WTCC 2003 - West Texas County Courier

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Page 2 WEST TEXAS COUNTY COURIER April 20, 2006 nineteenseventythree t w o t h o u Donald “Don” Davisson F O R 33YEARS s a n d six PUBLISHED: Published each Thursday by Homesteader News, Inc. Appreciation to our many contributors. Office open Monday through Thursday. COPYRIGHT: Entire contents © 2006 Homesteader News, Inc. Individual authors retain all rights. Pictures, drawings and written material appearing in the West Texas County Courier may not be used or reproduced without written permission of Homesteader News, Inc. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Letter must not be more than 250 words in length. They should be dated, must be signed and have an address and daytime phone number. Only the name and city will be printed with the letter. The Courier reserves the right not to print letters to the editor or other submitted materials it considers inappropriate. ★ Socorro City Council District Number 1 Political advertising paid for by Don Davisson, 791 Worsham Rd., Socorro, TX 79927 Public Notice Fabens Independent School District 2006 — 2007 School Year Calendar The Fabens Independent School District held a public meeting to discuss the first date of instruction for the 2006- 2007 school year. The community members present voted in favor of the calendar with August 14, 2006 as the first date of instruction. Fabens Independent School District has applied to the Texas Education Agency State Waiver Unit requesting approval for the earlier start date for 2006- 2007. The state mandated start date is August 21,2006. For further information, please call the Central Office at 764-2025. Aviso Publico Distrito Escolar Independiente de Fabens Calendario Escolar de 2006 — 2007 El Distrito Escolar Independiente Fabens invitó al público a una junta para discutir la fecha para el primer día de instrucción del año escolar 2006-2007. Los miembros de la comunidad presentes votaron a favor de un calendario con el 14 de agosto de 2006 como el primer día de instrucción. El Distrito Escolar Independiente Fabens ha presentado una solicitud a la Unidad para Exenciones de la Agencia de Educación de Texas pidiendo se apruebe esa fecha para empezar el año escolar 2006-2007. La fecha del mandato estatal es el 21 de agosto de 2006. Para mas información pueden llamar al Oficina de Central al numero 764-2025. WTCC: 04-20-06 Member Texas Community Newspaper Association SERVING ANTHONY, VINTON, CANUTILLO, EAST MONTANA, HORIZON, SOCORRO, CLINT, FABENS, SAN ELIZARIO AND TORNILLO AD DEADLINE: Monday 4 p.m. for Thursday publication. CLASSIFIED RATES $5 for 15 words, $10 for 35 words. Ad must be in writing and pre-paid. The Courier reserves the right not to print classified advertising it considers inappropriate. DISPLAY RATES: Open rate — $20 per column inch. Call for more information or to set an appointment. The Courier reserves the right not to print advertising it considers inappropriate. MAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS: 52 issues for $35. Delivery via 1st class mail. ADDRESS: 14200 Ashford Horizon City, TX 79928 Phone: 852-3235 Fax: 852-0123 E-mail: wtxcc@wtccourier.com Website: wtccourier.com Publisher Rick Shrum Business Manager Francis D. Shrum Contributors Don Woodyard Steve Escajeda Arleen Beard • Jan Engels Homesteader Est. 1973 News, Inc. View from here By Thomas L. Bock Border control: The first step to immigration reform Congress last week considered granting amnesty for 12 million illegal immigrants in America. As they did so, the national debt stood at over $8 trillion. The war on terrorism drew within seven months of its five-year anniversary. Programs like Social Security and Medicare continue to face grave uncertainties, long term and short. Education, housing, labor, commerce, agriculture and environmental protection are all pegged for reduced budgets in the next fiscal year. Undecided veterans benefits claims are stacked nearly a million deep, VA construction projects are delayed, and lines are once again forming at under-funded veterans’ health-care facilities. In all, 141 federal programs are proposed for reduction or elimination in 2007. The “guestworker” program now being debated in Washington is a quick, costly stab at solving America’s illegal immigration crisis. Recent history shows how the quick-fix approach won’t work. In fact, it can be expected to quadruple the long-term federal cost of providing services for newly legalized immigrants, along with the dependents who will follow them in years to come. Their chances of realizing the American dream will be shot without a robust naturalization process that includes English language skills, allegiance to the laws of our nation, denouncement of our enemies, and an ultimate expectation of U.S. citizenship. Of course, deportation or incarceration of the millions who risked death to cross the border illegally — so many of them desperate to work hard and build better lives for their families — is logistically, economically and diplomatically unwise and inhumane. It is indeed a complicated problem, one that has ridden along like a stowaway in the cargo hold of our republic since its founding. The ultimate solution to illegal immigration may be years away. In the meantime, there is one criti- One perspective By Francis Shrum One perspective will return next week. cal step America must take, particularly during this time of global war and threatened national security, a time when a nuclear device can be carried in a backpack. That step is a vastly stronger commitment to border control — on the south, the north, in our ports and every place else we have let our perimeters grow porous. Border security, not amnesty, must be the first step. Without it, we can expect nothing less than a repeat performance of the disastrous Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The act gave 2.8 million illegal immigrants a free pass from the laws they broke to get into America. Another 142,000 dependents soon followed. Ten years after the law was passed, the average immigrant who received amnesty in 1986 was earning $9,000 a year and had made it only through the seventh grade. Meanwhile, the taxpayer cost of medicating, educating, feeding, incarcerating and providing services to that group alone is estimated at $78 billion, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Millions more illegal immigrants poured into the United States following the 1986 amnesty, which failed to make a necessary commitment to border control to go along with the free pass for those already living here. In recent years, the brutal “coyote” industry of human trafficking has begun to eclipse narcotics smuggling along the border, leading hundreds to their deaths in the deserts or to be stuffed by the dozens into suburban drop houses with no place to go. Nearly 4 million are estimated to have immigrated illegally into the United States since 2000 alone. If the 1986 model is applied to the guest-worker initiatives now debated in Congress, taxpayers can conservatively calculate $312 billion to pay for this proposed amnesty over the next 20 years, at which time, without the necessary commitment to border control, another amnesty is certain to be proposed. The money will be spent, and the problem will still be with us. That $312 billion would go a long way toward improving access to VA health care, providing education to low-income children, fortifying the future of Social Security and, lest we forget, toward securing the borders and enforcing immigration laws already on the books in America. Since the early 1920s, The American Legion has supported legal immigration, the naturalization process, the adoption of a shared language, and the lawful route to U.S. citizenship. That support is built on the hope that future generations, regardless of their country of origin, have every opportunity to succeed and live out the American dream. The granting of amnesty eviscerates the process — rejecting laws built on the protection of the American people and of immigrants themselves. The granting of amnesty without an expectation of naturalization and assimilation all but guarantees that newly legalized immigrants and their families will stay stuck at the bottom of the income and education ladder, caught behind a language barrier that is growing ever more impenetrable. Amnesty strips away any incentive for an immigrant to pursue citizenship the legal way, and it does nothing to untangle the red tape that prevents law-abiding immigrants from timely decisions on their visa applications. The world possesses no nation so welcoming as America. But ours is not a house without rules, nor can it be, certainly not in a time of war. The answer to this dilemma resides somewhere between the deportation of 12 million illegal immigrants and the declaration that everyone in the world, regardless of their place of origin or intent, has a God-given right to live here. The answer has yet to come fully into focus, but we know from 1986 that putting a Band-Aid over a sucking chest wound is not going to heal our condition in the long run. And we can safely forecast from yesterday’s experience that a blanket amnesty today will lead to a bigger one tomorrow. In his final days, President Theodore Roosevelt grappled with the same problem and wrote the following: “We should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American… There can be no divided allegiance here.” His message, which captures the spirit of the naturalization process, is one our elected leaders would be wise to revisit as they work toward the resolution of our nation’s most imposing issue. ______________________________________________________ Thomas L. Bock is national commander of the 2.7 million-member American Legion, the nation’s largest military veterans organization.
April 20, 2006 WEST TEXAS COUNTY COURIER Page 3 View from here By Senator Eliot Shapleigh What matters more: Tax cuts for wealthiest Texans or truly educating our children Nothing is more important than educating our children so they can grow, prosper, and live the American dream. Since the days of Thomas Jefferson, America has valued great public schools where each and every one of us can reach our full potential. In recent elections, people told lawmakers to meet the challenge and educate our children. When Texas ranks 48th in the nation on the SAT and 50th in high school graduation rates, our children’s future is at risk. When 19 of the 30 El Paso area high schools fail to meet the progress standards in “No Child Left Behind” we must make educating our children the top priority. Over the last seven failed sessions, some state leaders have pushed the “Great Texas Tax Shift,” where they value tax cuts for wealthy donors over educating our children. For example, HB 3, the tax bill pushed by Republican leadership last year, would have raised taxes on any Texan making less than $100,000 and cut taxes for those making six figures and Eye on D.C. By U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla above. Here in El Paso, HB 3 would have resulted in a tax increase on 94 percent of the population. More recently, Gov. Rick Perry’s plan proposes to cut $920 million of taxes on those who make more than $104,000 and hike taxes by $7 million on families making less than $54,000 at a time when incomes of America’s wealthiest have grown more dramatically than any era since the turn of the century. So those who make the most will pay the least. Moreover, none of these bills raised any new money for certified and motivated teachers, smaller classes, or state of the art technology. During past sessions, the majority balanced the budget by cutting 230,000 children out of CHIP instead of raising the tax on cigarettes. Right now, this same group wants to use the $4.2 billion budget surplus to lower property taxes a few cents, end the special session, and get out of town. If we let them do that, then two years from now, lawmakers will face the same challenge in the schools, along with a $4.2 billion deficit that Military medicine: Advancements saving lives, both military and civilian Much of the medical technology that benefits Americans today in our day-to-day civilian life actually has roots in military medicine. This is not surprising given the challenges of military medicine coupled with the ingenuity of caregivers who come from, and return to, civilian medical practice. The cure for yellow fever emerged from the Spanish-American War. The ground ambulance systems of today evolved from those developed during the Civil War. Field hospitals were located near the front lines, but a horse drawn carriage was needed to get the wounded to the makeshift facilities, distinguishable by a yellow flag marked with a green “H.” World War I was the first in which fatalities on the battlefield outnumbered deaths due to disease. This war brought us the cure for tetanus, the means to address severe shock, and the use of triage to prioritize medical care when faced with mass casualties. The introduction of antiseptic increased survival rates, and survivors benefited greatly from advances in prostheses and reconstructive surgery. During World War II, we witnessed a dramatic increase in the effectiveness of weaponry. The sheer magnitude of the combat theater required as many men in uniform as possible to stop the Axis from advancing their invasion. The military concentrated on treating the wounded and returning them quickly to the battlefield. Medical innovations were created to meet this goal. Dr. Charles Drew was a leading authority on the processing and mass transfusion of blood. He discovered that plasma could replace whole blood, allowing for greater efficiency of transfusions, saving thousands of lives. During the Korean War, the U.S. Army pioneered the “medical evacuation” technology we now commonly refer to as MEDEVAC. This rapid transportation system would bring wounded soldiers from the front lines to semi-permanent field hospitals where they could receive medical treatment after only a short helicopter flight. The Maryland State Police Aviation Command instituted the first civilian MEDEVAC in the U.S. in the late 1970’s. It is now commonly used nationwide. During both Desert Storm I and II, the development of blood-clotting bandages and the LSTAT patient care platform were introduced. Like the sophisticated military aircraft after which it was modeled, the LSTAT is an integrated system of devices in a portable intensive care unit the size of a stretcher, with a state-of-the-art defibrillator, ventilator, suction, three-channel fluid and drug infusion pump, point-of-care blood chemistry analyzer, and patient monitoring subsystems. The patient’s vital statistics are transmitted to the hospital directly to the awaiting medical personnel. they helped create. What’s worse is that this tax system will never pay for certified teachers in math, reading, and science together with the small classes that we know truly improve schools. The fact is that Texas teachers now rank close to last in the country in pay, retirement, and health care, and Texas ranks 38th in the country in spending per pupil. Republican leaders should do what we elected them to do: set aside their differences and lead us to a better future. For the first time in Texas history, Texas families face a less prosperous tomorrow if they do not put our children on a path to better education today. Let’s create a fair tax system that Texans trust, where everyone pays a fair share. Cut property taxes substantially so more Texans can own homes. Raise the revenues we need to pay for good schools. And most importantly, remind them that they were elected to educate our children so that Texas can grow, prosper, and compete for 21st Century jobs. Developed initially for the U.S. military, the LSTAT has improved the chances of saving a wounded soldier by reducing risk to patients in route to treatment. LSTAT will also now help alleviate hospital overcrowding and increase our ability to save lives in a mass disaster scenario. The federal government, through such agencies as the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, continues to invest in medical advances through research and development in industry and academia. In turn, industry commercializes many of these military advances, bringing their life-saving benefits to millions more people around the world. We should all be grateful for the sacrifices our military men and women willingly undergo to protect the freedoms we have as Americans. Whether they serve as a soldier on the front lines or as a medic saving the lives of the wounded, those who serve are saving lives in our communities. Pepperoni’s Pizza & Deli 852-2544 Limited Delivery Area Clint Independent School District Public Meeting The Clint Independent School District would like to invite the community to a public presentation April 26, 2006 at 4:00 pm and again at 6:00 pm in the Board room of the Clint ISD Central Administration Building at 14521 Horizon Blvd., El Paso, Texas 79928. The district will be presenting information regarding the $90 million Bond Election set for May 13, 2006. For more information or questions, please call 926-4011or visit www.clintweb.net. Junta Pública El Distrito Escolar de Clint se complace en invitar a una comunidad a la presentación pública el 26 de Abril del 2006 a las 4:00 p.m. y 6:00 p.m. en la sala de juntas del edificio Administrativo ubicado en el 14521 Horizon Blvd., El Paso, Texas 79928. El Distrito proporcionará información referente a la Elección de Bonos por $90 millones programada para el 13 de Mayo del 2006. Para mayor información por favor comunÌquese al 926-4011 o visite la página de Internet http://www.clintweb.net. WTCC: 04-20-06 Chinese Food Burgers & Subs Public Notice Village of Vinton, Texas FAIR HOUSING, IT’S THE LAW The Village of Vinton hereby declares its support of fair housing practices. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the locality to bring about, through fair, orderly, and lawful procedures, the opportunity of each person to obtain housing without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, physical or mental handicap, martial status, parenthood, or age. It is further declared that such policy is established upon a recognition of the inalienable rights of each individual to obtain housing and, further, that denial of such rights is detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of the inhabitants of the locality and constitutes an unjust denial or deprivation of such inalienable rights which is within the power and the proper responsibility of government to prevent. The Village of Vinton has a Fair Housing Policy that may be examined and copied by interested groups or individuals at the Vinton Village Hall between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 4:30 P.M., Monday through Friday. The Village of Vinton is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. Juvencia Rios-Ontiveros, Mayor WTCC: 04/28/05
Page 1: nineteenseventythree 33YEARS t w o
Page 5 and 6: April 20, 2006 WEST TEXAS COUNTY CO

WTCC 2003 - West Texas County Courier

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?