One thing you don't do in Hereford

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger and you don’t pick against the Herd.
Only one person so far has had the gumption to – as Sports Editor Skip Leon would say –“bust my chops” to my face because I picked against Hereford two times as one of the Fearless Forecasters.
Skip, however, has received an earful on my behalf. Let it be known that I have heard the message loud and clear. You just don’t pick against Hereford.
Apparently people around here take the picks a little more seriously than I do. That might explain why I am so far in last place.
When I first volunteered to be one of the Fearless Ones, I had never even heard of half the high school teams we were asked to pick, let alone know how good any of them were. I mostly picked teams that I had heard of, or teams with funky-sounding names.
Since then, I’ve received an education in Texas high school football. Apparently I still have a lot to learn.
I chose to pick against Hereford in the games with Abilene Cooper and Frenship because the Whitefaces were huge underdogs. It had nothing to do with supporting the home team or wanting the Herd to win. Of course I want them to win.
The way I saw it, if I was to be a Fearless Forecaster, I shouldn’t be afraid to pick any team I think will triumph. Otherwise I would be neither fearless nor a forecaster.
Boy, was I wrong.
I will be picking Hereford to win the rest of their games, not because my chops are busted, but because I feel they have a good chance to do that.
As the Lone Ranger (in more ways than one) of the Fearless Forecasters I still reserve the right to pick any team to win that I see fit. I do, however, forecast an incredibly long winning streak for the Herd from here on out.

Halloween
As a youngster, Halloween was always my third-favorite holiday right behind Christmas and my birthday. As I’ve gotten older, it has bumped past my birthday to the No. 2 slot, only to fall back to No. 3 behind Father’s Day.
I was always more excited about dressing up in costumes than I was collecting candy or going to parties. I would plan for weeks what costume I was going to wear. When the time came for Mom to take me and my brothers to Kmart to pick out our costumes, I would already know what I wanted to be and exactly where to find my disguise.
When we got home, Mom would let us try on our costumes to make sure they fit. She then put them up for the next few weeks until Halloween arrived.
Those weeks were sometimes as long as the days before Christmas. When the big day finally arrived, we got to take our costumes to school and parade around the building before settling down to a class party. That evening, we got to take to the streets and go door-to-door seeking our fortune in sweets.
Of course, growing up in Colorado usually meant having to wear a jacket over your costume and traipsing through snow along the way. I was usually stubborn enough to not wear my jacket so everyone could see that I was Batman, or the Road Runner, or Luke Skywalker, or whoever.
As much as I like Halloween, it has never been a good day for me. In the sixth grade I was going to be Capt. Kirk. That week I sprained my ankle and had to go around on crutches (and wearing a jacket).
I finally quit dressing up for Halloween as a junior in high school. I will never forget the day – Oct. 31, 1981. We had a home football game. It was a rare Saturday afternoon game and the team met for breakfast at a local restaurant. After breakfast I went to gas up my car and the reverse band in my transmission broke. I limped my car home and took my mother’s car back to the stadium.
During the pre-game warm-ups, I took a bad hit and broke my wrist. I didn’t know it was broken but, because we blew out the other team, I saw my first varsity experience – the last play of the game. That night I was in so much pain that I stayed home and passed out candy.
(By the way, you Harry Potter fans might recognize that date. Oct. 31, 1981, is the day Lord Voldemort killed Harry’s parents.)
Years later I began to take an interest in Halloween again, this time as a father. Rather than roam the streets for treats, we always took our kids to “Halloween alternatives” offered by churches.
Now I enjoy listening to my kids talk about what they’re going to be for Halloween. It’s nice to know that the excitement hasn’t been lost, even if some of the tradition has.
I have to work a double shift on Halloween this year, so I won’t get to go out with the kids. But that still won’t stop me from wanting to dress up. After all, I do have a pretty decent Lone Ranger costume to wear.

Hereford Brand looking for children's artwork

Hey kids, do you like to draw pictures? Do you want to see your artwork in the newspaper? If so, I’m here to help.
For the last several weeks I have been working hard deep in the dim, musty, catacombs of the Hereford Brand offices, putting in numerous overtime hours trying to create a new look for your favorite hometown newspaper.
Actually, I have been trying to keep my fantasy football team from sinking lower than my picks as one of the Fearless Forecasters, but that’s beside the point. (And yes, I even picked against my own fantasy team the first time I picked against the Herd.)
This is where you kids can get involved. As part of the new design, I want to include what I call “weather art” on the front page. I need you to draw pictures that show something to do with the weather, such as a sunny day, rain, snow, wind, tornadoes, and the like.
Maybe you can let your teacher know that it would make a good class project one day. I need your name, grade and school written on the back. You can bring it by the Hereford Brand (313 N. Lee), or, if your teacher has a bunch, I will come by your school and pick them up.
It’s that simple.
And teachers, I need your help as well. If you wouldn’t mind having your pupils draw some pictures for the paper, we’d really appreciate it. More than that, however, I need you to let me know when you have something interesting going on in your classroom or in your school. We are going to be revamping our education pages to include stories and photos of events that take place in the classrooms.
If you have a science project, play, guest speaker, book fair, costume contest, holiday party, dance, spelling bee or any other thing going on that people might want to know about, please shoot me an e-mail at editor@herefordbrand.com or call me at (806) 364-2030. I’ll do my best to be there.
The same thing goes for local businesses. If you’ve got new employees, promoted employees, fancy new products, an expansion, a new business or anything else that might be newsworthy, please let me know. I’ve created a new business page and it’s just waiting for some business news to put in it.
One of the things you’re going to notice about the Hereford Brand is that it involves a lot more reader participation. Those of you with cable television have probably seen news channels incorporate viewer input into their content. For example, CNN has its iReport segment where viewers send in news. We will have something similar to that in the Brand.
If you have taken a picture, whether it’s news or a feature, please send it in. If you have a news tip or a good idea for a feature story, please let us know. If you want to sound off on something, write a letter to the editor.
Don’t be shy. This is your hometown and this is your newspaper. We want you to be a part of it.
Oh, one more thing, if you’ve got any tips for picking games or selecting good back-ups on a fantasy football team, please be sure to include them.

Politics
I stand corrected. Some time ago I predicted the Sen. Barack Obama would not win the presidency. I still hope Sen. John McCain wins, but I now feel the White House is Obama’s to lose.
I have the same feeling now that I did at this point in 1996 when Sen. Bob Dole was up against President Clinton. It’s kind of like being down two touchdowns at the two-minute warning of a football game. You know that unless the other team fumbles really bad, the game is all but over.
Having watched most of the debates, I feel McCain has done a lousy job of positioning himself and explaining his policies. He has spent more time trying to tear down Obama than building himself up. I don’t believe in that kind of leadership.
If McCain wants to win, he needs to stop attacking Obama and start giving people a reason to believe in him. And he’d better do it soon.
On a side note, I had lunch the other day with U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer. He made an interesting point of how Obama has done a great job of branding himself. People are buying into the name and the mystique rather than the issues he stands for.
The Congressman said he has had people ask potential Obama voters if they agreed with his pro-life stance and his opposition to government-run health care, to which many said yes. The respondents were so fired up about Obama that they didn’t know – or care – that he stands for just the opposite.
Anyway, if you want to have your say about your favorite candidate, please write a letter to the editor. We’ll be glad to publish it (especially if you have any good tips for picking football games that you’d like to add).

'Fireproof' ignites spark for marriages

I don’t normally like movies with a social agenda. I go to the movies to be entertained.
Last weekend I took my wife on a date to see “Fireproof.” I went in knowing it was going to preach to me. I came out thoroughly convicted by its message and entertained by the delivery.
I’ll spare you the movie review. Suffice to say, I strongly encourage anyone to see this movie who:
• is married,
• is thinking of getting married,
• is divorced or divorcing,
• is single and looking,
• is single and loving it,
• has a pulse.
Before you enter the theater, be sure to bring some tissues. That includes us guys. You will cry -- that is unless you don’t have a pulse, in which case I don’t recommend you see the movie.
“Fireproof” is about a fire captain, played by Kirk Cameron, whose marriage is a train wreck. The movie is produced by Sherwood Baptist Church of Albany, Ga., the same people who did “Facing the Giants.”
“Fireproof” is merely the spark to get people to focus on their marriage.
Some spark! It’s more like a blowtorch.
Caleb Holt, the character played by Cameron, could have been me. His life mirrored mine in so many ways, other than the fact that he’s a fireman (I’m a journalist), he’s financially stable (I’m a journalist) and he has rugged good looks (I’m a journalist).
In the movie, Caleb is challenged by his father to take the 40-day Love Dare in an effort to save his marriage. (Naturally, you can buy “The Love Dare” book most anywhere Christian books are sold.) Each day is a new challenge, or dare, to help one win the heart of their spouse.
Caleb is met with resistance as he begins his journey. The harder he tries, the more his wife turns away. That was me at the end of my first marriage. No matter what I did to try and win back my wife, she pulled harder the other way. I didn’t get the storybook ending in that one.
Through the movie, I could see how my marriage now to Sandy is suffering from, if nothing else, stagnation.
At this point, I want to direct the rest of this column to my wife. It’s intended for her and no one else. If you stop reading, that’s fine. If not, perhaps you can glean something that might help you. Either way, you’re the peeping tom from here on out.
Sandy, I am so glad you bought a copy of “The Love Dare.” I’m glad you are as interested in fireproofing our marriage as I am. I can’t say that our marriage has been in the fire. It’s been more like a stagnant pond. I’ve become so complacent that I haven’t realized that you are drowning. There have been no ripples on the surface.
Our lives have been in the fire and the heat is continually being turned up. But I’ve been taking you for granted, and I’m sorry. I’ve been so wrapped up in my comfort zone that I have overlooked your needs, your hopes and your dreams. You’ve been strong when negative forces have buffeted our family and I’ve come to expect that strength to always be there. It’s high time I took up more of the slack. I need to be your defender, not the one being protected.
I know I need to be more involved with you and the boys. I’m trying. It hasn’t been easy. The computer and television are very addictive devices. My health issues present some problems, but they’re more inconveniences than hindrances. By being physically involved most of those issues should go away.
I don’t know exactly how all of this should work. I do know I will take it one step at a time. I will do my best to take more responsibility around the house. I will do more dishes, clean up more, and (I can’t believe I’m saying this) even help with the laundry.
I will spend more time playing with the children, reading books to them and helping with their homework.
More importantly, I want to make sure we have our own private time together each evening, without children and electronic interference, to debrief each other on our day and then to nourish each other with hopes, dreams, plans and some time in the Bible or a Bible study.
I promise to be physically, mentally and emotionally engaged with you and our children. At those times when I fail, I will be counting on you to nudge me on. I may falter, but I will not fail.
Nothing means more to me than my faith and my family. It’s time I started living out those priorities before they become empty words.
If the firestorm that has been our lives ever invades our marriage, I want our relationship to be fireproof. More importantly, I want to stir up this stagnant pond and make it a flowing river, teeming with life. I hope you will join me. It’s going to be hard, but it’s going to be fun.
I’m so thankful that you’re the one I get to take this journey with. It’s going to be a wild ride and I want to get started. After all, we’re being watched by the people who have bothered to read this far. I wouldn’t want them to go away disappointed.

No place for bullies

I hated Joel Bellen.
I wanted him dead. I wanted to see him suffer. I wanted him to feel the pain, anguish, hatred and anger he made me feel, and more.
I used to fantasize plots that would land him in trouble. None of my schemes ever came to fruition, but they made me feel good in my daydreams.
Joel Bellen was a bully. I don’t think he ever called me by my name. It was usually “Punk” or “Wuss” or some other name you shouldn’t print in a family newspaper. He was pug-nosed and husky. He was a year or two older than I was and took full advantage of his age and size to pick himself up by putting others down.
He never seemed to want anything from me other than to see me squirm and cry. On most days he got his fill. He punched me often, or so it seemed, but I never had the guts to hit him back.
He lived just two houses around the corner on Meadowdale Drive. I lived on Pebble Road, a street name that seemed fitting in a way. Directly between our homes was that of Chucky Williams. Chucky was always between us, wanting to be friends with both of us. Whenever Joel was in one of his bullying moods, Chucky would side with him and bully me as well. Chucky could be a close friend of mine whenever Joel wasn’t around. It was a weird relationship and I never knew when Chucky was my friend or not, but I learned to live with it.
There were other bullies in the neighborhood. Sam was much older, almost too old to relate to me, but he still did his share of dirt clod throwing and name calling. Ray was perpetually angry at everyone, especially at me because I was too afraid to stand up for myself.
I learned many years later that Ray’s father was a drunk who beat up on him regularly. It’s no wonder he was so violent and bitter.
Even though I lived in close proximity to these guys, I rarely feared them at home. Most of their bullying took place at the bus stop or on the playground at school. As a result, I dreaded school. I loathed it. The teachers were no help either. To them I was just a whiney little brat and a tattletale.
Now, let me pause for a moment. I know there are teacher types out there saying that any teacher worth the apple on her desk would never behave that way toward any student. I can vouch from very vivid and very painful memories that certain teachers did side with bullies, and it happened more than once.
“Chucky is a good boy. He would never do anything like that. You’re just making it up again,” one of them told me at recess while Chucky stood behind her smirking at me.
Another time I overheard a conversation between two teachers who were talking about what they should do with that “whiney Southern kid.”
Those words hurt, even more than any punch in the nose from Joel or kick in the chest from Chucky.
I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t want to learn. School, to me, was not a safe place. I lived in fear at school.
All of that could have been prevented had there been something like the Olweus Bully Prevention Program that the Hereford Independent School District is implementing this year. Olweus (pronounced Ole-VEY-us) is about stopping bullies by empowering the victims and bystanders.
Had I been believed and supported by adults or had intervention from bystanders, my life might be very different today. I eventually grew out of my fear of school once I started playing football in high school. That toughened me up mentally and physically. I dished out as much gruff as I took and learned to laugh and roll with the proverbial punches.
Chucky had become Chuck by then. While we weren’t close, we were friends and teammates.
One day during our junior year Chuck broke the news to me that Joel, who had moved away a couple years earlier, had been killed in an auto accident.
I didn’t know how to feel. My greatest wish – my dream – had come true. And I hated myself for feeling that way. I could no longer hate him. I pitied him. I wanted to apologize to him for my part in making him a bully; for never standing up to him and perhaps becoming the friend he may have needed or wanted.
Intervention could have led to understanding. Empowerment could have improved my self-worth. A feeling of safety and acceptance could have changed my whole perspective about school.
I hope and pray no child has to ever endure what I did. That’s why I so strongly applaud Hereford ISD for embracing Olweus. I encourage the whole community to take it on, to make a difference. It’s not a fad that should pass away with grant money. It should be a way of life.
The Bible teaches us to stand up for the defenseless. So does Olweus. So should we all.