Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 089, Ed. 1 Friday, February 25, 2011 Page: 4 of 12
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Viewpoints
Page 4 ■ Friday, February 25, 2011
Sweetwater Reporter
DEDICATED TO PROUDLYDEUVERIN® LOCAL NEWS SI NTH 1881
T—\ Sweetwatei A
Reporter
1EMBER
| * 1 2010
P.O. Box 750/112 W. Third
TEXAS PRESS
Sweetwater, Texas 79556
ASSOCIATION
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EDITORIAL POLICY
The editorial section of the newspaper is a forum for
expression of a variety of viewpoints. All articles except
those labeled "Editorials" reflect the opinions of the writ-
ers and not those of the Sweetwater Reporter.
GUEST COLUMN
Wisconsin Senate
Democrats stayed
missing Monday
God bless America, and how's everybody?
Wisconsin Senate Democrats stayed missing
Monday to avoid a vote lowering state worker ben-
efits. Now Indiana Democrats have disappeared. The
Democrats just fired the donkey as the party symbol
and replaced t with a police sketch of the Lindbergh
baby.
Li ndsay Lohan was threatened with jail at her court
hearing Wednesday. Her grand theft charge and bat-
tery probe may have broken her drug and alcohol
probation. There is so much resentment against thin
women that they're actually throwing them n jail
now.
Russian airline Aeroflot announced
they have begun hiring comedians to
entertain passengers during flights.
' 09 They're still working out the kinks.
^ No women are allowed to sit n the
emergency exit row after three nuns
r, > walked out on Andrew Dice Clay last
■ week.
Li—£ —I 1 Field and Stream says Texas hunt-
UrtlllC ers are enj°y'ng an excellent quail
HiyUo hunting season this season. The
Hamilton soun<^ °f w''^ birds instantly arouses
Li a hunter to open fire. Three authori-
tarian strongmen have been toppled
by Twitter and not one of them was Dick Cheney.
Libya's Moammar Khadaffi went on worldwide TV
Tuesday and vowed to fight to the last drop of blood.
He declared his country was under the influence of
hallucination pills. He also said he's completed rehab
and he's ready to return to work on Two and a Half
Men.
Libyan pilots defied orders to bomb the oil fields
Tuesday and nstead they ditched their planes in the
ocean and ejected to safety. The country's oil industry
was saved. It's the best evidence yet that Libya's air
force is operated from a Pentagon trailer in Nevada.
Libya self-destructed Wednesday and tottered on
the brink of falling just like Egypt and Tunisia fell
earlier this month. No one saw this coming. It's either
a historic wave of democracy or it's the world's most
expensive commercial for Allstate accident nsur-
ance.
Newsweek ran a poll Monday showing any number
of Republicans could beat Barack Obama next year.
There's no consensus candidate. Among California
Republicans the leading GOP contenders to unseat
the president are Ron Paul, Donald Trump and a
ham sandw ich.
White House former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel
was elected mayor of Ch icago on Tuesday by a land-
slide. The Democrats are so grateful it wasn't close.
The soil is rock hard from the coldest winter in his-
tory and nobody wants to recount the votes.
The L.A. Coroner began probing the death of a
woman found dead sitting up at her government
office desk inside her cubicle last week. No one
noticed she was dead for a full day. Her fellow work-
ers saluted her, saying that she died as she lived, run-
ning up overtime.
Wisconsin state employee union protesters vowed
Wednesday they will stay in their picket 1 nes and wait
there until they win. Then it won't happen. If there's
one thing a majority of Americans enjoy watching It's
government workers having to wait in line.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Re id urged Nevada
to outlaw brothels n his guest speech to Nevada's
legislature Wednesday. Why pick on prostitution?
It's the only industry that hasn't been outsourced to
India or consigned to Chinese twelve-year-olds.
Queen Elizabeth posted a help-wanted ad online
Wednesday for an assistant n the Buckingham
Palace washroom. It's not glamorous work. James
Bond draws a royal flush n the second scene of every
movie but he wins a lot more than twenty dollars an
hour.
Argus Hamilton is the host comedian at The
Comedy Store in Hollywood and entertains groups
and organizations around the country. E-mail him
at Argus@ArgusHamilton.com.
GUEST COLUMN
A mother's search for meaning
There has been a whole
spate of memoirs lately by
young mothers searching
for meaning. They go off
looking for happiness in
yoga and personal trainers
and spiritual gurus. These
are ntelligent women,
women with fancy
educations who
either don't work
or make a living
as writers, which
is (if you ask me)
pretty great when
your kids are little.
I wrote five books
while my kids
were young with-
out having to leave
my house, which
is my definition of
a good deal for a
mother with young
children.
So why are these women
so unhappy? Why are they
trying to 1 id "happiness
in ome-improvement
projects and exercise and
deep breaths? Not that
there is ar thing wrong
with any ol those things.
But from where I sit,
these women are in the
middle of the most won-
derful years of their lives,
and they are wasting them
whining.
Believe me, I empathize
with the trials of raising
children. I remember
being so tired I couldn't
thin' straight, feeling
like I had not a minute to
myself, wondering what
happened to the woman
I used to be. I spent years
worrying about money
after getting divorced,
worrying about how to
provide a secure home for
my children while I was
trying to figure out how to
pay tl nortgage. I love
my children more than
li fe, which gives them the
power to hurt me like no
one else. Being a mother
is not easy.
But there is a reason
why women who have
everything in the world
want children even more.
There is a reason why we
keep giving up promising
careers and pursuits we
love to be mothers. We
say we are doing it for
our children, but let me
tell you the secret, as one
who was once there: We
do it for ourselves. We
do it because, for all its
pain, being a mother with
her children in her arms
GUEST COLUMN
Susan
Estrich
is the very best thing in
the world, or at least the
best thing I ever found.
When I gave up politics
to have children, I used to
say that I would rather be
woken up in the middle of
the night by a crying child
than by a power-
ful politician. I
meant it.
The problem is
that it doesn't last
forever. Please,
God, I will always
be my children's
mother. Please,
God, they will
outlive me by a
hundred years.
A mother, my
friend Annie says,
is always only as
happy as her least
happy child. I want hap-
piness and good health
or my children far, far
more "than I want them
for myself. You don't love
your children any less as
they grow older, but you
do come to realize, pain-
fully sometimes, that they
don't belong to you. They
have a right to their own
lives, anc a parent's job
is not to hold on, but to
let go.
Now that my children
are grown (one in college
and one starting in e
fall), I'm ready to look
for (OK, maybe in need
of) some other source of
(lesser) happiness, and
I'm happy to take inspi-
ration from anywhere I
can find it. My favorites
are the books by older
women, who have the per
spective of life's joys and
losses something I have
learned painfullv over the
years. But frankly, many
of them are just too sad,
and sadness is something
I don't need to read about.
So I pick up the memoirs
of the young mothers, fig-
uring there will be fewer
deaths and tragedies in
them. And thev are, for
sure, not nearly as sad.
But they make me want to
shake their authors.
Why do you need a "hap-
piness project" when you
have a husband who loves
you, plenty of money and
two beautiful and healthy
children?
Why do you need to
"escape" your family
when, before you know
it, they will be gone? I'm
all for deep breaths, but
can't you take them at
home?"
Did someone tell me
this 10 or 15 years ago?
I can't remember. Maybe
you just can't hear. But in
case you are one of those
mothers and you're read-
ing this, let me try: Wait
until you are my age. Wait
until your children are my
children's age. I promise
that you will look back
and realize that heaven
was right there in your
house, right there looking
at you.
To find out more
about Susan Estrich and
read features by other
Creators Syndicate writ-
ers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate
website at www.creators,
com.
miiAUMt
cwfowe
PENSION
Wl
Fort Hood shooting victims
also heroes in war terror
On November 5, 2009,
Fort Hood, Texas was
suddenly thrust onto the
front lines of the War on
Terror. On that terrible
day, 13 U.S. Army soldiers
were murdered
and dozens of
others were griev-
ously wounded
in what we now
recognize as the
single worst act of
terrorism on our
shores since 9/11.
The shock oi the
events that day
were further com-
pounded for the
soldiers and their
families when
they learned that
the man accused
of this heinous act was one
of their own, a U.S. Army
officer who had rejected
his oath and embraced
Islamic extremism.
The recent release of a
bipartisan Senate report
revealed tha the events
at Fort Hood were both
predictable and prevent-
able. This renews our
sense of loss and outrage.
Indeed, in the months
preceding the attack there
were strong warning signs
that Nidal Hasan posed
a clear and present dan-
ger to his fellow soldiers.
Unfortunately the culture
of political correctness
seems to have overshad-
owed Hasan's increas-
ingly dangerous behavior
observed by his colleagues
and supervisors who failed
to put the pieces togeth-
er before it was too late.
Although Hasan may have
worn the uniform of a U.S.
Kay Bailey
Hutchison
Army officer, he openly
embraced the beliefs an<
convictions of our adver-
saries.
The Committee's report
provides valuable insight,
helping to deepen
our understand
ing of how and
why the horrible
events at Fort
Hood took place.
Specifically, the
report reveals
that leading up
to the attack,
the FBI and the
Department
of Defense
(DoD) had suf-
ficient informa-
tion between
both agencies
to have prevented Major
Nidal Hasan from com-
mitting that act of er-
rorism against his fellow
soldiers. Additionally,
the Committee's findings
make clear thai military
leaders did not adequately
address the growing threat
of homegrown Islamic ter-
rorism within their own
ranks. Hopefully, both
the Army and the FBI will
embrace the Senate's rec-
ommendations and find-
ings.
Congress also has the
responsibility to recog-
nize that what occurred at
Fort Hood was indeed an
act of wartime aggression
and to honor these fallen
heroes and their families
in the manner worthy of
the sacrifices they made.
As we saw from the ter-
rorist attacks on 9/11, the
battlefields of the War on
Terror extend well beyond
the borders of any one
nation.
For over half a cen-
tury, the soldiers sta-
tioned at Fort Hood have
made great sacrifices to
protect and defenc ui
nation, and those killed
or wounded on November
5, 2009, were no differ-
ent. It is clear that the
victims of Fort Hood were
engaged in enemy combat
when they were attacked,
and their service and sac-
rifice n this war must be
acknowledged appropri-
ately.
Those who lost their
lives, along with their fam-
ilies, should receive the
benefits and status afford-
ed to their fellow service-
men and women fighting
in Iraq and Afghanistan
who are wounded or killed
in the same War on Terror.
The U.S. government
awarded combat status to
casualties from the 9/11
attack on the Pentagon,
and the victims of Fort
Hood should not be treat-
ed any differently.
Together witli Senator
John Cornyn and
Congressman John Carter
(R-TX), I recently intro
duced the 7ort Hood
Victims and Families
Benefits Protection Act,
which would indeed
grant the victims of the
Fort Iood attack and the
families of the deceased
soldiers the appropriate
legal recognition of com-
bat casualties. It is my
hope that my colleagues
in the Senate will join me
in honoring these fallen
heroes and their families
in the manner they so
rightly deserve.
Kay Bailey Hutchison
is the Texas U.S. Senator.
Comments about this col-
umn may be e-mailed to
editor @sweetwaterre-
porter.com.
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Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 089, Ed. 1 Friday, February 25, 2011, newspaper, February 25, 2011; Sweetwater, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth229405/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sweetwater/Nolan County City-County Library.