Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 18, 2001 Page: 2 of 19
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PAGE 2A Thursday, January 18,2001
Port Aransas South Jetty
Murray and Mary Judson
Co-Publishers
Mary Judson
Editor
Phone (361) 749-5131 e-mail: southjetty@centurytel.net
Opinion
Member:
South Texas Press Association
Texas Gulf Coast Press Association
Texas Press Association
National Newspaper Association
Dave
McNeely
Ellis relaxed, then
landed his big job
On the last Sunday of 2000, two days af-
ter telling Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff
that he wanted to be chairman of the Sen-
ate Finance Committee,
Sen. Rodney Ellis went to
early morning church.
The Houston Demo-
crat had come awake at 3
a.m. that Sunday. He was
thinking of other things
he should have told
Ratliff.
“I didn’t have time to
prepare,” Ellis said.
When a friend called
a few hours later and sug-
gested they spend part of
the last morning of the
millennium in church, Ellis went along, still
worrying whether he had a chance for the
Finance chairmanship.
“The preacher had us down on our knees,
praying,” Ellis recalled. “And I fell asleep.”
Another parishioner in one of Houston’s
biggest churches gently nudged him awake.
But Ellis, to his surprise, said he didn’t feel
embarrassed.
“It dawned on me that I was at peace,”
Ellis said, “lt gave me d feeling that that was
a sign. I’ve fretted over it, I’ve prayed over
it — the hell with it."
The next Tuesday, Ellis, an investment
banker and lawyer who says he’s become a
“pragmatic progressive” during his decade
in the Senate, got a call from Ratliff. “Are
you in Austin?” Ratliff asked.
“No, I’m in Houston,” Ellis replied, with
Christmas shopping yet to do.
“I told him that I usually buy my wife’s
presents after Christmas because I can get
them on sale.
“And he said, ‘I like that attitude in my
Finance Committee chairman,’ “ Ellis said.
“And 1 said, ‘Are you joking?’
And he said, ‘I don’t joke. I’d like to meet
with you in the morning.’ “
So Ellis, 46, who got his first job in the
Capitol at 22 as an aide to then Lt. Gov. Bill
Hobby in 1976, became the first African-
American chairman of the Senate commit-
tee that presides over spending and taxes.
The appointment marks a distinct move
out of the Senate doghouse for Ellis, who
once embarrassed himself by secretly record-
ing his colleagues and questioning their in-
telligence on a 1996 national TV program.
Several senators privately said they’d
never trust him again.
Ratliff, speaking on the Senate floor Dec.
28 just before he found out he would be the
Senate’s next presiding officer, had publicly
complimented Ellis on the even-handed way
in which, as the Senate’s president pro tern,
he had handled the delicate matter of re-
placing li. Gov. Rick Perry, who had become
governor.
Although he thinks Ratliff “didn’t think
skin color” when he picked his Finance Com-
mittee replacement, Ellis also is aware of the
historic significance of being the first black
legislator to hold the job.
He said the late Barbara Jordan, the first
African American to hold Texas Senate and
Texas congressional seats, told him cross-
ing into new territory carries additional re-
sponsibility.
“It puts more of a spotlight on my record
when I don’t do well,” Ellis said.
But when he learned he had the job, Ellis
promised Ratliff he wouldn’t disappoint him.
Obviously, Ratliff wasn’t worried about that.
Dave McNeely writes for The Austin Ameri-
can Statesman. He can he reached at 512/445-
3644 »r via e mail at dmcneely@statesman.com.
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Come back, Johnny
It was a day that needed a good laugh. I
scanned the TV and found it. They were
highlights from the old Johnny Carson To-
night Show. I sat there for an hour and
laughed my hair off. The program included
a commercial on how you can buy these
taped Johnny Carson highlights. I broke
my vow to never succumb to these TV spe-
cial deals and placed an order for five of the
tapes. I now have those laughs in storage
for use when a laugh is needed. Viewing
these replays I was reminded of what a
marvelous performer CarSon was. He got
more laughs from his facial expressions than
Leno and Lctterman get from a garbage can
of sleazy jokes. He derived humor from his
guests with his re-
markable talent to
bring the best from
those he interviewed
be they children, octo-
genarians or talking
dogs.
He, also, was not re-
luctant to use subtlety
in humor. 1 know.
CACTUS That obviously is not
n allowed in today’s com-
1 RYOR edy shows. You go
right to the toilet in
language. You go for the crotch of those
you attack. You aim at an audience IQ com-
parable to the average low temperature of
Minneapolis in January.
I exercise my right at this age to be crotch-
ety regarding modern TV humor. It’s go
for the lowest blow. It’s tell it and explain it
too. It’s rap without music or rhyme. It’s
evolution in reverse. It stinks! Next televi-
sion will be putting people on a desert isle
and seeing if married couples can withstand
the temptations of hunks and boobs pro-
vided to test their faithfulness.
Come back, Johnny Carson. It ain’t funny
no more.
‘The bad news is, these tropical plants are doing better than our portfolio.*
Letters to the editor
Letters to the editor must meet the following criteria:
• should be of general or specific interest to the readership of the South Jetty
• should be limited to about 300 words
• must contain a valid signature
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• names of persons writing letters will not be withheld from publication
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• deadline for letters is 12 noon on Tuesday for inclusion in the following Thursday’s edition.
Mail letters to:
Letters to the Editor
P.O. Box 1116
Port Aransas, Tx 78373
or e-mail to southjetty@centurytel.net.
English, a com-
plex language
I NEVER told my own religion, nor scru-
tinized that of another. I never attempted
to make a convert, nor wished to make a
convert, nor wished
[ to change another’s'
creed. I have never
judged of other’s reli-
gion by their lives, for
it is from our lives
and not from our
Tidemarks words that ourJre,i-
„ w ,, i g»on must be made. -
C M. Henkel Jr. |hofnas ]efferson
- OUR NATION has
never produced a man for whom I have
greater admiration and respect than
Jefferson, and so as well his writing and
words to others, sometimes to those with
whom there has been disagreements, and
so a difficult confession to make. Resolves
do not come easily from me, nor are they
kept with religious fervor. For example I havtj
in the best of conscience committed to avoid.'
ing the boob tube, except for news programs
or an occasional PBS drama. Last summei;
my oldest son told me of the History Chani
nel. It is often worthy of note, but just as
frequently tiresome. More often I find my
best distraction to be the music on PBS ra(
dio which does not keep me from rereading
books from my modest library, an accumu-’
lation of more years than I’d dare venture
to count. It has never been my habit to ac(
quire books for the sake of just having them;
on my shelves. There you may charge me
with being a bit bonkers. I keep abreast int
modest regard of modern writers by read-:
ing reviews. Meanwhile, 1 attempt to reread
so many already at hand - an impossible!
effort, since I realize one has only one life to
live. . ;
RECENTLY I reported joining the efforts
many years ago of at least two friends in'
learning the Spanish language. Today I’d not
dare the effort.
Meanwhile, I do have friends near my!
vintage years who peruse an effort to learh
the language of so many among our neigh-
bors to the south, and not necessarily
Mexico. I asked one about the quality of
the Spanish spoken in Mexico, and was re-
assured. My question was no more audaJ
cious than asking a reader of this column
“Do you speak good English?” The straight-
forward, rather, correct answer should of;
course be, “Hell no, I speak American.”
There the only appropriate answer, accord-'
ing to the only American I know to have
ever thought to think or write intelligently
on the subject, the Sage of Baltimore, H. L.
Mencken who wrote Three tomes: The
American Language, Volumes 1,2,3.
Even today, while I would do nothing td
discourage teaching English in our schools,
I would insist that students be made cogni-
zant of Mencken. American Language be-
gins with at least mostly English, and de-
rivatives thereof, then adds words from ev-
ery language spoken on their planet. As an
example I would recount a recent experi-
ence in Corpus Christi. Albeit oddly you
will agree, 1 was greeted by a lady who 1
learned was a native of an island in the Far
East with which I have some familiarity.
Pleased with her service, I gave her thanks,
using a few of the nearly forgotten words I
know from the language of the island. Her
response, a wild outpouring of Malay.
This afternoon, examining a large box of
forgotten belongings, I encountered a news-
paper clipping that informed me of action
by a commissioners court in Florida that
had repealed an ordinance that had for long
held English as its official language, as an
affront to Hispanics, mostly from Cubans
who constituted the majority in the popu-
lation. From the largely Cuban population
came the voice of a leader declaring the old;
English ordinance as being nothing but rac-!
ist. The report noted that “There are mil-
lions now here who don’t speak English, on
barely speak, it is a scandal. For all 217 years.;
of our national existence, English has been;
the language of the majority of Americans”!
- until Mencken came along with his rec-!
ognition of American Language.
C.M. Henkel Jr. is a retired newspaper;
publisher living in Corpus Christi.
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Judson, Mary. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 18, 2001, newspaper, January 18, 2001; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth642472/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.