Carol Parsons MY TWO CENTS

It starts with a french fry and ends with limiting the number of children per couple.

Personal freedoms are under assault, while society turns a blind eye.

Within the hallowed halls of state and federal governments, a movement to tax obesity is underway.

These champions of society insist the main culprit for obesity lies in what we eat, rather than how we eat and are determined to tax various corporations and individuals to pay for future health care needs.

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” The old hotel, built in the heyday of tourism had fallen on hard times, replaced by newer, more modern hotels and a declining population.

Revived once or twice by visionaries, it now sat empty and forlorn; the funds needed for renovation or demolition far exceeding what the town could afford.

Yet the dream of building a place for the “convenience of guests and travelers” never died and the hotel reopened in 1989 to continue strong as both a convention center and hotel.

A quiet revolution is occurring across America, in small towns, in huge metroplexes, in ghetto areas, among rural residents.  Driving beat-up cars with the same pride as a teen-ager of the 1950’s with his souped up jalopy, these folks do not know the meaning of the word “recession.”

 It is the era of the New Wealth, where credit cards are passé, and being out of debt is more desired than owning a two-story home or jet-setting about the world.

Note:  This column was published in the Record a couple of months ago and it won editor Carol Parsons third place in editorial writing at the recent Texas Press Association awards banquet.  Being our July 4th edition, I thought it would be timely to run it again and congratulate Carol on a great column!
Earl Plagens

Have you ever wondered what the difference was between weeds and wildflowers?

I’ve asked numerous plant people and ecologists, but never have received a satisfactory answer.

The self-same plant has been called both, depending on who you are talking to.

After several years of pondering the question, observing both weeds and wildflowers I have come to a conclusion:

If it blooms, it’s a wildflower. When it’s not blooming, it’s a weed.

NASA is scheduled to retire its space shuttle program this fall, leaving a five-year-gap before implementation of the Orion capsule and Ares I rockets.

It is a disturbing situation.

Regardless of the political pros and cons of the space program, the reality is that for the first time in four decades, America will no longer be a key player in the space race.

Five years may not be a long time for many aspects of American life, but in the world of technology it is a death knell.

What ever happened to personal responsibility?

Today’s headlines on the New York Times applauds the Big Apple for going after a notorious criminal .... food companies that put a lot of salt in pre-packed foodstuffs.

Most people have known for a long time that too much salt is not good and that prepackaged food has enough sodium in it to choke a horse.

However, when did that become some governmental entity’s responsibility to save us from ourselves?