility to provide for the mail at the time. In the late 18th Century, as it had been from time memorial, communication between persons out of sight or hearing had to have been by delivery of writing by couriers of some kind. The Herodotus quote above recognizes the intrepid communication facility of the ancient Persian army as a reason for its success in defeating enemies. Communication among the colonies through Committees of Correspondence, who used the post facilities of the day, was essential for the success of the Revolution.
The post was to become and remain for the principal method of communication for the next two centuries. The electric telegraph in the 1840s was the first development in communication that did not require the communicating parties to be in sight or sound of one another. The telephone, radio, and television, were improvements. But written, or at least durable, communications were desirable and even essential for many purposes. Teletype, FAX, and now the internet, made the that possible, and to the detriment of the postal service.
Now, the United States Postal Service, the quasi-public corporation that succeeded the Post Office Department in 1972 may be facing bankruptcy, and the validity of its continuing existence is seriously questioned. Long time Washington Post pundit Charles Krauthammer on national television last week said categorically that it should be abolished and private entities like UPS and FedEx should take over delivery of the mail. Krauthammer is hardly alone.
The USPS is now mainly a conduit for direct advertising, sending and paying bills, and some business correspondence. When was the last time any of us received a personal letter, other than a birthday, Christmas, or other holiday card?
The United States Postal Service has now become a dinosaur, and an expensive, high-maintenance on at that. It is time to consider privatization, as many other countries have done.
Exit mobile version