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01-30-2013-Midweek - Wise County Messenger

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4 WISE COUNTY MESSENGER, Decatur, Texas, Wednesday, January <strong>30</strong>, 2<strong>01</strong>3OPINIONthem.”SQUARE TALKPeople, found on the Decatur Square,share their thoughts.HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THEPRESIDENT’S PROPOSAL TOBAN ASSAULT WEAPONS ANDLIMIT MAGAZINE CLIPS?“I think they should allowteachers and officials who haveCHLs to carry them in class andprotect those kids. I don’t thinkanything should be banned.Criminals obviously don’t followlaws in the first place so puttinga ban on them isn’t going to stop— Natalia Gibson, 29, of Keller“They’re not gonna get myguns. We have a right to beararms. If you have somebodythat’s gonna get a gun, theyare gonna get one regardless.It’s government trying to takeover. You give up that, they aregoing to get something elseand then you ain’t gonna have nothing.”— Wayne White, 60, of Lake Bridgeport“If someone is going to dosomething they are going todo it. And we do some hoghunting in Cottondale. We areoverpopulated with hogs. Weuse some AR-15s to hunt them.If you take those away it givesthem an upper hand.”— Stephen White, 23, of BridgeportFamily grateful for this anniversaryBY KRISTI BENNETTkbennett@wcmessenger.comMonday, Jan. <strong>30</strong>, 2<strong>01</strong>2, isa day that changed my lifeforever.Working on the <strong>Messenger</strong>payroll at my desk, I receiveda message to call my sister-inlawin Nacogdoches. Duringmy brother’s colonoscopy thatmorning, a tumor was discovered.I hung up the phoneand burst into tears.How could this happento my “baby” brother — thegolfer, sports fan, bankpresident, little league coach,son, uncle, husband and mostimportant, father to threeprecious children?The next few days werea roller coaster ride. I criedevery time I thought abouthim. My tears were not onlyfor him but for my parentsand our grandmothers. Theywould have traded placeswith him in an instant.We got the test results onthe tumor the day beforeValentine’s. His surgeon inShreveport, La., said the tumorwas malignant and thathe would undergo chemotherapyand radiation priorto surgery.My brother, Scott, is soloved by so many people. Thesupport he and his familyreceived was unbelievable.He must have been on everyprayer list in the state. Hisco-workers at the bank madea schedule to provide mealsto the family every night. Ifelt lucky to be there to enjoyone of those wonderful meals.We all had our fears aboutthe aggressive treatment.Would he be nauseous?Would he miss Reid’s ballgames?Would he be able tocontinue working? Would thecolostomy bag be removed aftersix months as his surgeonpredicted? My sons wantedto know if he would lose hishair.One of the worst thingswas living 250 miles away. Iwanted to see him and talkto him in person, not just byphone calls and text messages.His first surgery was June8 in Shreveport. I was ableto be with my parents andsister-in-law for the longwait that day at the hospital,which happened to markScott’s first hospital admissionin his 36 years. Imagineour relief and joy when thesurgeon told us the tumorwas removed and lymphnodes were clear. In a week,he was back home in Nacogdoches.Another round of chemopreceded another surgeryin November. He recoveredmuch faster from the finalsurgery. He was full of lifeand cracking jokes the dayafter surgery.At this time I am proud tosay that the brother I pickedon my entire life, chased witha vacuum cleaner and with ameat cleaver, is now cancerfree.My boys are glad thathe didn’t lose his hair, andChristmas was a very specialtime for our family last year.I learned a valuable lesson:that life can change in aninstant, and cancer is hardon the entire family. Cherishtime with those you love.Squeeze all those visits inwhen you can.Colorectal cancer is thethird most common cancerin men and women. Youngadults can develop it andchances increase after age 50.If you have signs or symptoms,don’t be afraid to talk toyour doctor and get screened.Early detection saves lives.It sure saved a huge part ofmine.Scott Bowyer was diagnosedwith colorectal cancerat age 36. He lives in Nacogdocheswith his wife, Kim,and young children, Bailey,Reid and Ryan. He is presidentof Commercial Bank ofTexas. He is the son of Billand Laina Bowyer of Decaturand Carol and Larry Wilsonof Nacogdoches. His lovinggrandmothers are JuneBowyer of Chico and LaverneWiley of Decatur.“It’s a second amendmentright. Our Founding Fathersunderstood what it’s liketo live under tyranny, underdespotism. It was one ofthe things they talked aboutspecifically ... Gun laws onlyaffect law-abiding citizens.”— Tory Arnold, 45, of Runaway BayYOUR VIEWSAre ordinancesapplied to all?When Assumption ofthe Blessed Virgin MaryCatholic Church (locatedon Deer Park Road) addedon an education wing,the church was forcedto curb and gutter alongthe front of the property.Since then, CrossroadsChurch, also located onDeer Park Road (oppositeside) has built a newchurch. To date, there isno curb and guttering onthe street side.There is also no curband guttering on thestreet side of RannElementary School.However, there is curband guttering in front ofPettit Private School.As a member of theCatholic Communities in<strong>Wise</strong> <strong>County</strong>, I would likesomeone to explain inthis forum why this hasbeen allowed to happen.In my opinion, the ordinanceshould be equallyapplied to all.Rose StuberAlvordSheriffsshould upholdConstitutionThe Attorney Generalof Delaware has decidedto strip the state’s sheriffsof their arrest powers.In both English andAmerican history, theocal sheriff — the onlyaw enforcement officialirectly elected, andhus, answerable to theeople — has been thenforcer of the supremeaw of the land. Thismeans the Constitutionof the United States.Article VI states in part,“...all executive andjudicial Officers, both ofthe United States and ofthe several States, shallbe bound by Oath or Affirmation,to support thisConstitution...”The move to emasculatethe local sheriffis being done becausea growing number ofsheriffs across this country(195 at last count)are pledging to upholdthe Constitution andparticularly the secondAmendment and will notconfiscate firearms norfire on citizens even ifordered to do so. Othercounties have held publicmeetings to determine iftheir local sheriff will bea “federalized” sheriff orwill publicly support anddefend the Constitutionfor their constituents.I am hoping our sheriffwill save the publicthe inconvenience of apublic meeting and willexpress his views in the<strong>Wise</strong> <strong>County</strong> <strong>Messenger</strong>.In case you missed theDelaware article, here isthe link: http://americanfreepress.net/?p=3590.Jim MarrsBoydInterpretingthe SecondAmendmentIn government classa couple of semestersago my professor, KentMiller, explained what, todate, I still find the mostSee Your Views on page 5Complex problems call forcomplex, even imperfect, solutionsBY BRIAN KNOXbknox@wcmessenger.comI spent last week at homewith a sick 21-month-old.Zachary is still too young toreally watch television, soinstead of animated shows, Iwatched a lot of cable newschannels.Which I guess in a way issort of like animated television.On Monday, I watchedthe presidential inauguration.On Tuesday, I watchedthe reaction to PresidentObama’s speech. On WednesdayI watched the Benghazihearings. On Thursday Iwatched some of the JohnKerry secretary of state confirmationhearings. And ofcourse, there were plenty oftalking heads breaking downeverything I had just seen.By Friday, I pretty muchhad my fill of Washingtonpolitics and the endless analysisof everything political.What I came to realize isthat we have a lot of challengesahead of us thatcan only be solved if we getcooperationon both sidesof the politicalaisle. Andboth sidesneed to understandthatKNOX while theymay havemany valid points to theirargument, their opponentsalso have some valid points.Take gun control, forinstance. I heard argumentsranging from eliminatinggun-free school zones andarming teachers to banningany and all “assault” weapons.I even heard one guestexplaining that aestheticsof buildings such as schoolslead to a safer environment.If I understood it correctly,building a school with largewindows and attractive landscapingthat leads peopleto a central point of entrymakes it less likely to be thescene of a crime comparedto a school that looks like aprison or a fortress.The fact that there are somany different viewpointsis evidence that these arecomplex problems that requirecomplex solutions. Andnobody’s solution is going towork 100 percent of the time.I also heard Senator Kerrymake what I thought was avery good point when he saidthat the United States needsto get “its fiscal house inorder” if American diplomatswill have any credibility tocall for economic reforms ofother nations. Like the guncontrol debates, there areplenty of varying opinions onhow to accomplish that mostimportant task.We may not agree on howto solve the problems beforeus, but that doesn’t meanwe can allow the problemsto continue to go unsolved.President Barack Obamatouched on that theme duringhis inaugural address:“Being true to our foundingdocuments does not requireus to agree on every contourof life. It does not mean weall define liberty in exactlythe same way or follow thesame precise path to happiness.Progress does notcompel us to settle centurieslongdebates about the role ofgovernment for all time, butit does require us to act inour time.“For now decisions areupon us and we cannotafford delay. We cannotmistake absolutism for principle,or substitute spectaclefor politics, or treat namecallingas reasoned debate.We must act, knowing thatour work will be imperfect.We must act, knowing thattoday’s victories will be onlypartial and that it will be upto those who stand here infour years and 40 years and400 years hence to advancethe timeless spirit onceconferred to us in a sparePhiladelphia hall.”Whether you agree withthe president’s politics ornot (and judging from recent<strong>Wise</strong> <strong>County</strong> elections, themajority of local residents donot), I think we can all agreewith his sentiment that actionmust be taken.At the very least, it willgive the talking headssomething new to talkabout.

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