Thumbs up, down
A story unveiled, a Texas blues legend, and a reminder to lawmakers about unsafe roads.
We honor Monday’s opening day for the soon-to-be world champion Astros by throwing out a first pitch this weekend of guaranteed, can’t-miss tips for your reading, listening and viewing pleasure.
Houston historian Patricia Bernstein has just written a Texas story not adequately exposed until now. “Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan,” sits prominently on the Thumbs nightstand and is an important and illuminating exploration of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. Bernstein’s narrative thread is the story of a 29-year-old Williamson County district attorney, Dan Moody. He was the first authority in the United States to successfully prosecute Klansmen, sending five of them to prison for flogging a white man. The Klan went after blacks, Catholics, Jews, immigrants and anyone they didn’t like. Today’s political environment is unsettling because history has a way of repeating itself. The Klan, during the period Bernstein chronicles, had a membership of more than a million. It is a chapter that should be closed forever
Rodney Crowell is a Texas treasure, a country singer/songwriter who knows when to rock and when to sing the blues. Born in 1950 in Crosby, he grew up in Jacinto City and learned the licks from his father before winning a couple of Grammys, one with Emmylou Harris. His latest record, “Close Ties,” is a musical memoir released Friday and leads off with “East Houston Blues,” set hard in the Third Ward. A sample:
East Houston blues picture Dowling Street
And Navigation Blvd where the crossroads meet
Three sheets in the wind, brick shy of a load
East Houston blues down a nowhere road
Resort owner Donald Trump pledged during his campaign that he was “not going to have time to go play golf ” like his predecessor. But like many pronouncements from the president, it didn’t work out as promised. He’s probably played 12 times in 71 days, the Washington Post reported. Which is a long way of saying that even though the Golf Club of Houston is not Mar-a-Lago, you can watch great golf without guilt this weekend at the Shell Houston Open. It’s also a good time to thank Shell for 26 years of sponsorship, which ends Sunday (if Mother Nature cooperates). They’ve pumped more than $60 million into local charities.
The General Assembly of North Carolina took a mulligan on its bathroom bill Thursday. Faced with losing billions in business, tourism and sporting events, the state’s lawmakers repealed the law that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and his stooges want to replicate in Texas despite warnings from groups like the Texas Association of Business, the Greater Houston Partnership, sports team owners and, now, North Carolina. If this doesn’t convince Patrick his idea is a stinker, then it’s not about policy, it’s personal.
We sign off this week with terribly sad incidents that keep us tossing and turning at night.
Houston’s cycling community is rightfully reeling and families are indelibly devastated after two riders training for the BP MS150 in Waller County were run over and killed a week ago today. More information is needed to understand the “why,” but it’s painfully clear from seeing white ghost bikes on too many roads that there is no such thing as a fender-bender on a bike. This horror story didn’t unfold in our city limits, but there’s no better time than immediately after a fatality to do a deep dive into what has become a statewide problem. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo has said bicycle safety is one of his priorities. He can’t do it alone. The city and county must come together, get a “can do” committee appointed and find funds to implement safety measures. More families’ lives cannot be devastated.
While Chief Acevedo is at it, he ought to elevate the discussion of pedestrian safety, too. A mom walking her daughter to a bus stop died Wednesday after being hit by a pickup just before sunrise. What happened to the ubiquitous “Drive Friendly” campaigns of the past?
He was texting. And 13 church members in a mini bus died. A witness quoted the driver of the pickup that plowed head-on into the bus Wednesday in Uvalde County this way: “He said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was texting on my phone.’” The Texas Legislature passed a bill in 2011 banning texting while driving, a measure that would have elevated discussion and awareness of distracted driving. Then Gov. Rick Perry, who today writes op-eds about student government elections, vetoed it.