Gainesville Daily Register (Gainesville, Tex.), Vol. 129, No. 10, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 12, 2018 Page: 4 of 8
eight pages : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
4 - WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2018
GAINESVILLE DAILY REGISTER
Opinion
TODAY'S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Kathryn Lopez
SPINELESS
Mark Shields
5?
—'Vi-
Say it with a letter
to the editor.
Pu/se of the Voters:
Let's hear from you!
Have something to say
about what's happening
in the news?
FIRST AMENDMENT: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right
of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Fax: 202-225-3486 http://thornberry.
house.gov
State Representative
Drew Springer
Gainesville Mayor
Jim Goldsworthy
Gainesville City Hall, 200 S. Rusk,
Gainesville, TX 76240, 940-665-7777
YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS
President
Donald Trump
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500
www.whitehouse.gov/contact
U.S. Senator
John Cornyn
517 Hart Senate Office Bldg.,
Texas Governor
Greg Abbott
P.O. Box 12428, Austin, TX 78711
512-463-2000, http://gov.texas.gov
We are interested in hearing your views on the
current national political landscape.
One of the great dangers to our democratic
system is the public feeling things are beyond their
control and that the individual is powerless to affect
government by the people. We have the ability
to help change that notion by giving voice to the
people in Cooke County.
We are continuing our long term project called
"Pulse of the Voters"and are interested in hearing
your viewpoints. Would you like to participate?
If so, email Editor Sarah Einselen at editor@
gainesvilleregister.com or send a note including
your daytime contact information to Editor,The
Gainesville Daily Register, P.O. Box 309, Gainesville,
TX 76241, to be interviewed for this project (both for
a print article and possible video interview).
If you email, please use the subject line "Pulse of
the Voters."
Vice President
Mike Pence
Executive Office Building, Washington,
D.C. 20501
vice_president@ whitehouse, gov
Washington, D.C. 20510,
Main: 202-224-2934
Fax: 202-228-2856
www.cornyn.senate.gov
U.S. Senator
Ted Cruz
404 Russell, Washington,
D.C. 20510, Main: 202-224-5922
Fax: 202-228-3398 www.cruz.senate.gov
U.S. Representative
Mac M. Thornberry
2525 Kell Blvd., Wichita Falls, TX, 76308
Main: 202-225-3706
State Senator
Craig Estes
P.O. Box 12068 , Capitol Station
Austin, TX 78711, 940-898-0331
Cooke County Judge
Jason Brinkley
Cooke County Courthouse, Gainesville,
TX, 76240, 940-668-5435,
jason.brinkley@co.cooke.tx.us
P.O. Box 2910, Austin, TX 78769
512-463-0526,
Gainesville: 940-580-1770
www.house.state.tx.us/ members/
T)rudence.
L Temperance.
Justice. Courage.
Faith. Hope. Love.
Chastity. Diligence.
Patience. Kindness.
Humility. These
virtues could go a
long way toward
making our politics
saner, more just and
merciful.
Awnevtf m<meek swp.
J
a press dinner I attended: “It’s true hard work never
killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?”
By the ability to laugh at himself, Reagan effectively
disarmed his critics, who, if they returned to the same
criticism, risked looking like humorless scolds.
My personal Reagan favorite was an exchange with
a wire service reporter during the 1980 campaign,
k when Reagan’s critics often disparaged his
w time as a movie actor. The reporter asked the
Kt candidate to autograph an old promotional
I photo of Reagan and one of his co-stars, the
chimpanzee Bonzo. With good nature, the
9 Gipper obliged, writing: “I’m the one with the
wristwatch.”
When the politically charged issue of same-
sex marriage confronted Republican Mitt
Romney, he once responded this way: “As a
Mormon, I believe marriage should be between a man
and a woman and a woman and a woman.” Not bad.
George W. Bush, who had actually said in one
campaign stop that “families is where our nation
finds hope, where wings take dream/
mocked his own broken syntax by
quoting Garrison Keillor’s line that
“George Bush’s lips are where words go
to die.” He even reported the counsel
he had received from a fellow Texan,
Democrat Bob Strauss, about how to
rebut the perception that he was not
up to the job: “Mr. President, you can
fool some of the people all of the time
— and those are the ones you need to
concentrate on.”
I can honestly say I have never seen
Donald Trump speak a single self-
deprecating line or, for that matter,
even seen him spontaneously laugh at someone else’s
humor. Calling an opponent “a loser” or “crooked” or
“failing” is abuse. It is ridicule. But it is not humor, and
it is not appealing. That may help to explain why the
humorless Trump is today the least liked Republican
presidential nominee of the past 70 years.
Mark Shields is a columnist through Creators Syndicate.
Not taking oneself too seriously
Mostly missing from the moving and deserved
tributes to Sen. John McCain was attention to
McCain’s gift for self-deprecating humor. When a
Gallup Poll, during his last Senate term, showed
that only 11 percent of the public had a favorable
view of the U.S. Congress, McCain noted that when
you’re at 11 percent favorable, it basically
means you’re “down to paid staffers and blood J
relatives.” Barely a month later, when Gallup I
had Congress’ approval down to just 9 percent, 1
McCain told reporters of receiving a phone call ’
that morning from his no-nonsense then-105- a
year-old mother, Roberta, and said: “I can tell fl
you that we in Congress are now down to paid I
staffers.”
After his 2008 defeat to Barack Obama,
McCain recalled the losing presidential
quests of fellow Arizonans: Conservative icon Barry
Goldwater was routed in 1964 by Democrat Lyndon
Johnson; beloved Democratic Rep. Mo Udall, from
Tucson, finished second in 1976 to Jimmy Carter;
Bruce Babbitt, a former governor of
Arizona, won positive reviews but no
primaries against Bill Clinton in 1992.
McCain’s conclusion: “Arizona may
be the only state in the country where
mothers don’t tell their children they
can grow up to be president.”
The politician who can believably
use self-deprecating humor is sending
a clear message to voters: “I am not
terminally self-important or thin-
skinned. I do not take myself all that
seriously.” The politician who can
laugh at his or her own perceived
shortcomings or weaknesses is telling
fellow citizens, “I am comfortable in my own skin and
not threatened by criticism.”
No one was better at self-deprecation than Ronald
Reagan. Aware of press and opposition criticism about
his leisurely White House work schedule, in which his
day rarely began before 10 a.m. and was generally over
well before 5 p.m., Reagan confronted the subject at
-
( \
T) y the ability
JDto laugh at
himself, Reagan
effectively disarmed
his critics, who, if
they returned to
the same criticism,
risked looking like
humorless scolds.
Email your letter to editor©
gainesvilleregister.com. All letters are
subject to editing for clarity and length.
One letter per writer will be published
in the same week. All letters must
contain a physical address and daytime
phone number. Only names and
hometown will be published.
Reading, humility
and Kavanaugh
“When you get where you’re going, don’t forget;
turn back around. Help the next one in line. Always
stay humble and kind.”
I had the words of that Tim McGraw song in
my head as Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court
confirmation hearings in the Senate were beginning
to wind down. Some of the girls Kavanaugh has
coached in basketball over the years were sitting
in on a crash course, at times, with how broken
our civil discourse has become — which included
regular disruption from screaming protesters.
Humble and kind is just about the
opposite of the current cultural and
political mood. And yet there it
was, creeping in, during moments
such as the one when Kavanaugh
introduced the girls, by name
and grade, to the room. There
were other moments too, like
when Kavanaugh talked about
his volunteer work feeding the
homeless with Catholic Charities.
“We are all God’s children. We are all equal,” he
said.
That tone was very different than much of the
noise swirling around the nomination, much of
it stemming from bitterness about Republicans
having refused to hold hearings or a vote for Barack
Obama’s last Supreme Court pick in the final year of
his administration. That tone suggests a way out of
what ails us. It has everything to do with virtue.
Karen Swallow Prior, a professor of English at
Liberty University, writes about this in her new
book “On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life
Through Great Books.”
“Reading well is in itself an act of virtue, and it is
also a habit that cultivates more virtue in return,”
Prior writes. “The attentiveness necessary for deep
reading requires patience, the skill of interpretation
requires prudence, and the decision to set aside
time to read in a world rife with so many other
choices competing for our attention requires a kind
of temperance.”
Prudence. Temperance. Justice. Courage. Faith.
Hope. Love. Chastity. Diligence. Patience. Kindness.
Humility. These virtues could go a long way
toward making our politics saner, more just and
merciful, not forgetting the human person who
will affected by laws and rulings. Prior writes in
a particularly striking way about that last virtue
in the list: “Without
humility, without an
understanding of our
proper place within
the order of creation,
we cannot cultivate
the other virtues.” A
Christian who teaches
at an evangelical
school, she adds: “We
cannot even come
to Christ, or to true
knowledge, apart
from humility.”
In his testimony,
Kavanaugh cited
Matthew 25: “For I
was hungry, and you
gave me something
to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something
to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in;
naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you
visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.”
Likewise, Prior writes: “The Beatitudes describe
the characteristics of the humble: the poor in spirit,
the weak, the mournful, the merciful, the pure in
heart, the peacemakers, the ones who hunger and
thirst for righteousness. But the Sermon on the
Mount doesn’t merely praise these qualities; it
offers a paradoxical promise in which all of those
who are last shall be first.”
Prior writes movingly of Catholic author Flannery
O’Connor’s short stories, many of which deal
with the sin of pride and the difficult necessity of
humility. She recalls O’Connor once being asked
why she wrote and responding: “Because I’m good
at it.” This, too, wasn’t a far cry from the Senate
hearing room. Again and again, Kavanaugh took
a healthy pride in the judicial decisions he has
written. About O’Connor — but perhaps it could
be applied to Kavanaugh — Prior writes: “At first
glance, this reply might seem conceited of proud.
But the truth is that knowing what we are good at
and what we are not, doing what we were supported
to do and not what we aren’t, being what we are
supposed to be and not what we aren’t, is the
essence of true humility.”
Prior describes “everyday kindness” as “the
greatest sort of heroism.” It may not drive headlines,
but it could set us on the right course.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute,
editor-at-large of National Review Online and founding director of
Catholic Voices USA. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.
XWft!
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Einselen, Sarah. Gainesville Daily Register (Gainesville, Tex.), Vol. 129, No. 10, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 12, 2018, newspaper, September 12, 2018; Gainesville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1324315/m1/4/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Cooke County Library.