The Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 155, No. 34, Ed. 1 Saturday, June 21, 2008 Page: 4 of 12
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Page 4A ★ TDic Bastrop Idocrtiscr
Saturday, June 21, 2008 w
Opinions
Letters To
The Editor
Giving kudos to BCAC for clean, car-
ing shelter and a positive experience
Dear Editor:
A recent by letter by
PACE requesting readers to
evaluate the animal shelter's
effectiveness was a bit dis-
turbing to me. To publicly
request reader's experienc-
es, "good or bad," suggests
to me that negative respons-
es are expected. It has been
my experience that folks
with "bad" experiences are
more vocal than others.
Over the years, my family
has adopted pets from sev-
eral shelters around Texas.
I have found BCAC to be
among the top facilities. It
is one of the cleanest, most
caring shelters in the state.
Employees have a genuine
concern for each animal that
passes through the shelter
and a concerted effort is
placed on finding each ani-
mal a loving home.
The shelter is currently
inspected annually by Texas
Dept. of Health and Human
Services and the director
has, on occasion, request-
ed an independent inspec-
tion by Texas Federation of
Humane Societies to assure
that the shelter meets and
exceeds all requirements.
Kudos to Director Betty
Wade and her fine staff for
a bang-up job!
Ann Butterfield
Bastrop
IN TOWN THIS WEEK
SO- W NO-
you like my i 1
PAINTING? X FRAME!
such grace!
such
such color and
6ftue\
Reconstruction - 2008 style
I have recently returned to
writing about Bastrop County
history after a 20-year break
in which I worked on three
biographies and a history
of the LCRA. Beginning at
the end of the Civil War, I
have plunged head first
into the swirling waters of
Reconstruction.
Throughout the latter half
of the 1860s, a reordering
of life took place here, as
freed slaves attempted to take
their rightful place among
their former owners and other
white residents.
Advocates of change
sought to restructure social,
political and economic condi-
tions while resisters struggled
to maintain the status quo.
The primary actors in
this drama were African
Americans and their support-
ers (largely German immi-
grants and federal authori-
ties) on the one hand and, on
the other, conservative whites
who tried to keep the former
slaves in a condition as near
to bondage as possible.
Results of this struggle
provided much improvement
for local African Americans
- above all, freedom and at
least some economic oppor-
tunity.
Eventually, however, a
failure of nerve on the part of
the North left them without
sufficient protection and sup-
port to become equal players
- politically, economically or
socially - and they were rel-
egated to decidedly second-
class citizenship.
Naturally, I am eager to fin-
ish my study of this important
and exciting period and see
in print the third volume of
Bastrop
According
To Ken
Ken Kesselus
my Bastrop County histories.
More immediately, however,
and returned home,
would we have
remained strangers,
or might we have
become the friends
that social and
political convention
prevented us from
being as children?
I am often drawn
to looking at history
as a way of under-
= standing how we
arrived at the present
and what it means
for our future. Consequently,
I hope to provide an oppor-
my research reminds me that tum for dml between
while the revolution brought
by the Civil Rights struggle
of the 1960s came closer to
completing the unfulfilled
promises of Reconstruction,
now, more than a century
and a quarter later, Bastrop
County still does not evi-
dence the kind of equality
that would be consistent with
our nation's ideals.
As Juneteenth, Texas"
Emancipation Celebration, is
celebrated this weekend, I am
mindful of my own childhood
- growing up in Bastrop in
an almost totally segregated
society.
Jewell Hodges reminded
me of this recently when
she spoke about Earnest
Simmons" reminiscences of
the 1930s published in the
Advertiser. The world he
writes about is not the world
in which she grew up. His
was white and hers was black
- in a sharply divided town.
I have written in this col-
umn about Julius Thomas, a
Bastrop native of my gen-
eration whom I never knew
because of segregation. If
he had not died in Vietnam
people who grew up in the
1950s and 1960s in segre-
gated Bastrop. My dream is
to get into one room a num-
ber of those who were bom
here in the 1940s and never
attended an integrated school.
I want to share our stories of
life in those days so that all
may more completely under-
stand what should be a com-
mon history.
I can understand why my
African American contempo-
raries might not want to recall
what I imagine are painful
memories. But if anyone
would be willing to do this, I
will facilitate the process.
Because there might be
only a few of us in this cat-
egory, I extend the invita-
tion to others of this gen-
eration, black and white, who
attended segregated schools
in Texas for all or most of
their childhoods.
If you want to engage in at
least an initial conversation,
please get in touch with me
at 303-6335, Kesselus a Juno,
com, or Ken Kesselus, 1301
Church St, Bastrop, 78602.
Are taxpayers smarter than a second grader I
Dear Editor:
Being a product of pub-
lic education myself, I may
not always add two and two
and come up with four. I
insert the above disclaimer,
as I am sure I don't have
the math skills that Bastrop's
Director of Finance, Lamar
Ozley does.
Having said this, I want
to take issue with Mr. Ozley
concerning his optimistic
tax revenue projections con-
cerning the yet to be built
Lowe's. While the McAuley
story is a couple of weeks
old, something about Ozley's
statements bothered me. He
is quoted in the June 5 story;
" If Lowe's opens early it
could boost the city's sales
tax revenue for the budget
year which begins Oct. 1.
That would be welcome news
because otherwise it may be
a difficult year for balancing
tax revenue and growing ser-
vice demands."
After reading and re-read-
ing this statement I conjured
up my second grade math
skills. I suspect since Lowe's
(sales down 7.6 percent last
quarter) will be selling basi-
cally the same items as its
archrival across the road,
Home Depot, the sales will
come from Home Depot
(sales down 8.3 percent last
quarter) customers who pre-
fer Lowe's or are just check-
ing out the new store.
I don't think there are suf-
ficient customers living near
the Lowe's who haven't ever
made a purchase at Home
Depot and have been putting
off home improvement for
years, just waiting for the
Lowe's to open. Perhaps Mr.
Ozley is counting on some
huge influx of new residents
to boost the sales tax revenue
at the Lowe's. Unfortunately
the tax revenue, given my
limited math skills, will
probably be the same since
the Lowe's will be merely
siphoning off revenue from
Home Depot and other home
improvement venues. The
opening of Lowe's will also
commence the tax abatement
scam that will bleed the city
and county coffers to the tune
of $9 million.
The government, at all
levels, is not interested in
saving money, but spending
money. It will spend money
it doesn't have. It continues
to purchase vehicles for its
agencies which have the high-
est consumption of fuel.
I guess city, comity and
BEDC officials are hoping
we taxpayers are dumber than
a second grader. I think it will
be a difficult year for balanc-
ing tax revenue, until the city
and county figures out a way
to raise taxes.
Vic Vreeland
Cedar Creek
Unhappy with smaller Life & Leisure format
Dear Editor:
I just opened my issue
of the Thursday Bastrop
Advertiser and discovered
there was no Life & Leisure
section. To my dismay, I
found the week's TV sched-
ule in the sports section in
very, very small type.
As part of a senior citizen
household, we depend on the
Life & Leisure section for our
TV schedule for the week due
to its size and ease of use. It
will take a magnifying glass
to read the one you published
this week.
I am hoping this was a
momentary lapse of judgment
on your part and that the sec-
tion will appear again next
week. Please do not drop this
section altogether for it is the
reason we take the Bastrop
paper.
Sue Rawlins
Cedar Creek
Reporter's Note: The
Bastrop Advertiser has
received a few phone calls
of this nature as well as this
letter as we are restmcturing
our Life & Leisure section.
We have chosen a format we
believe will be the most con-
venient for our readers.
Rather than leafing
through a separate section
that often gets mixed in with
external advertisements, our
readers can now find the TV
listings in the body of the
paper, along with entertain-
ment news relevant to this
area.
The Advertiser has no
present intention of doing
away with the TV listings.
Have something to say?
E-mail us your letters to the editor!
E-mail: news@bastropadvertiser.com
We've still got
'em!
Take a look at
the new for-
mat for our TV
listings in the
Thursay edi-
tions of
JBastrop
adoertiser
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W\i JBastrop 2ldueraser
Texas' Oldest Weekly Newspaper
Since March 1,1853
Semi-Weekly Since Sept. 5,1977
Devoted to the welfare of the people of Bastrop County.
Published 104 times a year on Thursdays and Saturdays by
Austin Community Newspapers, a division of Cox Newspapers, at:
The Bastrop Advertiser Phone:
908 Water St. (512)321-2557
P.O. Box 459 Fax:
Bastrop, Texas 78602 (512)321-1680
e-mail: news@bastropadvertiser.com (news)
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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
The Basttvp Advertiser, P.O. Box 459?
Bastrop, Texas 78602-0459
Publisher. Emmett McKinley
Advertising: Debbie Denny, Eva Owens
Assistant Editor. Terry Hagerty
Sports Editor. Mark Goodson
Staff Writers'. Jacqueline Davis
Contributing Writers: Ellen Moore, Ernest Simmons,
Donald Williams, Joan Russell, Donna Davis, Michal Hubbard
Contributing Photographers: Charles Bell, Michael Amador,
Karol Rice, M.D. DeHart
Office Manager : Shirley Gibbons
Classifieds, Subscriptions: Ginny Pickering
Production: Alicia Svetlik, Angel Rosa
MEMBER
2007
/Afi
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
ASSOCIATION
TU
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
The Bastrop Advertiser (USPS045-020)
Member: National Newspaper Association
Texas Press Association
South Texas Press Association
Bastrop Chamber of Commerce
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
Texas Press Association winner:
1964, 1981, 1983,1985, 1986,
1987, 1992, 1993,1997, 1998,
2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006
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South Texas Press
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Hagerty, Terry. The Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 155, No. 34, Ed. 1 Saturday, June 21, 2008, newspaper, June 21, 2008; Bastrop, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth252488/m1/4/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Bastrop Public Library.