The Gilmer Mirror (Gilmer, Tex.), Vol. 120, No. 63, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 6, 1997 Page: 4 of 64
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Gilmer Mirror and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Upshur County Library.
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X-
C
hel
ku.
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4
Mkrof Photo
I
Sidegla
By SARAH GREENE
The Yamboree booth is a
ing sea of attractions that sur-
T
Si
1996. It tasted great. The same - can be seen in the crowds that
D
ei
tl
By JIMMY BROWN
II
n
11
killed 19 airmen.
$
A
te
Ed
ho
co
m
“WE NEED A little Christ- -
mas, right this very minute....*
sang Auntie Mame in the be-
loved musical of the same
name. I’m not sure what non-
Christmas season she was in
when the idea struck her, but
could it have been August?
Maybe even August in Texas?
Facing a Texas August that
shows no promise of being
cooler than usual, I thawed a
serving of leftover turkey
dressing from Christmas,
gic
it.
Ch
an
sa
lif
Li
LIVE OAK TREES provide welcome shade for wall-to-wall people Saturday during the peek day of the 28th
annual Texas Folklife Festival on the Institute of Texan Cultures grounds in San Antonio. This food plaza
on the back side of the Institute of the building is not far from the Yamboree booth.
26th annual Texas Folklife
Festival that ended Sunday in
San Antonio, I can say the same
thing. For the summer heat
does not overcome the spirit of
celebration that fills the Insti-
tute ofTexan Cultures grounds
those four days.
Gil
Sa
A
StJ
se
Ik
ad<
bei
rig
Nu
Sa
are
Nd
“as
died
and
wel
wel
with County commissioners, sit-
ting as a board of equalization,
agreed to a 1-year-only 8 per-
cent increase in mineral for the
1976-77 tax year . . . Joe -
Stembridge, Greg Kendall and
Sid Fowler left for a trek to Boy
Scout Camp Philmont, wilder-
ness outpost in New Mexico...
Mr. and Mrs. G.C. McNair cel-
ebrated their 50th wedding an-
niversary.
FORTY YEARS AGO
Thomas N. Sorrells died at 75
... Gilmer School District voters
approved a $130,000 building
Oley Sansom was named “citi-
sen of the year" by Northeast
Texas Library System ... Most
too
are
don
: dri
We
us
dk
sg
12 23
——
winter to come they’ll be turned
into delicious peach butter*
scotch crisp, always one of my
family’s favorite desserts.
Thus the good from one sea-
son carries into the future and,
if lucky, we can forget the bad
parts.
LOOKING BACK on the
day I froze several pints of good gather for the periodic possum
Upshur County peaches. In the
--
■ 4 W pe a Taig. m
• P
in
ra
m
•d
b:
L
de
es
nd
to
intzssmandryom
peetiontomnuneTay
-afedi
l calxindurdinam
f zRugaDsminhdlarship
while teammate Ed Holmes
signed with Hill County JC . ..
Chunkin Rocks a,
mission for two years has been TWENTY YF ARG AAA
stable island in an ever chang- entering more than 200,000 C *
historic sites: historical mart- Three traffic crashes within
L
TFN Y
due to oil/gas industry slump .,
. Edward Choice (better known
as Edward Jones), 20, former
GHS all-state linebacker, and
Annyce Jacobs, 56, were killed
in a 2-car, head-on collision on
Hwy. 300 near Glenwood ...
Doug Busch took over as GHS
head qoach and brought in two
new assistants, Ralph Mason
and Roy Mayfield.
lature, died in at 81.. . Maggie
Cannon, 82, formerly of Little
Mound, died in Riverton, La...
. The Rev. AW. Robertson was
.called as pastor ofNewHopewell
Baptist Church . . . J.R. Penn
bought 23 head of registered
Aberdeen Angus cattle... Stn.
T.C. Chaddick, acting governor,
appointed local honorary colo-
riels to his staff Judge WA
Lunsford, County Auditor Leo
Hart, Russell Laschinger, and
Justin Kurts.
See REAB VISION, Page 5A
— »- M 4
.‘h
g 2)
Editorials_______________
Billions and billions
‘Ike’ was right about ‘military-industrial complex’
Congress just approved a $248 billion “defense” budget for
this country. Nearly six years after the demise of the Soviet
Union, we have still not found a new enemy to justify such
continued exorbitant expenditures each year, but a phenomenon
which the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against
has come to pass with a vengeance.
In his farewell address to the nation, he cautioned the
American citizenry to stand vigilantly against a coming "mili-
tary-industrial complex* which would become so politically
powerful as to be self-perpetuating, even in peacetime.
The $248 billion figure is actually an underestimate when
one considers that responsibility for the nation’s nuclear arsenal
now rests with the Department of Energy.
The Pentagon spends more money in a year than similar
bureaucracies in Russia and China spend in 10 years. Yet, some
representatives such as Newt Gingrich (whose district in
Georgia is heavily dependendent economically on defense
spending) have the audacity to call for higher budgets.
Former President Ronald W. Reagan used to call for rooting
out “waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal government. He
apparently didn’t have the Pentagon in mind, but that would
have been a logical place to start.
Exotic new weapons systems are ordered built by Congress
whether the military believes it needs them or not. Sometimes
even equipment with a track record of failure continues to be
manufactured. The main criterion seems to be whether the
defense contractor has operations in one or more districts of
well-connected federal lawmakers.
Appropriations going to “the troops” appears to be near the
bottom of the list of priorities when “pork-barreling* time comes
around each year. “The troops” are beginning to realize this.
Many are not reenlisting. Most youth are not buying the absurd
advertising slogans they see during football games because they
have heard the grumblings of those already in the military
rightfully upset about .numerous promises , made by recruiters
that weren’t kept.
This lack of good faith is adding to an already difficult task
in relative good times economically.
We are beginning to hear rumblings within the branches of
the armed forces and on Capitol Hill about this problem. Why
else would we be reading that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
regarding homosexuals in the.military has “backfired.”
The “backfire” is that those with “alternative lifestyles” are
either leaving the military or not joining in the first place. Why
would this be seen as bad unless recruiters are developing
“white knuckles” about meeting their quotas among the remain-
ing heterosexual population?
Are they actually worried that at some point they will have
to ask the Congress to reactivate the dreaded Selective Service
System and start drafting young people?
Some of the reasons Operation Desert Storm was so popular
were (1) most of us didn’t have to participate and watched it on
TV as if it were a real-life version of a militaristic video game;'
(2) “only” a few hundred Americans died (although many
thousands turned out to have been poisoned as a result of
exposure while blowing up Iraqi chemical weapons depots after
the war); and (3) no person in this country—from late adoles-
cence on up in terms of age—participated in the UN Security
Council-sponsored “use of force” in the Persian Gulf against his
or her will (all had volunteered).
Contrast that last reason with what happened to the Iraqis.
President Saddam Hussein had his agents go door to door „
rounding up his political enemies, mostly among minority
groups within the country such as the Kurds and the Shi’ites,
and conscripting them into the Iraqi army.
Guess where all of his opponents were sent? Straight to the
front lines where American/"allied" air power and tank battal-
ions conveniently wiped out many thousands of them.
Remember the thousands more who surrendered so enthusi-
astically to pur troops in the closing days of the campaign which
was supposed to guarantee George H.W. Bush a second term in
the White House? Most of them didn’t even have uniforms—
- another sign that they fit into the category mentioned above.
Perhaps the Pentagon should work on how to come up with
“robot” soldiers. For if we ever become involved in a war of
attrition involving thousands of casualties which is not over
with in seven weeks, we doubt if this country in its current
mood would be willing to drown in the blood of its conscripted
youth as was beginning to happen during the Vietnam era. The
Chinese Communists have an excess of “unattached” young men
in their midst already. They can take several million casualties
without blinking. In fact, some of the gerontocracy in power in
Beijing might view such an event as a rather benign means of
population control. Abortion and even infanticide of females has
helped cause this tragic situation in China.
No matter how much money we taxpayers waste on the U.S.
“offense” budget, when push comes to shove, the Red Chinese
will likely be able to take over East Asia, including Taiwan and
the oil-rich islands in the South China Sea, without U.S. opposi-
tion other than a mild diplomatic protest.
Thus will the U.S. be revealed as the “paper tiger” other
smaller-scale dictators such as Saddam have claimed us to be.
China is not Iraq. Interestingly, one of the stated reasons this
country became deeply involved in the Second World War was.
to prevent the empire of Japan from dominating East Asia. The
Chinese are smarter. They are slowly taking it over, piece by
piece and bit by bit. They just assumed control over Hong Kong.
Will Taiwan be next?
One thing is certain. They won’t be so dumb as to awaken the
“sleeping giant” of the West by committing the modern-day
equivalent of bombing Pearl Harbor. So we will continue to
spend countless billions on “defense” but we will only use force
on “the mice that roar” such as Saddam and always shrink from
a fight with fellow “cats’ such as China.
Nevertheless, practical politics dictate that Texas Comptrol-
ler John Sharp and other ambitious pols around the country
shamelessly grovel before the powers that be in the “5-sided
puzzle palace on the Potomac.”
“About 167,000 Texans work directly for the military,” Sharp
said last week. “By contrast, the top 10 corporations in Texas
employ 123,000 people. But if any one of those businesses
decided to up and move, we would shower them with abatement
offers or other reasons to stay . .---------— -------—_—
Sharp said Texas should work to be viewed by the Pentagon
,as the most military-friendly state in the nation. While we
would rather see the Pentagon budget cut in half (at which
point it would still be by far the largest one in the world), we
understand Sharp’s strategy of “taking the world as it is” in
terms of the raw political gamesmanship involved as he em-
barks on his campaign to replace retiring Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock
However, abatements almost always cost the average tax-
payer through the nose. Studies have shown that most of the
benefits thereof go to big business and its shareholders.
About IcttCVS------- Send letters to “Letters to
The Gilmer Mirror welcomes the Editor”; do The Gilmer Mir-
letters to the editor on subjects ror, P.O. Box 250; Gilmer, TX
of interest to readers. 75644.
going to be particularly help- tion election in Union Grove...
ful to the construction indue- Moody Dacus caught a bass fish
ting over 11 lbs. near
•boro. He netted it and
ht it into a boat after a 30-
struggle.. .Ason, David
eL was born to Mr. and
Charles M. Johnson in
shows. You can tell the first try, for archaeology data would weigh
timers, for their facial expres- be centralized and easy to ac- Rhone
sions range a gamut from be- . cess for, say, a construction brou
mused to fully amused as “Pro- company that needed to know minut
fessor* Bill Taylor and “Doc- whether buried artifacts could Micha
tor’ Potter. hold up construction of a pipe- Mrs. i
And quite a few yam pie line. Tyler.
customers are repeaters who When I expressed interest ~A-gW
remember the delicacy from in the archaeology information, ITiiRlY YEAR KG
earlier years. Two of these were thinking particularly- of the The election contest suit
Dr. Francis E. “Ab” Abernethy, Lake Gilmer work done by Dr. brought in the East Mountain-
who plays bass, and Stan Peter Nichols and his associ- Gilmer School consolidation
Alexander, guitarist/vocalist ates from Austin over a 5-year anded with the consolidation
with the East Texas String period, the staffer gave me the vote upheld by a 1-vote margin,
Ensemble (pronounced “Inn- bad news: this will be part of a one less "for* vote than was re-
simble”). restricted segment, designed corded on the election returns..
Along with Tom Nall on the to protect sensitive historical . BJ. Gray of Grice won the
banjo and virtuoso fiddler sites from “pot hunters” and-, county hay show ... City Man-
San Antonio Expreas-News Ronnie J. Wolf, they held forth others who may try to steal ager Fred Odom, Cranfill Cox,
columnist put it nicely in a on the stage down the hill from from or deface an archaeologi- Jr and J D Warren were among
Saturday morning column. She the Yamboree booth. The Inn- cal site. Only “qualified re- representatives of seven East
wrote: simble, which hails from Na- searchers* will be given access. Taras counties who appeared
“The Institute of Texan Cui- cogdoches, has been playing ON THE WAY home by a Before the Taras Highway Cmn-
tures’ big annual shebang is a their mix of Western swing, circuitous route Sunday, I no- mission in Austin in behalf of a
welcome reminder of the mag- country and folk music all 26 ticed a stand just outside of 4-lane U.S. 271 from Paris to
nificent mix of cultures from .years. - Bastrop selling Fredericksburg j^n other mutes at Kilgore
all over the world that makes NEW THIS YEAR was a peaches. Worth a stop, I Oil and gas tax men who met
Texas and our colorful San World Wide Web site set up on ■ thought, but a closer look indi-
Antonio strong. the north porch of the Insti- cated this wasn’t fresh-picked
“We are, after all, the only tute building by the Texas His- fruit.
state to require a course in our torical Commission. Four Bill’s Stand north of Big
own history to graduate from laptop computers were avail- Sandy was still open when I
high school; the only place a able to anyone who wanted to reached there, and these
‘Republic’ movement could fly. check out the new Texas His- turned out to be some of the
“When we celebrate our di- toric Sites Atlas. best fruit I’ve had this year.
versity as the Folklife Festival During a, Saturday after- They’re down to picking every
does so well, we celebrate each noon lull I logged on to see other day, I learned, and this
other, and perhaps learn to what I could learn about Up- next week may see the last of
respect our differences a little shur County. With a federal the crop.
more. {Viva Folklife!" grant of $1.5 million, the com- A word to the wise...
round the Institute of Texan ers, museums, archeological four days in Upshur County
Cultures building on the sites, National Register build- killed four men and injured five
HemisFair grounds. Its loca- ings, and more. . . • The Gilmer City Jail had
tion next to the Frontier Fort Upshur County came up been closed until it could be re-
and gospel stage (sponsored blank, but a helpful staffer modeled to meet federal stan-
thisyearby the Express-News) explained that the data is be- dards . . . Brian Howell had
hasn’t changed in a couple of ing entered in alphabetical or- recently enlisted in the Air Force
decades, since it was moved a der, and we would eventually • • • Myron B. Bryant, 68, of
few dozen paces from its origi- be included. Gilmer, died... Upshur County
nal location on the Back 40. I had read in the Express- Judge Everett Dean signed an
MANY OF THE same faces News that the web site was order for an Aug. 10 incorpora-
1’1*8 GE-ITING tougher than GEN. FOGLEMAN, a blunt- years ago while separated from bond issue by a vote of 167 to 114
ever to be a general or admiral spoken much decorated much- his wife. ... Mrs. Robert G. Childress was
these days. In fact, it’s even get- decorated fighter pilot in Viet- MAyA-w. honored at a pink and blue
ting tough to be a private, air- nam and experienced hands-on . Mp-MM-usP45shower ... July winners in the
man basic, seaman basic, yard commander, simply did the hon- Dut,a11 “ understand Just wna Gilmer Garden Club’s Yard-of-
orable thing sestremeiy rarein sshtonamwirboevnrongbde the-monthcontestwereDr.and
linroihaergradthgrounders Wasbiegwazehelxmlthbpotea mittmpimhhingana Ms-pDamisls,Maf-anaMp.
aSsckumbinctotzeste
ianempasnsims
rect in pickingptrash, shovel- FOGLEMAN HAD his own winner—if we’re ever attacked daughter was born toMr. and
ing manure ar mopping out ideas concerning the tragedy and D a SoaP opera. Mrs "s mu
. showers. It all seems to come how he, as USAF Chief of Staff WHILE WERE at it, we FIFTY YEARS AGO
down in this Teflon-coated era wanted to handle the situation. might as well inclnd» Rrig Gen
to men against racism and sex- It was Fogleman’s command Amos Halftrack, Commanding „ Stephens, fornfer pub-
ism with military skills, war decision, his and his alone. Two General of Camp Swampy, lisheroftheUpshurCountyEcho ‘
fighting ability and honorable separate Air Force investiga- where comic strip PFC Beetle andmember of the Texas Legis-
’ service a distant third. So much tions concluded thebombingwas Bailey is ataftaned He was “or-
for the all-volunteer military’s not the fault of Gen. Schwalier. dered” to undergo “sensitivity
morale. The Pentagon’s somebody- training* to be politically cor
AIR FORCE Chief of Staff anybody’s-gotta-pay attitude rect in bridging the gender gap,
Gen. Ronald Fogleman resigned undercut Fogleman’s authority especially with Mim Buxley, his
this week rather than go along to that ofa corporal of the guard. well-endowed secretary.
with a demand by Sec. of De- ______________ COME TO think of it, maybe
fense William S. Cohen that he ADD TO all this political cor- Im just another old GI grunt
join in pinning the blame on rectness the name of Air Force that needs to re-enroll in the
Brig- Gen. Terryl Schwalier, the Gen. Joseph Ralston, a brilliant course. As President Emeritus
base’s commander at the time at commander once slated to be of D.O.M. International I keep
last year’s terrorist truck bomb- Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. flunkingout.
ing of the Air Force’s Khobar He dropped out of the running I know i‛s obsolete but does
Towers in Saudi Arabia that (at his request) because of an anyone in Washington ■till be-
alleged adulterous affair 10 lievein Duty, Honor, Country?
MP- . 2256462 02 Ma pggbd2cee
'. ■ E . • ■ '■
nCCS in The Mirror
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Overton, Mac. The Gilmer Mirror (Gilmer, Tex.), Vol. 120, No. 63, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 6, 1997, newspaper, August 6, 1997; Gilmer, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1479122/m1/4/?q=music: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Upshur County Library.