Beyond here there be dragons, or at least the most interesting articles I’ve read this week by other writers.
Tombstone, Arizona, dubs itself “America’s Second Amendment City”
By Kristine Guerra
Washington Post
Texas’ own Constitutional Carry proponent Representative Jonathan Stickland probably will be green with envy when he reads this story.
The saloons and shops that line Tombstone’s Allen Street look largely the same as the mud-brick buildings that stood there in the 19th century, Mayor Dusty Escapule said. Gun-carrying patrons in boots, some with horses that they tie outside the saloons, still walk the small Arizona town’s historic district, he added.
Of course, one does have to remember that Tombstone’s fame essentially comes from the shootout at the O.K. Corral. If you’ve never been there, the Hollywood image of the Corral is wrong. It actually is a fenced-in alley.
Trump spurs hope in Texas town
By Ryan Maye Handy
Houston Chronicle
You don’t have to look to West Virginia or Michigan to find those white working class voters who cast ballots for Donald Trump for president. There are plenty of them in Leon County, Texas, where work in the local coal mine, steel mill or the oil and gas fields has been hard to find.
Here in Leon County, which gave Trump 86 percent of its vote, expectations are high that a new era of prosperity is on its way. On Jewett’s Main Street, in the shops among empty storefronts, in the popular restaurant CJ’s Kountry Cookin’, in the local library, and at the Chamber of Commerce, people talk about how Trump will lift regulations on oil and gas, impose tariffs on foreign steel, spend billions on public works, and remove environmental restrictions on coal.
All this, they say, could translate into more jobs, more people moving into town, and more customers for local businesses like Salley’s Rodeo Western Wear.
However, Leon County has been voting Republican for at least a couple of decades now. Leon County’s latest troubles spring from the decline in the oil patch.
For millennials, financial security may be out of reach
By Agatha French
Los Angeles Times
Perhaps this was one of the factors that prompted the Bernie Sanders surge in the Democratic presidential primaries.
When baby boomers were young adults, their net worth was double that of today’s young people, who earn $10,000 less than their counterparts did in 1989, according to findings from advocacy group Young Invincibles. Its analysis of Federal Reserve data comparing 25- to 34-year-olds in 2013 and 1989 after adjusting for inflation confirms what many already suspected: The American dream has slipped out of reach for the country’s largest generation.
The business writers at Forbes were not as impressed.
Part of the explanation here is that the millennials are better educated. We could take that to be some dig at what the snowflakes are learning in college these days but that’s not quite what I mean. Rather, they’re measuring the incomes of millennials in their late 20s. The four year college completion or graduation rate has gone up by some 50% since the boomers were similarly measured. Thus, among the boomers at that age there would be more people with a decade of work experience under their belt and fewer people in just the first few years of a professional career.
This is just a little something to chew on as you ride-share your way to ordering a coffee from your local barista.
The Stars at Night are Big and Bright in National Harbor, Maryland
By Jamie Lovegrove
The Dallas Morning News
We can’t let today go by without a nod to the inauguration of Donald Trump as president and the traditional Texas-oriented Black Tie and Boots Ball. If the election was brutal, maybe puppies could make it better.
The Humane Society of Tulsa had brought Texas puppies for a president-themed adoption event, and 12-year-old Zoe Binkley fell in love with a Labrador puppy named Adams.
“I’m excited that there’s a new president,” she said, giggling. “But I’m a little more excited about the puppy.”
Despite getting fur and puppy slobber all over thousand-dollar gowns, nobody seemed to mind. The free-flowing drinks probably helped.
Women’s March to counter Trump Inaugural
This probably has been the most unusual presidential election since 1860, so we cannot ignore the thousands of women who plan to march in protest of the incoming Trump Administration. Here’s some thoughts from women organizing the Houston part of the march, Robin Paoli and Aimee Mobley Turney.
Why do we march? When women don’t lead, we lose. But why we march is even more than that: When American citizens don’t lead, we all lose.
In the aftermath of the 2016 election, citizens have been confronted with accusations and unprecedented data regarding political manipulations, voter suppression, and even collusion with foreign entities. There are questions about controversial software used in 27 states that deleted as many as 7 million registered voters from official state databases. The American citizens removed and unable to vote were overwhelmingly black, Hispanic, and Asian.
The movement called the Women’s March on Washington is, at its core, a call for all of us to re-engage our rights and responsibilities as citizens. The March is open to men as well, open to every American who understands “and justice for all” means justice for all.
Editorial: Legislature must keep focus on real issues, not on politics
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s transgender bathroom bill is not a favorite with at least one newspaper in the state’s Republican heartland.
In recent discussions, we have been gratified to hear area lawmakers saying they want to spend their time dealing with school finance, border security and projected budget challenges — and not non-issues like which bathrooms transgender Texans can use.
It’s important to restore dance halls
I know this isn’t politics, but who would argue with the Advocate’s stand on dance halls?
Today, dance halls serve as places where the tradition of mixing Czech polka and German waltzes to the tune of Western swing and fiddle hoedowns has been preserved.
For these reasons, the Victoria Advocate applauds the community of Yorktown for pulling together to restore Gruenau Hall, which was originally built in 1927.
Time to pull out the fiddle and scratch out the Westphalia Waltz.
