Opinion-Editorial

In the age of social media and the internet, voices are amplified. Words have power - to explain, to change minds and policy, or simply just to take part in the conversation.

The human cost of S.B. 4
Unintended consequences of removing “sanctuary”

A few months ago I found myself in Big Bend National Park, a land as rugged and foreign to the Blackland Prairie of North Texas that I have called "home" for a number of years as that of our sister nation to the south. Standing atop Sotol Vista Overlook,  where the direction of the winds across the palisades of the Chisos seems to be the only change to visit this land in the last century or so. The valley, low and rugged, spreads out below; the lights of Terlingua to the east and of Boquillas to the west against the horizon signal some of the only tenants of the valley; and to the south, the Rio Grande snakes wild and green in stark contrast to the desolate beauty of the desert on either side.

While elsewhere in our country, this borderland has been the focus of sharp debate and division, - the infamous "Wall," immigration reform, NAFTA, to name a few - there, the land pays no attention to where invisible lines have been drawn on maps or to which language is spoken there. If anything, in this region, the river seems to unify; the people here know that it is this fragile band of water that has brought them here and which sustains them. (Read more)

Girls shouldn’t need the Women’s March

Right this very minute, American women are serving our country in all facets of life - from the battlefield to the boardroom, from prayer services to parenting, to protesting.

The women who decided to march this past weekend were not just marching in protest of President Donald Trump, to say so would add to an ego that needs no more inflating and serves to diminish not only the thoughts and feeling of the people who marched, but the long, American tradition of women speaking up for themselves. What these women marched for was larger than one individual, one candidate or even one political party. (Read more)

Kanye Comments
An open letter to my students

A week or so has passed since Kanye’s now-infamous tirade on free-thinking, which climaxed with his statement that “slavery was a choice.” Thankfully, like the ignorant comments made by many in the news and social media, most of us have been able to go on with our lives that are grounded here, in the real-world. Since I must work for a living, instead of being able to due so by occasionally saying something ridiculous into a microphone, I do not think about it much (part of that may be due to the fact that I am a white male), until one of my students asks me about it. So that we can all continue with our lives, and before I have to fumble for the politically correct answer again, here are my thoughts on Kanye’s comments.

First, let me state the obvious: No, slavery was not a choice. It was not a choice to be shackled in their own homes, to be herded onto ships with conditions so vile that some chose to jump into the open freedom of the ocean rather than face the slow death of slavery and starvation. It was not a choice to watch family and loved ones dragged away to be beaten, raped and tortured. The one choice allowed to these people: to give into the system, body and soul, or to follow the indominability of the human spirit. Many did choose the later, which took the form of work slow-downs, sabotage and the occasional spark of revolutionary uprising. I believe those who did take this path may have a different opinion of what “free thought” is than Mr. West does. (Read more)

Hands up, don’t shoot
The pressing need for more community-based policing

Around 11 p.m., on March 29, three rifle shots shattered the relative quiet of the evening, echoing hollowly off the uniformed rows of single-story suburban houses, and leaving fractures that have divided the community and left one family to pick up the remnants of a life they had created for themselves.

After receiving a call to break-up a house party, two Balch Springs, Tx. police officers - Roy Oliver, 37, and another, unnamed officer - were dispatched to the scene. According to Oliver, upon arrival, a car with five black teens was attempting to flee the ensuing cacophony of a busted high-school house party, when the driver of the vehicle threw the car into reverse and began speeding towards the two officers in “an aggressive manner.” Oliver raised his rifle. Three shots rang out. And 15-year-old Jordan Edwards was dead with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. (Read more)