Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 128, No. 6, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 17, 2010 Page: 4 of 22
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tonight
nfe?
COI^AN
in the end, both are judyed by tfc
product produced, not the pioces
that bore it,
REPRINTED FROM TH
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCt
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATOIt
COM ;*/ .(
an
The offense is a felony of thi
third degree if the person has bee i
convicted two times under thi i
section or other sections of thi i
chapter. \ V
Theresponsibilityforenforcemei t
of Texas’ anti-cruelty laws lies wit i
in the local authorities. '
It is also advisable to contact Tb t
Humane Society df the U
and the Society for the
of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
Any person or peflpM^'
willfully mistreats any
any manner is inexcttti
my opinion that penon t
a grain of salt
AM
—" r
*V*f» J
ng a city's soul -
m.- • ; a ^ :___
America’s urban landscape, yet
they're rarely noticed by anyone
but dogs-who give them no respect
mm. Now,!!
_______corporation. ,
that these pieces of our public
infrastructure are everywhere, and,
like a dog, it wants to lift its leg on
them! •* • :\p4
KFC, the fast-food chicken chain
owned by a global conglomerate
named Yum Brands, is in search
of lire hydrants it can use to “mark
its territory.” In particular, Urn,'
corporation wants to sprav hydrants , ...»
1,1 i2ch bv Do these executives
THE POLK
ev^fy'square in^rf Anmrita the 2 £
Beautiful with ads. Indianapolis is
the firat city to allow KFCtowhi?
on its hydrants. The company has
plastered the city’s stumpy, water ~
taps with the KFC logo, pins a to he o
smiling photo of corporate founder ^hiiMthrc^ic gesture to help
Colonel Sanders and a slogan
: slogan
promoting the chain’s new “fiery"
grilled chicken wings.
Get it? “Fiery" and lire hydrant,
It’s symbolism, see? Advert-types
are nothing if not clever.
Of course, there’s another
philanthropic iW
wide fire safety for Indy citizens?
Get ready to be astounded: $5,000.
That’s it! KPC reaps a PR bonanza
(not only getting promotional use
of the hydrants, but also a photo op
featuring the mayor and fire chief
meeting with an actor dressed up
£*£3*. a. £*i. f£* ■
called RrefighterNation.com: “The 2©^a
biggest killer of firefighters today
is heart disease and Mm attacks. %£lE?S£? * STL-
Great idea to advertise fast food on
fire equipment.”
Well, picky-picky, say KFC
honchos, who are certain that
this promotion will be a big plus
for them. Indeed, they insist that
the company’s graffiti is not just
another act of crass commercialism,
$£ “ jggij&A
coiHribuliorf ,0 the t^a5PI!^5£i; of
wn mgh how ,,
was for KFC to rolt ^ianapolis
^Srt.itbout AfeTetJ m ,h«
MreMthauheifdaSd to'MoS may0'' “» ln a nMloowkle
email to mayor*. KFC is seeking
m fit* corporate dtizens and 4o ^ more cjUcs thal will ^ the
“ n-rhan*? Oriod same deal with their fire hydrants.
’ 1 rei,ize that cities everywhere
nffjlLi are financially squeezed, and it must
magnanimously oflfered ^^inptirtg mayors to grab at
lib
.'.lei .:?*> i
M W r
V
offsetting some of our budget
costs.” ;
Question: How many fire
hydrants will $5,000 buy? Answer
Two.
In fact, rather than blowing
KFC’s paltry bit of philanthropy
on a couple of hydrants, officials
bought 33 fire extinguishers for
e, the grateful' city « f
id todo noth
1-^r.n't'. ik find out more about Jim
hydrants as ft* own little High/ower ^ nad by
other Creators Syndicate writers
and cartoonists, visit the Creators
Syndicate web page
ver 40 years after Dr.
I lMartin Luther King, Jr.’s
V-^ assassination, his words
still speak to the social conditions
that so many Americans face.
Ourunempioymentrateishovering
at 10 percent, and the wealthiest 10
percent of us control over 70 percent
of the nation's wealth. Economic
inequality remains a barrier to
greater racial equality. The national
commemoration of King’s birthday,
therefore, is more for reflection
than celebration. During one of
the worst economic crises seen in
this country, biack/white economic
inequality is still a vast and greatly
under-recognized challenge for this
country.
Two generations past the 1960s
civil rights movement, African
Americans make less than 60
cents on every dollar of income for
whites. Their unemployment rate
stands at 150 percent of the national
average.
. As King fought to end this
country’s racial divisions, he
recognized that economic inequality
was as great a barrier to his vision of
a more racially inclusive America
as Jim Crow segregation laws.
Many forget that the March on
Washington, where King delivered
his famed “I Have a Dream” speech,
was actually called the “March
on Washington for Freedom and
Jobs.”
When one of the last great
symbols of political hope, President
John F. Kennedy, was in the White
House, King called hundreds of
thousands to come to the nation’s
capital to fight for an America that
would reflect its best values rather
than its greatest fears.
“We called ctur demonstration
a campaign for jobs and income
because we felt that the economic
question was the most crucial that
black people, and poor people
generally, were confronting,” he
told Look magazine in 1968.
In 2010, after the first challenging
year of the presidency of another
man who came into office riding
a wave of hope, Americans can
honor King’s legacy by advancing
a contemporary agenda of jobs,
wealth building, and peace. King
and other civil rights leaders
advocated progressive economic
reforms with such proposals a$ the
Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged
and the Freedom Budget of 1966.
A new report from United for a
Fair Economy that I co-authored
builds on that work by advocating
bold and progressive economic
reforms to meet today’s challenges.
Reforms proposed in this report,
titled “State of the Dream 2010:
Drained,” include a major jobs
creation program, strong investment
in job training, an equity assessment
of federal spending, and returning
the tax system to one where those
with the most concentrated wealth
provide greater investment in the
public good.
A rededication to King’s vision
can redirect the United States back
to the path of greater equality, and
a stronger economy for the middle
and working classes. Martin Luther
King, Jr. didn’t believe In the
trickle-down philosophy that has
run our economy for the past three
decades.
Instead, his “liberation theology”
analysis called for siding with
and addressing specifically
the challenges of the most
disenfranchised to i
as a whole. History , s
strategy’s success with the
of the civil rights movement or jne
1960s. All Americans - women, >
i m mi grants, the disabled, the ddetfyy
the young and the (toor-t benefited i
from the vast social programs anji?
protections that resulted from tjtptu
struggle. ol!
As the nation contiriues to heal;
from an economic and financial crisis
caused by unregulated greed, we’lfcl
find racial inequality unchanged )
and overall economic inequality all
unprecedented heights. . Jn
It's time to finally make a unified
thrust to bridge racial and economic
inequality.
Dedrick Muhammad is a senioi
organizer and research associan
at the Institute for Policy Studies
a progressive think tank
transforms ideas into action
peace. Justice, and the environment
He is a co-author of “State of th
Dream 2010: Drdihed - Jobles\
and Foreclosed; Pulling the Phi,
on Communities df Cotor," a ney
report from the organization Unitet
for a Fair Economy.'
billboards around town. “Helping
communities,” expfaips a KPC
Reform can be pretty in retrospect, but ugly in the making
•..j/ihj.t&d.T
vice president, is our goal. Iji turn,
he adds, the gesture will fhelp us
irt terms of creating goodwill with
consumers." .
at www.
creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.
COM '
Letters to the Editor Policy
The Polk County Enterprise encourages readers to submit
letters expressing their views and opinions.
The letters will be published in the Enterprise’s “Letters to
the editor” column on Thursday or Sunday.
The letters may be written on any subject or issue of gen-
eral interest. Letters must be accompanied by a name and
mailing address and will be subject to editing for grammar,
punctuation, spelling and length. Letters must include a tele-
phone number for verification. We will pot publish the tele-
phone number.
Readers should keep their letters brief and to the point.
Eadt letter should contain no more than 650 words.
Letters exceedlhg that length will be subject to editing or
withheld from publication. Letters will also be subject to ed-
Itiftg far statements snd commercial ism.
This column is not meapt as a forum fdr pofltical candi-
dates, although.we welcome comments from the public con-
ceming campaign issues. During election campaigna/we will
riot allow reference Id specific lodal
Utters may be submitted m Refsoo; n»i led to “Letters to the
editor,’’ Polk County Enterprise, P.O. Box 1276, Livingston.
TX 77351; sent by fa* tot936) 327-7156 or sent via e-mail
topolknew8@gmail.com.
Deadline for letters 5 p.m. Tuesday for Thursday’s news-
paper and noon Frida^for Sund«y>nev^paper. • .
.idem Lyndon Baines
'Johnson signs Medicare
. ._ into law on July 30, 1965,
ks former President Harry Truman
looks on. The bill signing took place
in Independence, Mo.
Watching healthcare reform wend
through Congress never is pretty.
Deals are cut behind closed doors.
Leading politicians, anxiously
eyeing the polls, change sides at
the last moment Unprecedented
amounts of money are spent to
influence the voting.
And to what end? Medicare, for
one. It took five years, an electoral
landslide and a last-minute change
of heart by U.S. Rep. Wilbur Mills,
D-Ark., chairman of the House
Ways and Means Committee, to
secure its passage.
11 also.took a lot of back-room arm
twisting. The American Medical
Association, which strongly
opposed Medicare, set aside $3.5
million in 1964 - the equivalent of
$24.4 million today - to fight it.
Today, the stakes are higher
health insurance for about 94
percent of all Americans.
Medicare supporters didn’t think
that could be achieved in 1965.
Opponents’ war chests are larger
now than they were 45 years ago,
too. Nearly 2,300 health industry
groups are registered to lobby
Congress. Healthcare professionals,
including doctors, gave $95 million
to candidates for federal office in
2008. They’ve since contributed
another $22.3 million, according
to the nonpartisan Center for
Responsive Politics.
Reform opponents lately have
been complaining about a lack of
transparency. They’ve seized on
President Barack Obama’s promise
to conduct health care negotiations
in front of C-SPAN cameras. That
will not happen. Congressional
Democrats are meeting behind
closed doors for "informal hearings”
in which the bill’s final language is
being negotiated. As a matter of
policy, the president was correct -
if, perhaps, a bit naive. He’s wrong
not to do everything in his power to
fulfill his promise.
As a practical matter, however,
it’s difficult to see how televised
negotiations would work or avoid
prolonging the process. They
certainly wouldn’t prevent deals
from being cut any more than they
do during regular Congressional
sessions.
Instead, they would more likely
becomea platform forgrandstanding
by both supporters and opponents
of reform. They also would provide
the last, best chance for opponents
to delay and kill health care reform,
just as Medicare opponents killed
an early version of the bill in 1964.
Mr. Obama’s change of heart
is disappointing. But Republican
opponents’ sudden and convenient
embraceof go vemment transparency
is downright comical.
Their llth-hour conversion is
win passage.
Afterward, some Hous
Republicans complained that tmic
of the bill’s language was written b
pharmaceutical industry tobkyisfo
Medicare’s chief aatuvy late
testified that he feared tot his jo
after being threatened by Whit
House officials. They warned (tin
not to release his estimate that th
bill’s true cost would exceed win
its supporters pretficted.
Excesses of the Bus
administration and Republican
controlled Congress, like those c
the Johnson administration and it
Democrat-controlled Congres!
provide context to the currer
debate. However, they don’t excus
Mr. Obama from breaking hi
from breaking
perhaps best illustrated by the last, promises.
major health care reform approved Like sausage-making, politics
by Congress: the Medicare
prescription drug benefit It was
approved in2003, when Republicans
controlled both Congress and the
White House. The bill squeaked
through the House on a rare 3 am.
vote that was extended so supporters
could strong-arm enough votes to
Not caring for animate la toiishgame theyarejying
cruelty and unlawful
LETTERS TO THE EDITOB
A fter carefully reading “Call
/ifor mercy for one of God’s
creatures” written by Delores
Sossaman of .Onalaska, published
by the Polk County Enterprise, that
Ms. Sossamah received absolutely
no response from any one to help
this poor animal Is unbelievable.
I do nbt profess to be an attorney
aq0 certainly do not act as such
ttul will tty to relay a message
extracted from Vernon’s Texas
Statues and Penal Code, Title 9,
Offenses Against Public Order and
“Decency”, Chapter 42, Cruelty to
Animals.
There are a lot of folks that do not
realize how serious thiscoMhearted
play. This is very sad indeed.
“Animal” means a domesticated
creature, including any stray or
feral cat or dog, and a wild living
creature previously captured. There
are other laws pertaining to other
animals and dog fights.
A person commits an offense if
the person intentionally, knowingly,
or recklessly fails unreasonably
to provide necessary food, water,
care, or shelter for an animal in
the person's custody: or abandons
unreasonably an animal in the
person’s custody, or transports
or confines an animal in a cruel
manner, or without the owner’s
effective consent, causes bodily
injury to an animal, or seriously
overworks an animal.
An offense committed under any
of these Texas’ anti-cruelty laws
is a Class A misdemeanor, except
the offense is a state jail felony of
the third degree if the person has
previously been convicted twd
times under this section or.other
sections of this chapter.
The offense is a state jail felony
if a person commits an offense if
the person intentionally, knowingly,
or recklessly tortures an animal or
in a cruel manner kills or causes
serious bodily injury to an animal,
or without the. owner’s effective
consent, kills, administers poison to,
or causes serious bodily injury loan
animal, causes one animal to fight
with another animal, if either animal
is not a dog, or uses a live animal as
a lure in a dog race training or in
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Reddell, Valerie. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 128, No. 6, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 17, 2010, newspaper, January 17, 2010; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth659657/m1/4/: accessed June 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.