Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 12, No. 44, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 4, 1982 Page: 4 of 32
thirty two pages : ill. ; page 18 x 14 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.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:
Editorial
Page 4, Thursday, November 4, 1982, South Jetty
®® fttytoa fetch henui^Javnat
S
^Wl lliv iAAirW VI
Start building an ark, Noah, its
time for another flood..
c 1982 Copier New* Seme*
Out-n-about
by David Wallace
It certainly seems from the
appearance of the ballot in
Tuesday’s election that this
country is due for a change in
the names of its political parties.
Growing up in East Texas I
learned early in life there were
two things you did every two
years, buy a new Chevrolet
sedan or pickup and vote in the
Democratic primary. There
wasn’t much point to voting in
the general election because the
Democrats always won. The
Democratic candidates did very
little campaigning for the gene-
ral election because most of the
time they were unopposed.
In those days though the
Democratic Party was considered
conservative. However, in the
past decade the Democratic
party has become infested with
liberals.
Proof of this is easily seen
when you look down the
Republican side of the ballot and
see all of those turncoat Demo-
crats. Most of the turncoat
Democrats switched to the
Republican party it seems be-
cause it has taken a more
conservative businessman’s
stance in recent years.
Being raised a Democrat and
reading all those nasty Republi-
can Reconstruction period stories
in the Texas History books in my
Tidemarks
C.M. Henkel jr.
Retired Corpus Christi engi-
neer, Homer Mclnnis is a highly
intelligent man who thinks
realistically. I don’t know him
personally but in years past I
often covered his appearances
before various bodies as a
reporter. A couple of weeks ago
he wrote a guest article for the
Sunday Caller-Times which par-
ticularly impressed me because
it said something that I’ve
harped on for years. Summed
up, Mclnnis said growth does
not necessarily make for a better
place to live, does not always
improve the quality of life. As a
consequence city and county
officials should constantly eval-
uate their growth and progress.
This means constant planning.
Almost all growth means in-
creased property values, but
along with that, higher taxes.
Also no matter how good the
planning it seems that growth
seems to lead to higher crime
rates.
Perhaps the most single im-
portant thing any town can do is
establish zoning regulations, and
after that, when it qualifies with
a population of 5,000, adopt
Home Rule.
To repeat something which
you might say I’m hepped on is
the theory that city officials, and
county, should carefully inspect
and survey towns on the West
Coast of Florida where develop-
ment is at a point which South .
Texas will reach in what I’d
estimate as aoout ZU years. Here
I by no means insinuate that
things are done better in
Florida. To the contrary we can
learn from the mistakes made
there, avoid in some cases the
remedies adopted to undo those
errors in judgement. T d suggest
that officials here contact others
in Florida towns and find some
that approximate theirs in size
and potential. Then go visit half
a dozen of those cities. It would
be a “Florida vacation’’ at
taxpayers expense, but well
worth it to that same taxpayer if
the South Texans go with open
and inquiring minds.
Over the. past quarter of a
century it has been my observa-
tion that the essential deter-
mination of most of us in this
area are bent primarily on
growth. Growth is the biggest
word in most of our vocabularies
and everyone is hell bent for it,
myself included, except that my
concept is for very carefully
planned growth with as much
thought for the future as for the
present. We have grown alright,
and will continue to do so, but
we’ve been growing like Topsy.
In part this is due to elected
officials who are more concerned
with remaining in office than in
persuing innovative ideas that
will payoff in saving tax dollars
down the road.
Seldom does a week pass
without some visitor to the area
complaining about the crowding
and litter on our beaches in a
letter to the editor in one or
another South Texas newspaper.
The rnmnluints «re justified.
Compared to the Florida beaches
I’ve seen ours are a disgrace. In
South Texas we seem to be bent
out of shape in the determina-
tion to maintain what we like to
call “open beaches.’’ My own
definition of “open beach,’’ a
determination based upon ob-
servation, is a shoreline version
of a wide open town from the
old Wild West. It is a place
where it’s every man for
himself, the law forgotten,
raucous music going at full
blast, wild motorists, a place
where any object, from a paper
tissue to tins and bottles are
disposed of by being dropped on
the spot. On this count it may be
wise to repeat an observation
made not long ago by Caller
editorialist Jerry Norman, that
no small amount of the debris
drifts in from the gulf. True, but
I can honestly say that neither I
nor yachtsmen I know are guilty.
Must I suppose I don’t know the
“right people.’’
I have been thinking a great
deal about the November 2
election, even though it is a
week away. I shall be voting
absentee on one of the next few
days.
Despite my annoyance with
Governor Clements when he
pooh poohed the Mexican oil
spill summer before last, I shall
vote for him, especially after a
recent debate with his opponent.
Clements is in what we like to
think of as being in the Texas
Intuition, blunt, forthright, out-
spoken, a self-made man who
has puiiea nimsell up by his
own bootstraps. Not being able
to say anything good about
White I shall remain silent. This
old independent ticket splitter is
having a bit of trouble with the
lieutenant governor’s race,
Demo Bill Hobby or GOP |
George Strake? Even though )
he’s done some things I don’t
especially like it remains that
Hobby has done a good job,
overall. After that, in state races
I find no trouble going GOP all
the way. And in the congres-
sional race Til have no problem
in casting my vote for Joe
Wyatt, never mind the un-
pleasant things said about him -
which I regard as nonsense. I
don’t believe that Wyatt is a
sexual pervert, a queer. I can’t
bring myself to use the current
word, gay, a word that used to
be a nice one. Here incidentally,
while I don’t care to hobnob
with such people I have come to
have an open mind on the
subject of their deviation. Sci-
ence and medicine are today
undecided or at odds regarding
such people and I certainly don’t
consider myself qualified to
make a judgement. Never mind
the nasty talk, I am convinced
that Joe Wyatt is not a queer.
My reasoning is simple, even
naive. Were the charge true I
believe that it would have
become known during his years
at the University of Texas. I
chance to know a number of his
classmates and fraternity bro-
thers, among them a snn.. I have
yet to hear the charge made or
implied from that source. Unu-
sual sexual leanings would
almost certainly become evident
before a man or woman progres-
ses through four years univer-
sity.
early school year* jhst makes it
hard for me lo vote Republican.
But it is obvious from this last
election that the days of the
straight Democratic ticket are
gone, at least as far as my ballot
goes.
My grandfathers would pro-
bably turn over in their grave if
they knew I had voted for a
Republican candidate.
But times are changing and
it’s about time we changed the
political parties to fit the
situation.
Right now we have both
conservative and liberal Demo-
crats as well as conservative and
liberal Republicans. This causes
mass confusion on election day
or lots of split tickets.
When this country was
founded in 1776 there were the
Whigs and the Tories. This later
evolved to the Republicans and
Democrats after the Civil War.
What we need now is a
Conservative party and a Liberal
party. This would keep the
voters from the dilemma of
having to go down the ballot
picking out either the con-
servative Democrats and Re-
publicans or the liberal Demo-
crats and Republicans, depend-
ing on the voters, political
feelings of the year.
As for me sometimes I’m
liberal, sometimes T m conserva-
tive, but Fm finding it harder
and harder to be just another
Southern Democrat.
Southern
Publishing, Inc.
749-5131
P.O. Box 1116
Port Aransas, Tx. 78372
141 W. Cotter
Subscriptions: $12 per year
Publisher/Managing Editor
David Wallace
Reporter
David Vogler
Office Manager/
Advertising IV ign
Valerie Crofoui
The South Jetty is published
every Thursday by Southern
Publishing, Inc. at 141 W.
Cotter Avenue in Port Aransas.
Any erroneous statement
regarding corporations, firms or
individuals will be gladly
corrected when called to the
attention of the editors.
Second Class Postage is paid at
Port Aransas, Texas 7R373.
Publication Number:946-020.
-?V-
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
1982
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.
Wallace, David. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 12, No. 44, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 4, 1982, newspaper, November 4, 1982; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth623578/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.