Cherokeean/Herald (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 141, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1990 Page: 2 of 16
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PAGE TWO—CHEROKEEAN/HERALD OF RUSK, TEXAS—THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1990
Tlje Cljcrokccap/Hcrald
UPS 102-520
Descendant of the Cherokee Sentinel established Feb. 27,1850.
A Consolidation of The Rusk Cherokeean, The Alto Herald
and The Wells New 'n Views effective April 1,1989
"Texas Oldest, Continuously Published, Weekly Newspaper"
Second Class Postage Paid at Rusk, Texas 75785
Published weekly with Thursday dateline by
E. H. Whitehead Enterprises.
618 North Main Rusk, Texas 75785
214/683-2257 214/586-7771 409/858-4141
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
PAYABLE IN ADVANCE
Inside County $$ per year
Outside County $15 per year
Outside Texas $20 per year
POSTMASTER: Send address changes
to CHEROKEEAN/HERALD
P. 0. Box 475- Rusk, Texas 75785.
'Roundabout...with Marie Whitehead
Homework Assignment:
Equitable funding for all schools, Date due May 1,1990
The clock is running. Its alarm bell is set to ring
May 1,1990. Roughly, 90 days hence. One might
say that it is a Cinderella/Pumpkin scenario with
Texas' school children the issue. May 1 is the
magic date set by the courts for this state to have an
equitable plan for financing school education.
If the legislature, which is to convene this month
(on the 27th), fails to submit a plan acceptable to the
court, our state comptroller will, by law, have to cut
off all state payments to local school districts. The
midnight hour. May 1. Can it be done?
Some observers of the political scene in Austin
say that this issue will make the recently ended
Workers Comp reform look like a Sunday School
picnic. No, it won't be easy.
And what is so sad is, that this is NOT a new
problem! For more than 40 years, from Governor
Allan Shivers to the present Governor Bill Cle-
ments, each regular session of the legislature has
dealt with school finance.
During these four decades, leaders have sought
the same goals: a fair, affordable system that re-
tains a large measure of local control but also is
equitable and produces useful, productive, mind-
expanding preparation for youngsters in a chang-
ing world.
Some say that not much has been accomplished
in the area of school finance equity and precious
little toward the student achievement part of the
problem.
It is reported that a virtual cafeteria of ideas will be
considered. Various price tags range from $600
million in the first year to $1 billion. From $5 billion
over five years to $15 billion.
The cafeteria/menu offers reforms which range
from the tax base (state mandated rates, county-
consolidated tax district, nine taxing districts) to a
power-equalization factor (guaranteed-yield varie-
ties, local-enrichment caps, Robin Hood take-from-
the-rich) to quality control (local control of every-
thing, varieties of special educational needs, length
of school year, teacher and school-employee pay).
More testing or less testing. Local choice.
Another interesting note here is that Texas is one
of only 10 states that provides no direct aid to school
districts for the construction of school facilities such
as classrooms. Texas is not the first state to come
under the hammer (or the gavel) of the courts in the
matter of school finance.
Will our legislature have the acceptable plan
ready by the deadline midnight hour? Clearly, they
have a lot of homework to do.
What's new? Letfs try Emu!
A special feature by Betty Rardin
What is the size and shape of a
large avocado, weighs approxi-
mately one and a half pounds, and
comes in shades of dark and light
turquoise? If you said an emu egg.
you would have guessed correctly.
At the Paradise in the Pines Emu
Ranch on Highway 294 west of Alto,
you might find 15-30 of these pretty
eggs in their incubator.
John and Mackey Beard are the
proud owners of these eggs and the
two pair of emu that produced them.
Jack and Jill and Romeo and Juliet
arrived at the Beard's ranch just
last October from their home in
Lampasas, Tex. Each pair of emu is
about four to five years old, and
from November to March or April
can be expected to produce 30-40
eggs each.
According to Mackey the female
lays an egg every three days with a
survival rate of 90-95 percent. Not
all eggs are fertile, and they cannot
be handled like chicken eggs to
determine fertility.
On approximately the 40th day in
the incubator, a gentle tap on the
egg will produce a scratching sound
from within, indicating a live little
emu inside. At this point, eggs are
moved into a hatch for a few days.
When they reach 48-52 days, the
baby emus emerge from their avo-
cado-like home with fuzzy speckled
heads and brown and cream-col-
ored body stripes.
At two months of age, they join
their parents in the piney woods
pen, with each family separated into
individual pens.
Originally from Australia, emus
were imported to the U.S. in the
1930s, 40s and 50s. The last im-
ported birds entered this country 30
years ago, when the Australian
government banned exportation.
A flightless bird, the emu is part
of the Ratite bird family, joi ning the
ostrich, rhea, kiwi and cassowary.
They stand approximately five feet
tall, and a pair can be fed for ap-
proximately $150 annually.
Recent figures indicate approxi-
mately 1500 breeding pairs of emus
live in the United States. Because
they thrive in climates as diverse as
Texas and Canada, the demand is
increasingly rapidly.
Emu life expectancies average 25-
30 years. Originally found in the
U.S. only at exotic animal farms,
experts predict new methods for
marketing them as breeding pairs
increase.
Emu products are varied, utiliz-
ing most of the bird. The meat is
similar to beef, but contains less
cholesterol than chicken, fish, tur-
key or beef. The hide resembles
ostrich in appearance and durabil-
ity, although it is somewhat thin-
ner.
Considered a fine leather, it is
used for boots, purses and clothing.
Approximately five liters of oil can
be derived from an emu at process-
ing time, which is used primarily in
cosmetics. It was tested at Texas
A&M University and found to be
hypo-allergenic.
Even the short, downy feathers
can be used for fashion clothing,
feather dusters and fishing lures.
With this potential it is easy to
understand why emus are expen-
sive. A breeding pair costs between
$10,000 and $13,000 , with chicks
selling for approximately $1,00^
each. Prices appear to be incr^afl**
ing, however. Just last summer' 'tF
chick could be purchased for $500."
Not only are emus a profitable
enterprise, they are fascinating
creatures to know. Their tempera-
ments are more docile than aggres-
sive ostriches.
During mating season males are
very protective of females, and will
try to come between curious hu-
mans and their mates.
Emus also make a variety ofinter-
eating sounds. About a month be-
fore breeding season, females make
drumming noises, which continues
for several months. By contrast, the
male is much more quiet - like a
gentle grunting.
Distinguishing males from fe-
males is often difficult, so most
i
ROMEO AND JULIET are content in their new home in
Alto. Owner Mackey Beard is shown petting Romeo
with Juliet in the background. See related story. .
- photo by betty rardin
Letter to the Editor...
Dear Editor:
In preparation for the restoration
of the Texas Capitol, the old 1857
General Land Office and the Capi-
tol grounds, we have some exciting
mysteries to solve and are looking
for any photographs dating prior to
1920. We also need interior views of
the rotunda, dome, corridors, foyers
and offices in the Capitol prior to
1959
The State Preservation Board
invites you to join us in our quest
and we ask that your readers help
us by searching through their family
photographs for snapshots taken
while visiting the Capitol. Quite
often the building or an interior of a
room is only visible in the back-
ground, but such a photograph can
still provide invaluable details about
furniture, carpet patterns or light
fixtures.
Surely, your readers' grand-
mother, grandfather, aunt, uncle,
Once upon a time a book was
written. Its characters used a
totally new language and not
surprising, it was called "New
Speak." As parents, we occasion-
ally listen to our children and
wonder if we are still speaking
the same language! This hap-
pens around the onset of pu-
berty. Guest writer, Daughter
No. 1 Terrie Gonzalez, has fun
with this common problem as
she subs for your writer this
week.
My friend Debbi called from Phila-
delphia in the middle of the day
during the expensive phone rates.
Before she said a word, I knew she
REALLY needed to talk to a friend.
As a new stepmother to a teenage
daughter, Debbi wanted to enlighten
me to the joys of the future beyond
diapers and preschool.
"Basically, it's a communica-
tion problem," she began. "I
can't understand a word that
Carolyn says.
It's like a foreign language,
and I don't know the code. Do
you know what she said to me
the other day? She called me
'gay.*"
'Gay* in my mother's day meant'a
very happy person'. In MY adoles-
cent years, it came to mean a homo-
sexual person. However, the 90s
bring us a new definition alto-
gether.
"As you might imagine, I was
quite angry when she called me
•gay,*" continued Debbi. "Then
she explained that gay is the an-
tithesis of 'cool.' She was tell-
ing me that I am basically 'not
with it, not neat, not cool.*"
Sure, the 60s had a unique
nomenclature heads, freaks, 'far
out,' gross, cool, groovy and of
course, the peace sign.
But according to Debbi, the 90s
brings us 'ga.'
"I thought Carolyn was tak-
ing a step backwards...like to-
wards the crib...until she offered
an explanation for the word,"
said Debbi. "Do you remember
how the *in'thing to call a jerk in
the 80s was NERD?"
Apparently, a 'ga' is an expanded
metamorphosis of a nerd in the 90s.
But how did the 'in' teens who use
these words come up with 'ga?'
"Imagine an inarticulate per-
son, stammering for the right
words to express a thought," she
said. "In his fumbling, he might
say 'ga...ga..
"That's how it started,"
gloated Debbi as she explained
her first break-through into the
90s lingo.
"However, there's a lot more
that I DON'T understand," she
continued. "My next goal is to
find out what a 'da' is."
Once while eavesdropping on a
conversation between Carolyn and
her best friend, Debbi overheard a
strange conversation:
"Oh, my mom is so gay. Noda...no
ga..."
"I have no idea what she was
saying," said the 35-year-old
mother of four. And without a
moment's hesitation, she began
describing Pennsylvania
weather.
"I'm just sick of the snow," she
said. "There's no end in sight,
and the only thing in full bloom
is Carolyn's new hormones!"
This coming of age is frequently
accompanied by such symptoms as
insolence, sarcasm and desire to
exclude parents from the simple
pleasures of conversation.
I didn't mean to, but it just slipped
out. I chuckled....
"Go ahead and laugh," chai*
lenged DebbL "You have two
girls, and you're going to call me
in the middle of the day with
these same problems. YouH
yearn for the simple days of
diapers and preschool."
"Take some notes for me, Debbi,"
I begged her. Then I told her to
'have a good day* as we ended the
conversation. It seemed like such a
trivial conclusion to a desperate
woman's dilemma.
With this decade less than a
month old, I began to have very
personal, introspective thoughts.
What will the lingo be when my
daughter Lauren turns 15 in the
year 2000? Will she and I be able to
communicate any better than Debbi
and Carolyn? Or will I spend all idle
moments trying to crack the code of
the language.
Being a person who always plans
ahead, I submitted a classified ad to
this gazette to save for future
use....just in case I need it:
WANTED: Translator to com-
municate in unknown dialect.
Must be able to extrapolate from
bits and pieces of conversation
and infer meaning into incom-
plete sentences. Desperate in
Cherokee County. Call collect,
day or night, at 555-1212.
There....I feel much better al-
ready. Maybe Debbi should con-
sider a similar ad in Phillie.
( Feb. 11...Deadline for Voter Registration! )
breeders place leg bands on the right
leg of a female and left leg of a male.
Males also appear to be more
"people-friendly" than females, and
eryoy friendly pets and rubs.
Experts warn that petting an
ostrich, however, can be quite dan-
gerous.
While the Beards' emu thinks
John and Mackey are nice folks, it
holds a slightly lower opinion of the
family cat. An early encounter had
the cat leaping over the emu's b ack,
with both cat and emu standing,
glaring and hissing at one another.
So much for that budding
friendship...some things are not
meant to be.
The Beards are interested in col-
lecting emu tales and stories, and
they can be contacted by writing Rt.
1 Box 712, Alto, Tex. 75925 or call-
ing (409) 858-2374. They will be
happy just to have you pay a call on
Romeo and Juliet....or is that Jack
and Jill over there?
MEMBERS OF THE Cherokee County Steering Committee on Drugs attending a
business meeting at the Southern Motor Inn in Rusk Jan. 25 are pictured. The DARE
program, De-fy-it program and medial awareness projects, drug warning signs, agenda
and calendar for 1990 were discussed at the meeting. staff photo
Are we 'enabling' employees to use?
Handling drugs in the workplace
By: RICHARD SNOW
mother, father, brother or sister took
great joy in standing in the middle
of the rotunda to have their pictures
made. Surely, someone through the
years has gone "Kodaking" to the
State Capitol and taken just the
kind of snapshots we are looking
for.
If your readers have any photo-
graphs of the Texas Capitol, the old
General Land Office or the Capitol
grounds, we ask them to please
forward a xerox copy to us as soon as
possible. We will be more than happy
to give them credit for any photo-
graphs that provide new informa-
tion.
Thank you for any help you can
give us on this joint, statewide ef-
fort.
Sincerely,
Allen McCree, FAIS
Architect of the Capitol
P.O. Box 13286
Austin, Tx. 78711
The following is one of a series of
articles related to the concerns and
activities of the various communi-
ties, agencies and individuals dedi-
cated to solving the problem of drugs
in Cherokee County.
ENABLING: When chemical
dependency becomes a problem in
the workplace, it is not uncommon
to find "enabling" being practiced.
Enabling by employers or supervi-
sors is the routine of overlooking
the behavior of the abuser. Some
examples of enabling are listed be-
low:
Overlooking Monday absences as
illness—continiously; overlooking
being late for work; doing the work
that the user/abuser should be doing;
accepting excuses for poor work,
tardiness and absences; accepting
promises that are repeatedly bro-
ken; not disciplining a problem
employee; being afraid to "get in-
volved"; getting too involved as the
"counselor"; and covering up for the
user/abuser to upper management.
The results of continued enabling
can have a serious effect of the
workplace. Some of the most com-
mon are: Company production de-
clines; morale drops and job dissat-
isfaction becomes more prevalent;
risks to employee safety become
much greater; and the usei/abuser
continues his self-destructive behav-
ior.
If you suspect that you are a
supervisor who is enabling, ask your-
self these questions. Do I overlook
obvious problems? Do I avoid con-
frontations at all cost? Do I help to
remove the consequences of abuse
by minimizing the seriousness of
the problem? Do I try to control
employees behavior under the guise
of protection and caring? Do I make
excuses for and cover-up and even
defend employees actions? Do I
become frustrated when I am un-
able to affect change in an em ployee's
behavior?
Do I fail to gat involved because it
is "not any of my business?" Do I
label or oversimplify subjects re-
lated to drugs and alcohol use? Do I
make judgements based on my lim-
ited expertise in the field of drugs
and alcohol? Do I consistently view
the chemically dependent person as
one of "those people?" Do I have
difficulty being assertive?
The following three actions on the
part of the supervisor go a long way
toward limiting enabling in the
workplace.
Learn to say no. Managers want
to believe their employees, even
when there is clear evidence to the
contrary. Saying "no" means not
being manipulated and accepting
excuses and promises to change.
Set limits and be consistent. Have
a clear understanding with the
person involved about the rules, and
that there will be no special excep-
tion. Expect to be challenged. You
may have to prove that things have
changed, particularly if you have
been enabling the person involved.
Acknowledge poor job perform-
ance. Be aware of sudden behavior
changes such as drop in productiv-
ity, drop in attendance or mood
swings and document the perform-
ance. This sets the stage for a con-
sultation with the employee based
on his or her performance. This will
usually bring to light the root of the
problem, alcohol or drugB. At this 1
point, the options of treatment or
disciplinary action can be under- 1
taken. !
Singletary
Memorial Library
By: Peggy McArthur
LIBRARY HOURS: Monday 1-6
p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurs-
day and Friday 12 noon - 5 p.m.
STORYT1ME: Wednesday 10:30
-11:16 a.m. Pre-schoolers ages three
and above invited.
NEW BOOKS:
Hollywood: A Novel of Amer-
ica in the 19206 - Gore Vidal - Carol
Sanford, a newspaper publisher, be-
comes a producer and star of propa-
ganda films.
In The Man Who Heard Too
Much • Bill Granger - Agent De-
vores ux, the November Man, must
work for, and against, the CIA and
the KGB.
Tom Bodett is the author of The
End of the Road: The 8tory of a
Plaoe Where the Land Ends and
the Sea Begins. The feature of this ¡
book is the authors observations of ¡
the people who populate a small ¡
Alaska town.
A beautiful new book in the refer- J
ence section is Exploring Your¡
World: The Adventure of Geog-1
raphy. It is reported that we do ¡
poorly in the knowledge of geogra- ¡
phy. The president of the National j
Geographic Society, the producers ¡
of this volume, wants us all to dis- |
cover the "joys" of the subject.
Another new addition to the li- ¡
brary is the 1989 Cherokeean/Her- ¡
aid on microfilm. We have the paper !
on film from 1953 through 1989. |
The films are available for your ¡
research purposes. We appreciate ¡
this yearly donation by the publish- j
era.
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Cherokeean/Herald (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 141, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1990, newspaper, February 1, 1990; Rusk, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151941/m1/2/?rotate=90: accessed March 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Singletary Memorial Library.