Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 286, Ed. 1 Monday, December 17, 2012 Page: 4 of 10
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Viewpoints
Page 4 ■ Monday, December 17, 2012
Sweetwater Reporter
DEDICATED TO PROUDLY DELIVERING LOCAL NEWS SINCE 1881
-1—^ Sweetwater 1
Reporter
P.O. Box 750/112 W. Third
Sweetwater, Texas 79556
325/236-6677
TU
MEMBER
2012
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
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Glenn Stifflemire
publisher
Feliciana Vela
business mgr.
Rick Nunez
ad director
Tatiana Rodriguez
managing editor
Ashlye Headstream
circulation mgr.
Pablo Rodriguez
composing mgr.
Rleu Reyes
production mgr.
EDITORIAL POLICY
The editorial section of the newspaper is a forum for
expression of a variety of viewpoints. All articles except
those labeled “Editorials” reflect the opinions of the writ-
ers and not those of the Sweetwater Reporter.
Letters to the Editor
I spent a great deal of time Friday night trying to
come to grips with the unthinkable tragedy at Sandy
Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. I
don’t know why I insist on trying to understand the
actions of a madman. Sometimes there just are no
words.
What became a startling revelation to me was,
at 52 years old; I am still able to remember every
single teacher and administrators names from my
childhood. I remember my art teachers. I remember
my physical education teachers. I remember every
principal and everyone who worked in their office. I
even remember Tommy The janitor from elementary
school. I thought back to everything they taught me,
whether educationally or as a life lesson. I thought
of their patience, their compassion and their desire
to teach us.
What became apparent was, I had always looked
up to these fine people, but never thought of them
as “heroes”. Shame on me. These people worked for
paltry incomes, showed up early, left late and took
their work home with them, only desiring to teach us
all to be better persons.
When I say my prayers, and lead my children in
theirs, we always ask God to bless our police officers,
firefighters and soldiers. We now have a new hero
to add to our list. Educators. It dawned on me as I
called my children to say “goodnight” as they spent
the night with their grandparents. Their grandmoth-
er just so happens to work as an administrator in the
SISD. I would like to first apologize for not recogniz-
ing this blinding fact sooner. Secondly; thank you all
from the bottom of my heart for all that you all do for
my children — and that extends to every educator in
the world who has sacrificed of themselves to make
the world a better place.
In the horror that occurred on Friday morning,
this world lost at least 20 precious, innocent lives.
But; we also lost at least six fine, dedicated educa-
tors, as well. The toll on educators would have likely
been lower, except for one fact that I am certain of.
The greatest likelihood is that they gave their lives
trying to protect those who mean the most to them.
At some point; we, as a community, need to come
together and pray for all affected by this tragedy. We
also need to stand up as people and thank God for
these wonderful guardians of our greatest gift from
God. Thank you all for your tireless dedication.
Jim Dempsey
Dear Editor
The Chamber of Commerce would like to say
“thank you” to everyone who helped make the 2012
“Peace on Earth” Christmas parade such a success.
We enjoyed having the outstanding Male Citizen,
Dale McCreight, Female Citizen, Jan Smith, and
Outstanding You Citizen, Dr. Robert Eaker, lead our
parade as Grand Marshalls. Also leading the parade
was Roscoe State Bank, Business of the Year. We
appreciate the participation of these folks in our
parade. The tradition of asking the Outstanding
Citizens and Business of the Year to lead the parade
was started many years ago, and it is a grand tradi-
tion.
We also thank the mighty Mustang Marching
Band, as well as the many individuals that decorated
floats, walked in the kazoo band, and all the others
that joined in to help make our parade such a joy!
We want to give a special thanks to the Sweetwater
Reporter and KXOX. We also want to thank the
Parade Judges. We appreciate Higginbotham-
Bartlett for allowing the parade to line up in their
parking lot.
Gay Nell Cherry’s convertible added so much to the
parade, and we thank her. We also want to thank Jan
Smith for bringing her truck and her family to join
in the parade. Roscoe State Bank furnished a float
for their employees to ride on so that they could all
throw candy to the excited children along the way.
Both the Chamber of Commerce and the kids of
all ages appreciated the candy donated by Wal Mart
and Brookshires. The donation of candy allows the
Chamber to provide the outstanding citizens candy
to throw to everyone along the parade route. Thanks
to both Wal Mart and Brookshires.
We also appreciate the assistance of the City of
Sweetwater, the Sweetwater Police Department, the
Nolan County Sheriff’s Office, and the Sweetwater
Fire Department.
Last, but certainly not least, we want to thank
Santa Claus for leaving the North Pole to come to
Sweetwater, Texas for our Christmas Parade.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to every-
one!
Sweetwater Chamber of Commerce
CAPITOL COMMENT
A better way to protect Social Security
Going over the fiscal
cliff on January 1st would
mean huge income tax
increases for all Americans
and across-the-board cuts
in most federal programs
(except Social
Security). I believe
Congress and the
White House will
do all that must be
done to avoid such
a shock to our
economy.
But the rea-
son for the fiscal
cliff - an explod-
ing national debt
- won’t go away
until Congress and
the White House
reach agreement
on a long-term
deficit-reduction solution.
Although there are dif-
ferences over the details,
there is broad agreement
in Washington that this
should consist of com-
prehensive, pro-growth
tax reform and common-
sense spending reforms
that include shoring up
the finances of Social
Security and other entitle-
ment programs.
More than 60 percent
of current federal spend-
ing goes to entitlement
programs, mostly Social
Security and Medicare.
To put that in perspective,
if we eliminated all federal
spending except entitle-
ments - that is, if we spent
no money on highways,
national defense, medical
research, food safety, etc.
- this year’s federal bud-
get would be just barely
balanced and would not
affect the debt at all.
In a few more years,
eliminating all non-enti-
tlement spending wouldn’t
be enough to balance the
budget. That’s because
both Social Security and
Medicare costs will grow
faster than our econo-
my for the next several
decades, as the largest
generation in our nation’s
history gets ready to retire.
At the same time, there
are fewer Americans in
the workforce to contrib-
ute payroll taxes to cover
THE IDLE AMERICAN
those benefits.
Some have pointed out
that both programs are
financed by payroll taxes
and have accumulated sur-
pluses in previous decades
(essentially
IOUs from the
U.S. Treasury).
But payroll
taxes no longer
cover the costs
of benefits, and
surpluses are
dwindling. The
non-partisan
Congressional
Budget Office
(CBO) currently
estimates a pay-
roll tax short-
fall in Social
Security of $59
billion in 2012, $76 billion
in 2013, and $86 billion
for both 2014 and 2015.
Social Security’s situa-
tion is on course to run out
of money for full retire-
ment benefits in 2033.
Although that seems a
long way off, waiting until
then to address Social
Security’s finances prob-
ably would require a big
payroll tax increase or a
cut in benefits - or both.
But modest, incremental
changes over the next few
years will protect benefits
for current retirees and
for those who are about to
retire, as well as preserv-
ing Social Security for the
next generation.
I have put forth a plan,
the Defend and Save Social
Security Act, to preserve
and strengthen Social
Security. My approach is
sensible, fair, and easy to
implement.
First, as Americans live
longer, it makes sense to
increase the retirement
age gradually - without
impacting those who are
about to retire. Under my
bill, anyone who is cur-
rently 59 years or older
would not be affected.
For everyone else, both
the normal retirement
age and early retirement
age would increase by
three months each year,
starting in 2016. That
means the normal retire-
ment age would reach 67
by 2019, 68 by 2023, 69
by 2027, and 70 by 2031.
The early retirement age
would also be gradually
increased to 63 by 2019
and 64 by 2023.
Second, the annual
cost-of-living adjustment,
or COLA, would be com-
puted as it is under cur-
rent law. However, my
bill would shave off 1 per-
cent of the COLA in any
year it exceeded 1 per-
cent. (If an annual COLA
adjustment is less than 1
percent, there would be
no change.)
Social Security’s Chief
Actuary calculates that my
legislation would ensure
full retirement benefits
for at least 50 years - as
well as reducing deficits
by $631 billion over the
next 10 years.
In its current form,
Social Security is headed
for insolvency. The ques-
tion isn’t whether to act,
it’s when. I believe it is
better to act now, while
there is time to gradu-
ally implement changes,
over the course of several
years, rather than suf-
fering a massive disrup-
tion to the program all
at once. By doing this,
there would be no cuts
in Social Security’s core
benefits and no payroll
tax increase on workers
today.
Hutchison, a
Republican, is the senior
U.S. senator from Texas.
Kay Railey
Hutchison
Soaring spirits in singing siblings
Mothers intuitively
sense potential in their
children that maybe obliv-
ious to practically
everyone else on
the planet. When
their offspring’s
musical talent is
validated by Bill
Gaither, however,
the world quickly
falls in line.
Such marks
the lives of the
Martins, a trio of
siblings who had
little choice but
to harmonize,
initially from the
farthest corners of
their 800-square
foot home near Hamburg,
AR. Joyce, 8, Jonathan, 6
and Judy, 5, drew in clos-
er, and soon their mother,
Wylma, pronounced them
ready to sing for others.
The “Martin kids”
became well known in
the area, vocalizing at
churches, homecom-
ings and numerous other
events before two of ‘em
had started to school.
By the end of the
1980s, the Martins had
performed thousands
of times throughout the
nation, getting “from
here to there” in cars,
vans and buses. They
logged more than 1.5 mil-
lion miles, the kids sing-
ing and mom in tow to
provide “road schooling”
between engagements.
(Dad J. W., a crop duster,
accompanied them when
he could.)
In 1991, some Bill
Gaither “regulars,” Mark
Lowery and Michael
English, prevailed on
Gloria Gaither to prevail
on hubby Bill, the world’s
gospel music icon, to give
the Martins a shot. He did,
and they’ve skyrocketed
to prominence and now
are themselves “regulars”
on the videos. Theye’ve
also sung in Carnegie
Hall, Kennedy Center,
the Grand Ole Opry, the
White House and at Billy
Graham Crusades.
Life was good, but it also
became compli-
cated. They chose
to go solo in 2002,
but half a dozen
years later, they
were reunited—
picking up where
they left off.
A trio again,
they no longer
reside in “LA,”
Jonathan’s ini-
tials for “lower
Arkansas.” He
lives in Iowa, Joyce
in Tennessee and
Judy in Georgia.
They maintain
rigorous concert sched-
ules, and likewise try to
keep family life as nor-
mal as possible in their
respective homes, where
spouses and an even
dozen children reside.
Included among
Jonathan’s half-dozen are
twins Michael and Taylor.
Now 16, the boys were
born prematurely at 30
weeks on New Year’s Eve,
1995. Michael was born
with only one eye fully
developed, and Taylor
with cerebral palsy.
By age two, Michael was
fitted with a prosthetic
eye. “He’s had a terrible
time keeping up with it,
and we’ve made a game of
innumerable searches for
his eye in the early years,”
Jonathan said.
The family well remem-
bers a delayed departure
for church one Sunday
morning when Michael
was four. His prosthesis
was nowhere to be found,
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and the search was on.
Halea, then six, found
it in her room—one “off
limits” to Michael and
Taylor. It was in her
Barbie doll house—even
further “off limits.”
All eyes turned to
Michael, who meekly
explained he thought it
was important to “keep an
eye on the Barbie dolls.”
Taylor is a piece of work,
too, refusing to surrender
to cerebral palsy. Since
his earliest memory, he’s
wanted to become a fire-
man. No one in the family
dared to dash his dream.
Some years ago, he was
spending hours perusing
the phone book. His folks
couldn’t imagine why.
Quizzed about it, Taylor
answered, “I’m memoriz-
ing names, phone num-
bers and addresses.” That
should really help me out
if I decide to be a fire dis-
patcher.”
On balance, the talent-
ed Martins lead remark-
ably normal lives. They
are determined to do so.
They remain unaffected
by their fame, possessing
that rare ability to “walk
with kings” and doggedly
retain the common touch.
They’ve won multiple
Dove awards, received
several Grammy nomina-
tions and tons of other
recognitions. Humility
still reigns.
Still, they understand
“smallness.” Jonathan
swears their church was
so tiny, there wasn’t even
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room for an unspoken
request.
Now, they live in a vast
world, masterfully sing-
ing praises to the “King
of Kings and the Lord of
Lords.” They’ve traveled
most of life’s roads—some
with unforeseen bumps
and some that rise up to
meet them.
But the Martins show
up singing, each of them
exemplifying as well as
any folks I’ve ever met a
firm belief that the ground
at the foot of the cross
is exceedingly level. I’m
mighty glad Bill Gaither
quickly recognizes talent
when it’s beyond excep-
tional, and that Wylma
made sure her kids
learned to harmonize.
Dr. Newbury is a
speaker in the Dallas/
Fort Worth Metroplex.
Speaking inquiries/com-
ments to: newbury@
speakerdoc.com. Phone:
817-447-3872. Twitter:
@donnewbury. Web site:
www.speakerdoc.com.
Correction Policy
Editorial:
As a matter of policy, the
Sweetwater Reporter will
publish corrections of errors
in fact that have been print-
ed in the newspaper.
The corrections will be
made as soon as possible
after the error has been
brought to the attention of
the newspaper’s editor at
236-6677.
Advertising:
Publisher reserves the right
to reject, edit or cancel any
advertising at any time with-
out liability. Publisher’s liabil-
ity for error is limited to the
amount paid for advertising.
DEDICATED TO PROUDLY DELIVERING LOCAL NEWS SINCE 1881
-❖-
Sweetwater
Reporter
Dr. Don
Newbuiy
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Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 286, Ed. 1 Monday, December 17, 2012, newspaper, December 17, 2012; Sweetwater, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth851646/m1/4/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sweetwater/Nolan County City-County Library.