To boldly go to comic cons and beyond

Back in the 1970s, groups of fans would get together and hold a “Star Trek” convention. They were few and far between but became increasingly popular.

People would dress up in “Star Trek” costumes, give the Vulcan hand sign, meet actors and get free autographs, buy merchandise, attend panel discussions, and watch videos.

It wouldn’t be long, however, before the concept grew, especially after “Star Wars” came out in 1977. To accommodate a growing fan base and expanding interests, the “Star Trek” conventions evolved to become Sci-Fi conventions. There are very few Trek-specific conventions left and the annual Star Wars Celebration is a global phenomenon.

Hidden in the background were smaller conventions dedicated to comic books, fantasy, anime, and other genres. Their common ground was a rabid fan base that was dedicated to the point of devotion to their favorite show.

“Comic Con” has become kind of a generic term for these conventions, especially as the different cons merged into mega pop culture celebrations such as the San Diego Comic Con (now called Comic Con International). Where there were once a few events scattered in larger cities, there are now thousands of them in cities and towns across the country and around the word. They’ve even invaded older costumed gatherings like Renaissance festivals.

People interested in the Japanese cartoon art form called anime coined the term “cosplay” (costume play) to describe dressing up as a favorite character at a convention. The term has evolved to mean anyone dressed up as a pop culture character. And anime cons are nearly as common and popular as comic cons.

My first experience with a comic con was in the late 1980s when I attended one in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Michael Dorn, who played Worf on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” was the marquee guest. After attending that event for a few years, I moved back to the Denver area. There, I started attending Starfest each spring and Starcon each fall until they merged into a single event in the spring. Sadly, the last Starfest was held this year, ending a 45-year run.

I’ve recently written about Houston’s Comicpalooza and San Antonio’s Superhero Car Show and Comic Con (put on by Celebrity Fan Fest). I’ve been attending those events and others most of my time living here in Texas. Rarely does a year go by that I don’t attend at least one con.

As we entered the 21st century, a new trend took over the cons. Celebrities started charging for autographs. I once paid the outrageous sum of $15 each to get autographs of Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2) on a poster. That’s the last time I’ve paid for an autograph. Now people pay hundreds of dollars for the John Hancock of a big-name celeb.

Most of the time I attend the events on a press pass and take pictures of the various celebrities, cosplayers, and other things of interest. With the advent of digital photography and cell phones, the cons wised up and started prohibiting photography in autograph rooms and now charge people to have their pictures taken with the stars. They’ve even gone as far as tenting off celebrities from view.

I’ve been thinking about comic cons lately and my interest was piqued when Celebrity Fan Fest asked on Facebook what fans would like to see next year. I can think of a million stars I’d like to see, but what I suggested was kind of an old timers convention. I’d like to see one that features the surviving cast members of TV shows and movies from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s.

I got the idea from the Krofft Kon that was held this year in California. It had Saturday morning stars from the various Sid and Marty Krofft shows like “H.R. Pufnstuf,” “Lidsville,” “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters,” and “Land of the Lost.”

I’d love to see that show tour the country. I’d also like to see stars from shows like “Batman,” “Happy Days,” “Wonder Woman,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Six Million Dollar Man,” “The Bionic Woman,” “Dukes of Hazzard,” “M*A*S*H,” “Welcome Back Kotter,” “Lavern and Shirley,” “Good Times,” “Cheers,” “Space: 1999,” “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Mork and Mindy,” and, naturally, “Star Trek.”

Time is getting short to see some of these celebrities. I think the nostalgia value would be huge. There are still a lot of us who grew up in simpler times who would cherish an opportunity to meet the actors and actresses we’ve admired from afar for decades.

Joe Southern is managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

Picking up the pieces of shattered dreams

On the front page of this week’s East Bernard Express (and Wednesday’s Wharton Journal-Spectator) is a major story about a homebuilder who suddenly closed up shop and left town, leaving behind about two dozen unfinished homes in a six-county area..

When David and Victoria Pfuntner of East Bernard sent out a letter to clients, subcontractors, and creditors on July 25 saying that Pfuntner Custom Homes was going out of business, it created a firestorm of worry, frustration, anger, and panic. Families in Wharton, Fort Bend, Austin, Brazoria, Colorado, and Fayette counties suddenly found themselves not only with incomplete homes, but also liens and threats of liens on their property from subcontractors who had not been paid for their work.

That week I started getting emails, phone calls, and messages on Facebook regarding the issue. For the next couple of weeks I kept open communication with several of the families impacted by the Pfuntners actions while they debated how best to take their story public. Complicating matters was a communication from David Pfuntner to them threatening to sue anyone who publicly defamed him. It was an idle threat with little to no teeth, but it still caused some to press the pause button. Finally, we set a time for a Zoom call and everyone who could join us had their say.

It was heartbreaking to hear their stories. One family lives cramped in a travel trailer on their property and every morning they come out to see the empty concrete slab where their home should be under construction. Another family of four is living temporarily in a one-bedroom house.

Nearly every single family involved found that money from their escrow accounts was taken to pay subcontractors but many of the payments were never made. That left the subcontractors to place liens on their property. They are now left with homes they cannot live in, partly consumed construction loans, and debts for work done that should have already been paid.

And as anyone knows who has ever moved or had a home built, there is plenty of stress with the timing of everything and all the logistics involved. Now finances and timetables have been thrown out the window. Attorneys are getting involved, and that isn’t cheap.

All indications are that Pfuntner Custom Homes, LLC will file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. My best guess is the Pfuntners will as well since they are named in at least one lawsuit and more are sure to follow.

The big question right now is if there were any criminal violations by the Pfuntners or if it all falls as a civil matter. It may be both, I can’t say for sure. I do know that at least two sheriff’s offices are investigating.

In the weeks that I spent working on this story between other stories, I scoured the internet and other sources for ways to contact the Pfuntners. They had practically become ghosts online, removing their websites, taking down their social media accounts, and disconnecting their phones.

Some of the families had email addresses that I tried without success. I also tried reaching the attorney listed in a lawsuit by one of the families, but I received no answer. David Pfuntner has reportedly started two more LLCs (limited liability corporations) and I tried contacting one of them, again without response.

I wasn’t very comfortable running the story without giving him a chance to comment, but I felt I had been more than reasonable in my attempts to reach him. I’d still welcome the chance to hear his side. I’m sure a lot of people would.

I doubt that will happen because if his attorneys are worth their salt they’ll have him buttoned down tight. I do invite the Pfuntners and/or their legal representatives to reach out and provide comment. I really do want to know their side of the story.

I also want to hear from the subcontractors. Many of them are small business owners who have been severely impacted by this. Their story needs to be heard.

I want to thank the families that have been working with me on this for their boldness in coming forward and their patience with the process. There was a lot of fact-checking and verification that went into this and the story went through many drafts before it wound up in print.

My heart goes out to the families involved. I know they are going through a lot and it’s not their fault. I urge them to hang tough and be persistent and patient. Truth and justice will prevail, it just won’t happen overnight. I hope and pray that they will be able to get their lives back together, their homes built, and this mess worked out to their satisfaction.

Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

Don’t go there, your life matters

The passing of Jamey Rootes, who served as the president of the Houston Texans for 20 years, hit me pretty hard.

I’ve only met him a couple of times, one of which was in 2020 when he gave me an autographed copy of his book “The Winning Game Plan” to review. I frequently passed by him on the sidelines while I was photographing Texans games. I doubt he would have remembered my name, but most people in the organization recognize me as the photographer with the cowboy hat.

When Rootes took his life on Sunday, Aug. 21, I was shocked, as were most people. It was akin to Robin Williams committing suicide. You’d never suspect that someone who seemed so happy, content, and confident would be harboring suicidal thoughts. Every time I saw Rootes he was smiling, upbeat, and positive. His book oozed his passion and enthusiasm. He was a man clearly living the dream.

What really brought it home for me was the fact that my brother has been heavy on my heart this week. Tomorrow (Aug. 26) would have been his 56th birthday. He took his life Jan. 1, 2021. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t feel the pain of his loss or the fondness of his memory.

I can’t say that I fully understand why people suffer in silence and then abruptly end their suffering, but then again, I do understand it. For many years I suffered with moderate to severe depression. I was never to the point of wanting to end my life, but I did have several bouts where I no longer wanted to live. And yes, there is a difference.

I know what it’s like to feel so lost and hopeless that you just want your misery to end. I know what it feels like to grudgingly trudge through the motions of each day unable to feel any positive emotion at all. I spent more than 12 years not feeling joy, peace, love, happiness, contentment, excitement, euphoria, etc. Oh, there would be brief moments when those feelings would surface, but they were quickly quashed and the darkness would return.

I overcame my depression through Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) treatments two years ago. That’s the happy ending to my story. Unfortunately, the treatment is not well known, very expensive, and only has a 75% success rate. My point is, there is hope. The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a train. There are many ways to battle depression. TMS is what worked for me.

The one thing that kept me from tipping over from not wanting to live to wanting to die was love. I couldn’t bear the thought of the trauma my death would cause my family. I may not have been able to feel love, but I loved them too much to make them suffer that way. I’ve never told anyone that before, so it might come as a surprise when they read this.

Love is powerful and should never be underestimated. As the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” One of my favorite quotes is from the late Rocky Mountain News columnist John Coit: “Life is short and it hurts. Love is the only drug that works.”

Today I feel love. Perhaps that’s what makes these losses to suicide so painful. It’s been said that suicide doesn’t end the pain, it just transfers it. As I scroll through my Facebook feed, I see a huge outpouring of love for Jamey Rootes. He made an enormously positive impact not only on the Texans and the city of Houston, but in every aspect of life that he touched. We still need his fire to burn brightly. Now we must carry the torch without him.

I know there are some who are reading this and mentally and emotionally they’re in that dark, foreboding place. Trust me when I say there is hope. There is love. There is a future and world that needs you. If you find yourself on that threshold, call 988, the suicide prevention hotline. Call a friend. Pray. You are not alone. Your life has meaning and value and it’s meant to be shared with all those around you.

Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

Wharton ISD needs you more than ever

Off with his head! O’Guin’s gotta go! Our kids deserve better than this! Recall the school board!

I can just visualize the comments now as people read our front page story this week about how Wharton ISD and all four campuses are not rated this year, meaning they have failing grades in the annual school accountability report from the Texas Education Agency.

Parents and other stakeholders in the school district are right to be upset about the poor performance of the school district, but I think a lot of the anger is misdirected. Yes, as the top man in the district, Superintendent Michael O’Guin is ultimately accountable for the performance of the district. What most people don’t seem to realize is he didn’t create this mess, he inherited it. He has a five-year plan to turn things around and for the last two years he has been working the plan.

When O’Guin was hired, the district was coming off issues related to flooding from Hurricane Harvey. His first year was 2020 when the COVID pandemic hit. That has dogged this and every other district for the last two years. So why are our neighboring districts scoring A’s and B’s and Wharton is failing? Were they not suffering the same affects?

The short answer is the districts have different demographics of families served. Wharton is more impoverished than others in the region. Also, some of the families here whose students are higher achievers have fled to those neighboring districts, creating a brain-drain effect in Wharton.

The biggest problem that I see – and I’ve written about this before – are parents who don’t have their children ready to enter public education and who do not discipline their children at home. The school district is now having to spend time and resources (money and personnel) to correct behavior rather than advancing knowledge. Any time taken away from instruction is going to have consequences.

From what I’ve seen so far, O’Guin is doing everything humanly possible to turn the district around by bringing in new programs and personnel to improve teaching, leadership, and discipline. What he can’t do is teach parents how to do their job.

Before a child enters kindergarten, he or she should be able to sit still for a reasonable amount of time, listen attentively, count to 100, and recognize and recite every letter in the alphabet. They should also know how to respect and respond to adults and their peers. In my day we called those manners.

Parents really need to step up their game, take responsibility for rearing their children, and supporting the teachers and the schools. You can’t put parental responsibilities on the schools, but that’s what is happening. Teachers should be spending their time on readin’, writin’, and ’rithmatic, not playing baby sitter to the disruptive students who don’t know how to behave.

Most parents are doing a good job in this regard, but it only takes a few who either don’t care and/or don’t know how to handle their children to mess things up for everyone. If we can find a way to reach these parents and give them guidance, a lot of the problems the district is facing would go away or be significantly reduced.

I know there are some people out there who think I’m drunk on O’Guin’s Kool-Aid or on his payroll. Let me assure you that nothing is further from the truth. We’ve had our differences at times. My perspective on all of this comes from many years of covering school districts for newspapers and having studied and practiced proven leadership skills. I can look beyond the rumor mill and see what O’Guin is doing.

While he isn’t perfect – and who is – you’ve got to give him credit for making tough decisions and pushing his plan forward through a lot of noise and distraction. Wharton ISD didn’t fall into disarray over night and it won’t recover any faster. But it is improving. We must keep moving forward. We need to encourage and support the people we have in place because failing to do so is a step backwards. And those are steps we cannot afford to take.

Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

Comic con was all that and more

Ewan McGregor

Hayley Atwell

“Hello there!” Ewan McGregor shouted as he walked on stage inside the Freeman Coliseum at the Superhero Car Show and Comic Con last weekend in San Antonio.

The catch phrase from Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Star Wars character he portrays, was uttered once or twice during the four-day show. Not only did he say it, but he wore it on his t-shirt along with a picture of Alec Guinness, the actor who debuted the character in the original “Star Wars” 45 years ago.

McGregor topped a crowded marquee for the comic con that was everything and more that I had anticipated it would be when I wrote about it a few weeks ago. And I wasn’t alone in my assessment of the convention. B.J. Jones, a member of the Texas Area Comic Cons group on Facebook, offered a review of all the state’s comic cons this year and drew the same conclusion.

“Super Hero Car Show and Comic Con (AKA Celebrity Fan Fest) (San Antonino) THE best Texas con in years! They have consistently brought major talent for every show, and this year was no exception. Well organized, plenty of room, top-ranked entertainment, and vendor diversity (not all the same merchandise with vendors competing),” he wrote.

He also validated my decision to stay away from Houston’s Comicpalooza this year.

“Comicpalooza (Houston), more like yawn-a-palooza. Great venue, but they’ve gone downhill and it almost seems like they don’t care. Hoping they put a little more effort into it next year,” he wrote.

I couldn’t attend the first two days of the comic con but spent Saturday and Sunday there with my daughter Heather, who flew in from Colorado. We were joined Sunday by my youngest sons, Luke and Colton. Tickets for the show were a gift from my mother-in-law and wife (thank you!). Heather and I were celebrating our birthdays. Mine was on Saturday and Heather will turn 30 on Aug. 15. (By the way, she frequents comic cons and anime shows in Colorado and agrees this show was outstanding.)

The main stage in the coliseum was used for top-tier celebrities such as McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Giancarlo Esposito, Stephen Amell, and Simi Liu. A smaller Celebrity Theater inside the main Expo Hall served as a platform for the rest of the guests. Although access to the top-billed actors was tightly controlled and limited to those who shelled out $240 a pop for autographs and photo ops, the rest were very inviting and friendly to chat with.

I got to shake hands and spend time visiting with the likes of Spencer Wilding (Darth Vader in “Rogue One”), Burton Gilliam (“Blazing Saddles”), and voice actors Chuck Huber, Eric Vale, and Jason Liebrecht. Most notable to me and my kids was Huber, who spent what must have been hours visiting with us, posing for pictures and signing things. My kids love the anime cartoons he voices and I know him from the web series “Star Trek Continues,” where he portrayed Doctor McCoy. I really feel like we made a friend with him.

Others that we got to see but didn’t meet included Brandon Routh (“Superman Returns”), Rupert Friend (Grand Inquisitor in “Obi-Wan Kenobi”), Sam Jones (“Flash Gordon”), Stephen Amell (“Arrow”), and more. Celebrities who were there on the days before we arrived included Hulk Hogan, Dave Bautista, Nasty Boys, and a concert by the Blues Brothers – Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi.

Aside from the actors, there was a large vendor area, contests, artists, authors, a video arcade, and, of course, the car show.

The car show was held in a smaller expo hall, and featured a huge collection of replica TV and movie cars. Of special interest to us was the 1966 Batmobile. Heather and I had our picture taken in the original one 28 years ago. We posed together in front of the one on display to try and replicate the original as best we could.

Colton got so caught up in the show that he is spending this weekend with friends at Anime Houston at the Hyatt Regency.

A week after the show and I’m still riding an emotional high from it. After years of declining celebrity access at various comic cons, this was so welcoming and refreshing. I had a real sense of belonging. I know the show isn’t local, but it’s a good day or weekend trip from here and I would encourage anyone interested in comic cons to keep an eye out for it next year. If you go and we happen to cross paths, just say “hello there!”

Joe Southern is managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

Elvis has left the building … or has he?

My wife and I saw “Elvis” at the theater recently. That’s certainly not a news flash and if you’re not interested in the King of Rock and Roll, please feel free to stop reading now. It won’t hurt my feelings.

Elvis Presley is one of those performers who was simultaneously super cool and really campy. I was 12 years old when Elvis died. Ironically, I heard the news while I was shopping in a record store. (If you don’t know what a record store is, ask your parents or please stop reading now because you’re too young to understand.) Aug. 16 will be the 45th anniversary of his death. At least, I assume everyone now believes he died. I’ve never had reason to doubt it despite all the so-called Elvis sightings in the 1980s and ’90s.

As a kid, I remember making fun of Elvis while at the same time singing along when his songs came on the radio. You couldn’t help it. At a time when musicians were trying to be hip, cool, and meaningful, Elvis was just out there being Elvis. One of our adolescent insults was to tell someone, “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog!”

Elvis’s songs and sound were imaginative and unique. His off-stage antics were legendary. His musical and cultural impact are timeless, even 45 years after his passing.

After all this time there is still a thriving industry of Elvis impersonators (or “tribute artists” as I was once admonished by one I wrote a story about). Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, holds an annual Elvis tribute competition. To this day, Graceland remains one of the biggest tourist attractions in the nation.

One of the great things about the “Elvis” movie is seeing his transition from young rebel to the jumpsuited showman in Las Vegas. It reminded me of the time in 1992 when the U.S. Postal Service held a contest to pick an image of Elvis for a stamp. You could vote for the “young” or “old” Elvis. I was working in North Carolina back then and did a story about two postal employees who dressed up for the occasion. They were having fun and both nailed the younger and older looks.

Sometime around 2007 I was working in Amarillo and wrote a story about a woman who kissed Elvis on two separate occasions. The last time was just a couple months before he died and she could tell then that something was wrong with him.

I was too young to have ever attended one of his concerts. When I was researching one of my aforementioned stories, I was surprised to learn that there are websites that document his concerts, including set lists and notes about the shows. That blew my mind that anyone would care enough to document all that information. But then most everything about Elvis is mindboggling.

As you can see throughout the movie, he continually defied conventional wisdom. If he was told he couldn’t do something, he did it, and vice versa. His 1968 comeback show on TV was supposed to be a Christmas special. It was special alright!

“Elvis” is just the latest in a string of movies about the King that, ironically, were bigger hits than the movies he made. Austin Butler nailed it in the role of Elvis, and Tom Hanks can already be handed his Oscar for his part at Col. Tom Parker.

After the movie, Sandy and I went out to dinner and almost all of our conversation centered around Elvis. Rarely do we have such in-depth conversations about a movie. The movie was very impactful. For me it brought back a lot of childhood memories. Since Sandy is eight years younger than me, it was more of a history lesson for her. Still, for days afterward we listened to a lot of Elvis music on our smart device at home. I downloaded a bunch of songs onto my cell phone, even though I already had a few there.

I never thought that I would end up writing so much about Elvis in my career, but here we are. Maybe I should just stop reminiscing about the man and go see the movie again. Or maybe I’ll treat myself to an Elvis concert on my phone.

Better yet, I’d like to hear any Elvis stories our readers have. Please feel free to email me your Elvis stories (and photos if you have any). I think it would make a fun feature story … and an excuse to write about Elvis one more time.

Joe Southern is managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

School district making bold steps to improve discipline

Let’s address some of the most common complaints and concerns I hear about the Wharton Independent School District.

There is a discipline problem in the district. Numerous teachers and administrators are either leaving or being let go and the district is having a hard time replacing them. None of these things are unique to Wharton. They are indicative of a much more systemic problem statewide and nationwide.

Most people want to blame Superintendent Michael O’Guin. They forget that he inherited these problems when he was hired two years ago. Discipline, however, is a problem everywhere. From everything I’ve read to educators I’ve communicated with in the area and in other states, discipline is an enormous problem that is causing teachers to leave the profession in droves.  A relative of mine retired early because she was tired of dealing with rude and disrespectful kindergartners and first graders.

When children that young are undisciplined, it tells me that the problem begins in the home and the schools are left to cope with the fallout. But people want to blame the schools because that is where the disciplinary issues manifest themselves. Administrators (principals, superintendents, etc.) are hamstrung by laws that prohibit them from taking what many of us older people would consider appropriate action.

When administrators fail to act, teachers feel unsupported and unsafe and they leave. When the unruly child gets away with bad behavior the other children see it. Respect for authority becomes diminished and discipline gets worse.

The onus is on parents to raise their kids right. That is at the heart of the problem. Failing that, it’s up to the schools to teach what their parents are neglecting to instill in the students – basic civility. This evolutionary digression is evident in how much time children spend in front of a screen versus interacting with their parents and other human beings.

In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve seen O’Guin and the Wharton ISD Board of Trustees take the issue of discipline head-on. They are making a difference. They did not back down to incredible pressure to be lenient on the students accused of assaulting a teacher/coach during halftime of a football game last October. They held their ground.

At the last school board meeting, the board approved participating in the Lone Star Governance Initiative. The program focuses on improving student outcomes by improving leadership and adult behavior. At the same meeting, they received a presentation about the Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) program and restorative practices. This is a program that teaches students, staff, and administrators how to prevent disciplinary problems and how to resolve them with positive, restorative methods.

I feel confident that the board will consider participating in it. Those are two initiatives from the Texas Education Agency’s Region 3 Education Service Center that are sure to make a difference in the district and in the classrooms. They are further proof that the Wharton ISD is doing something about the discipline problem.

Discipline, however, is just one of the reasons there is so much turnover in the district. Low test scores are another reason. Like I said, when O’Guin got here, he inherited a mess. When you get new leadership, there is bound to be change. When you have to make tough choices as O’Guin is having to do, things can get messy. Toes are getting stepped on.

The bottom line is there was a lot of deadwood that needed to be cleaned out. When test scores decline or only marginally improve, something has to give. Every single campus principal has been replaced in the last two years. Three of the four principals are new this year. A lot of good, dedicated teachers have departed. A lot of good, dedicated teachers have been hired. There’s more work to do.

The thing is, I see O’Guin and the school board making the tough calls and taking positive action to right this ship. Yes, it’s going to ruffle some feathers and there will be a lot of people who are unhappy. I’m betting, however, that the picture looks a lot different a few short years from now. The kind of improvement we want and need won’t happen overnight. It’s a slow process but the district is taking those first steps in stride.

Growing pains are ugly and they hurt. Keeping to the course we were on, however, is far more consequential and damaging than what we’re doing now. There have been five superintendents in the last 12 years. O’Guin isn’t perfect, but he’s what we’ve got and we can’t expect him to make the changes we need if we keep calling for his head. We need to come to his side and help guide him on this journey. Maybe then we can catch his vision for a better tomorrow for the school district and its students.

Joe Southern in managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

Momentum for attitude change at WISD

I must confess that I was overwhelmed by the response received by my column last week.

I wrote about the need to instill a positive attitude within and about the Wharton ISD. That column was shared at least 75 times on Facebook and most of the comments were very positive and encouraging. As expected, there were a few detractors, generally from people who misunderstood what I was saying or had their own agenda.

I should clarify that I never said we shouldn’t address problems within the district. We should. It’s important that we work together and solve problems. What I said is it’s not good to constantly gripe and complain about them. Don’t air the dirty laundry. As a rule of thumb, it’s best to criticize in confidence and compliment in public.

I should also point out that I intend to follow-up on what I wrote. They weren’t empty words to fill space on the page only to be forgotten. I plan to use the newspaper to promote the positive things in the district. Yes, I will still stay on top of the news, even if it’s negative, but I want to make sure people see the good that is happening in the district.

I am hoping to run pictures and stories of the students of the month, teachers of the month, honor rolls, events and activities, etc., to highlight things going on in our schools. I want the different clubs and organizations to send us the pictures and information of the things they do throughout the year.

I also want to start running what I call weather art in the paper. This is where we get young children to draw pictures that depict the weather (sunny, rainy, snowy, cloudy, tornadoes, rainbows, etc.) that we run with the weather forecast. This is a great opportunity to showcase the artistic abilities of the kids, as well as provide a learning opportunity for them in the classroom.

There are many other things I hope to do with the schools, but I’m still early in the planning stages. It will be a work in progress, not something that happens overnight.

Don’t worry, I don’t plan to turn the newspaper into a school newsletter. We will continue to publish all the other news that we usually do. I just want to do what I can to shine a positive spotlight on the students and educators of the Wharton ISD.

 

Switching gears

Moving on to other things, I just sat down with my calendar and several schedules and it looks like the next few months are going to be insanely busy. Fall sports will be upon us very soon. I’m really looking forward to football. I know Wharton hasn’t won a game in a couple years, but I can’t help but feel that streak will soon come to an end. I think coach Alvin Dotson II will turn things around.

I’m excited about the opportunity to see El Campo’s Rueben Owens II play at running back. He’s the number one running back in the nation going into this season according to Maxpreps.com. If he stays the course at the University of Louisville after high school, he could very easily make the pros. It would be fun to say I saw him when…

I’m humbly optimistic about the Houston Texans this year. I think this team is highly underrated and will surprise a few folks this season. I bet they’ll be .500 or better. Conversely, I think the Dallas Cowboys are very overrated and will not surprise anyone this season. I expect them to be one-and-done come playoff time (which is a backhanded acknowledgement that they’ll be good enough to make the playoffs). Of course, anyone who knows me knows my team is the Denver Broncos. With new ownership and Russell Wilson at quarterback, I’m betting the Super Bowl isn’t out of reach.

One of the things that makes the fall busy is the latter part of the baseball season. The Houston Astros remain one of the best teams in baseball and are probably going to be playing deep into October. Their Triple-A affiliate, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, aren’t expected to make it to October. On the other hand, there are a lot of former Space Cowboys on the Astros roster, so not all is lost.

My son is returning for his sophomore year at Texas A&M, which means there will be some college football to see this fall. He doesn’t play sports, but visiting him is always a good excuse for going to Kyle Field.

Of course there is a lot to the fall besides sports. We’ve got the Texas Renaissance Festival and the Wings Over Houston Airshow to look forward to. The one thing I think we can all agree on is that the fall will finally bring a break to all these 100-degree days we’ve been having. That will be really cool!

Joe Southern is managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

We need you to share your stories

East Bernard, this is for you.

Earlier this month on our Facebook page a longtime subscriber rightfully took us to task for a recent edition that had only one local story in it. As I was putting that particular paper together, I was sick to my stomach for the lack of local content. I know our readers deserve so much better than that.

As I explained in a private message to the subscriber, I need help and lots of it. On the editorial side of the business (meaning all stories, pictures, page layout and such), I am the only full-time employee for both Wharton and East Bernard. I share a sports writer with El Campo and I have a couple columnists. Other than that, I have the responsibility of putting out two newspapers a week in Wharton and one a week in East Bernard. I simply lack the time and resources to devote to the news coverage that East Bernard deserves. On top of that, the city and school board meetings conflict with governmental meeting times in Wharton.

That being said, it’s nothing more than an excuse. The good people of East Bernard want and deserve so much more than I can deliver. I need your help. We are looking for stringers, people who can write stories and take pictures of local events. If you can attend city council and/or school board meetings and write a story or even a summary of what happened, we need you. We pay on a per story (and per photo) basis.

We also need someone who can write feature stories, take pictures at local events, cover school functions, attend ribbon-cutting ceremonies, write about the comings and goings of local businesses, and so on. If that’s you or someone you know, please contact me.

This is also a great opportunity for churches, civic groups and other nonprofit organizations to get their information published. Please send write-ups and pictures to us. We will gladly publish them, assuming they meet publication guidelines and community standards, which most do.

Essentially, this must become a community paper in the truest sense. It’s going to take contributions from the community in order for the pages to be full of local content. It’s not that I’m shirking my duties – I’m not – it’s that I’m already overwhelmed taking care of Wharton.

When you look at the trend of so many newspapers going out of business, that last thing we want is for East Bernard to lose its local voice. In fact, we want to increase it. That’s the reason for my appeal. East Bernard is a special place with stories to tell and information to share. We don’t want any of them to be left out. The newspaper is a first draft of history, and in many cases the only draft. We don’t want who we are and what we do to be lost to future generations.

I hope that you will take this message to heart and help me help you tell the stories of East Bernard. The best way to reach me is by email at news@journal-spectator.com. I can also be reached by phone at 979-532-8840 or 979-532-0095. I hope to hear from you soon.

Joe Southern is managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

Time to take a stand for Wharton ISD

As I sit here staring at the blank page on my computer, I seriously contemplated writing a column highly critical of the Wharton Independent School District.

There is a lot wrong with the district and pointing out the faults and failures would be easy – too easy. As I thought more about it, adding my voice to the chorus of critics just didn’t feel right. In fact, it’s the wrong thing to do.

Two phrases keep coming to mind: “Attitude is everything” and “Never kick a man (or school district) when he’s down.”

I’ve only been in Wharton for seven months and in that time I’ve seen and heard things about the school district that are downright depressing. Discipline issues, low test scores, students and teachers leaving the district in droves, rumors of a state takeover and more smack the district in the face every day. I occasionally get calls and emails to investigate this or that in the district.

ENOUGH!

How is all this griping and complaining going to help? I can’t imagine what it feels like to be a WISD student and constantly get bombarded with messages of failure. How prepared for the adult world do you think the kids will be when all they hear is how bad their school is, how undisciplined and out of control the students are, how nobody cares for them or wants to be here, and how low their test scores are?

As a community we are sending the wrong message to the upcoming generations. There are people pointing more fingers at the district than they have on their hands.

If you want someone to blame, look in the mirror. Ask yourself what you’ve done today to uplift or encourage someone else. Instead of pointing out problems, have you offered a solution? Have you offered to help where you perceive a deficiency? What difference have you personally made to the success of the school district and the community?

If you think class sizes are too big maybe you should try volunteering in a classroom or tutoring students after school. If you’re upset with the school board, offer yourself as a candidate for election to the board. If you have an issue with the superintendent take the time to ask him about it or offer to help him with that particular problem.

One of the major issues I’ve heard is how there is a lack of discipline with the students and a lack of support from administration. This isn’t a problem with the schools, it’s a problem in the home. Parents need to be raising their children to be caring and respectful. You can’t expect there to be discipline in the schools if it’s lacking at home.

Likewise, you can’t expect the schools to educate your children if you’re not teaching them to learn before they go. When was the last time you read to your children or did flash cards with them? Have you spent more money on books or video games for your youngsters? Do you make reading a priority?

It’s easy to be an armchair quarterback. The game changes when you decide to get involved.

We want Wharton ISD to be the very best it can be. To do that we must change our hearts and our attitudes. We need to look for and build upon the successes, no matter how big or small they may be. We need to believe we can achieve and then go out and do it!

You can begin by talking big, not bad, about Wharton ISD. Ask a teacher what supplies they need, and then go out and get them for her. The Wharton Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture is taking donations for teacher goodie bags. Here’s your chance to donate, but you need to do it by July 29.

When we change our attitudes on the inside, people will see it on the outside. We must walk the walk and talk the talk about how great this district is before anyone else will believe it and want to be a part of it. No one is going to think great things about Wharton ISD until we believe it first. Only then can we tout it to the world.

Imagine the difference it would make if instead of showing up at school board meetings to complain, parents showed up on the first day of school to clap and cheer and wave banners for the youngsters as they enter the building.

In order to improve student outcomes, we must first improve student input. We need to fill heads and hearts with positive energy and encouragement. There is no reason Wharton ISD cannot be an exemplary school district. For that to happen, there needs to be a groundswell of love and support. No one is going to bring it to us. It won’t come top down.

Our strength must rise from within. We can’t gripe and complain and expect someone else to take care of us. It’s much easier to help someone who is trying to improve than it is to help someone who has given up and expects to be taken care of.

I choose to be a difference maker. I choose to show some Tiger pride. Will you?

Joe Southern is the managing editor for the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

Conned by Comicpalooza, I’m headed to San Antonio

For the record, I’m a big fan of Comicpalooza, Houston’s big, annual comic con.

I’ve attended almost all of them since it was a two-day event at West Oaks Mall in 2009. I’ve been a volunteer a couple times and have written extensively about it over the years. It was founded by my friend John Simons and has become the largest such event in Texas, taking over the George R. Brown Convention Center.

I’m not going this year.

It’s not because of a scheduling conflict. It’s due to a lack of interest. There are no A-list celebrities attending the event next weekend. No big names from Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Battlestar Galactica, or any other major sci-fi/fantasy genre grace the marquee this year. It’s incredibly disappointing.

Instead, I’m focusing my attention on the Superhero Car Show & Comic Con at Freeman Expo Halls in San Antonio the first weekend in August.

While Comicpalooza was trickling out names like Terry Crews, Christopher Eccleston, Alice Cooper, Karen Fukuhara, Adam Cole, and Jackie Earle Haley, Superhero Car Show & Comic Con was trumpeting Ewan McGreggor, Haley Atwell, Giancarlo Esposito, Hulk Hogan, Alan Ritchson, Brandon Routh and Spencer Wilding, among others, with more being announce all the time.

Now, I know there is a lot more to see and do at comic cons than stalk celebrities for expensive autographs and photo opportunities, but Comicpalooza isn’t offering up anything that really strikes my fancy.

Superhero Car Show & Comic Con, however, has an awesome car show. Among them are the 1966 Batmobile and Bat Cycle, the 1989 Batmobile, Men in Black Ford Galaxy, Iron Man 2 Formula 1 Race Car, Ghostbusters ECTO-1, several Transformers cars, Back to the Future Delorean Time Machine, Herbie The Luv Bug, Green Hornet’s Black Beauty, Knight Rider’s K.I.T.T., Greased Lightning, the Munster Koach and many more. (I was hoping they would have Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, but I don’t see that happening.)

Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, the Blues Brothers featuring Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi will be in concert there Friday, Aug. 5!

I’m sure there are plenty of people who are excited about Comicpalooza this year and are very familiar with the guest lineup. I just don’t happen to be one of them. I miss the good old days when Comicpalooza had people like Sir Patrick Stewart, Stan Lee, Peter Mayhew, Tom Holland, Ray Park, Henry Winkler, the casts of “Battlestar Galactica,” “Gotham,” and “Aliens” (including Sigourney Weaver, Bill Paxton, Paul Reiser, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn and Mark Rolston), and so many other A-list celebrities.

I remain hopeful that Comicpalooza will come across with major 11th-hour announcements, but it is unlikely this late in the game. If they do, I just might be there after all. Until then, Superhero Car Show & Comic Con is the convention serving up the big names this year.

As a bonus, the event falls on my birthday weekend, so my daughter Heather will be joining us from Denver, where she routinely attends comic cons and is big into anime. We haven’t been to a comic con together since she was really little. It will be fun to spend time with her like that.

I’m sure she will wear one of her many costumes. All I have is my Lone Ranger outfit, and I haven’t been able to wear it since losing 60 pounds over the last couple years. Maybe I can come up with something creative between now and August.

It would be awesome if we can re-create a photo Heather and I took in 1993 with the 1966 Batmobile. She was just a baby then.

My wife and sons are not interested in attending the comic cons anymore. That’s probably because I’ve dragged them to so many over the years. Interestingly enough, I proposed to Sandy while we were standing in a line at the first Star Wars Celebration in Denver in 1999.

We were toying with the idea of going to next year’s Star Wars Celebration in London, England, but it sold out before we even knew tickets were on sale.

I guess I can hold out hope for attending the Holy Grail of comic cons someday – the San Diego Comic Con. That’s the largest in the world and is an extravaganza like no other. Major Hollywood studios hold big events and announcements there and A-listers are a dime a dozen.

For now, I’ll have to keep that on my Bucket List and set my sights on San Antonio. And hopefully next year Comicpalooza will get back on track and bring us a show of the type we love and expect from a major comic con.

Joe Southern is managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

Celebrate freedom and our commonality

On Monday we celebrate Independence Day, or as it is more commonly known, the Fourth of July.

It has been 246 years since the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, birthing the 13 colonies into a new nation. In just four years the nation will celebrate its semiquincentennial (try saying that once, let alone three times fast), marking two and a half centuries of existence as a country. Perhaps we should start planning now for that party.

In the meantime, each of us should take some time to reflect on the importance of July 4, 1776. Woke, revisionist history notwithstanding, this is a celebration of freedom and self-governance. These were the baby steps of a democratic republic and the beginning of a nation the likes of which the world has never seen. And despite our many differences, we are still the most powerful and prosperous nation in the world.

I think it’s important to pause and appreciate all things we have in common, the things that unite us. Our government does not dictate our social status, where we should live, whom we can marry, how many (if any) children we can have, what occupation we hold, how (or if) we worship, what and how much we food eat, our mode of transportation, how much money we make, and so on. There are places in the world where these basic freedoms are restricted or dictated by the government.

We each hold the right to say and think what we want. That is powerful! Granted, free speech has its limits, but they are few and necessary. Imagine living in a place where the government could censor everything you read and write and you could be jailed for something you said. Imagine a place where the government can take your weapons, quarter troops in your home, or outright take your home from you. These are things our forefathers fought and died for. This is the legacy they left us. We must protect it and not abuse it.

Another reason we must all learn to pull together and find commonality is because that thwarts the ongoing efforts of our enemies to divide us. The Russians, Chinese, and several Middle Eastern countries are playing the long game of divide and conquer. They’ve been extremely adept at dividing us, using social media to manipulate public opinion and turn us on one another. The Chinese in particular have been buying up real estate, financing our debt, planting businesses here, and making us increasingly dependent on them for manufacturing.

I’m hoping I’m just paranoid and all of this is coincidental, but I doubt it. I think it’s intentional on behalf of the Chinese to weaken us from within. So far it’s working. While they soften us up, they’re making moves to take over sovereign nations like India and Taiwan. They’re engaging in mass martyrdom of Christians, jailing believers, closing and burning churches, cracking down on home gatherings and doing everything they can to eliminate Christianity from within their borders.

If we don’t want that to happen to us, we need to be aware of their tactics and work together against them. Freedom isn’t free and we must all be prepared daily to pay the price to protect it and to pass it on to the next generations.

As we look forward to our nation’s semiquincentennial celebration, I can’t help but look back at the bicentennial celebration of 1976. That was a great year for learning U.S. history in school. It was a time of great national pride and unity. The beautiful thing is, it can be again. If we recognize what our enemies are doing to us and learn to overcome their tactics, we can once again be united as a people with honor, dignity, decency, and respect. Just because we may not agree on some things doesn’t mean we have to disagree on all things. (We can agree to root for the Orange and Blue and against that football team in Dallas, for example.)

It’s time to set aside our differences and celebrate that which we have in common, to pull together as a people, and to enjoy the fruits of freedom.

Have a happy Fourth of July, y’all!

Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.

Cool off with some hot books this summer

Are you looking for something fun to do to beat this sweltering Texas summer heat?

Put down the game controllers and pick up a book!

If a book seems too daunting, grab a magazine or newspaper (naturally we prefer the latter). The main thing is you should be reading something. You don’t have to limit yourself to summer, although there is generally more time to engage in page-turning adventures, especially for youngsters while school is out.

As for me, I got tricked into a habit of reading when I was 5 or 6 years old. His name was Willie. He was a ghost who did the most fascinating magic tricks. I know that because he was in a book I read. It was the first book I ever read.

“Spooky Tricks” by Rose Wyler and Gerald Ames and illustrated by Tālivaldis Stubis was published by Scholastic Book Services in 1968. The cover price was 50 cents. I fell in love with that book. I was so determined to find out what that ghost was up to that I pushed myself hard to learn to read the words. It was a life-changing moment the first time I read all 64 pages of that little book by myself. That was the moment I knew I could read and the world suddenly opened up for me in amazing ways.

Not only had Willie helped me learn to read, he also taught me some neat tricks. I learned to write invisible messages with lemon juice and then make them appear with heat. There were other simple tricks, but that’s the only one I can remember five decades later.

I guess it only makes sense that I would grow up to be a writer since I have a life-long love of reading. Actually, my becoming a writer is somewhat ironic. I was never any good with grammar. I never got higher than a “C” in any grammar classes.

The English language and I don’t play well together. I am more its adversary than ally. Every day I sit down at my computer and do a dance across the blank page much like two knife-wielding gang members handcuffed together in a duel. Instead of blood, I spill ink.

Still, my love for writing, and journalism in general, stems from my passion for reading. Throughout my primary and secondary school years, my reading levels have always been way ahead of the curve. For a kid who hated school and did poorly in every other subject, that made me something of an academic oddity.

I read my first full-length novel in the fifth grade. It was a Lone Ranger book. When I got into junior high, I was into books based on movies I had seen. I was a regular at this little book store we had in my hometown. One day while looking through the used books, I found a copy of “Raise the Titanic” by Clive Cussler. I sank my teeth into it. I went back and got all of the previous Dirk Pitt adventures I could find. Cussler was instantly my favorite author. I have read almost every book he has written, including the more recent ones posthumously penned by his co-authors.

As much as I love to read and as advanced a reader as I am, one problem I have is my speed. I am a very slow reader. I can’t read any faster than one does reading aloud. It’s painful at times to be so slow, but on the other hand I absorb much more of what I’m reading because it has the time to soak into my brain.

Sandy, my wife, is a very voracious reader. She can read really fast. It’s not unusual for her to knock out a book in an evening or two. The same book might take me weeks to tread through.

And our passion for reading has been passed to our children. I really enjoyed the bonding time books provided with them when they were little. I remember my mother doing that for me. It was great. Every young child who is read to does better in school. At least that’s what numerous studies tell us.

For the last several years my reading time has been severely curtailed due to long commutes to work and other commitments. I have taken advantage of that commute time to listen to audio recordings of books. I now count that as reading. That’s about an hour a day I get to enrich my life during a time that would normally be bogged down in tedious boredom.

I’ve made some amazing discoveries since I began listening to audiobooks in 2009. I’ve listened to entire series including Harry Potter (twice), Left Behind, Ender’s Game, Brad Thor’s Scot Harvath, most of Brad Meltzer’s thrillers and non-fiction books, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, and nearly every book put out by Zig Ziglar, Dave Ramsey, Andy Weir, and so many more.

I read/listen to a healthy mix of self-help, non-fiction, biography, thriller, science-fiction, and so on. But the one book I have read and loved the most is the Bible. I have a habit of beginning my days reading it over breakfast and a cup of hot coffee and then going into a time of prayer. I have read the Bible all the way through several times now and I have no plans to quit.

Looking back, it’s hard to believe that this world of words has made such a huge impact on my life, all because I was curious to know what a little ghost named Willie was up to in a children’s magic book.

Thank you, Willie! I hope our paths will cross again someday. And I hope you encourage more kids to read, no matter how far out of print you are by now.

Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.