Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 060, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 23, 2011 Page: 4 of 16
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Viewpoints
Page A4 ■ Sunday, January 23, 2011
Sweetwater Reporter
I*MftHSDTO PROQDLY EELIVEBING LOCAL NEWS SIlfOE 1881
T—\ Sweetwatei ,
Reporter
P.O. Box 750/112 W. Third
Sweetwater, Texas 79556
325/236-6677
Fax: 325/235-4967
Website:
www.sweetwaterreporter.com
E-mail addresses
publisher@sweetwaterreporter.com
business@sweetwaterreporter.com
advertising@sweetwaterreporter.com
editor@sweetwaterreporter.com
composing@sweetwaterreporter.com
TU"
MEMBER
2010
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
Sharon E.friedlander
publisher/ad director
Danica Hickson
business mgr./
circulation mgr.
Tatlana Rodriguez
managing editor
Pablo Rodriguez
composing mgr.
Rleu Reyes
production mgr.
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.
letter to the Editor
SISD Community,
I would like to thank the Sweetwater Reporter for the
recent article regarding the new turf installation that
will take place this Spring in Mustang Bowl.
The tremendous gift from Mr. Durham is the second
time that he has stepped up and made a huge donation
to SISD. Both of these were from a man who asked for
nothing in return, in fact it was the SISD School Board
who suggested that the nearly $1,000,000 in selfless
donations made by this gentleman be acknowledged in
a special way.
Mustang Bowl is a special place, it always wil be
the Home of the Mustangs, it always will be* the place
of many special Mustang seasons, it will always be
Mustang Bowl. Many, many Mustang teams and their
classmates have hf wonderful memories, victories,.
and graduation ceremonies in this special place. I am
very proud of le improvements that have been able
to keep the facility in great shape and a destination for
continued Sammy Baugh Classics, playoff games, and
future special events.
The new turf and the honoring of Larry Durham's
donation is changing nothing. Mustang Bowl is and will
always be "The Mustang Bowl," a new playing surface
with a generous donor's name on it only adds to the
great facility. It will allow a safer environment for the
athletes using it, continued use by many other SISD
school and community groups, more outside teams
and their fans coming into and spending money with
Sweetwater retailers, and most of all, continue to make
Mustang Bowl the talk of West Texas like it has been
for 70 + years.
Terry Pitt ma 11
Superintendent
Sweetwater ISD
GUEST COLUMN
Follow the yellow
brick road
BEVERLY HILLS—God bless America, and how's
everybody?
Dick Cheney told the Today Show Monday he needs
heart transplant surgery. This is a Hollywood -emake.
Dick Cheney wants a heart, the Tucson sheriff needs a
brain, Obama is asking for courage and the president of
China is taking a balloon ride back home
The Ronal Reagan Library is offering a book of
Ronald Reagan's ivorite food and drink recipes to
honor his hundredth birthday. His holiday eggnog
recipe is two parts bourbon and two parts eggnog. The
Gipi r always did believe in peace through strength.
The JFK Library celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of
Jack Kennedy's inauguration in Boston
Friday. There's a dispute over which
actor played JFK best. Historians main
tain that Martin Sheen best captured
* «*> b JFK's qualities but the eyewitnesses say
* v Charlie Sheen did.
President Obama will deliver his State
,, of the Union address before a joint
4. session of Congress Tuesday. They're
I > ■ taking precautions, uring the speech
■—China > president will be outside
■ i|n the House Chamber in case of catastro-
II phe to assure a continuity of deficit.
China's President Hu Jintao toasted
America at the White House state din-
ner in his honoi on Wednesday. He
looked a bit bewildered. How good a
time can you really be having if somebody is throwing a
lavish party in your honor with money you loaned him?
Hu Jintao flew to Chicago for a lunch With hundreds
of businessmen and bankers on Friday. In the last few
years China has bought up nine hundred billion dollars
n U.S. Treasury bills. Hi > holding so much U.S. debt
even the Mexicans admit that it's his country.
Hu Jintao flew home to China Saturday after four days
in the United States. It's such a relief \\ en the creditor
leaves. America now has a month to make the rent or
we'll be forced to move back in with Queen Elizabeth
and Prince Philip and live in the basement.
Congressman Steve Cohei spoke in the House
Wednesday and likened Republican arguments against
the health care law to Nazi propaganda. Progressives
have never sounded so strident. 'NN now routinely
refers to Sarah Palin as head of the Palin crime family.
The Education Department released a study
Wednesday showing half of all college students today
learn nothing their first two years in college. Tha 5
disgraceful. Not one Baby Boomer reached his junior
year at Oklahoma without knowing where the cops are
always parked.
Argus Hamilton is the host comedian at The Comedy
Store in Hollywood and speaks to groups and orga-
nizations around the country. E-mail him at Argas@
ArgusHamilton.com.
Hamilton
GUEST C01IIMN
It has not been many
years ago that persons
thought of "dog shows" as
some rare, exotic pastime
indulged in by the wealthy
folk back east or on the west
coast. When I would men-
tion spending my weekends
in Dallas, Amarillo or San
Antonio showing my
pets, few folk had
any comprehension
of what I was doing.
Times have cer-
tainly changed, to
the point that most
people know when
Westminster will be
televised (February
12 and 13 this year),
and many plan to sit
at home and watch
it. The (relatively)
new Eukanuba Cup
and national cham-
pionship have been tele-
vised the last several years,
gaining in popularity each
time.
The American Kennel
Club licenses area clubs to
hold an assortment of activ-
ities, including dog shows,
obedience trials, rally tri-
als, agility trials, hunting
tests, earthdog tests, herd-
ing trials, tracking tests
and lure coursing. Some of
these activities require spe-
cial grounds, lots of space,
and devotees to that par-
ticular aspect of the sport
before they take place in an
area. Dog shows, however,
basically require a kennel
club, an arena, and a dedi-
cated corps of people to
do the work. The Abilene
Kennel Club has been put-
ting on annual dog shows
and obedience trials for
over 40 years. The 2007
show wil take place in the
Taylor County Coliseum on
January 27 and 28. As
usual, there is no admis-
sion charge.
The Abilene shows start-
ed out only having breed
competition, the same type
of show that is seen on tele-
vision. About fifteen years
ago, they added obedience
to the mix. This is a compe-
tition designed to empha-
size the teamwork between
handler and dog as they
perform a series of progres-
sively more difficult tasks.
Then, Rally Obedience was
been added. Considered to
be the most exciting addi-
tion to the AKC lineup since
agility, Rally combines the
tasks of obedience with the
speed of agility. The judge
creates a course, which is
"laid out" in the ring by
placing directional signs in
strategic points. The han-
dlers are allowed to walk
the course without their
dogs, then will enter the
Dog Show!
lisa
Peterson
ring individually with their
animal. Judging is based
on precise execution of the
directions and speed. Part
of the allure for observers
is that, unlike with regular
obedience, the directions
are visible to the specta-
tor, and easily understood.
Obedience and
rally will be held in
the display build-
ing behind the coli-
seum.
Breed competi-
tion and the ven-
dors will be in the
main coliseum.
Dogs begin by
competing within
their own breed;
the top male and
female who are
not champions
will receive points
towards their champion-
ship, and then compete
against the champions for
Best of Breed. Shortly after
1 PM, the Best of Breed
winners will compete in
their appropriate groups.
Sporting dogs (retriev-
ers, pointers, setters and
spaniels) will compete
against each other, as will
the hounds (from stately
Afghans to Bassets), work-
ing dogs (guard dogs, sled
dogs, and police dogs), ter-
riers (Scotties, Westies and
a host of others), toy dogs
(Pomeranians, Maltese, and
other little companions),
herding dogs (German
Shepherds, Old English
and the little Corgis) and
the "Non Sporting" group, a
hodge podge of dogs whose
traditional use does not fit
into the other groupings.
This is the portion of the
show often seen on televi-
sion. Once a winner has
been selected from each
group, the seven winners
will compete for Best in
Show. Sunday morning, the
whole routine begins again.
For the convenience of the
spectators, an announcer
will be speaking during the
group judging, giving the
name, traditional purpose,
and some fun facts about
the different breeds.
Most of the dogs being
shown require at least a
little grooming before
heading for the ring -
even the Dobermans and
Rottweilers. This will be
taking place around the
concourse as well as in the
areas under the stands of
the main coliseum. If the
weather is nice, some will
be happening outdoors. If
you are interested in meet-
ing the dogs, or their own-
ers, this is the ideal time to
do so. Remember, please,
that not all dogs (or all han-
dlers!) are friendly! Always
ask before touching a dog.
With many of the "coated"
breeds, the handler will
work for many hours to pre-
pare it for the ring. The oil
in your hand, even though
you recently washed it, can
wreak havoc on hours of
work. In most cases, if the
handler is not willing for
you to pet the dog now,
he or she will invite you
to "make friends" after the
dog has shown.
In televised dog shows,
it is not uncommon to see
one person showing many
dogs. These are handlers
who travel the country
with the dogs they show for
other people. While there
will be some of them in
Abilene, most of the people
you see are the ones who
live with, care for, and are
attached to the dog that is
with them. In some cases,
the person with the dog
at the show also had its
mother, grandmother, and
can recite a complicated
family tree! If you are seri-
ously considering investing
in a pure bred dog, these
are the people with whom
you should visit. They
can tell you more about
the breeds that interest
you than several volumes
of written material - and
are normally very eager to
share! Remember, though,
that these are people who
take dogs very seriously.
Many are actively involved
in rescuing animals of
their breed from shelters
and pounds, helping them
to find a "forever home".
As a result, they are quite
likely to require that any
puppy obtained from them
be spayed or neutered, not
bred.
There are people - from
every corner of the globe
- who are addicted to dog
shows. There are even
more who, while they are
not particularly interested
in becoming involved in
the sport, enjoy watching
it. Rarely is the opportuni-
ty presented to sit ringside
and absorb such an expe-
rience, especially close to
home. Take the time next
weekend to spend a day in
Abilene at the dog show; it
will be an experience not
soon forgotten!
Lisa Peterson is the
County Attorney for
Nolan County. Comments
about this column may be
e-mailed to editor@sweet-
waterreporter.com.
mr T*
htw FC#
STATt WN6R?
GUEST COLUMN
One of the most widely
circulated articles in The
New York Times of late
asks: "Is Law School a
Losing Game?" For days, it
was the most e-mailed story
in the paper, and it is still
among the Top 10.
The gist is simple enough:
It costs well over $40,000 a
year just to attend
classes at virtu-
ally any private law
school. Even pub-
licly supported law
schools have raised
their tuitions dra-
matically in recent
years, on the the-
ory that taxpayers
shouldn't have to
subsidize the edu-
cation of students
who start earning
$160,000 a year as
soon as they gradu-
ate.
But there's the rub. Not
everyone gets one of those
jobs. In recent years, an
increasing number of law
students have not gotten
jobs like those, because
most large firms (who are
the ones paying $160,000
to start) have cut back sig-
nificantly on new hiring.
The idea that you can just
walk out of law school and
into a six-figure job is, for
many students at most
schools, a painful fantasy.
There's an enormous
amount of Wall Street-style
accounting that goes into
the reports on employment
that law schools submit to
the increasingly power-
ful organizations that rank
The law school game
Susan
Estrich
them. So when you look
at the numbers, you might
think that almost everyone
who goes to a half-decent
law school is finding a great
job after graduation. Spend
any time with law students,
and you come to understand
that a lot of those jobs are
not of the $160,000 variety,
even if the schools
are claiming that as
the average income
of their employed
graduates.
My first job out
of law school paid
$13,909. Granted,
it was a long time
ago. But even then,
it was substantially
less than what my
classmates were
making in private
practice and barely
enough to cover my
rent, food, gas and,
of course, those student
loans.
But so what? I didn't go to
law school to make money.
If that were my goal, I
would've gone to business
school, got a job in invest-
ment banking and yearned
for one of those eight-figure
Goldman partnerships.
I went to law school
because I believed in the
power of law to change
people's lives for the better.
And I have never been hap-
pier, professionally speak-
ing, than when I was mak-
ing almost no money but
believed that what I was
doing mattered.
If the primary reason
you're applying to law
school is because you want
one of those $160,000 jobs,
(SET ITAL) don't (END
ITAL). Forget it. Like medi-
cine, law used to be a sure-
shot to making a very, very
good income. Not anymore.
The students who apply to
med school know that there
is no pot of gold waiting.
There are many better and
easier ways to make money.
Kids go to medical school
today because they want
to be doctors, not because
they want to be rich. The
same rule should apply to
law school.
Law school almost cer-
tainly is a losing game if
what you care most about is
money. In my book, that's
probably a good thing.
Many of my former stu-
dents started out in those
high-paying jobs and now
feel trapped and frustrated.
Many who didn't have that
option have, through neces-
sity, found careers they
enjoy much more.
At a certain point in life,
the escalators just stop run-
ning. When they do, you
have to fend for yourself
— decide what you care
about, what matters to you,
what tradeoffs you are and
are not willing to make.
That's what being an adult
is about. There are no guar-
antees. We all learn that
sooner or later. And learn-
ing it in law school does not
strike me as a losing game
at all.
To find out more about
Susan Estrich and read
features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and car-
toonists, visit the Creators
Syndicate website at www.
creators.com.
The swi.r.rwMt.R reporter
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Editorial:
As a matter of policy, the
Sweetwater Reporter will
publish corrections of errors
in fact that have been print-
ed in the newspaper.
The corrections will be
made as soon as possible
after the error has been
brought to the attention of
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Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 060, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 23, 2011, newspaper, January 23, 2011; Sweetwater, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth229376/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sweetwater/Nolan County City-County Library.