Opinion

“I’m thankful for every moment.” — Al Green, singer and songwriter. The holiday season is the best.

“We cuss Congress, and we joke about ‘em, but they are all good fellows at heart. And if they wasn’t in Congress, why, they would be doing something else against us that might be even worse.” — Will Rogers (1879-1935), vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator.

In our ongoing efforts to clear a backlog of old (some 20-plus years) traffic citations and debt claim cases, we’ve achieved some major milestones that should greatly enhance our ability to process those cases.

The first of the Army Topographical Engineers surveying for a road through the Davis Mountains were Lieutenants Wiliam H.C. Whiting and William F. Smith (1849), both serving under Colonel Joseph E. Johnston, senior engineer in Texas. Whiting graduated first in the West Point Class of 1845, and Smith fourth.

“Don’t you wish you could take a single childhood memory and blow it up into a bubble and live inside it forever?” ― Sarah Addison Allen, author of Lost Lake. “I get sleepy riding in cars,” a friend admitted as we embarked on a road trip a couple of weeks ago.

“Oh, well, a-bless my soul, but what’s wrong with me? I’m itchin’ like a man on a fuzzy tree My friends say I’m actin’ wild as a bug I’m in love … I’m all shook up.” — 1956 Song lyrics by Otis Blackwell Someday, I want to be a column writer. When I grow up.

Working in education is an act of service, plain and simple. It’s one of the most evident things you’ll notice when you walk the halls of any Alpine ISD campus. From the daycare, all the way through to the high school. Teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, administrators, maintenance, and everybody in between all have the same resolve and purpose; to serve the students.

You, the People, should have a voice in how your tax dollars are managed, and in 245 Texas counties, you do. Every four years, you elect someone you trust to manage the county’s funds. If they perform poorly, you fire them at the ballot box.

Sul Ross State University’s campus here in Alpine is beginning to see the successful results of a yearlong marketing campaign aimed at increasing enrollment. The majority of our increase this fall is in our graduate school, the target of the campaign – proof that our efforts are working.