The Echo (Humble, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 37, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 14, 1978 Page: 2 of 30
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Page 2...Thursday, September 14, 1978..THE ECHO
Letters
Garvin Berry
Pee Wee teaches a lot!
This I Believe
TO THE EDITOR:
The whole ideal of pee-wee
football is to teach our little
boys sportsmanship, the
basic rules of football,
develop their character and
most of all, teach them how
to get along with their fellow
man. It’s such a shame when
the coaches and parents get
so interested in winning that
they lose all perspective of
what the ideal of establishing
pee-wee football was!
A very good example of
this was shown recently at a
private Porter, New Caney
Sports Assoc, board meeting
when they voted unani-
mously to let 10 year-olds
play with 7,8 and 9 year-olds
if they weighed 75 pounds or
less. For seven years the
weight limit has been 65
pounds for a 10 year-old to
play with the younger boys.
Surely this wasn’t done so
that the Buffaloes, last year’s
undefeated team, could keep
their top-two All-Star play-
ers another year?
I would hate to think that
the Buffalo’s coach, who is a
board member, would stoop
to this level to assure the
Buffalo of one more winning
season.
If anyone is interested in
the old Roman Gladiator vs.
Christian type battle be sure
to come see a Buffalo game
this season at Lydia-Farris
Ball Park in Porter, where
the inexperienced 7 year-
olds will meet the 10 year-old
All-Stars. It should be quite a
farce.
Cindy Tullos
Porter
Annexation: A baker’s
dozen of new cities
Why the liberal silence on
Rhodesian massacres?
[c] 1978 Ed Falk
The most outrageous,
despicable, murderous crime
since Hitler’s gas ovens and
the killing of Israeli atheletes
by the P.L.O. has just been
committed.
A bunch of barbaric
guerillas-utilizing a most
sophisticated weapon-shot
down an unarmed civilian
commercial airline. And
then, these savages came
calmly to the wreckage and
wantonly murdered any
survivors they could find.
The victims,passengers on
a Rhodesion airline, were
murdered by African rebels
only because they were
white and the murderers
were black with a grievance
against the white persons
who head the government of
Rhodesia.
Where are the outcries
from the Andy Youngs and
other liberals who con-
demned the abuses (includ-
ing murder) of blacks by
whites?
Have we become so
callous, so indifferent to
violence and the violation of
our civil liberties that we can
no longer distinguish fact
from fiction? Have our hearts
become so hardened to
injustice, immorality and
lust for power that we can
without conscience go our
way, concerned only with our
own petty problems?
This apparent attitude
reminds me of an incident in
the life of Rev. Martin
Niemoller, who replied to the
question of what was he
doing in a Nazi prison, this
way: “When they came after
the Jews and I was not a Jew,
I did not object. Then they
came after the Catholics and
I was not a Catholic, so I did
not object. Then they came
after the trade unionists and
I was not a trade unionist, so
I did not object.”
I find it difficult to even
write about these outlaws,
thereby legitimizing their
existence, but in order to put
their role in proper focus, it
must be done.
Joshua Nkomo and Robert
Mugabe, the black guerillas
who committed this dastard-
ly deed, are backed by our
own U.S. government and
the Soviet Union. In their
lust to take power from the
Rhodesian government
headed by Prime Minister
Ian Smith, Nkomo
Mugahe head up the
“Patriotic Front” which has
plundered, raped and mur-
dered-all in the name of
Liberation and black rule.
Nay, they have refused to
join the biracial government
formed by Prime Minister
Smith'. They want not only a
black-only government but
an autocratic one.
Smith, on the other hand,
has taken into the previously
all-white government two
popularly supported black
leaders, Bishop Muzorewa
and Rev. Sithole of the
United African National
Council. These Black leaders
have not resorted to
violence, are anti-commun-
ist, pro-Western and have
the support of the people of
Rhodesia, both black and
white.
Why, oh why, is our State
Perils of hot pursuit
Hot pursuit in the aftermath of a everything a policeman needs to
crime is sometimes justified. A know within minutes. A radio call can
kidnaper with a hostage is worth alert the police ahead and often trap
chasing. So is a person who has killed the fugitive if circumstances call for
and may kill again. it...
But even in these cases, Hot pursuit is a last resort. It
road-blocks may be just as effective should be used sparingly and with
as pursuit. good judgment that takes into
Years ago, when radios were less account the nature of the crime. A
dependable and computer banks were traffic offense along is not a good
unknown, the only way to catch a enough reason for a chase, which only
miscreant was to chase him. In most compounds the offense,
cases, a license number can now yield Chicago Tribune, Chicago
All opinions expressed on the Echo Opinion
Page reflect solely the views of their authors„
ECHO
Thursday, September 14,1978 Vol. 39, No. 37
-~k-
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
1977
Fred A. Benson..............................President
David Kovljain...............................Publisher
Fred Mayne..........................................Editor
Marty Da Silva..................Managing Editor
Garvin Berry.................................Columnist
Edwin Henry...........................Sports Editor
Richard Clough........................Advertising
Barbara Hays............................Advertising
Vicki Spink..................Staff Photographer
Leslie Fazio .....................Office Manager
Sheila Phillips.........Composition Director
Mailing address: P.O. Drawer E, Humble, Texas 77338. Offices at
315 Main Street in Humble. Phone 446 3733 or 446-9610
Any erroneous reflection upon the character standing or reputation of any
firm, corporation or individual published in this newspaper will be corrected
when brought to our attention
In case of errors of omission in legal or other advertising, the publishers do not
hold themselves liable for damage, other than the amount received by them
for such advertisements Advertising is accepted only on this basis
Department forcing a pro-
communist anti-American
group down the throat of the
Rhodesian people? Who
supplied Nkomo the ground-
to-air missile that searched
out the beat of the airline
engines and upon contact
caused an explosion and the
plane to crash?Why has the
U.S. Congress been silent?
Who in Congress is sup-
pressing the facts?
Why is it that the “London
Times” gives extensive
coverage to the bloodbath,
but our own news media
write it off with a paragraph
or two or IV2 minutes of TV
time? Is football or Miss
America more important?
What happens in Africa
today will have a direct effect
on our economic, political and
social way of life for
generations to come. Write
to Congress, the president
and the news media to bring
this story, fully and com-
pletely, before the American
people, It is a story that must
be told.
The big annexations of the 1940’s
and 1950’s quadrupled the size of the
City of Houston and catapulted it into
the role of one of the nation’s major
cities.
The same annexations frightened
many residents of theunincorporated
areas and caused the formation of
more than a dozen new cities. It was
the beginning of the big city versus
the small city syndrome in Harris
County.
In earlier columns, we’ve traced the
annexation and growth history of the
region through the 1920’s.
There were no major annexations
or mergers and little
municipalgrowth during the depres-
sion decade of the 1930’s.
The feeling of caution persisted
through the early years of World War
II. In 1943, the Houston City Council on
its own volition submitted a major an-
nexation ordinance to the voters.
It was defeated.
That cautious feeling had complete-
ly vanished by the end of the decade.
The industrial growth of the war
years had caused the entire Harris
County area to flourish.
The center city of Houston had an
area of 81 square miles and a popula-
tion of more than 900,000. Tlie Old
Gray Fox, Houston Mayor Oscar
Holcombe, had returned to office and
convinced the voters to approve
charter changes giving Houston the
super-strong-mayor system it now
has.
In 1949, Holcombe presented and his
City Council approved, an ordinance
annexing 79 square miles of new ter-
ritory to Houston. It also surrounded
seven neighboring cities in an effort to
prevent them from growing.
There was immediate controversy.
A referendum petition similar to that
prepared this year by Clear Lake City
residents, was presented, and the City
Council called an election.
Houston voters apporved the annex-
ation by an overwhelming majority.
As a result of Houston’s renewed ag-
gressiveness, the cities of Shore
Acres, Morgan’s Point, and Lomax
were incorporated.
That 1949 annexation had a political
consequence that not even the Old
Gray Fox foresaw. It brought into the
City of Houston as a new citizen a
young northside autoparts dealer
named Louie Welch who became a
thorn in the sides of Houston mayors
for more than a decade.
Welch promptly ran for the Houston
City Council and was elected.
He then ran for mayor against
every incumbent at least once until he
was finally elected mayor himself in
1963.
The northsider who was angry at
being annexed in 1949 is now in his
present role as president of the
Houston Chamber of Commerce and
is one of the strongest advocates of
Houston’s continuous annexation
policy.
By 1954, it was apparent that the Ci-
ty of Houston was feeiling its spirit of
manifest destiny and was preparing
another big annexation. A series of
meetings were held around the
perimeter of Houston by citizens who
wanted to form new cities before they
could be engulfed by Houston.
A number of incorporation elections
were held in Harris County during the
mid-1950’s.
In 1954, Hedwig Village, Hunter’s
Creek Village, and Piney Point
Village were incorporated on
Houston’s west side.
The following year, Bunker Hill
Village, Spring Valley, and Hilshire
Village were formed in the same area,
and a similar plan to incorporate most
of Spring Branch failed.
In 1956, Jersey Village was created
in northwest Harris County and
Missouri City and Stafford were
formed at the junction of the Fort
Bend and southwest Harris County
lines.
They were just in time. In
December, 1956, Houston Mayor
Holcombe proposed the biggest an-
nexation in the region’s history—187
square miles.
The annexation increased
Houston’s size to 352 square miles, se-
cond only to Los Angeles in land area
as of 1957. It also extended Houston’s
city limits almost to the Addicks
Reservoir on the west, into Fort Bend
County on the south, to Galveston Bay
on the east along a corridor, and
almost all the way around the just-
constructed Lake Houston on the
north.
The annexation was approved by
the Houston City Council and resulted
in lengthy controversy and scandal.
Charges were made that a Houston
city councilman had deliberately
asked for a postponement of the an-
nexation to allow time for developer
Frank Sharp’s Sharpstown Water
District § 24 to sell more bonds before
the City of Houston took over.
Later investigations disclosed that
a profit of $100,000 from the sale of
another water district’s bonds had
been deposited in the councilman’s
account by the officials of a major
downtown Houston bank.
Surprisingly, the case was never
prosecuted, but the incident raised
doubts in citizens’ minds about the
validity of the entire annexation.
Residents of the newly annexed
areas filed suit against the annexation
and took it all the way to the United
States Supreme Court.
It was not until June of 1958, after
Holcombe was finally and permanent-
ly out of office, that the high court
finally validated the 1956 annexation.
That set the stage for the biggest
land war in Texas history and the
State Legislature’s trimming of the
annexation powers of cities.
We’ll discuss that next week.
Opinion
Photoforum
With the recent hearings on the shooting of John F. Kennedy by
the House Select Committee in Washington, D.C., the question
of whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone is again being
debated. The Echo asked passersby in Bender Square their
thoughts on the subject and here’s what they said. What’s your
opinion? Pass it on to The Echo, P.O. Drawer E, Humble, TX.
Did Oswald act alone in the shooting of John Kennedy
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“No, I think the magnitude of
the crime was entirely out-
side of the possibility of his
acting alone.”--Betty Nor-
man
“I don’t feel he acted alone in
the shooting him [Kennedy].
I never have believed it even
when I lived in Dallas when
he was shot. That’s why Os-
wald was shot to shut him
up.’’--Margie Story
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>
“I don’t think he was alone. I
think it was a conspiracy.”-
Roy Parent
“No. I don’t even feel like he
killed John F. Kennedy.
However, he was still guilty,
he killed a policeman.
Gladys M. Knight.
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“No. Too big a thing for one
man to do.”--Walter Robbins
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“No. I don’t believe one man
could do it. It was more than
one.”~Stacy Davison
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No. We lived m Dallas and
saw where it happened. With
the rifle Oswald used, he
could not hit him. That was
one of the worst rifles
made.’’-Mike Parsons
“He probably acted alone. I
don’t know why they are
bringing it all up again.
Seems like a waste of
money .’’-Charlotte Miller
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Mayne, Fred. The Echo (Humble, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 37, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 14, 1978, newspaper, September 14, 1978; Humble, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth648713/m1/2/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Humble Museum.