The Colony Courier-Leader (The Colony, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 5, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 15, 2001 Page: 6 of 43
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6A
The Colony Courier-Leader
Thursday, March 15, 2001 — www.colonyleader.com
At
OPINIONS
Internet
Poll
RANDOM
Thoughts
This week’s question:
Last week’s $85 million
prize marked a Lotto Texas
jackpot record. How much, if
any, money do you spend on
Texas Lottery (Lotto, Scratch
Offs, etc.) games?
-None
- Less than $10 a year
- Less than $5 a week
- $5 - $10 a week
- $10- $25 a week
- More than $25 a week
• • •
Last week’s results:
March 5 marked the begin-
ning of the annual Texas
Public Schools Week. With
that in mind, what is the
biggest problem facing
school districts?
Overcrowding of facilities —
10%
Teacher pay/insurance —
30%
Method of taxation (Robin
Hood) — 10%
Student discipline — 25%
Campus security — 5%
Curriculum control —10%
School calendar- 0%
Other — 10%
To take part in the DFW Community
Newspapers poll, log on to
www.colonyleader.com.
ROSES ‘N'
RASPBERRIES
POLICY
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Opinion
Policy
The Colony Courier-Leader
encourages you to voice your
opinion on matters of interest
to you and other readers
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Editor and In My Opinions
columns. All viewpoints are
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Letters and opinion essays
should be sent to Opinions
Editor, The Colony Courier-
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128, The Colony, Texas,
75056. Send e-mail to
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THINK OF IT.
NO ESTATE TAX
THE RICH
GET RICHER -
THE POOR
GET PooRER
WHICH MAKES
THE RICH
VERY, VERY
FICH
THEN
THE RICH EVENTUALLY
WINP UP WITH THE
WHOLE ENCHILADA
How about
prevention
as a concept?
“It was the best of times, it was
the worst of times, it was an age of
wisdom, it was an age offoolish-
ness...”— Charles Dickens
WHAT HAPPENS
TO THE VERY,
VERY PooR?
X REAP ABOUT THAT
SOMEWHERE-
I THINK THEY GET
TO EATCARE
tule
©2001 FOR WoRI SIAR-TELEGRAM—
Crawling and standing
and walking
It’s hard to believe my baby girl,
Rebekah, will soon celebrate her first
birthday. When I look at her now, I can
hardly remember that she was once a
tiny, helpless newborn who didn't do
anything more than eat, sleep and cry.
Especially now that she’s mobile.
Either by scooting, rolling or crawling a
Adventures
In Life
Corina Miller
on
W.
in the world around her. But there are
some things I wish I could change.
For example, baby Rebekah would
much rather roll around on the carpet
than sit in her mom’s lap for a few pre-
cious minutes of cuddle time. In fact,
she’d also prefer to pull open the
kitchen cabinets and empty them of
their contents rather than sleep. After
all, why sleep when you can dump all
step or two, Rebekah manages to get . ,
around what she pops into her mouth when I
Albeit a welcome change, Rebekah’s turn my back for even a minute that the plastic lids out of their cookie tin
mobility has presented quite a chal- has me in a gander — dog food, dirt then place them back in, over and over
lenge. It used to be that I could lay her from a plant, a stale Cheerio or even a again?
down on the floor with her cradle gym shriveled, dried up pea that somehow Rebekah’s also become a living
and, while she was playing contentedly found its way to an unbeknownst haven source of terror for the dogs. Once,
on the floor, I could clean the kitchen, under the table. . they were able to inch away from her
fold the laundry or dust the living And it doesnt stop at small items, outreached hands, saving their ears,
room, all the while knowing she was During her explorations, Rebekah tails and hair from enthusiastic tugs,
safe. - takes the time to suck on picture But now that Rebekah can chase them
But now, putting Rebekah down on frames, lick pottery or gnaw on coffee around the room, the dogs tend to
the floor means setting her free to table books. sleep with one eye open all the time,
explore her surroundings. And she’s I guess Rebekah’s willingness to But I suppose I better get used to all
not shy about checking things out. So sample everything is the reason I’ve of this, because just the other day, I
that means that every few minutes, I come up with a new decor that empha- noticed Rebekah has learned to get up
need to stop and check on her where- sizes bare table tops. Instead of gracing on her knees from a sitting position,
abouts and activities, even if I’m just on end tables or coffee tables, pottery, And we all know what comes next,
the other side of the kitchen counter. plants and picture frames now sit on a Soon she’ll learn to stand. Then she’ll
I wouldn’t feel so compelled to check high shelf, on top of the TV or on the learn to walk. Then she’ll learn to run.
on Rebekah if she weren’t into snack- mantle. And I gotta tell you, I’m run- I guess I better get some good,
ing while she explores. ning out of space to put all these things, comfy tennis shoes now. Maybe I can
Now don’t get me wrong. It’s not the But again, don’t get me wrong. even find some that will match the new
idea of snacking that concerns me. It’s I’m glad to see my baby is interested shelves I’ll soon need.
Ask The AG
Efforts to protect Spanish-
speaking Texans continue
Instead of my usual question-and- der. Built by unscrupulous develop- for victims of violent crimes, and
answer column, I would like to pre- ers, colonias often lack water, waste- other important topics. In addition,
sent information on efforts my office water, garbage service, and electrici-
is making to protect our Spanish- ty. This has led to high occurrences
speaking residents.
In October 1999,
our applications for services and cor-
respondence are readily available in
of diseases like cholera and tubercu- Spanish. Of course, we have a num-
my Consumer
losis among the residents. To add her of bilingual staff members who
insult to injury, faulty deeds, predato- are ready to assist.
ry lending, and other scams are all Our Web page further illustrates
too familiar to Colonia residents, our work for Spanish-speakers. It is
most of whom are Spanish speaking, arguably the largest Internet source
The population of colonias is esti- for information in Spanish produced
mated at more than 400,000. In by a government agency, not just in
recent years, attention by public offi- Texas> but in the United States. The
cials has stemmed the growth of Spanish version of our Web site con-
these communities. My office has tains almost 400 pages of content and
ing consumers Cornyn sued many Colonia developers: But can be accessed bY private citizens,
The company - there prevent oth^ ^tuadons like service providers, other government
specifically targeted Hispanic clients and to ton other soars agencies, public service groups, and
throughout Texas and sold thou- colonias, and .to stop other scams members of the Spanish-language
inrougnout lexas ana 5010 inou aimed at Spanish-speakers, we must It offers downloadable ver
sands of units in only a year and a cross the language bartier press, it otters downloadable ver-
half of operation. My office took legal of the Six million Hispanic Texans sions of all of our Spanish publica-
action when it discovered that the threehaod communicate primarily tions, applications, and information
companies did not honor warranties, ee milion s municat Prin any regarding other responsibilities of
. 11 j or exclusively in Spanish: this total
failed to tell consumers that they had : e 1t our office.
three days to cancel their contracts, 1 t For further information on our
and installed units using unlicensed than a .... Texans have virtuallv Spanish outreach efforts, contact
workers, ths later in Anril 200 we no contact with English speaking Paco Felici, director of Spanish
Six months later, in April 2000, we society Tinguistie isolation makes Communications at 512-463-4501 or
sued a fraudulent “immigration spe- society. Linguistic isolation makes |@ state tx us T0 obtain
===== 51 =-== -
2a guage communications initiatives in Information and Assistance Division
mented imm gnts Th: company government today, at 800-252-8011. To access the
charged more than 8600 ner letter ' Since 1999, we have produced an Spanish section of our Web site, go to
chrmese are among the more recent array of products to facilitate com- www.oag.state.tx.us and click on the
examples of widespread illegal activi- munication between this office and Espauoi button,
ty against Spanish-speaking Texans. Spanish-speakers. We offer more.
More dramatic examples, however, than 40 publications and brochures John Cornyn is the attorney gener-
are seen in communities ’known as in Spanish about issues such as con- al for the state of Texas. Questions or
colonias along the Texas-Mexico bor- sumer protection, child abuse, rights comments can be directed to web-
of the elderly, child support, services master@oag.state.tx.us.
Protection Division
filed suit against
several companies
that had violated
state laws in a
scheme to sell cost-
ly residential air
conditioning units
to Spanish-speak-
Everyone
who reads the
lines penned
by Charles
Dickens in his
tale of the
French
Revolution is
certain he is
talking as if
looking over
our collective
shoulder.
JEFF
Ball
We felt that way when we were
in high school so many decades
ago the Beatles were still togeth-
er and had yet to release most of
their albums. We felt that way this
week when the news of another.
high school shooting first drib-
bled in and then drenched us like
being caught in a ice-cold rain.
First there was Columbine in
Colorado and this week Santee,
Calif. is added to our lexicon.
The opening sentence to the
Dicken’s classic actually runs on
about the length of a paragraph.
It’s likely too long for the MTV,
microwave age. Come to think of
it may have been too long back
when it was assigned reading our
junior year of high school.
It was in the spring then, too,
when we toted that green-cov-
ered book. There were pressures
of school and the allure of the out-
doors and the summer ahead.
There was wildness and some of
us — way back then — began tak-
ing guns to school.
Maybe that is the reason the
Tale of Two Cities came back to
me. In an attempt to elude detec-
tion the pages were carved out of
our yet-to-be-completely-read
Dickens book (which was paper-
back and we had to buy ourselves
— it wasn’t school property) and
made room for a squirt gun.
It was a small job, called a Pee-
Wee. Yup, that was the brand
name for the little hand-sized
water pistol. Water, and only
water, was used for ammunition
and when you were caught there
loomed detention and possibly a
call to the parents.
That was then and we are in
the here and now, no time-travel
permitted.
Looking at those high schools.
Santana and Columbine, should
be a little disquieting. They were
not prototype inner-city schools,
the kind of “blackboard jungle”
we picture in parts of large and
depressed urban areas like
Detroit, Chicago and New York.
Nope, these schools looked like
ours — about 5A in student
enrollment and located in solid,
middle to upper-middle class
areas away from the bruising nas-
tiness of the big city.
From what we have learned
both shootings involved boys
who felt a little alienated. (Well,
given what they did, saying “a lit-
tle alienated” is like calling the
Pacific a pond.)
So we were bothered when
some of our country leaders
spoke out in the wake of the news
saying harsher punishment
would serve as a deterrent We
disagree.
Wait. We did not say there
should not be punishment we
just said we are not certain
“harsher punishment” would be a
deterrent. Sometimes teen-agers
have trouble seeing to the end of
the day much less life-altering
consequences for actions.
How about prevention as a con-
cept?
Maybe there needs to, be an
ongoing campaign of inclusion in
our schools. There is a natural
tendency for youth to form
groups and associations they feel
comfortable with. But maybe
there is a way to foster accep-
tance and understanding
between these various groups.
This has been a subject of dis-
cussion across the country. If you
have some thoughts you would
like to share, especially about pre-
vention versus punishment, feel,
free to post it at the end of this
piece if you are reading the elec-
tronic version. If you are reading
this in print you are invited to visit
www.mckinneymessenger, find
this column and post your
thoughts.
In the meantime, maybe it’s
time to pick up another copy of
Tale of Two Cities — this time
leaving the pages intact and actu-
ally finishing the assignment
Jeff Ball is news editor with DFW
Community Newspapers. He can be
reached by e-mail at BallJ@dfwcn.com.
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Reeves, Tim. The Colony Courier-Leader (The Colony, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 5, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 15, 2001, newspaper, March 15, 2001; The Colony, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1621662/m1/6/: accessed July 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting The Colony Public Library.