Problems with leadership at WISD

There are serious problems with leadership in the Wharton Independent School District.

One of the most important duties of a journalist is to cover local governmental bodies. Whether you think of it this way or not, school districts are the largest governmental units in most any community. They are funded entirely by tax dollars and in fact make up the largest portion of your property tax bill. They are governed by elected officials – the trustees who make up the school board.

Please allow me to pull back the curtain and show you some of the stuff I’ve encountered while attempting to simply cover the news at WISD.

My first example involves the upcoming election for three positions on the school board.

We have been running candidate profiles so that you, the voters, can know something about the candidates before you cast your vote. That is just basic meat-and-potatoes local journalism.

I requested copies of the candidates’ election filing papers – clearly a public record – from the district so that I could get contact information for each of the eight candidates. But so far my requests have been denied.

Superintendent Michael O’Guin’s new secretary is in charge of elections for the district and, with the backing of Deputy Superintendent Denise Ware, they have insisted that I file my request under the Texas Public Information Act and directed me to a link on the district’s website. I did as requested, only to find out later that the link goes to the wrong place.

Since then I have had an exchange of emails with district officials. Now they are seeking an attorney general’s opinion to determine if they must provide the information to me. I know for certain that the information is public and not confidential. I’ve made this request several times in the past with other governmental entities and have had no problem getting the information.

While all this is going on with the school district, the City of Wharton answered my request in less than five minutes. I submit this to you as an example of a failure in leadership. I have written in the past about difficulties getting public information from the district and clearly the situation has not improved.

In the meantime I did my best to contact the candidates by other means. Five of the eight have responded and provided requested information for their candidate profiles. I have no way of knowing if the other three received my request and ignored me or whether they did not receive it. This wouldn’t be a problem if the district didn’t withhold public information from me.

 

Problems at the top

I have attended about 17 monthly meetings of the WISD Board of Trustees. In that time, President Curtis Evans has presided over all but a couple. I have yet to see him run a meeting where he hasn’t made some kind of procedural gaff. It’s usually something minor, like inadvertently skipping an agenda item or calling for a vote before a motion has been made.

He is frequently being corrected on these things and sometimes they just slip by. These are minor things that the public does not see, but they happen all the time.

That’s normally not an issue, but there is more. In the April 22 edition of the paper, Evans ran an ad in which he called out his opponent, Teri Mathis, for mailing a flyer that had the “Paid Political Ad by Teri Mathis for School Board” disclaimer on it. 

In his ad he said, “This statement is problematic as school boards in the state are deemed non-partisan.” His implication was that the disclaimer was not necessary. His own ad had to have the “paid political ad” disclaimer on it because it is required by law. He does not seem to understand this. 

Additionally, both in his ad and in his candidate profile in the next edition, he said he was running for the WISD Board of Directors. It appears he doesn’t know the name of the board he leads. He’s a trustee, not a director.

Yes, these are all minor things, but there are a lot of them. And if he can’t get the small stuff right, what does that say about the important issues?

 

Meeting agendas

Evans and Superintendent O’Guin put together the agenda for each monthly meeting. Most of the time I’m in disagreement about items placed in the consent agenda. The consent agenda is a grouping of items that are considered routine and uncontroversial and are lumped together for a single vote. I’m of the opinion that too many things are placed in the consent agenda that require more public scrutiny and discussion by the board.

O’Guin disagrees and feels more items should be moved from the regular agenda to the consent agenda. He is backed by Tony Williams of the Region 3 Education Service Center, who is leading the board through the Lone Star Governance program aimed at improving board leadership and student outcomes.

At the last meeting, Williams wanted to know why the board didn’t better utilize the consent agenda to save time at board meetings (never mind that board meetings have doubled in length since LSG started). O’Guin pointed the finger at the newspaper (me) and two unnamed board members for insisting that certain items needed more discussion in public.

On a couple of occasions O’Guin has told me that board meetings are not public meetings but meetings that are held in public. I believe that as a governmental taxing entity with an elected board that the meetings are very much public and that citizens have a right to know, investigate, and question each action the board takes.

Williams noted that there seems to be a trust issue between the district and the public. No kidding! If these are small-potato problems it makes you wonder that the whole stew looks like.

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

The secret to losing weight and getting healthy

Have you ever been so excited about something and had a lot to say that it all comes gushing out in a confused mishmash of verbiage?

Last week I kinda tripped over my own tongue trying to say too much too fast. For those of you who struggled through my column, you have my applause and my sympathies. I was trying to impart the wisdom of seven books into one 950-word column and it didn’t work well.

As a refresher, I wrote about diet and how modern foods are killing us. Most of the stuff we buy in supermarkets isn’t real food, and a lot of the stuff that is real has become contaminated through processing and packaging. Rather than opening the firehose of facts again, let me simplify what I have learned on my journey to better food health.

According to Dr. William Davis, author of the books “Wheat Belly” and “Super Gut,” the absolute worst thing people can eat is wheat. Yes, wheat (flour) is in a lot of the food we consume and it would mean a fundamental change in the food industry to rid ourselves of this gastric monstrosity.

What’s wrong with wheat?

Davis explains in his books that there is a direct correlation to the rise of diabetes, obesity and other weight-related health problems and the cross-breeding and genetic manipulation of wheat that began in the 1940s and 1950s. Davis said as scientists began cross-breeding types of wheat and later doing genetic manipulation, it was done with the noble intention of increasing yields to help fight world hunger.

Yields of wheat rose substantially, but in the process, no one bothered to see if the altered wheat was safe to eat. While our government (Food and Drug Administration) insists that it is, Davis says otherwise (and so do other experts whose books I’ve read). He says modern wheat is radically different than the wheat we had less than a century ago and how our bodies react to it is astonishing.

The body converts modern wheat into blood sugars at levels higher than sugar itself. That becomes stored as body fat. It is also highly addictive and causes cravings that turn many people into eating machines.

Lose the wheat, lose the weight

Davis’s “lose the wheat, lose the weight” catchphrase is true. Weight loss is a symptom or byproduct of going wheat-free. While that might be a motivating factor for most people, a healthy diet without wheat has many more benefits than the scale will tell. He reports that many (but not all) patients he sees with diabetes, prediabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, problems with internal organs (heart, liver, kidney, etc.) and other maladies find their symptoms vanish when they eliminate wheat from their diet.

I can believe him because my son has celiac disease (an allergy to gluten, a major component of wheat and other grains). He grew up without eating wheat and consequently has not struggled with his weight or had other related health problems.

There is new research coming out that connects modern wheat to a host of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders as well, including most dementias. I mentioned that in last week’s ramblings. Eliminating wheat may or may not reverse some of these conditions, but it seems to keep them from getting worse.

Simple but not easy

To stop eating wheat sounds simple, but it’s not. Because my family has 19 years of experience preparing meals for our son that do not include wheat, we know the trials and difficulties of menu planning, grocery shopping, and selecting restaurants where it is safe for him to eat. It requires constant vigilance and the reading of ingredients, but after a while it becomes second nature. Four years ago, I began a keto diet. I lost 60 pounds, but every time I reintroduced wheat back into my diet, my weight would rise rapidly.

What to eat or not to eat

Listening to the advice of Davis, Dr. Mark Hyman (“Food: What the Heck Should I Eat”) and others, I have made life-changing decisions about what I put in my mouth. In addition to avoiding wheat, I do not consume soft drinks or sport drinks, sugar, artificial sugar, high fructose corn syrup, starchy foods (potatoes, rice, corn, peas, etc.), fried foods, vegetable oils (only extra virgin olive oil), anything with trans fats, most all snack foods, and so on. Yes, this eliminates a large chunk of the American diet.

As Dr. Hyman recommends, I do eat whole, natural, organic foods (or as close to that as I can). He says if comes from a plant, eat it. If it’s made in a plant, leave it. That means eating vegetables, some fruits, organic meats and dairy, eggs, wild caught seafood, nuts, etc. If a food has an ingredient list that contains any chemicals, dyes, preservatives, and long words you can’t pronounce, leave it alone.

Once again, you do not have to take my word for it. This is a list of the books and authors that I trust and have relied on. Check them out for yourself.

• “Wheat Belly” and “Super Gut” by William Davis;

• “Formerly Known as Food” by Kristin Lawless (just ignore her hyper-socialist, ultra-feminist rant in the last couple chapters);

• “Brain Food” by Lisa Mosconi;

• “Unlocking the Keto Code” by Steven Gundry;

• “End of Craving” by Mark Schatzker; and

• “Food: What the Heck Should I Eat” by Mark Hyman.

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.

Our food supply is slowly killing us

There is more than a 99% chance you’re an addict and don’t even know it.

Your mind and body have been altered at the cellular level.

Dire warnings issued by scientists over 30 years ago have come true.

If you are among those caught up in epidemics of obesity, diabetes, ADD/ADHD, transgenderism (and other sexual disorders), brain fog, depression, autism, dementia, cancer, arthritis, and a host of other maladies that have been on a rapid rise in recent years, know that you are not alone. There is good news and bad news. Some or all of these things are most likely caused by our food supply.

Intentional or otherwise, there is a dollar-driven conspiracy between our government, Big Food, and Big Agriculture that is poisoning us, leading Americans and the people of most industrialized nations to a slow, painful, and early death.

If this sounds alarmist, it is. I also believe it to be true. I’m not kidding. In the past few months I have listened to several audiobooks written by different doctors and specialists, each researching various aspects of diet and all drawing the same, frightening conclusions.

Unless you’re among the less than 1% of the population who was vaginally born, breast fed as a baby, and have maintained a lifelong diet of natural, unprocessed organic food, you have been physically and mentally altered by the very sources you trust and depend on the most. That includes me and probably everyone who is reading this.

If you have ever eaten packaged food with long ingredient lists loaded with chemicals, dyes, preservatives, or emulsifiers; drunk a soft drink or sports drink; had anything with artificial sweeteners; eaten white bread (or any bread or wheat product in the last 70 years); or consumed any produce not certified organic, you have had stuff that is bad for your health. And the food industry manipulates it to increase food cravings, much like a drug addict.

Now, before you check out or write me off as some kind of weirdo or nut job, hear me out. In 2019 I started the keto diet and lost over 60 pounds. I wanted to know more about the diet, how it works, and what it was doing to my body, so I started listening to audiobooks about it. That led me through a series of books, each building on and supporting what I had already learned.

What I discovered was scary and depressing but it also gave me hope. At the heart of it all is what our modern diet has done to our microbiome. That’s the bacteria and fungi living in our digestive tract. We are symbiotic creatures and we need these microscopic organisms to help us digest our food and convert it into the essential nutrients we need to live. The problem is the stuff we call food has killed off many strains of these microbes and has seriously and permanently altered us as human beings.

All the maladies I mentioned earlier are direct and indirect results of what eating fake, processed food has done to us. Those of you old enough probably remember the heated debates in the 1980s about whether or not the Food and Drug Administration should approve Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) as safe for consumption?

Top scientists warned us that we didn’t know enough about their impact on us and our environment to allow it. The FDA ignored those warnings and sided with Big Food and Big Ag in allowing GMOs into our food stream. They should have listened to the experts. The results are coming in and it’s not good. Produce made to be resistant to insects and disease and increase yields are also resistant to the microorganisms in our digestive system.

On top of that, the pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers used on our produce is harming us. The same goes for the growth hormones and other medications given to the livestock we eat. Even the packaging – with the blessing of the FDA – is leaching harmful chemicals into our food.

According to the authors I have read, this and other related issues has resulted in brain-essential nutrients being denied to us in our formative years. The result is failure of the brain to develop properly, causing mental and emotional problems.

If you’ve ever wondered why there is an epidemic in mass shootings, suicide, gender confusion, denial of facts, the inability of young people to form relationships with people of the opposite sex, and a number of other things that we consider abnormal, it’s not cultural, it’s dietary and biological. At least that is where the evidence is pointing. The alteration of our food – primarily wheat – has altered human development.

Babies no longer receive all the good microbes and immunity they normally would from their mothers because their mothers don’t have it to pass on. The result, according to the experts, are brains that are not fully developed with the hormones necessary for complete emotional and sexual development. It impairs judgement and our ability to form relationships. This doesn’t even consider what is happening to us physically.

I can’t begin to discuss in a few paragraphs here what the experts have written in numerous books. I will follow up with more next week. In the meantime, don’t take my word for it. Look it up for yourself. These are my sources:

• “Wheat Belly” and “Super Gut” by William Davis;

• “Formerly Known as Food” by Kristin Lawless;

• “Brain Food” by Lisa Mosconi;

• “Unlocking the Keto Code” by Steven Gundry;

• “End of Craving” by Mark Schatzker; and

• “Food: What the Heck Should I Eat” by Mark Hyman.

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.

A crossroads between Christ and Easter Bunny

Happy Easter! More appropriately, happy Resurrection Sunday!

I’ve never understood how or why the most sacred of Christian holy days became tied to the secular holiday of Easter. I’m certainly not enough of a theologian to try and figure it out. Since there is no record of the day Jesus was resurrected from the dead, Easter remains one of the faith’s moveable feasts.

Ironically, about the only feast most of us associate with Easter is a feast of chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and other assorted colorful candies. At least that was my idea of an Easter feast growing up. We usually had a ham (yawn), and the meal itself was never a big deal.

As a kid, the only thing Jesus had to do with Easter was the annual sermon we had to listen to about his death, burial, and resurrection. All my brothers and I wanted to do was hunt Easter eggs, eat candy, and play with the toys that came in our shrink-wrapped Easter baskets.

As an adult, I have great appreciation for the meaning of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. It’s at the very core of my belief system. I know I don’t always act like it, which is why I need his forgiveness every day. We all do. Even his disciples did. None of us are perfect, nor are we expected to be.

We are expected to strive to be like Jesus with the understanding that he is the one and only perfect person and that the rest of us fall short of that standard. His sacrifice is the greatest gift given to mankind. Without it, we are doomed to an eternity in hell. All mankind is destined to eternal damnation after this life. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved. There is no other way.

One of the things I don’t like about Easter is the fact that its date is moveable. It’s not set in stone like Christmas on Dec. 25. As a result, it can sneak up on you, which it seems to do each year. My life has been so incredibly busy the last couple of months that I sadly did not pay attention to Easter being this Sunday. It really didn’t dawn on me until last Sunday at church when we celebrated Palm Sunday. I knew Easter was coming up, I just didn’t expect it so soon.

I guess that’s part of the reason why God commanded us to keep the sabbath. We need time to rest, reflect, and prepare for what’s to come. I know I’m guilty of routinely violating the fourth commandment, but then most Christians I know share that guilt. It’s like I said, none of us are perfect.

As often as I complain about the blending of the secular and sacred in Christmas and Easter observances and the commercialization of both, I have to confess to having been a mall Santa and my wife has been the Easter Bunny at church functions. Sometimes I think having these secular traditions add levity and happiness to events that are otherwise tragic tales.

The birth of Jesus is a glorious event wrapped in tragedy and danger. His death, burial, and resurrection are equally glorious, but his betrayal and torture are horrifying. I guess perhaps the secular trappings of the holidays help sugar-coat the hardships. The main thing is that the message of Jesus gets through.

For me, it took years of being dragged to church in starched, itchy clothes and having to listen to the preacher when all I really wanted to do was go home and eat more candy. Today, I have given up candy and most all sweets (permanently, not just for Lent) and look forward to going to church each week.

In the weeks and months ahead, I will most likely return to writing about sports, comic cons, books, diet, historic reenactments, and local happenings. But I never want to pass up an opportunity to share my faith and to open an invitation to anyone who desires to learn about Jesus to feel free to ask. I never want to experience getting to Heaven and having Jesus ask why I didn’t invite anyone to come with me. This is your invitation. How will you respond?

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.

From stock show to fair, it’s a whirlwind ride

Stock shows, rodeo, and fair, yee-haw!

Having the Wharton County Youth Fair moved up a month this year so it runs directly after the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo really kicks things into high gear for all the FFA and 4-H kids involved in those events, not to mention their parents, teachers, and a certain bedraggled journalist trying to keep up with it all.

I know these kids are worn out and stressed to no end, but at the same time they love it and live for it. Like any annual season, you can’t wait for it to start and then you can’t wait for it to be over. It’s kind of like sports, you miss your favorite team during the off season and you relish the action during the season. By the end of the season you’re tired and ready for a break. But as soon as it’s over you’re ready for it to return.

For the Wharton County kids, the majors (Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Houston, etc.) are over and the WCYF is wrapping up this weekend. It’s an emotional time because animals that they have meticulously cared for the past year are gone. The kids have accomplished their goal, but there is a certain emptiness that goes with it. Parting with your project is like losing a friend.

Growing up in Colorado, my brothers and I participated in 4-H and showed our projects at the Boulder County Fair. My brothers did pigs, sheep, and calves. I did rabbits and bees. For two years in a row I had the reserve grand champion beekeeping display. I lost the championship both years to the same friend in our Hooves and Horns 4-H Club. (We were also the only ones to enter the competition, but we’ll keep the little nugget of information between us.)

I put most of my effort into my rabbits (we raised them by the hundreds), but I never placed any higher than fourth. I remember the time that I had my red satin all groomed and ready for show. I took him to the fairgrounds on a rainy day and as I removed his cage from the car, he got out, splashed in a mud puddle, and ran under my car where he got streaked with grease.

I know raising rabbits sounds wimpy and unglamorous compared to steers and such, but they were not easy and I still have the scars to show for it. At the end of the fair, my brothers came home with a wad of cash where their animals used to be. I came home with my rabbits and my fourth-place ribbons. They were relieved to not have to care for their projects anymore and I got to go out twice a day and feed mine – at least until we ate them.

My wife Sandy and I each grew up on hobby farms. It’s a part of our childhoods that we really miss and we are trying to get back into it. For more than a year now we have been looking for a place in the country suitable for our family and our goal of raising small animals and growing a big garden. We keep looking and praying and hoping someday God leads us to our agricultural paradise here in Texas. It’s all in his timing and we just have to trust him and the process.

In the meantime, I’m keeping busy covering the HLSR and WCYF. I love it, especially the rodeos and bull rides. I never learned to rope and ride, but I really respect those who do. It requires strength and skill on par with other world class athletes. The talents are underappreciated and the risks involved are high.

These athletes spend most of the year on the road, sleeping in cars, cheap motels, and crashing on couches just for the chance to earn a little cash and move on to the next event. It’s a hard life and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

The same could be said for the FFA and 4-H kids who put in the effort to raise their animals, going out at oh-dark-thirty to feed them, spending afternoons and weekends working with them, grooming them, mucking stalls, hauling hay and doing all that other unsung work just to have a moment or two to shine at the fair. From one who has done it to those who are doing it, keep up the good work. You’ll be a better person for it.

The values of caring, sacrifice, commitment, drive, and ambition can’t be overstated when it comes to raising animals and doing the hard work to finally get to that brief moment in the spotlight. We need new generations of farmers and ranchers and the skills you are learning and the habits you are forming will last a lifetime and hopefully produce some of finest agriculturalists this country has ever known. My hat’s off to 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.

Part circus, part baseball all Bananas

Imitating a scene out of the movie “Flashdance,” members

of the Savannah Bananas dump a bucket of bananas on
pitcher Dakota McFadden during their game March 17
at Constellation Field.

Savannah Bananas relief pitcher Mat Wolf throws the ball
from between his legs during their game March 17 
at Constellation Field.

I went to the circus and a baseball game broke out.

That’s how it seemed March 17 when I covered the Savannah Bananas taking on the Party Animals at Constellation Field – home of the Sugar Land Space Cowboys. The Bananas brought their world tour to Constellation Field for three sold-out nights. If you’re not familiar with the Savannah Bananas, Google them and watch some of the videos. It’s OK, I’ll wait while you do it.

See what I mean – it’s a circus! The Bananas are best described as the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. Team founder and owner Jesse Cole (the Top Banana) is often compared to showman P.T. Barnum. Never before have so many loose cannons been creatively corralled into a well-timed, high-energy explosion of shtick and shenanigans.

The game itself is played under a two-hour countdown. The entertainment begins long before that and lasts well after the last out. With people in line more than three hours before the game begins, the Banana Band, the Man-anas (yellow-clad boosters), the mascot Split, and some of the players mingle with the fans, pose for photos, sign autographs and engage in impromptu competitions (dance-off anyone?) to fuel the enthusiasm.

A team parade leads to the opening of the gates and the mad dash for the unassigned seats. For the next couple of hours players from both teams sign autographs and pose for selfies while clips of pop tunes blare throughout the stadium set the mood. (I lost count of the number of times I heard parts of “YMCA” and “Baby Shark.”)

To set the scene for you, the Bananas wear yellow and black kilts. Their opponent, the Party Animals, look like they just rolled out of a 1980s skating rink with their mismatched black, pink, and neon green uniforms. (Totally gnarly dude!) During the buildup to game time, there are all kinds of stunts, skill demonstrations, contests, and general monkeying around.

About the only solemn moment is the performance of the National Anthem. After that, the countdown begins. That’s right, the countdown. The game is limited to two hours. And yes, despite all the distraction and interruption, they complete the game in two hours. The rules are different. The team that scores the most points in an inning gets a point for that inning. So, if the first inning ended with three runs for the Bananas and two runs for the Party Animals, the Bananas would get one point. In the ninth inning, scoring returns to normal. (And unlike the Harlem Globetrotters, the Bananas don’t always win.)

There are no walks in Banana Ball. After the fourth ball is called, the batter takes off running. The defense must pass the ball to each player on the field before they can attempt to get the runner out or stop him on base.

Pitchers can pitch whenever they’re ready. Opposing players may or may not be in position. Heck, his own players may not be in position. Action may come to an abrupt stop for some kind of improvisation. The night I was there a wedding was held in the middle of the game.

Essentially, the game is just the framework on which the real entertainment hangs. At the end of the night, no one goes home talking about big plays, stats, and team standings. They go home laughing and joking about the craziness they just witnessed. Of course, they don’t go home right away. The team returns to the concourse to mingle with the fans for a while.

Prior to the game I had the chance to visit with Dakota Albritton who is the most upstanding member of the team. He’s known as Stilts. He plays the game on really tall stilts and he’s kinda hard to miss. He told me he auditioned for the team on a unicycle. They asked him if he had any other talents, and the rest is history.

The team’s mission is to be fan-focused. Everything they do is about the fans and helping them feel good and have a great time. That’s the key to their success. That’s part of their appeal (pun intended). That’s why they’ve been sold out since 2017 and have a waiting list of 500,000.

Soon we will be back to the balls and strikes of professional baseball. Until that happens, it’s been wildly entertaining to have this bunch in town.

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.

Come to Goliad and watch me die

One week from now I will be dead and many of my friends with me.

We will be slaughtered by some other friends while hundreds of people look on and snap pictures with their cell phones.

OK, we won’t really be dead (at least I hope not). Next weekend, March 25-26, is the annual reenactment of the Goliad Massacre. As many of you know, I am a colonel in the Texas Army, a group that reenacts the battles and events of the Texas Revolution in 1835-36.

We will spend the weekend encamped at Presidio La Bahia in Goliad where we will reenact battles and demonstrate camp life as it was at the time 187 years ago. We will be dressed in period garb, firing blanks out of cannons and muzzleloaders, and doing our best to entertain and educate the people who come to watch.

Of all the reenactments we do, this is the biggest and best. It’s heartfelt and authentic in that we do most everything at the spot where the real events happened. Presidio La Bahia has been rebuilt (the church is original and has been continually used as such) and adds and air of authenticity that is lacking at all the other historic sites of the time, including the Alamo.

We don’t do the Fannin battle at its site, as that is several miles away. Nor do we march to any of the exact spots where Fannin’s men were massacred for pretty much the same reason.

Our interpretation of events, however, have a reasonable degree of accuracy. At least it’s as accurate as you can get with a few dozen people – mostly fat old men with gray beards and tidy outfits – playing the parts of about 300 young men who would have been filthy and emaciated. We generally have better representation on the Mexican side at this event. It’s located much closer to San Antonio where the largest Mexican soldado (soldier) groups are from (and also because they get to win this go-round).

Saturday will feature three battle reenactments during the day and the very popular candlelight tours at night (requires an additional ticket and always sell out, so come early). This year my wife, Sandy, will be making her debut as a tour guide. I will be reprising my role as one of the wounded housed in the church.

I do this with extreme reverence, not only out of respect for what happened, but also because Sandy’s fourth-great uncle was one of those crammed in there and eventually massacred.

Sunday morning is a much more solemn occasion, as most of the survivors are marched out of the presidio and down the road to an open field where we are stopped and shot to death. From there, everyone returns to the presidio where the execution of James Fannin is acted out.

If you don’t want to make the trek to Goliad but still want to see some cool reenactments, mark your calendar for April 15 and plan to attend the Runaway Scrape event in Richmond at George Ranch Historical Park. Not only is this one closer to home, but it is in a more intimate setting and we usually burn a lot of gunpowder during the two demonstrations we do.

Another event that gets a lot of attention locally is the San Jacinto Celebration, which will be held April 22 at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site. This used to be a huge event with over 100 reenactors performing before thousands of spectators. Since COVID, the Texas Historical Commission has been muscling out the Texas Army and paring down the reenactment portion. Even though this was the primary draw to the site, the Texas Army and San Jacinto Volunteers are not a part of it this year. I still may go as an individual volunteer for the THC just because I love doing it so much.

Each year since I enlisted in the Texas Army I have been trying to improve my interpretation by acquiring more gear and altering my appearance. This year I’ve been growing mutton chops and letting my hair grow longer so I better look the part.

I hope you will come out and join us at some or all of these events. It’s a fun way to learn history and spend a day outdoors and engaging in something unique to Texas. If you do, feel free to come up and say hello. I promise I won’t shoot you. I’ll save that for my other friends.

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.

Boot scootin’ back to the rodeo

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn perform “Brand New Man”
Wednesday night at RodeoHouston in NRG Stadium.
After taking a few years off the road, Brooks and Dunn
are back with their Reboot tour.

Bull rider Jesse Flores of California gets bucked off

during Wednesday night’s bull riding competition
at RodeoHouston in NRG Stadium.

It sure feels good to be back in the saddle again.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is in full swing and it’s almost like returning home to be wrapped in a country and western atmosphere. For three weeks I’m no longer the cowboy hat-wearing oddball but just part of the crowd at NRG Park. I wear my cowboy hat year-round but don’t currently live on a farm or ranch. So, as they say, I’m all hat and no cattle. But on Wednesday night at NRG Stadium, I was definitely in my element.

This ain’t my first rodeo. I’ve been photographing rodeos for most of 30 or so years. I love it. Normally when I’m in NRG Stadium I’m photographing a Texans game, but each March they exchange the artificial turf for dirt and hooves replace cleats tearing up the surface. While I have a profound appreciation for roping events, I’m a rough stock guy. The photographer in me loves the thrill, action, and sheer terror of the sport. It makes for incredible pictures and many memorable moments.

From what I understand, outside of the National Finals Rodeo, RodeoHouston is the largest, most competitive rodeo in the world. The best of the best compete here. I don’t follow rodeo nearly to the degree that I do football or baseball, but I do recognize names as they come around each March. And it’s not just the competitors, it’s the announcers and bullfighters (clowns) as well. Some of them I’ve come to know over the years.

After the last bull ride, I departed the arena to meet with the media escort who takes a handful of photographers out to photograph the concert. Wednesday night was Brooks and Dunn, an act that I had never seen before and had given up hope of seeing when they quit touring a few years ago. They’re back now with their Reboot tour.

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are in their late 60s but they sure don’t act like it. They still bring an energy to their performance that you’d expect from someone half their age. It was good to see. And as they worked their way through a 70-minute, 18-song concert you could feel the energy in NRG growing.

At most concerts anywhere, photographers are usually given two to three songs to take pictures and then they have to leave. We got two songs, so while they were belting out “Brand New Man” and “Put A Girl In It” (which included Dunn accidentally dropping the mic and breaking it), the small pack of shooters circled the rotating stage, each of us angling to get what we hope is “the” shot.

With the conclusion of the second song, I returned to the press box high atop the stadium where I joined my wife, Sandy, for the remainder of the concert. She helps me out by maintaining a score sheet of the rodeo and updates me on things I miss while transitioning from one place to another.

Covering the rodeo is exhausting but incredibly enjoyable work. The really hard part, however, is sorting through nearly 2,000 photographs to find the ones I like best and then prep them for production. What you are hopefully seeing here with this column are a couple of my better pictures, at least as I could determine from a very rapid review after the show.

Soon, I will gear up and do it all over again. I hope you enjoy it. If you want to see more, we post a lot of photos on the Wharton Journal-Spectator’s SmugMug website (wharton-journal-spectator.smugmug.com). There you will find a lot of photos from local games and events that we can’t fit into print. And if you see something you like, you can purchase prints or digital downloads (without the watermark) from there.

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.

Riding again with The Lone Ranger and Tonto

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.

If you’re old enough to recall that phrase, you’re probably qualified for AARP and most likely Social Security and Medicare.

“A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver!”

Those words announced each morning on my television set by a man who would later become my friend sent my spirits soaring in anticipation of 30 minutes of action and adventure.

“The Lone Ranger! With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early western United States. Nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion of justice. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out of the past come the thundering hoofs of the great horse Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!”

Although the radio program, television series, two movie serials, and two major motion pictures had come and gone before I was born, The Lone Ranger lived in syndication and trailblazed across my living room television set for much of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

It came on each weekday morning and I watched religiously with my Lone Ranger and Tonto action figures (please don’t call them dolls) mounted on their trusty steeds on the coffee table while I sat on the couch and scarfed down my breakfast cereal.

After school, my passion would switch to “Star Trek,” but my mornings belonged to the masked man and his faithful Indian companion. As I moved into my teen years, I outgrew the legendary Texas Ranger, as did much of America. In the early 1980s there was a lot of uproar as actor Clayton Moore was stripped of his mask as Hollywood was attempting to revive the Ranger with a new movie, “The Legend of the Lone Ranger.”

I liked the movie well enough, but it bombed at the box office. For the next several years I maintained an interest in “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” and let my interest in The Lone Ranger become a ghost of my past. That ghost, however, kept haunting me in the back of my mind.

In the late 1990s I decided I wanted to write a book. I wanted something that was still popular, but not in a saturated market like my sci-fi favorites. That’s when the masked man rode gallantly back into the picture. I knew he was still popular enough to make a book a good seller, but nobody was doing anything with the character so the marketplace wasn’t crowded.

I began by doing research into the character and made a botched attempt to contact Clayton Moore by phone. I did get an autographed photo, however, and I treasure it. Eventually I came across a quarterly newsletter published by Terry Klepey called The Silver Bullet. I subscribed just about the time Moore passed away in 1999.

A few issues into my subscription, Kelpey announced he was ready to pass the torch. I took it up and began publishing the newsletter. At this time the WB network was attempting to revive The Lone Ranger and made a pilot episode that ran one time as a movie of the week. It was horrible, but it did help revive interest in the character. I also started to hear from longtime subscribers wishes for a club or organization they could be a part of like they did when they were kids. That gave me the bright idea to start The Lone Ranger Fan Club and to make The Silver Bullet the club’s newsletter.

I threw myself into the fan club to the tune that I was ignoring my new family. All my spare time was spent researching, writing, and staying connected online to other fans. I got to know Fred Foy, the legendary announcer whose voice started my heart racing each weekday morning of my childhood. I also got to know John Hart, who replaced Moore for one season, via numerous phone conversations.

I was at the center of the Lone Ranger universe, but not at the center of my family. It took me nine years of doing this to figure out how lopsided my priorities had become. In 2012, with Disney making a new, $250 million Lone Ranger movie that I could see was going to be a monumental success or major bomb (it bombed) and with the passing of Foy and Hart, I came to the realization that my family had to come first. So I passed the fan club on to someone else.

Not long after that the new owner and I had a huge falling out. I distanced myself from the fan club and let the masked man slip back into the pages of my history. Other than staying involved in a few Lone Ranger groups on Facebook, I let him go.

Then a couple months ago I got a phone call from one of my former members. He was taking over ownership of the club and wanted to pick my mind for information. We spoke for a long time. I hadn’t realized that 10 years had passed and that 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the fan club.

It felt great to relive those thrilling days of yesteryear. By the time we hung up, I was committed to returning to the club and contributing to the newsletter. My kids are adults now and I can contribute without obsessing over it. It feels great to be back in the saddle again.

Hi-yo Silver, away!

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.

WISD’s 4-day school week plan needs revamping

Last week the Wharton ISD Board of Trustees narrowly voted down a proposal to go to a four-day school week next year.

The plan is a good one with merit and lots of benefits. Unfortunately, it was poorly executed and failed. I don’t think the plan should be abandoned. It needs to be revamped and tried again down the road.

I believe the primary reason the vote failed is because of a fear of the unknown. Removing a day from the school week is a fundamental change and I don’t think the trustees or the community were ready for it.

It would be easy to say that the vote failed on racial lines with Curtis Evans, Fred Johnson, and Philip Henderson – who are Black – voting for it, and Sherrell Speer, Doris Teague, Ann Witt, and Miguel Santes – who are white and Hispanic – voting against. You could also say the split vote was based on age, as Speer, Teague, and Witt are senior citizens, but that doesn’t explain why Santes voted the way he did. I disregard both of those theories, so let’s examine further.

My theory is that there was not enough time given to the subject. It was proposed at the January board meeting and voted on just three weeks later at the February meeting. Three weeks is not nearly enough time to consider a significant change that impacts not only the school district, but the entire community. It felt like the proposal was being forced down the throats of the trustees.

Deputy Superintendent Denise Ware gave presentations about the benefits of the four-day week at the January and February board of trustees meetings. Both times she elaborated how the four-day week would help the district attract and retain quality teachers. She explained how it would help teachers provide better instruction while creating time to do work on Friday that they would normally do on their own time over the weekend. She made a lot of good, valid points.

Ware also said her research shows that there is little to no academic improvement in students when going to a shorter week. There are lower drop-out rates and fewer disciplinary referrals, which are good and needed, but not much to show how it will improve student performance. Her focus was on the benefits to the district, not the students.

To help answer the question about where the students will go on Fridays, representatives from Communities in Schools, Boys and Girls Club, and Just Do It Now spoke about their programs and their ability to serve more students than they currently are. This came across to me more like the solution to a baby-sitting problem than one to enhance instruction (which I know these organizations do to a degree).

At the January meeting the trustees asked that a survey be taken to see how parents feel about the four-day plan. A parent survey was hastily posted on the district’s website and only accessible to parents for a very few days. Surveys were also taken of teachers and District Educational Improvement Committee members. The results of the surveys showed significant support for the four-day plan.

What was lacking in this process was a survey of all the stakeholders in the district. Everyone who pays taxes to the district or who lives and works within the district boundary is a stakeholder. The community at large was not surveyed. Nor were the business owners and other employers who would have to consider alterations to their operations to accommodate employees who would have childcare issues each Friday.

With the plan being rushed in just three weeks, there was no effort made to sell the concept to the community. There were no community meetings. There were no presentations to civic groups and other organizations. There was no promotional campaign. Nothing was done to try and get the community’s buy-in.

I just recently finished the book “Time Smart,” in which author Ashley Whillans, a Harvard business school professor, talks about the benefits of flex time and having more time off from work and school. Armed with that knowledge, I know there are more benefits to the four-day week than what has been presented to the board of trustees.

My recommendation is for the district to regroup and switch its focus from how this plan can benefit the district to how it can benefit students and academic performance. Show us how it will improve education and lift the district out of its F ratings. Give the community a game plan it can rally around.

With a plan in place, take a few months to roll it out to the community and give the information time to sink in. Use several months and schedule community meetings. Make presentations to the movers and shakers in the various civic and community groups. Build momentum and support.

It’s too soon to make this change for the 2023-2024 school year. Target the year after that. Give the community time to absorb the information, acclimate to it, and prepare for it. We saw what a major disruption COVID was on education. At least when things shut down during COVID, parents were home, too. Now they’re back at work and need time to plan and prepare for a major change in their schedule.

Most importantly, however, the students will need to be prepared for the changes they will face and the opportunities that will be before them. They are, after all, the reason for doing any of this.

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.

‘I Am Texas’ book by children is biggest in the world

Illustrator Christopher Eliopoulos lies 
down next to the seven-foot tall copy of
 “I Am Texas,” which was certified by the
Guinness Book of World Records as the
largest published book in the world.

Everything is bigger in Texas, and now, as verified by the Guinness Book of World Records, the state is home to the biggest published book in the world.

“I Am Texas” is a monstrous seven-foot tall hardback book featuring the writings and artwork of 1,000 students from across the Lone Star State.

“I Am Texas” was inspired by New York Times bestselling duo Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos who have produced the Ordinary People Change the World series of children’s books. Each of those books are titled “I Am __” and features notable people such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Neil Armstrong, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr., to name a few.

The book was unveiled and presented for documentation to the Guinness Book of World Records during a book signing, art auction, and gala Nov. 5 at The Hilton Americas in Houston. The event was hosted by iWRITE and Galveston’s Bryan Museum Board of Directors.

Eliopoulos, who illustrates the books with Meltzer, participated. Guinness Judge Michael Empric measured and officially deemed “I Am Texas” as the largest published book in the world. The book is an ode to Texas from the perspective of children. The book captures what the Lone Star State means to 1,000 young Texans in grades 3 to 12 from over 80 school districts.

Limited hardcover and paperback copies in a handheld size are available to purchase at iwrite.org.

“This book had been two years in the making during some of the hardest times in our community for students, parents, and educators. Breaking this record with 1,000 kids that celebrated the best of Texas through literacy was exactly what we all needed,” iWRITE founder and the Executive Director of the Bryan Museum, Melissa Williams Murphy said in a new release. “The fact that we got to do it with so many community partners and allow kids to become a part of the Ordinary People Change the World series was the icing on the cake.”

“We hope to inspire kids to become true leaders and the heroes in their own stories. That’s why we created books like ‘I Am Sacagawea’ and ‘I Am Neil Armstrong’ and why we are excited to release ‘I Am Texas’ with 1,000 kids,” Meltzer said in a press release.

The book is currently on a tour of Texas. It is at the Taste of Texas restaurant in Houston through March 7 and will go to the state Capitol on March 8. It will then go to the Alamo from March 9 through the month of April. From Sept. 4 through Oct. 2 it will be at the Texas Center at Schreiner University in Kerrville, followed by the Dallas Historical Society from Nov. 20 to Dec. 1.

Entities interested in displaying the book can make a request at https://iamtx.org/the-i-am-texas-book-tour.

The 2023 “I Am Texas” contest is now open. The deadline is April 20. This year, middle and high school students can write a fiction or nonfiction piece about artifacts in the Bryan Museum’s collection. Elementary students may write a letter to a Texan from the past or present. Student artists should get creative and use their unique perspective to interpret the “I Am Texas” theme. Top winners in each category will receive cash prizes.

The Bryan Museum houses over 70,000 pieces that tell the story of Texas and the American West and contains many online resources for student research. Entry information can be found at iamtx.org.

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.

I have classified documents in my garage

Attention FBI, I have top secret, classified documents stored in my garage.

Please, come take a look. They need to be removed and put in their proper place.

Actually, I don’t have anything top secret or classified. I just want help cleaning my garage and the FBI seems eager to do the work. At least they’re interested in snooping in the garages, basements, and attics of current and former occupants of the White House.

I think the most classified papers I have in my two-car storage bin are those with Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers on them. I do have boxes and boxes of papers with classifieds in them, but those are newspapers and the classifieds are ads.

Every so often my wife Sandy suggests that we need to clean and reorganize the garage. That’s her secret code for “let’s get rid of more of Joe’s stuff.” We’re both packrats and have plastic bins full of stuff we just can’t seem to part with. A lot of it is sentimental (semi-mental?) and that’s OK.

Decluttering experts say if you hold an object you should ask if it still brings you joy. If it does, keep it. If not, toss it. A lot of my remaining keepsakes do bring me joy. I have very fond memories of my 1970s Lone Ranger actions figures, old posters, my Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist doll, my old high school football jerseys, and tons of other childhood trinkets.

I do have several boxes of old photos and film negatives that I need to sort through, along with paring down old newspapers to include just the ones with important stories I wrote. I think the thought of sitting down to sort all those things out gives me paralysis of analysis and an aversion to just dealing with the mess.

Please note that I did not mention how much of the stuff in the garage is my wife’s. To her credit, she has been slowly consolidating and eliminating stuff, but there is still a lot to do. I know we will soon spend a weekend plowing through the garage because Sandy has been dropping the usual hints.

“We need to clean out the garage.” “We need to get this mess organized.” “I can’t find anything in here.” And those are just the obvious hints. It will go on that way for a few weeks or months until a rare spot opens on the calendar without any commitments.

In the summer, it’s too hot to work in the garage and in the winter it’s too cold and wet. Guess what? Spring is coming. That’s another clue. Even the FBI couldn’t miss that one.

Whenever I start going through boxes in the garage, I get sentimental. So may memories come flooding back. I also get frustrated because there are lots of projects to finish and I don’t have the time.

I keep telling myself that someday I’m going to have a new house with my own workshop or man cave where I can proudly display my collection of collections and no longer have to park boxes in the place where the cars should be.

There is a saying that you should have what you want, but want what you have. My problem is I want what I have. I just don’t need so much of it. I know that when I die my kids are not going to want all of this stuff either. Some future historian or archeologist may find my garage full of stuff to be a real gold mine, but my family not so much.

So what’s a guy to do? My solution was to bait the FBI, but I doubt they bite. If they do I’ll have more fodder for another column and another column to add to my collection.

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.

Long stories, short memory, Shatner still entertains

Host Ernie Manouse, left, and actor William Shatner
greet the audience Jan. 14 at the Smart Financial
Centre in Sugar Land following a screening of
“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

He’s still got it, but sometimes he can’t remember where he put it.

Last Saturday Sandy and I attended the screening of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” and the appearance by Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, at the Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the first time Sandy had seen the 40-year-old movie. Suddenly references from the newer Trek movies came clear to her. I, of course, remember “Khan.” It was my second-favorite movie after “Star Wars” for many years.

While Sandy found the special effects to be cheesy, I thought they held up remarkably well. They definitely held up better than Shatner’s memory. I certainly can’t fault a nearly 92-year-old for being a bit forgetful. I logically hope that I have the vitality and mental acuity that he does should I reach that age.

Shatner was all over the stage at the Smart Financial Centre. He was probably in search of his thoughts, as his stories followed many rabbit trails. They were good, funny stories, but at times unrelated to the question he was asked. Most of the time he’d come back to the question, but not after wondering around a galaxy of anecdotes in the process.

For example, when asked by host Ernie Manouse why he chose “Star Trek II” to screen on his tour, he went into a long explanation of how “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” came to be made. Only he kept referring to it as “Star Trek: The Movie.” He eventually got to the making of “Star Trek II” and the huge box office success it had.

Manouse asked him about how he and Khan actor Ricardo Montalbán never saw each other while making the movie as they did not have any scenes together. That sent Shatner off telling his history with the “Fantasy Island” star. As a boy, Shatner first saw Montalbán in a Broadway musical. They met years later and Montalbán corrected Shatner on the pronunciation of his name.

“Riiicardo Montalbán,” Shatner said, mimicking his Spanish accent.

That became a running joke for Shatner as he used the full, accented name each time he referenced Montalbán.

Shatner shared many stories about his career throughout the 90-minute Q&A. When he was inevitably asked which was his favorite “Star Trek” episode, he said he doesn’t like to watch himself on film and therefore doesn’t really have a favorite except for those episodes that dealt with societal issues, such as racism.

He then told the story of how the late physicist Stephen Hawking once wanted to ask him a question. Thinking they were going to get into a deep discussion about black holes or something, Shatner was surprised when Hawking – one of the greatest intellects of the 20th century – wanted to know what his favorite episode was.

Manouse asked Shatner if they were aware of the cultural statement they were making when he did the first televised interracial kiss with Nichelle Nichols. He said he was aware, but was more excited about kissing the lovely Nichols than he was about making a statement.

That led him into telling the story of how he once filmed a nude scene with Angie Dickinson. She got to dictate who could stay on set, but nobody cared to ask him. “And I’m naked!” he said.

For laughs, Shatner was asked “boxers or briefs?”

“Depends.”

At the conclusion of the talk, Manouse asked Shatner about his experience going on a sub-orbital space flight. The ride on Oct. 13, 2021, in a Blue Origin capsule made him the oldest person to go to space at age 90.

Shatner has said he anticipated making some grandiose connection between his fictional and real-life space adventures and the need to explore other worlds. What he discovered was something very different.

“That’s life,” he said, looking down. “That’s death,” he said, looking up.

“I get out of the spaceship and I find myself crying,” he said. “Not just (sniffles), I’m weeping. And I don’t know why I cried.”

He later figured it out. He experienced what many astronauts do when leaving Earth.

“I’m in grief for our world. I’m in grief for the extinction of everything that’s happening. We’ve got to do something! We’ve got to do something!” he said, his voice rising.

His answer was to make a musical album containing “So Fragile, So Blue,” a song about his experience.

He said he’s making “A music video of ‘So Fragile, So Blue’ encapsulating what I’ve just described to you about my experience going up into space, and being thrilled of course, but seeing more clearly than I ever had before what’s happening to our world. And how much it depends on every one of us to do something about it. And my calling, my reason for existence, may be this again is in my imagination, this music video, because entwined in all the lyrics is the phrase, ‘what can we do?’ What can we do and it ends. What can we do and the music comes to a peak and that will be a music video in the next few months.”

It was my third time seeing Shatner in person and the first since his space flight. Given his age, I keep thinking each time I see him is probably the last. Whether it is or not, it’s safe to say that Shatner has lived long and prospered.

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.