The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 107, No. 36, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 4, 1997 Page: 2 of 24
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Hemphill County Library.
- Highlighting
- Highlighting On/Off
- Color:
- Adjust Image
- Rotate Left
- Rotate Right
- Brightness, Contrast, etc. (Experimental)
- Cropping Tool
- Download Sizes
- Preview all sizes/dimensions or...
- Download Thumbnail
- Download Small
- Download Medium
- Download Large
- High Resolution Files
- IIIF Image JSON
- IIIF Image URL
- Accessibility
- View Extracted Text
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
7<fe (^«a<&a«RECORD
THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 1997
Conspicuous consumption
mu.
By Bob Barton in the Free Press
EFORE CONGRESS JUMPS head over heels
into all of the privatization schemes that are
being proposed for governmental services ranging
from the administration of welfare to the operation
of prisons, they had better get the top rung of the
postal service straightened out.
Decades ago postal workers got their jobs based
on political pull. Even back when Texas and the
Southern States were overwhelmingly Democratic,
there were always a few Republicans in every town
of any size.
If a Republican won the presidency, then the next
postmaster would be selected from the small cadre
of party stalwarts who had waited until the presi-
dency changed hands.
They knew they would have a job until the Demo-
crats won the top post back, then there would be a
turnover and the plum (and a steady job with guar-
anteed income was a plum in those days) would be
plopped into the hands of a Democratic loyalist.
(Zattcidcatt,
RECORD
USPS 087-960
P.O. Box 898, Canadian (Hemphill) Texas 79014
Fax #: (806)323-5738
BEN EZZELL Editor & Publisher 1948-1993
NANCY EZZELL Editor & Publisher
LAURIE EZZELL BROWN
Co-Editor & Photographer
e-mail address: lrbrown@well.com
LESLIE FRY Advertising Manager
STAFF:
Kim McKinney, Robin Mitchell, Mary Smithee
Gabriel Brown, Greta Bass
Periodicals postage paid at the Post Office in
Canadian, Texas. Published each Thursday after-
noon in Canadian by Nancy M. Ezzell.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
The Canadian Record, Box 898, Canadian, TX 79014
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
$20/Year in Hemphill County
$2S/Year in adjoining counties
$30/Year elsewhere
There were abuses of that system and frequently
unqualified people got the top job based on political
pull and not on ability. Reforms came in about 40
years ago and now the postal jobs are chosen on a
criteria based on merit, although there may be devia-
tions in some cases.
At the national level the post office’s operational
decisions are made by a board composed of business
executives, with civil service rules applying when it
comes to midlevel managerial decisions.
Supposedly this new operational procedure had
created a leaner, more businesslike atmosphere and
therefore eliminated the excesses and liabilities of
the old patronage system which was in effect for most
of the country’s history.
At the local level the new system works fine. Our
Buda post office, where this newspaper conducts
business on a daily basis, is customer friendly, effi-
cient and prompt in handling its duties.
However, we can’t offer that sort of praise at the
higher echelons. Stupid decisions are made that have
resulted in the post office getting into the merchan-
dising business when it should put its entire effort to
delivering the mail. In addition, big junk mail dis-
tributors have secured huge financial advantages
over small business users of the postal system.
There has been a big push at the national postal
level for first class stamp prices to be raised another
cent, along with large raises for those of us who utilize
second class mail to deliver our newspapers and
magazines.
To add insult to injury a story breaking this week
in The Washington Post exposes the fact that a top
Chicago postal official spent close to $200,000 redes-
igning her office and installing a private bathroom,
despite the fact that the building was being vacated
within a year.
In Atlanta, Georgia, $194,250 was spent to relo-
cate and renovate the office of that city’s new post-
master, with an additional $45,000 spent on the
swearing-in ceremony and $21,348 for a biographical
video of the ceremony.
What’s worse, the Postal Service’s chief operating
officer defended the ceremony!
Before we rush off and switch to privatization of
our welfare system the way Gov. George Bush is
pushing for, we had better make sure that checks and
balances are in place to regulate and control the
excessive expenditures that have come to light under
our supposed improved ways of operating our U.S.
Postal System.
THE ONLY MISTAKE Buster Brooks made was dying too soon.
However harsh that may seem for someone who lived to the ripe old age
of ninety-one, it is sadly true. If only Buster Brooks had held on ten
more days, he might have gotten what was his rightful due.
Crippled by diabetes and suffering from kidney failure, Buster died
this summer on June 15th. His daughter, Vona Benge, knows it wasn’t
those ailments that led finally to his death. It was the loss of Winnie, his
wife of seventy-two years, only two weeks earlier.
“A lot of people said he lost his will to live,” Vona said, “but I think
he’d already stretched it out, and was hanging on just to take care of
her.”
Taking care of Winnie. Buster had worked the better pail of his
ninety-one years to take care of Winnie and the eight children that they
raised together.
He worked as a ranch hand, drove truck and delivered freight, and
later, was an employee of the gas company. Even after his children were
all raised and he retired, Buster returned to ranching anil continued to
work until well past his 80th birthday. Work, his daughter said, is how
he defined himself.
Winnie Brooks worked, too, as anyone who has raised eight children
would know. When the kids left the nest, Winnie began collecting a
paycheck from the Canadian Laundry, where she was employed for a
number of years.
During their combined lifetimes, Winnie and Buster Brooks made a
substantial contribution to this country’s social security insurance fund.
Having lived through the dismal uncertainty of the Depression, that
little bit of security must have looked pretty good to them, too.
If only Buster Brooks hadn’t passed away ten days shy of his
appointment with the Social Security office, he might even have col-
lected the $255 lump sum death payment to which he was entitled when
Winnie died.
Three days after her death, Vona made a series of calls on her
father’s behalf to Social Security offices in Pampa and Dallas. She
inquired repeatedly about the lump sum death benefit—a one-time
payment of $255 that is made to a fully-insured worker’s survivors.
Eight different people, she said, gave her eight different answers.
Vona persisted. On June 5th, a letter announced Buster’s appoint-
ment with Social Security officials in Pampa twenty days later. At that
time, he was told, he could apply for the lump sum death payment for
which he was certainly eligible.
On June 16th—the day after her father passed away—Vona called
to notify the Social Security office, and to inquire about the fate of his
benefits. First, she was told to wait until a death certificate had been
issued. In several subsequent calls, she was instructed to wait until her
father was “in the computer,” and told, “We’ll call back.”
They never did.
Thoroughly outraged by the bureaucratic bog in which she found
herself mired, Vona was finally told that because her father was no
longer able to claim the death benefit Social Security was under no
obligation to pay it.
The family’s debts are all paid, Vona says, admitting that it’s not the
money so much as it is the principle involved. If her father had known
that the government would not live up to its promise, she insists, “he
would have hung on just to make sure that they did.”
Buster Brooks had “a real strong sense of right and wrong,” Vona
says. That was the way he lived his life. He never lost his dignity or
pride. More than anything, he could be described as a man of his word.”
For half a century, Buster Brooks believed in and invested in a
government that kept its word, that lived up to its pledge “to discharge
faithfully our role as guardians of the public trust.”
In a way, it’s probably a good thing that Buster Brooks died too soon,
and that this “man of his word” didn’t live to see that public trust broken.
I
wMuum.
S BORN WITH A Tr/t I woul
WAS BORN WITH A TRaIT I wouldn’t give up for a
million dollars. Enthusiasm. And I also have what the
French call joie de vivre. As my middle daughter, Ann, says,
“My God, Cheeka, you have an opinion on everything.” I
th'nk they get fed up with my opinions, but where can you go
in life without opinions? emily whaley
from Mrs. Whaley and her Charleston Garden
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Ezzell, Nancy & Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 107, No. 36, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 4, 1997, newspaper, September 4, 1997; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth520487/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hemphill County Library.