I Saw the Elephant....

It's been a year since I've posted. Part of that was planned. I just finished a year as Faculty Senate president at my university, and also President of H-Net Council.  During that time, writing anything would could have reflected negatively on my roles at the time, so I opted for quite.  Now, I feel more free to post.

As part of my removing myself from the positions I've held the past year and a half, we took a family vacation across America....and I mean literally across America.

It was popular in the mid-19th century to use the phrase "seeing the elephant" to describe a life-changing event, especially popular with people going West for the first time.  Although a student of the American West from a historical perspective, this was only the time I've really gone to see the Great West. I've driven through to Las Vegas, stopping at Grand Canyon and seen the lower Rockies at Albuquerque (Sangre de Christo mountains) before, but have never been north of New Mexico.  This trip took us from Houston to Glacier Park near Canada, roughly 4,600 miles in 10 days.

The trip up along the full length of the American Rocky Mountains was really something! Two of the sights I've always wanted to see, I finally got to see: Mount Rushmore and Old Faithful. These alone were worth the trip. I've wanted to see Colorado, Devil's Tower, the Little Bighorn and the Black Hills for some time, too.  This was my opportunity.  It was my first trip to the National Parks; it was the first time I stayed in a National Park; the first time I saw live elk, antelope, and buffalo in the wild. It was the first time I drove in the mountains, the first time I saw a glacier, the first time I made a trip of this distance by car.

I took over 900 photographs, and it will take me some time to go through them all.  Besides taking my in-laws to the place where they met, and taking a nice vacation trip, it was a way for me to prepare a course on the history of the American West, and I really think it was good preparation, because I got to see so much of what makes the West the West.

Klein Forest AVID Senior Celebration

Klein Forest AVID Senior Celebration

May 30, 2012

First, I want to tell you how honored I am to be invited to celebrate your achievements with you here at the Klein Forest AVID Senior Celebration. I also want to extend my gratitude to Ms. Balthazar, the Klein ISD AVID District Coordinator, for the kind invitation. Thank you all very much.

It’s difficult to know what to tell high school seniors about to graduate that you haven’t already heard. You’re entering the world of adulthood—some of you may already be 18 and legally adults. You’re excited about the future, excited about graduation on Saturday, excited about not having to go to school anymore.
I am reminded of a speech in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. In the play, one of the characters, Polonius, is speaking to his son Laertes, who is about to go on a trip to France. Polonius is an advisor to the king, and is known for long-winded speeches. Polonius has quite a bit of of advice for the young Laertes, and it reminded me of the typical graduation speech. Here are a few examples:

• “The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail (in other words, you can do anything you want or the future is yours!) 
• Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. (this means, know when to keep quite and not tell everyone what you’re thinking)
• Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. (Be friendly, but not rude)
• Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice (Listen more than you talk) 
• Neither a borrower nor a lender be (pretty self-explanatory)

It is, however, the last piece of advice that I think is important. Polonius tells his son, “This above all: to thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” I think this really is a good piece of advice, and one that unfortunately, takes most people years to come to grips with. People spend years of their lives, and thousands of dollars in trying to find out who they are, what their role in this world is. The marvelous thing to keep in mind is that you sitting here probably have the tools you already need to understand who you are and your character. You’ve all been involved with AVID. What does AVID stand for? Advancement Via Individual Determination. The skills you’ve learned through AVID will help you as you continue to grow, learn, and succeed.

What does it mean, to be true to yourself? It means knowing who you are. It means you have to be comfortable in who you are. In order to do this, you’re going to have to 

1. Set your definition of Success 
2. Develop your Character What is Success?

You’re going to have expectations as you enter your adult life, some certainly of your own, some expectations from your family’s, your friends will also have expectations. Everyone has high hopes for you. We all want you to succeed, but what exactly does that mean? Success is defined different ways by different people. Let me give you some examples:
To The General Community: For most people, being successful means being able to become an productive individual in society. A college or university education should prepare graduates to think and act for themselves, and to communicate those thoughts effectively to others. Graduates should be able to live well with others, and make a contribution to the communities in which they live: locally, nationally, and globally, and earn a living.
To The Academic Community: Students should be continually enrolled and pass their courses with “C”s or better, until they gain enough credits until they graduate or earn a certification.
To The Business Community: Graduates who are prepared to work in an increasingly complex, technologically-driven, and constantly changing global economy. Employers expect graduates to be able to apply the education they received in college to the “real-world.” Graduates should be knowledgeable and informed in their degree fields, possess critical thinking, analytical, research, and communication skills. They should be team-players, and work ethically.

By knowing yourself, and being true to yourself, and understanding of what success means for you. You have to know your limitations. It means don’t try to sell yourself as something your not. Abraham Lincoln once stated, “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” You have to know what you are capable of and what your limitations are. At the same time, you have to be comfortable enough to stretch your self and set higher, yet realistic goals. The book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, examines characteristics of successful people. Gladwell talks about the “ten-thousand hour rule” that it takes constant and repeated practices in order to master a skill. Unfortunately, Gladwell states, most Americans aren’t used to practice. We don’t want to waste long hours learning the basics; we want to be experts from the beginning.
Several years ago, basketball legend Michael Jordan made a commercial where he mentioned the statistics that marked his career. He didn’t talk about how many times he was named MVP, his All-Star Game appearances, or his scoring average. Instead, Jordan said

“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Success in life, however you define success, isn’t about always winning, or about having good things happen to you. It’s about how you face the bad times, it’s about character, and getting back up after you’ve failed, and trying again.

What is character?

As a historian I’m very interested in how people meet adversity and difficulty. History is often written around the challenges, struggles, and tragedies of life. “War makes rattling good history, but peace poor reading.” People like stories about how human beings act and react under pressure, and in times of difficulty. How many books have been written about the Civil War, or any war, for that matter? History, then, is often the story of human character. It is who we are in hard times.

            In 1956, British Historian R. G. Collingwood in his book, The Idea of History, wrote:

History is ‘for’ human self-knowledge. It is generally thought to be of importance to man that he should know himself: where knowing himself means knowing not his merely personal peculiarities, the things that distinguish him from other men, but his nature as man. Knowing yourself means knowing, first, what it is to be a man; secondly, knowing what it is to be the kind of man you are and nobody else is. Knowing yourself means knowing what you can do; and since nobody knows what he can do until he tries, the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.

 Character is forged in the fires of adversity. But it is not who we are to an audience. It is who we are, not in front of our friends, but it is who we are when we are alone, when no one is watching. President “Teddy” Roosevelt said, “I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!” Character is how you handle defeat.

So, how do you develop character? As I stated earlier, your involvement with AVID has already equipped you with what you need to develop character. In fact, that is exactly what AVID means, Advancement via Individual Determination…success through will…success through “grit”!

•  Set Realistic Goals: Don’t set yourself up for failure, but don’t settle for good enough. You should be have pride in your efforts. Understand that You cannot please everyone. You have to make hard decisions. Sometimes you’ll make decisions that no one will like. Sometimes people will be hurt by your decisions, but you have to make decisions that will serve the greater good, that will be of the most benefit in the long run.
•  And you have to understand that one of the most important, yet toughest decision you’ll have to make is to decide who you want to be, and then surround yourself with those who are going to help you get there and celebrate your accomplishments. Some people warn against the crab or crawfish mentality. When one tries to escape from a boiling pot, the others will pull him back down. Once told “don’t forget where you came from.” Some people interpret that to mean that you should not rise above your station in life, but what it really means is that you should not forget the hard work that got you where you are, and the people who made sacrifices to help you get there.

As a professional educator, I get numerous advertisements for new books that come to my mailbox or email inbox almost on a daily basis. In fact, yesterday, I learned about a new book that was just published, Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me, by Jerry McGill. When he was thirteen years old, he was walking home from friends’ house one evening when, three blocks from home when a bullet stuck him. He doesn’t know why someone shot him. I’ll never know; why what happened happened.”  In the book, he writes, "My life, in a way, has been formed by some kind of darkness; but not in a way that you would think . . . there is a beauty in darkness…and there is so much to be learned and gained in darkness, if you just know how to process it and channel it. . . It’s damaging at times, its scary, but there is also a great beauty in it.” As McGill’s story illustrates Life happens. It happens quickly, and its effects are profound and lasting. As I stated earlier, however, success in life, however you define success, isn’t about always winning, or about having good things happen to you. It’s about how you face the bad times, it’s about character, and getting back up after you’ve failed, and trying again.

In the introduction to his book, McGill writes that the book isn’t about being shot, or being angry at the unknown person who changed his life suddenly and violently. “I didn’t write this book for you, Marcus,” he states. “I wrote this for a certain population of the world: Those who endure, those who manage, those who cope, those who get out of bed every morning going on with the business of their lives knowing what they know, those who look into the eyes of the storm and step out battered, drenched and unbeaten, those who are determined to move on. Maybe you’re one of us; now that would truly make for a great story, wouldn’t it?”

A few years ago at a conference, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1960s and spent a week in jail when he was 12 years old as a result of a civil rights protest. On Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, just as Sunday School was out at the 16^th Street Baptist Church, and church services were about to begin, a box of dynamite exploded under the steps of the church by the basement. Twenty-two people were injured, but the bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church is remembered for the four young women who lost their lives as a result of hatred of the Klan members who planted the bomb. Freeman Hrabowski went to school with those children. For Dr. Hrabowski, life hasn’t been about the struggles he faced growing up in a segregated community, about facing discrimination daily, about being jailed as a child, or about his school friends dying because of racism and hatred. For him, it’s about setting achievable goals, about surrounding yourself with people who help you, not hinder you, and keeping your sights on your goals. 

As Jerry McGill says, “just getting up and going on with the business of living, and appreciating what you have.” As a result of his efforts, Hrabowski was named one of America’s Best Leaders by US News and World Report in 2008, and one of the Top Ten College Presidents by Time Magazine in 2009.This year Time Magazine named him one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” The Time write up on Dr. Hrabowski states that as president of the institution, he turned “a humble commuter school into one of the nation’s leading sources of African Americans who get PhDs in science and engineering.” Dr. Hrabowski ended his presentation at the conference with a statement that I thought was profound, and inspirational. And in conclusion, I’d like to pass it along to you today:

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

Barack Obama and the End of African American History?

I think we can all agree that yesterday we witnessed an historic election. For the first time in our nation’s democracy we overcame questions of gender and race in our presidential candidates. In 1992, neoconservative philosopher and economist Francis Fukuyama gained notoriety with his essay, “The End of History,” and later book THE END OF HISTORY AND THE LAST MAN, where he carried forward Hegel and Marx’s idea that history was the progression of political struggle. Fukuyama posited that Western liberal democracy marked the utopia of political thought and signaled the end of this progression and thus the end of history.

When teaching the history of minority groups, and especially African Americans, it’s often said that the words Thomas Jefferson put to velum in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” was not something set in stone, but a goal. At the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr., said he dreamed that “one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed”. So, to borrow from Fukuyama’s scaffolding, I’d like to ask what the election of Barack Obama will mean to the future of African American history. If African American history has told of the struggle to achieve equity in American society, did we reach that point in yesterday’s election?

Will the election change the way our students think about African-American history? Will it change how we teach the subject? Does this mean that we’ve moved past the multicultural into a fully post-ethnic society, or perhaps that we’ve even transcended the post-ethnic? Or is race even the issue? Did Americans turn out to elect the “first African American” president, or was this a rejection of the Reagan-era supply-side conservative Republicanism that George W. Bush claimed as his political heritage? Or was it a reaction against the economic downturn that is affecting the nation? If voters flocked to Obama because he is black that is one thing, but it says something completely different if he won because he was the Democratic nominee. Was his nomination and election a result of the “novelty” of an African-American candidate?

As I watched Obama’s election celebration last night, and saw John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, and heard about 106 year-old Ann Nixon Cooper, I thought of the changes African Americans have seen in the past century, the past 50 years, and the past decade. I remember watching public service announcements for the United Negro College Fund on television emphasize the phrase, “The mind is a terrible thing to waste.” I was especially moved by a grandfather putting his grandson on a school bus. The older man encouraged the younger boy to study and do well in school and one day he might become a doctor. The young boy looked up at his grandfather and asked why he didn’t go to college. Of course, the unspoken message was that race and poverty prevented the grandfather from realizing his dreams. Will Obama’s election affect the question of the future of Affirmative Action? Does his election mean that we’ve moved beyond race as a determining issue, much as we look to John Kennedy’s election as Americans’ willingness to overlook his Catholicism? Have we now moved beyond race as an issue? How will students consider race relations in American history from now on? One African American woman said last night that she went to the polls with her grandchildren and could now honestly tell them that anyone of them could grow up to be president. Did the election make manifest the goals of MLK’s Dream, and the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement?

Obama Wins!!!!

I'm ecstatic! I could not believe that Americans turned out in such force to vote for Barack Obama, the first time in our history that we've transcended our centuries of racism and prejudice and elected an African American. This has been one of the LONGEST campaigns ever! I'm relieved and happy with the results and the simple fact that this is over. Are we finally realizing the Dream that Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of ? I certainly don't know that we've achieved that dream, but it is certainly closer than I thought we would have been at a year ago...or even 6 months ago.

Barack is about to accept. McCain gave a fantastic concession speech.

Barack is onstage and is about to speak.

Reflections on Hurrican Ike

We did fine through the storm, and had no damage. We were fortunate. Many around the city were not so fortunate, not to mention those along the coast, north from Galveston to Sabine Pass, then up through the rural areas.

Mari and I hunkered down through Hurricane Ike. We don't live in downtown Houston, but were within the "eyewall" of the storm as it passed north. We got some strong winds, sustained winds were about 60mph. The storm came ashore sometime at Galveston between midnight and 2 am. The eye of the storm was pretty large, so some said midnight, some said 2 am (which I think was the "official" landfall)

To tell you the truth, we didn't really notice the storm inside our house, other than the sound of pine cones and branches hitting our roof. It kind of reminded me of the flood in New Braunfels. I mean the 72 flood, since now we have to specify--not the flooding of 2000 or 2001, or when the last two floods happened. My dad worked the late shift for Mission Valley Mills and couldn't make it home that evening. Mom and I waited in the dark, and would go outside and listen to what we thought might be a tornado. It wasn't until the morning that I learned what happened, maybe my mom listened to the radio, but I wasn't aware of it.

I was reminded of that event when Mari and I went outside to watch the wind blow, and although there was plenty of rain, we didn't notice so much because the wind blew it into a fine mist, although we could see it flying overhead. We got a bunch of debris in our yard, and the real fear was a tree falling. She grew up in West Texas and sustained 70 mph winds are a fact of life out there. Of course, that's usually accompanied by fine red dust. Tornadoes are very common during the spring, so bad weather as a whole is de rigueur.

We had power until 6am Saturday, then lost it. We're on a short line, only about 5 houses in our neighborhood, but the convenience store around the corner lost its roof which blew straight back on our powerlines. We also had very little water pressure as there were some power losses to pumping stations around the city.

Sunday morning we left. Our house alarm's batter died, we had no power for over a day, and little water pressure. We decided we didn't like living Medieval: hot, dark, and dirty. I admire those who can live that way, but not worth it if you don't have to. I say this, and I have colleagues and students who still don't have power.

We went to Mari's brother's house in Fort Worth until Friday, which was also interesting. We've got older two dogs (10 & 11) and a cat (12), but they have a little Basenji who is 17. When we got there her brother told us they were on dog hospice watch. It was odd. Half the time I kept a close eye on the dog because I thought she was about to fall over and die. Then the next moment, she would jump up and run about the house like a mad person. She is blind and deaf, but always hungry and thirsty.

When we left, we went down to Waco, then to College Station and into Houston as we live not too far from 290. We feared that there would be a food and gasoline shortage, so we stocked up a bit in Fort Worth, then stopped at a gas station in Hempstead. Gas was $3.90, and had a limit of 10 gallons. Yet, when we made it back home, the HEB and Walmart had gas for $3.39 and there were no shopping lines!

Our neighbors had called us on Monday the 15th and told us power was restored, but only on our side of the street. Many of our neighbors are still without electricity. There was a bunch of broken trees, scattered limbs, blown transformers and just a general mess after the storm. Our electric company is working 24/7 to fix stuff, and it's been amazing to see how fast they, and the 7,000 contractors they brought in are restoring power, but there are still plenty without. I think by Thursday, the 24th, some 500,000 are without power still....that's the population of Alaska!

Street lights are out and may are on flash. Although there have been other problems, looting seems to have been a minimum. The real problem is Galveston and the rural beach areas. Some of my college students and many of Mari's high school kids are without power still, and some have had significant damage to their houses.

But, again, thankfully, we're ok.

Hunkering Down During Hurricane Ike-Sunday

We bugged out Sunday morning and headed for Fort Worth. It seems when a hurricane comes, we always head for West Texas.

We weathered the storm ok, however, when we went outside Saturday morning, trees were down all over the neighborhood. One tree down the street was split in half and was laying in the middle of the street.

We had electricity until Saturday morning at 6am. We considered ourselves lucky, at that. We walked around the neighborhood and found out that a convenience store around the corner had it's roof blown off. The roof was laying across our power lines, so we are unsure how long we'll be without power.

We also had very little water pressure, although our mayor promises that this is priority number 1.

One funny thing we noted was that people came out Saturday morning and began cleaning their yards. Maybe to get rid of the debris, maybe to see what was damaged and what wasn't, but it occurs to me that it was one way of humans reasserting some sense of control in the face of the power of nature.

Our institutions are closed until at least Thursday, and we don't know how long our neighborhood will be without power. We're just taking it one day at a time.

Hunkering Down During Hurricane Ike-Saturday 3am

Our 3 am post. Click here

Hunkering Down During Hurricane Ike-Saturday

Our 1 am report!!! May be the last due to flickering electricity!

Click here.

Hunkering Down During Hurricane Ike

We're making podcasts of our experiences during Hurricane Ike.

Report 1 at 6pm. Click here to listen.

Report 2 at 8 pm. Click here to listen.

Report 3 at 11 pm. Click here to listen.

We're going to keep going until we lose electricity, or fall asleep. Which ever comes first.

Thoughts on Sarah Palin

This if funny
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card

Email Hoax about Obama

I just got an email one of my best friends forwarded to me called "Bubba on Obama." I'm not going to post it here, it's ALL OVER the Internet on a thousand stupid sites. If you want to read it, Google it.

It starts off, "MAYBE I'VE GOTT'N THIS ALL WRONG - ME JUST BE'N AN OLD FARM BOY WITHOUT MUCH EDUCATION...BUT NOW, Y'ALL CHECK THIS OUT:HIS FATHER WAS A KENYAN, A MUSLIM, AND A BLACK. WE SAW ALL THOSE PICTURES OF HIS NICE AFRICAN FAMILY."

Ok, at the very end it reads, "According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is:The anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything ."

Now, if anyone who reads this believes it, I've got about 200 letters from people who represent banks in Africa that have unclaimed money that you can claim. Also, I know of about 50 wealthy dying people who are looking for someone to take their millions because they don't want their evil relatives to get the money--in otherwords, you'll believe anything!

Oh, and cell phones will pop popcorn, too.

I don't have time nor the energy to point out step by step where this is just total foolishness, but if someone will show me in the Book of Revelations where it says the Anti-Christ will be a Muslim, much less a 40-something year old, I'll gladly buy you a bacon cheeseburger.

And as for experience, Obama was a practicing attorney and taught at law school for about 8 years, not someone just out of law school who was just an activist. He served in his state legislature.

Now, if you want to talk about lack of experience, what has Sarah Palin done? Govern a state that has less folks than Austin, TX? Govern a state that only has more people than Wyoming and North Dakota? Even her National Guard commander has admitted that she has never given any orders in the short two years as governor of a state that's mostly ice.

Palin's only claim to fame is the governor of a state that took federal money (that's OUR tax dollars, friend) and then didn't spend it as it was allocated, but used the money for other "pet" projects. That's responsibility?

She is also in favor of drilling and has just bought off Alaskan voters by giving them over $1,000 each of oil revenues. Nice, huh? Well, that oil drilling is paid for by taxpayers in the rest of the USA with tax incentives to those oil companies. Again, our tax dollars are being given to Alaskans to buy their support for Palin.

Now, look. There are plenty of reasons not to vote for Obama.
1) You're a Republican.
2) You want to vote for woman, no matter which ticket she's on.
3) You like McCain.
4) You don't want to vote for an African-American.

All those are legitimate reasons. Of course, if you're don't want to vote for Obama because you don't want to vote for an African-American, then just admit your a racist. It's that simple. The idiot who wrote all this claptrap about him being a Muslim, an Anti-white Christian, and the Anti-Christ needs to just come clean and admit he came up with this bull because he's racist. At least that would be honest.

But don't try to insult the intelligence of the rest of us.

Have a great day!

The Reply!

Dear At Home,

Thank you for your e-mail. KPRC Local 2 reporters are using a much more demonstrative reporting style, and they are using it at my direction.

Demonstrative, active reporting is a much more engaging storytelling style. Most viewers respond positively to these techniques. This is also the way the majority of reporters and anchors around the country communicate information to viewers. For that matter it is the preferred style by most public speakers and storytellers.

I'm sorry you don't enjoy our demonstrative reporting, but I am glad you plan to give our news an extended look. You may come to enjoy our lively reporting. By the way, I think our competitors like what we are up to as they are adopting our live and lively storytelling techniques in their reports. Many viewers are pleased with our product as well. After many years of frankly not being competitive for Houston viewers’ attention, more and more people are now turning to KPRC for their news and information.

Thanks for watching KPRC Local 2 and for taking the time to e-mail me your concerns.

Sincerely,

Skip Valet

VP/News Director

KPRC Local 2

TV News Anger!

An Open Letter to My Local News Station:

I'm writing as a long-time KPRC viewer. I have long been a NBC news fan. Most of the shows I watch are NBC shows, and when I lived in New Braunfels, San Marcos, Austin, and Lubbock, I watched the local NBC affiliate.

I have become increasingly concerned over KPRC's reporters increasing use of "props" to facilitate their stories. At first, among my friends we had a game to try to figure when Ryan Korsgard would use a prop, as he was notorious. Almost every story he covered included him using some prop to propel the story. Recently, however, Elizabeth Scarborough began using props in more of her stories. This morning, Daniella Guzman waved $15 dollars at the camera when she discussed a local man's slaying.

The occasional "prop" might be effective, but these three reporters, especially Mr. Korsgard, have reduced the effectiveness of the prop to the ridiculous. I worked in radio broadcasting 10 years in the 1980s and 1990s, and although did not use props, the general understanding was that in both print and broadcasting these affectations could help a story, but used sparingly lest it become a crutch for a weak story. It seems it has become some sort of inside joke or contest at KPRC at best, or a crutch for weak reporting at worst.

It borders on the sensational, and skirts propriety in some cases. While the reporters should know better, it is really the responsibility of the news editor to curb this sort of behavior.

I will continue to watch KPRC, as I think it's the best station for news, but this trend toward reporters using props increasingly in their news stories has made me question the news department's effectiveness.

Your Thought Influence Your Character

Last November, I attended a conference in Tampa, Florida, entitled “Black, Brown, and College Bound,” which discussed the problems of minority males in higher education. One of the speakers was Freeman Hrabowski, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (http://www.umbc.edu/aboutumbc/president/index.php). He was a fantastic motivational speaker.

He recited a quote that I really liked:

"Watch your thoughts, they become words.Watch your words, they become actions.Watch your actions, they become habits.Watch your habits, they become your character.Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."

A little research attributes this to someone named Frank Outlaw, a cool name, but cannot be tracked down. The “internet” also attributes the quote to “Elizabeth C” who states she started sending it around in 1999.

A bit more research, however, reveals that this….probably like all good quotes….actually is a variation on something stated by Siddhārtha Gautama, the Buddha:

“The thought manifests as the word; The word manifests as the deed; The deed develops into habit; And habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care, And let it spring from love Born out of concern for all beings.”

Which isn’t too different from what Jesus said: “A tree is known by its fruit. … For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. A good person brings forth good out of a store of goodness, but an evil person brings forth evil out of a store of evil.” (Matthew 12:34)

The Correct Answer Might Be "D"?

This photo is an example of

a. where the adjective "exemplary" was used instead of the adverb "exemplarily."
b. where "ours" was incorrectly used in the possessive.
c. where the word "teachers" should have been used parenthetically.
d. the reason our high school graduates cannot read or write.

Busy Summer

I've been so busy the past few months I'm surprised I'm still standing. I spent all of June in Lubbock doing research, then when I came back I found out I had three emergencies.

First, the good news was that my dissertation manuscript was approved for publication by Texas A&M University press. After about a year of waiting, then suddenly they want me to get revisions done by the end of September. Of course that didn't happen.

The next "emergency" was a problem with a $400,000 grant we wrote. University of Houston-Downtown joined in a national community college project to track problems with college students and find ways of helping them do better (SACCD is part of this program). Anyway, the grant money had been held up until we answered some questions, and we had to get these in by the end of August.

Third, I turned in a chapter for a book some people were putting together on 20th century Texas history. I did a chapter on the development of public schools. This was back in October. I heard nothing. In March, the editors told me everything was hunky-dory. Suddenly, in July, I get an emergency email stating that a reviewer didn't like my chapter as it was. Could I get revisions back in 2 weeks. I did it in a few days, then they sent it to another reviewer, and again problems. I told them I didn't want to hold up publication because while I could make revisions, they were quickly getting to the end of the deadline. Finally we found a reader who liked my chapter.

Then last month, one of our dogs got a bloody nose in the middle of the night one Friday. We ended up having to take her to an emergency pet clinic (which cost us an arm and a leg). Of course, the vet suggested that it was probably cancer in the nose, and we'd have to put the dog down. Then, she called later to say that the dog had diabetes. That is probably what caused the nosebleed, as there has been no more talk about cancer. So we decided we needed to check her blood, so we bought a kit. We soon realized that we don't know how to prick her finger....since she doesn't have one. So we decided playing around and checked ourselves. My sugar level was nearly 300mgs. EEEKKK. I want to the doctor, and found out I have diabetes.

I wasn't really surprised since I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia in high school and the doctor told me then that it would probably turn into diabetes at some point. Well, it did. So I'm taking medication now to control my sugar level. It's lower, although not where it needs to be.

So my dog saved my life.

Lady Bird Johnson

Wednesday morning I was at the LBJ Library in Austin. I meant to ask about Lady Bird’s health. She had been sick for a while, and suffered a stroke in 2002. She had lost her sight, and most recently her ability to speak. A few weeks ago she was back in the hospital due to a fever, so I did want to see how she was. I didn’t get a chance to, and then learned Thursday that she passed away.

I met Lady Bird, Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, Liz Carpenter and other members of Lyndon Johnson’s inner-circle while I was an undergraduate. As an undergraduate history major and as a graduate student, I did most of my research on Johnson, and spent quite a bit of time at the Library. I see Liz Carpenter every year at the Texas history convention I go to and always asked her about Lady Bird. I only met Lady Bird once, and only briefly, but she exuded warmth and kindness.

The Johnsons were products of a time when the Democratic Party was on top. They followed the Kennedy’s, and although many people did not expect much from LBJ, he changed America. He fought discrimination and racism, promoted education, and sought to end poverty. He was also a Cold Warrior, and his efforts to continue the battle against Communism-for better or worse-were influenced by a generation that saw the horrors of dictatorial governments during World War II and wanted to prevent them. It was at the same time, the best years of the Democratic Party, and some of the worst.

Lady Bird was one of the last living legacies of that period, and a strong woman in her own right. As State Senator Rodney Ellis said yesterday, Lady Bird was a strong influence at a time when women weren’t expected to play an active role in presidential politics, yet she was one of the first to make the preservation of the environment an important issue, and fight against littering.

Since then, we Americans and those of us who call ourselves Democrats have backed off from the idealism of the 1960—the idea that as a nation we COULD end poverty and human suffering; the idea that affirmative action was a way of fighting discrimination and injustice; that we needed a level playing field to start from so that people could have a more equal opportunity to succeed or fail….but at least they had the opportunity! We have become more conservative in our approach because we think that will attract more voters. I don’t think the Johnsons would have approved. When LBJ signed Civil Rights legislation into law, he KNEW it would lose the party voters—but he did it because he knew it was RIGHT and he convinced Senators and Representatives and Southern governors that they should do the RIGHT THING…not because it was politically popular, but because it would benefit Americans. Surely he made mistakes. He was no saint. But, LBJ was a STATESMAN.

We need those in our party today.

Spurred into Action!

Ok, I'm realizing that it's been a year since my last few posts. Truth is I've got several blogs (don't ask why) and my Blogger sites have been neglected. The the news today has me in a tiff.

I would have hoped that with all the Paris Hilton foolishness, we wouldn't hear from her for a while. Especially after the spectacle she made of herself crying like a 3-year old when she's going to jail. Granted jail is no laughing matter, but she's in Hollywood jail.

Anyway, what do I see this morning: The news reports that Paris Hilton called Barbara Walters and admitted that she used to "act dumb" but now this time in jail....BUT NOT ANY MORE!

"Now, I would like to make a difference. ... God has given me this new chance."

PARIS: SHUT THE HELL UP!!! CAN YOU NOT GO 2 DAYS WITHOUT MEDIA COVERAGE?

Moreover, is this the typical jail experience or what?

--She's found God.
--She's repentant.
--She's turning her life around.

And she's been in jail, what? 3 days?

When is she getting the jailhouse tattoo?

Who are you voting for?

This is a great site about people getting involved in voting....as the catch phrase goes, "if you're not voting, then who are you electing?"



www.payattention.org.


I love the list of candidates, including Bag of Leaves, Tacky Ceramic Rooster, and Frozen Peas.

Bad News for TSU

Chron.com As enrollment falls, TSU cuts 178 jobs: "July 29, 2006, 2:29PM
As enrollment falls, TSU cuts 178 jobs
The downsizing comes in wake of 21.5% tuition hike, spending scandal

By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Texas Southern University announced on Friday the elimination of 178 jobs, including dozens of faculty positions, in an attempt to contain costs while enrollment continues to slide.

The decision caps off a painful summer for students at the nation's second-largest historically black university. In recent months they've seen TSU's once-popular president fired amid a spending scandal, a 21.5 percent tuition hike and now the layoffs.

Faced with a multimillion-dollar budget gap, TSU leaders made cuts across the board, with the house-cleaning reaching the executive offices. The firings included the university's chief fundraiser, who was also a vice president.

The cuts reduced the workforce by 16 percent, a rollback not seen in recent memory at TSU. But acting President Bobby Wilson said the current contraction represents 'our desire to continue to provide a high-quality education.'

A hiring and spending freeze that began in June remains in effect, Wilson said.

Regents cite other reasons

Administrators and regents blamed the university's troubles on rising energy and insurance costs and declining enrollment after six years of rapid growth.

Six months ago, they projected a surplus of more than $10 million for the fiscal year that ends Aug. 31. But officials now face a roughly $5 million shortfall in revenue and an anticipated $13.7 million shortfall for next year.

J. Paul Johnson, chairman of TSU's governing board, said campus leaders intended to balance the budget with the latest round of belt-tightening.

"You have to take care of the business," he said.

Johnson said the decision makers tried to leave areas with direct contact with students intact. Most of the job cuts came on the administrative side.

Still, the university eliminated 67 faculty positions, all of them belonging to visiting, non-tenured scholars. Daniel Adams, a professor of fine arts, said the cuts would have a far-reaching effect on an already overworked faculty.

"It's going to make things difficult for us," Adams said. "We need more faculty members, not less."

Somber mood on campusAround campus, the mood is grim. Earlier this year, the regents fired the university's president, Priscilla Slade, on the grounds that she misspent the school's money to furnish and landscape her house. She now faces a criminal investigation, which is expected to conclude next week.

Despite Slade's lavish spending, her supporters said she brought stability, while persuading donors, lawmakers and prospective students that the school is on the rise.

Regent Bill King said the university's current financial problems would have happened even if Slade were still in charge.

"Her administration ran the school on the theory that enrollment would continue to grow indefinitely," King said. "But every university hits a wall, and TSU is no exception. There was no plan for an enrollment decrease, and that makes this more painful."

Campus leaders forecast a 7 percent drop in attendance this fall, two years after a record enrollment of about 11,600 students.
Will students feel cuts?King said he anticipates the job cuts having relatively little effect on students.

"There was some fat that could be cut," he said. "I support what Dr. Wilson is doing. He has agonized over it and prayed over it. I know this wasn't an easy thing to do. But he is trying to make sure the university is financially viable."

Officials said the layoffs might not eliminate the shortfall, but regents said any additional measures would not include another tuition hike.
In May, the regents agreed to raise tuition and fees by 21.5 percent this fall. The increase was the first in two years. The school has tried to hold off increases because of the potential hardship for students, many of whom are working adults or from low-income families.