The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 93, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, January 18, 2013 Page: 4 of 10
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4 The Baytown Sun
Viewpoints
Four years past,
four more to go
Friday
January 18, 2013
EMILY
MACRANDER
iC Those who
wore blue for
the first black
president knew
that he was the
man to get it
done. *)*)
In a meeting to plan for what you people would be read-
ing in the newspaper in, the coming weeks, the writing
staff got to talking about how it was about to be Presi-
dent Barak Obama’s second inauguration. It is Monday,
in fact.
Wow. I can't believe that it was four years ago that he
was inaugurated for the first time.
I’m about a stone’s throw away from
my 24th birthday and up to this point,
many milestones in my life have been
measured in fours. Four years of college
followed four years of high school.
When I think back to when some-
thing happened, l think, “oh yes, that
was such-and-such year of college.” I
wonder looking forward what my adult
timeline will be measured on.
So far, I’m almost two years out of my
time at The University of Texas and I’m still referring to
“this past spring
semester” which
really happened
two years ago.
Maybe life is
over when you
leave college.
That is why,
friends, it is im-
portant to go to
school and nev-
er leave.
College eve-
nings of “oh I
went to a party
then took a bi-
ology test the -——-
next day” are
replaced with “I came home from work, heated up some
Easy Mac and fell asleep on the couch in my work Clothes
watching ‘Parenthood.’”
I imagine that looking forward that life will be mea-
sured by less regular milestones. Getting my first big-girl
apartment, getting engaged, getting married, getting our
first house, first car, first child, second, third.
Life will no longer be measured by the things l have to do
and begin being measured by the choices I get to make. That’s
okay. I can dig it.
But I remember four years ago like it was yesterday.
Obama’s first election was the first election I was old enough
to vote for the president in. I was a sophomore in college.
My memory of that election is sitting in my little run-down
apartment with my vegan roommate Kelley watching election
coverage on a television we’d fished out of the garbage can on
cable that we weren’t paying for.
Being so early in college we were just beginning to feel
scared about the news of the crippling economy. We were just
beginning to consider what it might be like to get out of college
and not be able to get a job.
The Obama campaign’s message of “we can change
the world” excited us. Republicans and Democrats alike,
whether they liked Obama or not, recognized that at that
time we needed to change or at least do something dif-
ferent.
And those who wore blue for the first black president knew
that he was the man to get it done.
Excitement. That was what it was like four years ago.
I can look at the president’s last fur years and split hairs
about how much of that promise he came through with, but
coming up on'the inauguration Monday I really hope that just
for one moment longer we as a nation can think that it is pos-
sible to change the world.
Because we are still those same people we were four years
ago. We’re a little older and (thankfully) a little more em-
ployed and maybe a little more able to make change happen.
Emily Macrander is the desk editor at The Sun. She can
be reached at viewpoints@baytownsun.com. Attention:Emily
Macrander.
TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is the 18th day of 2013 and the 29th day of win-
ter.
TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1788, English settlers land-
ed in Australia to establish a penal colony.
In 1964, planners unveiled the designs for New York’s
World Trade Center.
In 1993, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was officially ob-
served in all 50 states for the first time.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Baron de Montesquieu
(1689-1755), political philosopher; Daniel Webster
(l782-1852), statesman/orator; A.A. Milne (1882-1956),
children’s author; Cary Grant (1904-1986), actor; Danny
Kaye (1913-1987), entertainer; Kevin Costner (1955- ),
actor; Mark Messier (l 961-), hockey player; Jason Segel
(1980-), actor.
TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1976, wide receiver Lynn
Swann gained I6l yards on four receptions and was
named MVP as Pittsburgh defeated Dallas 21-17 in Super
Bow! X.
TODAY’S FACT: The United Nations designated 11
convict sites in Australia - used as prisons by the British
empire in the 18th and 19th centuries - as World Heritage
Sites in 2010.
TODAY’S QUOTE: “One of the advantages of being
disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting dis-
coveries.” — A.A. Milne
TODAY’S NUMBER: 139,797 - square miles of Pa-
cific Ocean encompassed by the Papahanaumokuakea
Marine National Monument, designated by President
Bush in June 2006.
Dear editor,
I am concerned that Baytown
doesn’t have a city ordinance con-
trolling the hours that construction
crews and equipment can be oper-
ated in and adjacent to residential
neighborhoods.
We have an ordinance against
* loud music but not loud equipment
such as a backhoe, cement trucks,
air compressors, hammering etc.
Several time since construction be-
gan- on the building on West Baker
by the hospital I have been awaken
at 6 a.m. by construction equipment
- even on Saturday.
When I went to talk to the con-
struction superintendent he told me
that he could start work at 3 a.m. if
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
he wanted to do so. I was told by
people at City Hall that I should call
the police - which I did - only to
have them tell me the ordinance was
for loud music only. The city coun-
cil needs to consider changing the
existing ordinance or adding a new
one for construction noise.
James Hays
Baytown
Dear editor,
I lived in Chapparal on E. Baker
front 1973 to 1998 and during that
time the city planned to extend the
Baker Rd. that ends at N. Main, so
this is not something that just hap-
pened.
I think it is good for the city to
expand Baker Rd. east for several
reasons I won’t get into now.
What I do disagree on is renaming
the Chapparal section of E. Baker
something else.
Leave it alone and name the exten-
sion “Baker Parkway” or something
like that- keeps the “Baker” name
without disrupting every homeown-
er in Chapparal.
Also is different enough that
emergency calls could be discerned
between the two streets.
It is not rocket science and would
only change the name bn the blue-
prints at city hall.
Jack Trigg
(Formerly of Baytown)
Mont Belvieu
Saudi prince running the news?
. Ever since A1 Gore sold Cur-
rent TV to A1 Jazeera, the network
founded and funded by the oil-rich
i emirate of Qatar, the former vice
president has drawn continuous fire
j in conservative media. Fox News,
the New York Post and The -Wall
Street Journal, for example, have all
f castigated Gore, a man of the Left
and leading avatar of “global warm-
ing,” for such hypocrisies as timing
the deal to avoid Lefty tax hikes
and bagging $100 million in green-
house-gas money.
These same news outlets share
something else in common: They all
belong to Rupert Murdoch’s News
Corp. That means they also belong
to Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Tala!.
Alwaleed owns the largest chunk
of News Corp, stock outside the
Murdoch family. Shortly after his
purchase of 5.5 percent of News
Corp. voting shares in 2005, Al-
waleed gave a speech that made it
clear just what he had bought. As
noted in The (U.K.) Guardian, Al-
waleed told an audience in Dubai
that it took just one phone call to
Rupert Murdoch - “speaking not as
a shareholder but as a viewer,” Al-
waleed said -- to get the Fox News
crawl reporting “Muslim riots” in
France changed to “civil riots.”
This didn’t make the “Muslim” ri-
ots go away, but Alwaleed managed
to fog our perception of them. With
a phone call, the Saudi prince elim-
inated the peculiarly Islamic char-
acter of the unprecedented French
street violence for both the viewers
at home and, more significantly, for
the journalists behind the scenes.
When little owner doesn’t want
“Muslim” rioting identified and big
owner agrees, it sets a marker for
employees. Alwaleed’s stake, by the
way, is now 7 percent.
We can only speculate on what
other acts of influence this nephew
of the Saudi dictator might have
since imposed on Fox News and
other News Corp. properties. (I have
long argued that News Corp. should
register as a foreign agent, due to the
stock owned by a senior member of
the Saudi ruling dynasty,) Alwaleed
hasn’t shared any other editorial ex-
ploits with the public. But that open-
ing act of eliminating key informa-
tion from News Corp.’s coverage of
Islamic news might well have set a
pattern of omission.
Recently, such a pattern of omis-
sion in News Corp.’s coverage of
the Gore-Al Jazeera deal seems ev-
ident. I say .“seems,” because I can’t
be entirely certain that 1 haven’t
missed something in my research.
DIANA
WEST
But judging from
online searches of
news stories and
audio transcripts,
two salient points
are missing from at
least the main body
of News Corp.’s
coverage.
One is reference
to the noticeable
alignment of Al Ja-
zeera with the Muslim Brotherhood,
the global Islamic movement whose
motto is, “The Koran,is our law; ji-
had is our way; dying in the way of
Allah is our highest hope.” The sec-
ond (with an exception noted below)
is reference to AI Jazeera’s superstar
host and ideological lodestar, Yu-
suf al-Qaradawi,. a leading Muslim
Brotherhood figure. The influence
of al-Qaradawi at the network and
in Qatar — where, according to Free-
dom House’s 2012 press report, it
is against the law for journalists to
criticize the Qatari government, the
ruling family or Islam -- can hardly
be overestimated.
Strange omission? This relation-
ship between the Qatari-controlled
network and the Muslim Broth-
erhood organization has been ob-
served for years. Back in 2007, for
example, Steven Stal insky reported
in The New York Sun that various
Arab commentators referred to AI
Jazeera as “the Muslim Brotherhood
channel” and the like. What’s more,
reference to the relationship appears
at least in passing in coverage of the
Gore deal at mainstream media sites
such as USA Today and the Seattle
Times. More discussion is available
at some conservative outlets, includ-
ing Rush Limbaugh and The Blaze.
(Searches at Breitbart and the Wash-
ington Examiner, like News Corp.
sites, yielded nothing on these same
points. Call it, perhaps, “the Fox ef-
fect.”)
Given the rise of Muslim Broth-
erhood parties in the revolutions of
the so-called Arab Spring - undevi-
atingly cheered on by Al Jazeera -
the network’s Muslim Brotherhood
connection, which extends to Al
Jazeera’s sponsors inside the Qatari
ruling family, is a crucial point to
miss. Especially when it seems to be
missed across the board.
The same goes for failing to men-
tion Al Jazeera’s leading personality,
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, in the Gore deal
coverage. This longtime “spiritual
guide” of the Muslim Brotherhood
hosts one of Al Jazeera’s most popu-
lar shows, “Sharia and Life.” Among
other poisonous pronouncements,
al-Qaradawi has called for Ameri-
cans in Iraq and Israelis everywhere
to be targeted by terrorists (“mar-
tyrs”) who w'ould then find a place
in Islamic paradise. Given Al Gore’s
refusal to sell his network to Glenn
Beck’s The Blaze TV due to political
differences, Muslim Brother Al-Qa-
radawi and his Shariah ideology be-
come highly relevant. Then again,
maybe one man’s news story is just
another man’s clipping on the cut-
ting-room floor.
Meanwhile, the one story 1 found
in News Corp. coverage of the Gore
deal that mentions al-Qaradaw i — a
column by Gordon Crovitz — ne-
glected to note al-Qaradawi’s place
in the Muslim Brotherhood. Partic-
ularly given current events, this is a
little like forgetting to mention that
Hermann Goring was in the Nazi
Party.
Could normal editorial discretion
or plain ignorance be at work here?
I suppose so. Still, there is that tie-in
between News Corp. and the House
of Saud to consider, a partnership I
find more troubling than Gore’s deal
with the Qatari emirate. Not-only
does Alwaleed own a stake in News
Corp., Murdoch owns an even more
substantial stake (18.97 percent) in
Alwaleed’s Arabic media company
Rotana.
Within the Alwaleed-Mur-
doch-Rotana galaxy is a 24-hour-Is-
lamic outlet called Al Risala, which
Alwaleed founded in 2006. The chan-
nel’s director and popular “tele-Isla-
mist” is Tareq Al-Suwaidan, widely
reported to be a leader of the Muslim
Brotherhood in Kuwait. The station’s
“Supreme Advisory Committee” in-
cludes Abdullah Omar Naseef, who,
according to former federal prosecu-
tor Andrew C. McCarthy, is “a ma-
jor Muslim Brotherhood figure” in-
volved in the financing of al-Qaida.
Al Risala, then, would seem to
fit right into the Al Jazeera-Qarada-
wi-Muslim-Brotherhood lineup.
We know Alwaleed has influenced
Fox editorial matters before. Could
that Alwaleed influence - even his
very presence - account for why
News Corp. hasn’t hit harder on the
Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaradawi
angles of the Gore-Jazeera deal?
I don’t know, but I wonder. Don’t you?
Diana West is the author of " The
Death of the Grown-up: How Ameri-
ca s Arrested Development Is Bring-
ing Down Western Civilization, ”
and blogs at dianawest.net. She can
be contacted via dianawest@ver-
izon.net. Follow her on Twitter @
diana_west_.
Thl%aytown Sun
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Friday, January
Baytown C
Ambassadors and board met
a ribbon-cutting ceremony w
5059 Garth Road. Advantage
general employment position
quickly and accurately, no ma
ambassador; Randy Casey, S
ambassador; Lisa Loredo, Yli
lins, area director; Fred Lop'
dor; Donna Woolsey, ExxonMi
Ocean Breeze Occupational:
AUCTION
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
T and T Auction House
is rallying behind the fam-
ily and holding a benefit
auction today at 6 p.m. to
help raise funds for travel
and treatment expenses.
The girls will be special
guests at the auction.
Up for sale will be do-
nated items including cer-
tificates for haircuts, an
oil change, meals at area
restaurants, services at nail
salons, furniture, antiques
and a custom-made fire pit.
“1 want my girls to look
back 20 years from now
and remember what people
did for them.” Kelly said.
“I want them to say, *1 re-
member what people did
for me when 1 was sick,
now I am willing to do the
same.”’
Kelly Gant and her hus-
band Jeff are the parents of
Hannah, 12, Samantha, 4,
and Olivia, 2.
Hannah, the oldest, has
forgone the typical Tiobbies
of a 12-year-old to assist
her mother with caring for
her little sisters.
"She’s given up a lot of
her life dealing with it,”
Gant said. “She’s generally
in really good spirits ex-
cept when people treat her
little sister differently or
n,iake comments. Then she
gets an attitude, but then
again that’s just typical 12
year old.”
, Middle sister Samantha
is a princess - or a lady bug
depending on the day.
Nowtl
Festivals
Activities, L
Any photos
Baytown St
didn’t mak(
be
Log on 1
own prints
moi
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Yanelli, Adam. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 93, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, January 18, 2013, newspaper, January 18, 2013; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1066085/m1/4/: accessed July 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.