The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 100, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 24, 1999 Page: 4 of 12
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Page 4-A ❖ Wednesday, February 24,1999
PAT ON THE BACK
... to the Horace Mann Junior School cheerleaders who recently won
the spirit stick at a competition in Clear Creek.
FEEDBACK: To comment on this page, write us at P.O. Box 90, Baytown, TX
77522 or email us at baytownsun @ aol.com.
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The Baytown Sun is published Monday through Friday and Sunday at
1301 Memorial Drive in Baytown.
Gaiy Dobbs Edwin Hemy
Editor and Publisher *' ...... Managing Editor
ifchard Neison
Asst Managing Editor
American Red Cross
volunteers worthy
■ rea residents Lydia Schneider and Kenneth McVay received their just
II recognition this week when the North Bay Area Branch Office of the
Mm Greater Houston American Red Cross presented them with Certificates
of Merit signed by the president of the United States.
The particulars of their heroism and selfless volunteer efforts are imporr
tant, but not as important as the indescribable thing inside them and others
who are willing and able to save a family member’s or stranger’s life, to serve
mankind at the grass roots level.
There are some 3,500 ARC volunteers in the Houston area who were possi-
ble candidates for the certificates. Only 18 people actually received them.
All Red Cross volunteers do basically one thing — save lives through train-
ing, instruction or direct and indirect involvement in activities that give oth-
ers the kinds of skills necessary to be lifesavers.
The skill to perform cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, of knowing how to
stay afloat and alive in water, and knowing what to do in the face of immedi-
ate trauma and disaster are things all Americans should want to know.
To Lydia Schneider and Kenneth McVay, and to all Red Cross volunteers,
thank you for your time and desire to help.
Sun Files
From the Sun files, here are the headlines from...
10 years ago:
25 years ago:
50 years
Today in history
Today is Wednesday, Feb. 24, the 55th day of 1999. There are 310 days left in
the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Feb. 24,1868, the House of Representatives impeached President Andrew
Johnson following his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stan-
ton; Johnson was later acquitted by the Senate.
On this date:
In 1803, the Supreme Court ruled itself the final interpreter of constitutional
issues.
In 1821, Mexico declared its independence from Spain.
In 1863, Arizona was organized as a territory.
In 1903, the United States signed an agreement acquiring a naval station at
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
In 1942, the Voice of America went on the air for the first time.
In 1945, American soldiers liberated the Philippine capital of Manila from
Japanese control.
■ The Associated Press
Thought for today
“Great events make me quiet and calm; it Is only trifles that irritate my nerves.”
— Queen Victoria, British monarch (1819-1901).
Bible verse
Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.
Proverbs 16:8
Lee College students Tracy Blackwell and Pat Murray starred in the LC
theater department’s contest play “Twister.”
A skunk that had plagued Woodrow Wilson Junior High School in Dayton
for three years was finally captured by the animal control department.
The matinee rodeo performance at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
was designated as Baytown Day. Sonny and Cher performed twice for the
evening audiences.
You could buy Acme cowboy boots for $10 at Gibson’s Discount City.
Jack Ward was the first candidate to file for mayor. W.C. Williams was a
candidate for councilman in District 3.
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I’ve been invited to flirt with disaster
I’ve been invited to attend a disaster.
My life has had enough interesting ups
and downs that dealing with disaster is
certainly not unfamiliar to me, both in a
personal and business s$nse, but such
occasions have rarely been preceded by
formal invitations. “Mr. and Mrs. Foster
Q. Fosdyke IV request your presence at
their second annual burning of the fam-
ily business for insurance purposes... -
please R.S.VP.” “The fire department
invites you to attend a five-vehicle pile-
up at the intersection of Garth and
Baker roads at approximately 5 p.m. in
the afternoon on Tuesday. No serious
injuries are foreseen but are certainly
possible.” No, it doesn’t usually happen
that way, though there were a few
exceptions over the years.
A couple times I’d get a phone call
from someone to inform that someone
else was going to shoot some other
someone else or blow somebody up or
bum someone’s house down but if I got
such a call, the police usually did too
and the plans didn’t get a chance to
come to fruition. But it is a requirement
that emergency response agencies —
that is, police, fire departments, emer-
gency medical services and any other
organization whose job description or
skills might be put to use in an emer-
] gency get out there and practice. At
least once or twice a year they practice
together and call it an emergency man-
agement drill or a mass casualty drill.
That is what my recent invitation was
for... an emergency management drill.
I’ve done this sort of thing before.
There’s one held in Baytown every year,
as in every other community, with the
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idea being to practice doing whatever
might be necessary in the event of a big
disaster or mass casualty accident and
see how the communications go, how
well the different agencies coordinate
together and to get an idea how to make
it work better when the real thing comes
along.
So while in some years I’ve just #
observed these pretend bus accidents,
school fires, earthquakes, messy hurri-
canes and so forth, some years I have
taken a more active role. I’ve was
gassed in nty car after a train derailed
and spilled toxic chemicals. I was once
pulled from a (supposedly) burning
building. I’ve been covered in fake
blood by volunteers from the Lee Col- •
lege Drama Department, triaged by
EMS and slung into an ambulance by
groaning EMTs (who are, I am sure,
much more gentle with real patients).
The other day Bernard Olive, a fire
department captain whom I have known
for years, called to invite me to yet
another disaster. This one is not to be in
Baytown but will be held at old Fort
Travis on the Bolivar Peninsula. The
effort will include the locals from down
there, plus lots of state personnel and
agencies from as far as Baytown who
would do just that in the case of a really
big disaster. This particular disaster'
will combine a military reunion, a
weather-related disaster and lots of
blood and gore. What’s more, it will not
be the usual two- or three-hour drill but
rather an ovemighter and much more
like the real thing might be should it
happen. Bernard wanted me to come
down and play the part of a really big
jerk media person — the kind that gets
in someone’s face and asks those really
rude and painful questions like “how
did you feel when you realized your
baby was dead?” ju$t to get a reaction
for the cameras and the really tricky
questions like “is it true you’ve quit
cheating on your wife?” to try to trip
people up.
“Not that you were like that, Jane,” he
said. “But there are a lot of the media
who are like that and lots of the people
in this drill won’t be used to dealing
with media. We want them to learn how
bad it could be.” I’m not sure my sched-
ule will allow for this but it would no
doubt be good therapy to spend a week-
end acting like the biggest jerk I can
manage.
Sort of a primal scream thing.
Bernard said they needed sortie victims
too so if you think it might be fun to
spend a weekend at Bolivar, get to play
a victim and scream for help and get
rescued (hopefully!) and all that, give
Bernard Olive a call at the Baytown
Fire Department.
Jane Howard Lee is a regular Bay- ,
town columnist.
life must change the
status quo of education
Responding to your editorial Feb. 19
“inexcusable,” I want to introduce to you a
word absent from your comments. Compe-
tition. You assess Rick Perry’s efforts to be
that he is out to destroy the public school
system by giving parents of school-age
children choice and power when determin-
ing the best education options for their kids.
Currently, most families are forced to
accept only what is offered from the cur-
rent education establishment, take it or
leave it. The argument from that establish-
ment goes: “ We know what’s best for you.
Just give us your kids and your tax money
and don’t worry about a thing.”
Now, whom should be labeled an elitist?
I want to be very clear that when I speak
of the education establisl jnent, I am not
speaking of teachers in the classroom, but
of the vast bureaucracy that sits atop those
teachers.
These are the folks that tie the hands of
local teachers, administrators and school
boards with endless mandates, rules and
requirements that devour most of the ener-
gy that should go into teaching our kids.
But whenever someone raises their head to
question or criticize this bureaucracy they
are labeled as enemies of teachers and
public education with words like loath-
some, elitist education separatists, simple
minded parents that walk backward and
drool or whatever.
With power constantly shifting away
from local control of schools toward
Austin and Washington, many conclude
the only way to counter this erosion of
education freedom is to empower parents
to make real choices in their children’s
education.
Currently public education is a monop-
oly controlled by government and teach-
ers’ unions. Parents have essentially no say
in the curriculum and policy decisions that
control the government classroom. The
only input sought from the public is
financing. It is time for parents to have a
much larger voice in their children’s edu-
cation. And nothing talks like the money.
And by the way, the state doesn’t make ;
that money, the citizens do It’s our money. “.
These are our children.
Giving parents real power will force the
public schools to compete with each other
and with private schools for students and
teachers. Those that work will prosper, and
those that don’t will have to change or
cease to exist. This is good for everyone
involved.
We should not chain another generation
to a failing education system so that we
can preserve the status quo.
. It is time for real imagination and real
guts by our leaders to fix this problem. Lt
Gov. Perry and Gov. Bush are moving in
that direction.
—Mark Hall,
Baytown•
Mail or fax letters to:
Letters to the Editor
The Baytown Sun
P.O. Box 90
Baytown, Texas 77522
Fax: 281-427-6283
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Dobbs, Gary. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 100, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 24, 1999, newspaper, February 24, 1999; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1020516/m1/4/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.