What I want for Christmas is for you to have the greatest gift of all

What do I want for Christmas?

That is an increasingly difficult question to answer as I get older. As a child it was the easiest question to answer and one that I loved to be asked. I would gladly tell anyone what toys populated my lengthy wish list. I’d write letters to Santa, tell him in person at the mall, and I’d inform my parents and grandparents at least a dozen times through the month of December.

I remember when I was very young that I wanted a Tonka truck. I got it and loved it to pieces. I don’t know how my parents did it each year, but somehow I always managed to get the toys I wanted most for Christmas. From action figures and accessories to models to bicycles, they all seemed to find their way under our Christmas tree.

Christmas was never disappointing. I think I was well into my late teens or early 20s before I actually slept all night on Christmas Eve. My parents had to set a time each Christmas morning for me and my two younger brothers to wait for before we could get them up to go open presents. It was even more agonizing when we had our hobby farm because all the animals needed to be tended to before we gathered around the tree. That usually meant feeding and milking the cow and feeding the sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, and about 200 rabbits.

Naturally, as I got older, my tastes sort of matured. I still wanted a lot of “man-cave” type things, but clothes actually worked their way into my wish list. Along with maturity came more of a desire to give than to receive. A real turning point came when my daughter was born. I was much happier showering her with gifts than I was in receiving them.

Flash forward a few years with three more kids and Christmas became much more chaotic. I suddenly had a much deeper appreciation for what my parents went through to surprise three boys each Christmas morning. It’s a real blessing to watch them unwrap their gifts and see their happy expressions, even now when they are in their teens and 20s. It has me really looking forward to the time when I can experience it with grandchildren, but that is still a long way off.

Despite all this Christmas bliss, I have to stop and remind myself what Christmas is truly all about. It’s not about giving gifts. It’s about receiving a gift – the one and only true gift that matters. It’s the gift of eternal life with God given to us through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus.

In the three years of Jesus’ ministry as recorded in the four gospels, he was a homeless wanderer. He had nothing but gave everything so those who believe in him and follow him can enjoy eternity in Heaven. There is no gift more precious than that.

In light of that, I’m much more grateful for the things I’ve been able to give and receive over the years. I’m thankful that I live in a nice home and drive a nice car. I have a great job that I love. More importantly, I have a loving and supportive wife and children who also share in the gift of salvation. There is no greater joy at this or any time of year than to share that gift with others.

My Christmas wish for you is to be blessed by the grace of God and the warmth of the relationships in your life. Merry Christmas everyone!
P.S. Monday was our 19^th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary Sandy! I love you more each day.

Remains of Sugar Land 95 should be moved to cemetery

What to do about the Sugar Land 95?

The so-called Sugar Land 95 are the 95 convict laborers whose skeletal remains were discovered last February at the construction site of the Fort Bend Independent School District’s James Reese Career and Technical Center. Since then, archeologists have painstakingly excavated and removed the remains for study and preparation for reinternment. The question that is causing so much debate right now is where should they be reburied?

The Fort Bend ISD would like to have them moved to the nearby Imperial Prison Farm Cemetery. The cemetery is owned by the City of Sugar Land and city officials have said they would welcome reinternment there. Logically, it is the best place for their final resting place. That, however, doesn’t sit well with many blacks and activists who feel they should stay where they were discovered, each back in their own grave.

The arguments for returning them to their original graves are solid and worth considering. The remains are those of blacks, many of whom were forced back into state-sanctioned slavery through the convict leasing system, which operated here from 1878 to 1910. Through the program, convicts were leased to plantations for hard labor in the sugarcane fields. Many of the convicts were arrested and imprisoned for minor offenses or on trumped-up charges. It was a scheme designed to help plantation owners who lost slave labor at the end of the Civil War.

The laborers who died were buried in a cemetery on the grounds that was eventually lost to time and history. We know that the graves contained at least one 14-year-old boy and one woman. None of them deserved the treatment they suffered. None of them deserved to die in prison, presumably engaged in hard labor to the end. We don’t know their identities, their offenses, or much more about them other than what their bones and scant records can tell us.

They lived hard, difficult lives and even now in death they cannot rest in peace – at least not yet. Once again their fate is in limbo. Last year the school district began construction of the James Reese Career and Technical Center. Because it had information from local prison historian Reginald Moore that there might be a cemetery on site, the district hired archaeologists from Goshawk Environmental Consulting, Inc., to conduct research. They found nothing, but just before they submitted a final report to the state, crews installing utilities discovered human bones.

Goshawk returned in late February and began months of excavation and exhumations. During that time the city, district, and other interested parties have been conducting public meetings to discuss the disposition of the remains. Ideally, they would go back where they were found, granting them a bit of the dignity they were denied in life. That would require the district to alter its plans for the facility. It’s an expensive option, but one that respects the sanctity of a cemetery. It also shows respect to a race of people that has a long history of disrespect by whites and people in authority.

As much as I like and prefer that position, however, logically it makes more sense to relocate the Sugar Land 95 to the Imperial Prison Farm Cemetery. For one thing, the cemetery is very close and already has historic designation. It is set apart and well protected. It would be very easy to create a special area at the cemetery where the remains could be reinterred in a very dignified and respectful manner. It would give them much more dignity and respect than they likely received the first time they were buried. It would also provide adequate room for historic markers and displays to talk about that dark chapter of history.

If they were to be returned to their original gravesite, they would be up against a school building. That would be much harder to set apart and protect. It would also be very expensive and time consuming to redesign a multimillion-dollar building already well into construction. It would also be a bad blend of land use. Having a cemetery next to a school is an invitation to vandalism and other juvenile shenanigans.

Finally, I’m trying to look at it from the perspective of descendants of the Sugar Land 95. If my great-grandfather had been so badly mistreated and then hastily buried in a shallow grave, long forgotten, I think I’d like the idea of his remains being properly buried in a quiet, respectful place where he would be remembered and finally given the dignity he deserves. I wouldn’t want him to be resting in a plot where he was hastily deposited, abutting a school and surrounded by parking lots. There is no dignity in that.

While the amateur historian in me is appalled at the idea of moving graves, we are in a unique and unfortunate situation where there is no clear and satisfactory answer. Given the circumstances, I think the best thing to do is relocate the remains to the Imperial Prison Farm Cemetery and allow the school district to move forward with its facility as planned. I think that is probably in the best interest for all involved.

Are the police really serving and protecting us?

To serve and protect?

Sometimes I have my doubts. The motto of many a police department seems questionable to me at times. Before I explain, let me just say that I have the utmost respect for law enforcement officers and value what they sacrifice for our safety. At the same time, I see and experience too much in the way of abuses of power and neglect of duty when it comes to some local law enforcement.

The abuses are easy to see when you spend as much time on the road as I do. Cops speed frequently. They cruise in the passing lane on highways, they flash their lights to get through intersections when there is no apparent emergency, and they will drive across medians and down shoulders and HOV lanes, again without any sirens or signs of emergency. Of course those abuses of power are minor to the myriad of news reports we see about how minorities are treated by police, but I’m not going there today.

It’s the neglect that really bothers me. A couple weeks ago I was the victim of another hit-and-run. The police did less than nothing about it.

I was driving southbound on FM 762 in the left lane going past the George Memorial Library when a white SUV came barreling around the intersection at Avenue I, crossed both lanes and forced me into the middle turn lane. The vehicle was right up against me and I heard the small thump. I stopped, unsure if I had been hit or just kicked up some of the road debris there. The other driver kept going. I should have gotten out of my car and looked for damage, but I assumed since the other driver didn’t stop that it must have been a rock or something and we didn’t make contact.

That’s when my anger at all the other previous hit-and-runs I’ve been involved in welled up inside me. This is the first time it’s happened while I’ve been in the car and this time I wanted to catch the culprit. The problem was, all I knew is the offending vehicle was a white SUV. By the time I got back out into traffic, several white SUVs had gone by. I tried looking, but no luck, so I went about my business. When I got home and checked, sure enough, there were scratches on the back right quarter panel. I had been hit.

I called the Rosenberg Police Department and when they figured out I was out of their jurisdiction, they transferred me to the Richmond P.D. As I was explaining my case to the dispatcher, she stopped me and asked if I was still on the scene. When I said no, she said there was nothing they could do. She directed me to go online and fill out a “blue form” with the Texas Department of Public Safety. So I Googled the form, filled it out, and had to mail it in because there was no way to submit it online.

A few days later it was sent back to me. First, they said I used an outdated form and they provided the new one for me to use. Secondly, they said the state no longer keeps those records and said I should keep it with my own records. That really irked me. Once again, the police had let me down.

Years ago when we lived at the corner of Avenue I and West Street in Rosenberg, our cars were hit in the middle of the night. My car was smashed into the back of my wife’s SUV, totaling both. Even though there were pieces of the offending vehicle left at the scene, the cops said there was nothing they could do. Less than a week after I got a replacement car, it was hit in the left rear quarter panel while parked in front of my house. Again, the police couldn’t do anything.

Those were the worst of the hit-and-runs. There have been numerous others - mostly really nasty door dings, and some that were minor scrapes on the bumper. We’ve had our cars egged and shot up with paint balls. It’s to the point now that I’ve pretty much given up hope of having a nice car while I live here.

What I’ve learned through all of this is that there are many thoughtless, self-centered jerks who drive in the Richmond/Rosenberg area. There is also an inability and/or unwillingness of the local police to do anything about it. You would think with the multiple layers of law enforcement in this state from the Texas Rangers down to the constables that someone, somewhere could be tasked with the responsibility of investigating property crimes like these.

I understand that the police are very busy handling more serious crimes, but I still have to wonder if I’m getting my money’s worth out of my share of the taxes that fund their departments. It’s cost me a small fortune in repairs and only cost them a few minutes time to fill out a report.
Still, like I said earlier, I have great respect for the men and women in uniform who work tirelessly and at great risk to make sure we have safe, comfortable communities to live in. They do a job I don’t want to do. I admire them for that. Yet I still feel like I’m being victimized twice each time I turn to them for help and nothing happens.