Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 146, Ed. 1 Tuesday, May 3, 2011 Page: 4 of 10
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Viewpoints
Page 4 ■ Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Sweetwater Reporter
DEDICATED TO PROUDLYDEUVERIN® LOCAL NEWS SI NTH 1881
T—\ Sweetwatei A
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1EMBER
| * 1 2010
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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.
Kay Bailey
Hinchisaa
CAPIT01 COMMENT
Meaningful spending
reform must be passed
before debt ceiling vote
America is only weeks away from hitting our debt ceil-
ing, and we are faced with striking reminders that we
have a finite amount of time to deal with our looming
fiscal crisis.
Just recently, Standard & Poor's, one of the three
main agencies that rate the ability of nations to repay
their debts, lowered its outlook for
America's long-term AAA credit
rating from "stable" to "negative."
I This will make our cost of borrowing
money even more expensive.
Additionally, the Chinese govern-
ment, America's largest foreign hold-
er of our debt, has even begun to
shift away from purchasing U.S. debt
and instead is joking elsewhere as
the U.S. economy appears to be a
risky investment. This move by for-
eign investors comes as the dc ar is
steadily declining in value. With no
end in sight for soaring budget defi
cits that will swell to unprecedented
territory at more than $1 trillion
a year, the alarm bells are tolling, and they should be
spurring leaders in Washington to tackle our unsustain-
able deficit immediately and with decisive action.
Unfortunately, the Obama Administration and
Democratic leaders in Congress are not heeding these
warning signals and remain convinced that we must
blindly continue raising the debt ceiling. They disregard
the demands by many in Congress, including myself,
that meaningful spending reform measures must be
passed before we consider raising the debt ceiling.
Some who oppose combining spending cuts or fiscal
reform measures with the debt ceiling vote have been
using scare tactics about doomsday scenarios. However,
if we fail to rein in deficit spending in a long-term
and meaningful way* we will be damaging our current
economic recovery and failing future generations of
Americans.
If Congress votes, yet again, to raise the debt limit but
takes no serious steps to rein in spending, America will
continue down a fiscally unsustainable path. Failing to
demonstrate a commitment to live within our means,
when voting to borrow beyond $14 trillion dollars, could
very well send terrible tremors throughout our fragile
economy.
Accepting that Washington has a spending problem,
not a revenue problem is the first step to real fiscal
reform. Congress can do this by cutting current spend-
ing, putting safeguards in place that will restrict future
spending, such as the balanced budget amendment,
and establishing a more effective and transparent fed-
eral budget process. These would be significant steps
towards a path of fiscal responsibility and would ward
off a looming debt crisis.
We then must focus our attention on passing a
responsible budget for the upcoming fiscal year and
work together to reform our broken entitlement pro-
grams that are the single largest contributor to our
long-term debt.
In a recent speech, the president outlined his long-
term deficit reduction plan but failed to recognize the
real cause of our fiscal mess. We cannot tax our way out
of debt, and raising taxes, as the president proposed, will
not curtail deficit spending. Historically, Washington
has proven that the government will spend every dollar
of taxpayer money it takes in.
It is unconscionable to punish American families
and small businesses through higher taxes w hen reck-
less government spending is driving our unsustainable
deficits. Chasing higher spending with ever-higher tax
rates would severely disadvantage the U.S. economy and
is ultimately a recipe for decline, not job creation and
economic growth.
In a matter of weeks, when America once again hits
the debt ceiling, the political courage of Washington to
take action against unsustainable government spending
will be put to the test. We need to see a clear commit-
ment that assures spending cuts before the debt ceil-
ing is raised. We also must prepare reforms in Social
Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for long-term fiscal
responsibility.
The longer the president and many in Congress wait
to face reality, the window of opportunity to ensure a
future marked by economic stability and prosperity will
get smaller. We have an obligation and opportunity right
now to put our country back on a prosperous course.
Kay Bailey Hutchison is the senior U.S. Senator
from Texas.
THE UNKNOWN SOLDIERS
The Royal We
So far in 2011, hype sur-
rounding the April 29 wed
ding of Prince William and
Kate Middleton has prob-
ably attracted more media
attention than the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq
combined. As this British
ceremony is force-fed to
us by a ratings-hungry
American press, perhaps
we can take a moment to
notice a ceremony of far
greater consequence.
On April 11, Gen. David
Petraeus visited Forward
Operating Base Joyce in
eastern Afghanistan. He
was there to than! the bat
tie-hardened soldiers of
Task Force No Slack, who,
along with so many other
brc lers and sisters of the
101st Airborne Division
(Air Assault) have made
an incalculable number
of sacrifices on America's
post-9/11 battlefields.
The Afghanistan War
commander specifically
wanted to shake the hands
of Capt. Edward Bankston
and Sgt. Joshua Bostic.
During several chaotic
firefigl ts, beginning on
March 28, these valiant
warriors helped overcome
hundreds of insurgents, a
blinding snowstorm and
the painful loss of six
fellow soldiers to defeat
Taliban forces in the area
"They're all heroes,"
Tony Berry told The
Unknown Soldiers. "They
all did the same job; some
made it home and some
didn't."
As you may have read
in last week's column,
Berry's stepson, Pfc.
.Jerem Faulkner, was one
of six Screaming Eagles to
not make it home from the
THE GREEN TEAM
Being in the green busi-
ness, something that comes
up frequently in discussions
with clients md potential
clients is fertilization.
As you can imagine, the
general public has a lot of
different opinions
about the need for
fertilization of turf
and other landscape
plants. There are
probably just about
as many opinions
about this among
clients as there are
clients. There's noth-
ing surprising about
that, what is sur-
prising is that there
are a ot of different
thoughts about the
need for, or the way
to go about, fertil-
izing among landscapers
and the other professionals
that actually provide these
services.
First, I would like to
address whether or not fer-
tilization is something that
should be done. All of us
on the Green Team supply
fertilizations of some type
to our clients and I don't
want anybody thinking
that I'm writing this article
as a sales tool.
Under normal conditions
proper applications of the
correct -utilizers and in
the correct amounts helps
your plants levelop more
energy (food) to grow bet-
ter, ol better, maintain
their health, and/or flower
depending on the types of
plants. Usually, the people
that would argue against
fertilization will say that
plants have existed for all
of their evolutionary lives
without it. Then they usu-
ally go on to state that since
mother nature developed
plants without outside
utilization, if it works in
nature, it should work in
our yards. Let's take a look
at that argument, or train
of thought
While it is easy to look at
some large well shaped live
oak that is growing (inten-
ded and unfertilized in the
middle of a field somewhere
and say "see, that plant get;
no outside fertilization and
it looks just fine", what you
aren't looking at when you
see that specimen live oak
is the thousands of other
trees that didn't make it.
Nature is a very Darwinian
place, indeed, natural
selectior and survival of
only the fittest is the heart
eastern Afghanistar mis
sion. In an emotional April
9 ceremony at Faulkner's
Jonesboro, Ga., church, I
had the honor of witness-
ing the soldier's Bronze
Star being presented to
his grieving amily.
When Bankston and
Bostic botl received the
Silver Star from Petraeus,
with Afghanistan's deadly
mountains as a backdrop,
the emotions were over-
whelming.
"I would trade all the
medals to get our lost guys
back," Bankston, who is
from Decatur, Ga., report-
edly said at the ceremony.
An article by Sgt. 1st
Class Mark Burrell, who is
doing incredibly valuable
work by report i ng for the
Army from the front lines,
explains how Bankston
and Bostic earned our
nation's third-highest
military decoration.
Bankston, who was shot
in the leg earlier in his
third and current combat
deployment, rallied fel-
low troops amid booming
machine guns and rocket-
propelle grenade fire,
which tragically killed sev-
eral soldiers among them.
"The way I look at it
is that I was walking in
the footsteps of heroes
throughout the mission, so
I was covered," Bankston
said.
Burrell also reports that
Bostic refused to leave the
mission to seek medical
care after he was Wounded
trying to pull one of his
fellow paratroopers, who
later died, to safety.
"I know the other guys
would do the same for me,"
Bostic, who is from Spring
City, Tenn,, said. It really
wasn't a thought."
Petraeus has traveled all
over Iraq and Afghanistan
to personally attend these
important ceremonies. He
to guest lists and gos-
sip, is being captured by
American journalists. For
many weeks, our tele-
vision, computer and
smartphone screens have
"
I
Gen. David Petraeus awards the Silver Star medal to
Capt. Edward Bankston in eastern Afghanistan on
April 11.
Image courtesy Sgt. 1st Class Mark Burrell
believes that if battlefield
heroism goes unnoticed
within the military and in
the general public then
the contributions of this
"new greatest generation"
— as the gene a ".alls those
to step up since Sept. 11,
2001 — will be forgotten.
"There's such a pace of
operations, there's such a
high tempo, that the last
thing that our great sol
diers, sailors, airmen, and
Marines out there want to
do when they come back
from a mission is write
each other up for awards,"
Petraeus said in October.
"But we need to do that
better, we need to capture
the history of our opera-
tions better."
Every facet of this
British royal wedding,
from gowns and flowers
Bruce
Kreitler
of Darwin's theory. I don't
know about you, but I don't
have the time or inclina-
tion to try and grov several
thousand oak seedlings in
my yard to see which one
is going to be left in a hun-
dred years or so.
I think instead,
I will plant live
oaks where I
want them and
make sure I pro-
vide the materi-
als (mainly water
and nutrients)
that are neces-
sary to short cir-
cuit the process of
natural selection
and save me a lot
of time. At the
same time, I will
control the envi-
ronment around them to
keep out the competitors
(weeds and other plants)
and make sure they don't
bum up in a fire.
What I have come to
realize over time is that
when we place plants in
our yards and landscapes,
there are particular prop
erties that we are after, and
if we give these plants the
materials that they need
(water, light, lack of light,
nutrients, or etc.) and can
utilize, then the return on
that investment is more of
what we want. If we are
gain iealing with the
live oak and we planted it
to be a legacy size shade
tree, then encouraging
it to grow is going to get
more shade sooner than if
we merely placed it ir the
yard, est a ished it and left
t to its own devices. If we
are talking about annual
color flowers, then the sole
return we are looking for
from them is color, and we
can tailor the fertilizer that
we put on them to create
that effect but without hav-
ing to wony about the long
term health of the plant.
The difference between
the annual color and the
longer lived plants like
the live oak I ceep talking
about (I like live oaks) is
that with the annual color,
the only return is the color.
Plant salth is not a fac-
tor, after all, annual color
plants are ripped out of the
ground and discarded just
a few short months after
planting. On he other
hand, we are planning to
keep perennial plants, par
ticularly very long lived
perennials like live oaks
and other trees around fo
many years, so the overall
health of those plants is
an important factor when
selecting and applying fer-
tilizers.
Probably what causes the
most vari ance between pro-
fessionals and what they
like to apply for fertilizers
in landscapes is the fact
that most of the time, fer-
tilization is done all at once
in one application While
this one size fits all appli-
cation may or may not be
repeated through the year,
generally at each applica-
tion one fertilizer mix is
applied to the whole prop-
erty overall. Whatever for-
mulation is used, it is going
to utilized by every plant
in the landscape that can
manage to capture some of
it. This means that if you
have succulents, trees, turf,
annual color, and peren-
nials, all of the different
needs of those plants must
somehow be accounted for
in one fertilizer.
As you can probably fig-
ure out for yourself, one
particular mix is not going
to be able to give differ-
ent varieties of plants that
are growing in different
settings (beds, lawn, and
ground cover areas) the
perfect mix of nutrients
tailored to each individu-
al plant. Instead, since it
isn really practical to run
around and individually
fertilize each plant, what
your applicator has to try
and do is achieve the best
possible balance between
what all of your different
plants need, and at the
same time, not cause harm
to any part of the land-
scape. Since most people
have different views of what
is most important, and not
every piece of property is
the same, you can imagine
how hard it is to come up
with the best type of fertil-
izer to use.
Since as a tree person,
I do deal with the longer
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been filled with informa-
tion that has absolutely
10 relevance to our daily
lives, as ceremonies hon-
oring men and women
who protect us are almost
completely ignored.
We don't need to watch
a royal wedding in London
to find heroes. Instead, we
can do a better job notic-
ing events like the one our
media failed to capture
in eastern Afghanistan,
and line the streets of
American cities when our
heroes return home.
To find out more about
Tom Sileo, or to read fea-
tures by other Creators
Syndicate writers and
cartoonists, visit the
Creators Syndicate web-
site at www creators,
com.
Fertilization
lived plants in the land-
scape, I think the most
important consideration
when applying fertilizers
is the long term health of
the plants. However; not
everybody shares my view,
and some people are less
concerned with something
ten or twenty years down
the road. Whatever you
personally think should be
the most important effect
from fertilizer applications,
the fertilizers that you use,
or have applied for you,
should take that effect in
to account and supply it
for you.
Tne next KWKC Green
Team workshop titled
Water Features will be
held at 2 P.M. Saturday,
May 21st at Willow Creek
Gardens, 1820 South
Treadaway, in Abilene.
If you have any land-
scaping, landscape main-
tenance, or tree questions
you would like answered in
this column, submit them
care of editor@sweetwa-
terreporter.com or info@
BrokenWillow.com.
The KWKC Green Team
is made up of Bruce Kreitler
(Broken Willow Tree
Service 325 675 6794 or
info@BrokenWillow.com)
Adam Andrews (Willow
Ci'eek Gardens 325 676
3616) and Stephen Myers
(SteeleMyers Landscaping
325 673 7478). Catch them
on KWKC 1340 Saturdays
at noon.
Correction Policy
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
the newspaper's editor at
236-6677.
Advertising:
Publisher reserves the right
to reject, edit or cancel any
advertising at any time with-
out liability. Publisher's liabil-
ity for error is limited to the
amount paid for advertising.
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Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 146, Ed. 1 Tuesday, May 3, 2011, newspaper, May 3, 2011; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth229462/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.