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A great governor, RIP Glen Campbell, taxfree weekend and Palestinians in Houston
Texans buried a great governor, Mark White, in the state cemetery this week. His funeral brought together generations of progressives, liberals and conservatives. The message, whether delivered by the daughter of LBJ or W himself, was that White worked with all comers and tried to do the right thing regardless of the consequences. Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick heard the moving eulogies at Second Baptist Church in Memorial. What a tribute to White it would be if our current governor and lieutenant governor would shed the politics of divisiveness.
Galveston, oh, Galveston, I still hear your seawinds blowing; I still see her dark eyes glowing. She was twenty one, when I left Galveston.
That stanza, popularized by legendary country singer Glen Campbell, remains our favorite song about Texas. And that says a lot when you consider those tunes about China Grove, the west Texas town of El Paso, Luckenbach and “Amarillo by Morning.” Campbell, who died Tuesday at 81, also recorded a song about Houston as have singers from Dean Martin to Iggy Pop. It’s time, though, for someone to deliver for Houston what the Rhinestone Cowboy did for the island: an anthem.
This page often bellyaches, whines and complains about tax abatements. But if the big players get ’em — and they do — so should us little guys. Time to cash in. It’s “tax-free weekend” and you can save enough to buy lunch when shopping for back-to-school supplies, backpacks and uniforms today and tomorrow. The discounts also work online.
It’s been a whirlwind month for our Palestinian community. They hosted the American Federation of Ramallah convention in early July. Now another special guest comes to town. Naba Rabaia, a 9-year-old, awaiting surgery to repair hip dysplasia, was flown in by the Houston chapter of Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
Newly elected Pasadena Mayor Jeff Wagner is, well, a chicken when it comes to meeting reporters. He’s refused interviews and has even resorted to sneaking out the back door at City Hall to avoid pencils and pads. At least now he can catch a ride to the mall. Wagner has reinstated four bus routes to serve the city’s low-income neighborhoods.
“El Niño,” comic Chris Farley proclaimed on his famous “Saturday Night Live” skit, “is Spanish for The Niño.” In atmospheric speak, it’s a condition where water surface temperatures are higher in the equatorial Pacific. When that happens, the Atlantic sees fewer tropical storms. Unfortunately, El Niño is slow to develop this year, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has upped is forecast for storms later this summer and fall. We can expect, they say, between 14 and 19 tropical storms and as many as nine hurricanes. Time to get those supplies and a plan in order.
With apologies for ending this week’s column on a down note, there’s a crisis brewing and it’s time for all hands on deck. Tomorrow, in this space, you’ll read a full editorial about a threat by the state of Texas to take over the Houston Independent School District. They’re not messing around. A law enacted by the 2015 Legislature allows the Texas Education Agency to intervene when a district has schools on the “improvement required” list for more than five years. That would be HISD. We’re skeptical of the state running anything well. Texas has failed miserably with Child Protective Services and places like Michigan have attempted to take over schools only to end up with no improvement and the added bonus of more litigation. Cynically, we say that maybe the feds should take over the Texas Legislature, which is preoccupied with passing hurtful bathroom or immigration laws instead of fixing school finance. The bottom line is that our top priority should be transforming 3- and 4-year-old bundles of energy into learned children. That requires leadership, compromise and money. It also requires something in the first item above: people working together.