Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 4, 1988 Page: 4 of 26
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Pag# 4, Th# Hondo Anvil Herald, Thursday, August 4,1988
Dear
Boss
Dear Boss,
An article 1 read recently in a
daily newspaper sure made sense to
me, especially when I put my
special cap on and think trade deficit
and politics.
Up in Michigan, a couple of state
politicians sought the support of
the union members who labored for
an auto manfacturer. But...up
jumped the devil when they drove
down to appear before the union
group.
It seems they drove up in foreign
built cars, boss. And that is when
politics hit the fan. The union
members refused to endorse them
because they didn't "buy at home."
This reminds me of the story my
good friend, the late James Tracy of
Sinton, told me.
His wife, Helen, was bom and
reared in St. Louis and the two
made frequent visits to see the
homefolks back there. Jim said that
not far from Helen's relatives stood
a big Pontiac plant.
"Everytime I passed there I
couldn't help but be amazed when I
saw the parking lot," he said. "A
giant lot, it held hundreds of cars,
and believe it or not as many as
half of them at any given time were
foreign built"
Boss, that is what my granny
used to call "biting the hand that
feeds you."
That is why, no matter who is
president I pay little attention to
the howling about him causing the
trade deficit I say let the blame rest
squarely on the shoulders of all
Americans who insist on buying
nothing but foreign products. In
aiding and abetting the high trade
deficit they are partly responsible
for other problems faced by our
country.
If every person in America today
said "for the next six months I am
going to buy American," you had
better believe the trade deceit would
come down and our budget picture
would be brighter.
So, even though I couldn't care
less for unions, 1 am in complete
agreement with the union members
in Michigan who in essence told
the t$6 politicians "if you can't
scratch my back buying American,
then I certainly won't scratch your
back by voting to put you back in
office.”
Perhaps we all should give the
same message to all politicians. I
think it might help if the message
carried the weight of all people
sincerely concerned about the future
of our country.
Your Roving Reporter
BKL
Hondo City Council's effort
for prison deserves support
y 3
SPARKS
By Bill Berger
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CLAP
Old/netv amendment
appeal renewed
Did you know that there is another constitutional amendment
working its way through the nation, after being considered for 199
years?
In 1982 Gregory Watson was working on a term paper at the
University of Texas, with his subject the Equal Rights Amendment.
He ran across other amendments which had never been approved and
this diverted his attention. One of those he uncovered was being
considered among the Bill of Rights group. There were twelve of
them, but only ten were adopted.
This one read "No law varying the compensation for the services
of Senators and Representatives shall take effect until an election of
representatives shall have intervened."
Fair enough, it would seem. Congress could only give pay raises
to those elected later, not to themselves.
By 1791 six states had ratified it, but nothing else happened. In
1873 Congress raised its pay, and Ohio ratified the amendment in
protest. Wyoming followed suit in 1978, just 105 years later.
After it was brought to light by the University of Texas researcher
in 1982, the State of Maine approved it the next year. Colorado joined
in 1984, and South Dakota, New Hampshire, Arizona, Tennessee
and Oklahoma okayed it in 1985. New Mexico, Indiana and Utah
approved it in 1986, with Montana, Connecticut and Wisconsin
joining the parade in 1987. It has been introduced in every state
except Arkansas, and could be voted on in Texas during the next
session.
Last year Congress gave themselves $12,100 more per year, and
did it by sleight of hand. They scheduled a vote, and voted against
the pay raise--but too late according to the rules. So, since it was too
late to vote against it, the raise went into effect automatically; Guess
Who refused to accept the money. This was a veiy neat pick.
The proposed amendment would not stop Congress from raising
the pay when they thought it was needed, but at least there would be
an election before it could take effect. Theoretically, if the voters did
not approve, they could give the raise to a different set of
Congressmen.
It will be interesting to see if Texas approves this measure next
year. It is part of the Texas Constitution that voter approval be
secured for pay raises, and they don't happen very often.
So far 23 states have approved this amendment, and three fourths
of the states are needed. Do you suppose that it might happen after
nearly two hundred years?
VI
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The Old Philosopher
Dear editor
According to a public opinion
poll—if you have faith in the
accuracy of such polls, although
I've never seen a poll on whether
people believe polls are accurate-
anyway, according to a recent poll,
Presidential Nominating Conven-
tions are losing their appeal to
television viewers.
The number of viewers is getting
smaller and smaller, the poll found.
"People are getting bored with four
nights of the same old things,
whether it's a Democratic or a
Republican Convention," the poll
showed.
You mean to say the networks
and the newspapers go to all that
trouble for nothing? The netwprks
string a hundred miles of cable
throughout the convention hall so
high-priced commentators with
outer-space headgear can roam the
floor and talk to high-priced anchor
men in glassed-in booths saying
nothing you can remember 30
minutes later. Plus, 14,000
reporters show up to cover only
4,200delegates-that's three and one-
fourth reporters per delegate-the
nominees spend good money hiring
people to write their speeches,
several thousand cardboard signs are
printed, five thousand balloons are
blown up ready to be dropped when
The decision by the Hondo City Coun-
cil to make a determined effort to obtain a
maximum security state prison on the Airbase
deserves the applause and cooperation of city
and area residents.
At a time when economical crisis
appears to be a continuing burden, the effort
takes on added dimensions. Based on eco-
nomics alone, the all-out effort points the city
and county toward potential benefits of great
proportions.
Should Hondo be selected, the prison
offers 800 jobs with an annual payroll of $18
million. Over a 20-year period, the facility
would have a $1.8 billion impact from salaries
alone. Apply a five times multiplier on these
salaries and the 20-year impact reaches an
astronomical total of $16.5 billion - or
something like $90 million per year.
Agreed, the City will have to spend
money to get this facility in place. But the old
adage "it takes money to make money"
certainly applies. Over the years the City of
Hondo will recoup all monies spent, and then
some, from user fees on water, sewage and
electricity.
There are people in Hondo and the area
who oppose the building of a prison and City
officials realize this. They hope that in the next
few months they can allay the fears of the
opponents by convincing them, or a majority
of them at least, that the advantages will far
outnumber the disadvantages.
Some opponents fear the fact that
Hondo will be known as a "prison town" and
this would cause people to shun the area. Santa
Fe, New Mexico, is a prison town and tourists
still flock there by the thousands each year,
some from this area more than likely.
Others fear possible escapes, breakouts
or riots. It has been pointed out time-after-time
that at present hundreds of state prisoners are
being released because there is no room fb
house them. In other words they are "letting
out the best of the worst" and they are walking
the streets - time bombs of crime. This is not
to say there would never be an escape or
breakout, but wouldn't it be safer to have them
behind bars than walking the streets?
Opponents to this prison answer this
by saying: "Yes, but build it somewhere else."
Precinct 1 Commissioner David Mont-
gomery answered this feeling in Com-
missioners Court Monday when he said, "That
is the trend in America. We put all the bad off
on someone else's shoulders and I think it is
wrong. I say it is time that we assume more of
the responsibility and take on some things we
don't like but really should do because we are
Americans."
The fact that the City Council decided
to "go all out and make the best effort
possible" does not guarantee our site will be
selected. Our delegation must first get through
the September meeting in San Antonio. To
reach that point will require a tremendous
amount of work by the City, its lawyers who
will present the bid, and the people in Hondo
and Medina County who believe that a state
prison of this magnitude would be beneficial to
the area. ,
City Council has stated its intentions. It
has made the first move by employing David
Dean of Winstead-McGuire to spearhead the
effort. He will be assisted by Tim Young and
John Kincaid.
The next move is up to those of us
who want to see our town and county benefit
from this 99 percent "recession proof' plan.
WC4.
t ... i • 11 •
Writer clarifies library story
r, f<\ Knt:
somebody is nominated, despite the
fact everybody in the hall had pre-
balloon knowledge of who it was
going to be.
You mean they go to all that
trouble to put on a show and the
TV audience had rather tune in on a
re-run of a 1958 movie:
This says something about
conventions, but it says something
also about TV audiences. I watched
a re-run of an old movie one time
and I'll take a convention any time,
despite that fact that you know
ahead of time how both are going
to turn out.
Yours faithfully,
J.A.
Dear Editor
My letter is in reference to the
Hondo Anvil Herald, July 28, 1988
issue article titled Libraries Seek
Countv Funds, written by Bumis
Lawrence. I would like to clarify
some of the statements made in the
article.
1. My name is spelled Madelyn,
not Madelline.
2. "The citizens of Castroville
raised $164,000 for the building—."
It was not my intention to imply
that only the people who live in
Castroville raised the money for the
new building and property. This
was an area project which we could
not have done alone. The
Castroville Chamber of Commerce
donated $76,000. This is an area
Chamber, and many of the
members live outside of the city
limits of Castroville. People from
LaCoste, Rio Medina, Devine and
others too numerous to mention
donated time, money and attended
fund raising functions. It was not
my intention to offend anyone, and
if in fact I did by my choice of
words, I apologize. I was speaking
in general terms concerning the
Castroville Library and its users,
and I was speaking in behalf of the
people who are library users and da
not live in the city.
3. I would like to remind the
writer of the article that all citizens
who live in the corporate limits of
a Medina County City, pay city
taxes AND COUNTY TAXES, and
we believe the county has an
obligation to help the libraries so
that the county citizens can also
have free library use. It was not our
intention to "trigger an even greater
tax increase." We were simply
asking for fair treatment as county
taxpayers.
4. Mr. Lawrence stated in his
article "—the request comes at an
awkward time." There is never a
good time to ask for funding from a
governing agency. The token
$500.00 per library that had been
budgeted in the past amounts to
06.3«; per county resident user of
the Castroville Library. 60% of
Castroville users live in the county
area. These facts were part of my
presentation and were not included
in the article.
5. The following is pail of a
statement made by me. ''—everyone
is in a budget bind —. Every
agency faces hard times, but
someone has to be the bad one who
raises taxes." This statement was
made in reply to one of the
Commissioners who said he wished
that past Commissioners Courts
had been budgeting for the libraries
a long time back, and slowly
increasing the amount. Trying to
make up for the deficiency all at
once puts a strain on the budget.
My, complete reply was, "All
governing agencies are inclined to
put off unpopular issues. Presently
Castroville is faced with building a
new sewer plant, drainage problems
and many other things. Everyone is
in a budget bind, and eventually
someone has to face the issue and
be the bad one (bad guy) who raises
taxes.”
Sounds different, doesn't it?
As spokesperson for the
"Castroville delegation", may I say
that we all took time out of a busy
schedule to appear before the
Commissioners Court to ask them
to begin working toward budgeting
a more equitable amount for the
Medina County Libraries. We did
so hoping that eventually the
libraries can do away with the users
fees now charged to county library
users.
We appreciated the fact that the
Commissioners Court allowed us
to appear and speak at length
explaining our position, and we
wish that Mr. Lawrence had been
equally as fair in his interpretation
of what took place. I did not expect
to see an editorial on the front page
without being so labeled.
Sincerely,
Madelyn Koepp
City Council
Castroville, TX 78009
---
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
AWARD WINNtR
1988
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Letters should be on a single subject and should be reasonably
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etters to the editor should be mailed in care of the editor to the
Anvil Herald, Box 400, Hondo TX 78861.
HONDO
ANVIL
HERALD
Published every Thursday
at 1601 Ave. K,
Hondo, Medina County, Texas,
by Associated Texas Newspapers, Inc.
Entered at the Post Office, Hondo, TX
as Second Class Mail.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES;
In Medina Co. - SIS per year
In Texas ■■ $20 per year
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ISSN 249-280
William E. Berger, Publisher
DEADLINES:
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The Castroville Anvil, Est. 1886
The Hondo Herald, Est. 1891
Consolidated - Oct 17,1903
The La Costs Ledger, Est. 1915
Consolidated - June 1, 1951
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to The Hdndq.Anvil Herald, P.O. Box
400, Hondo, Tk 78861
Telephone: (512) 426-3346
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Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 4, 1988, newspaper, August 4, 1988; Hondo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth818558/m1/4/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hondo Public Library.