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COUNTY NEWS

More Money Needed as Veteran's Memorial Grows

(list of names published in newspaper this week for proofreading)

A rough draft of the names of the veterans who will be included on the Floyd County Veteran's Memorial Wall can be found inside this issue of the paper.

For more information on the Floyd County Veterans Monument, please visit their website.

The names are being printed in order for everyone to proof them and call in corrections to Julianne Cornelius at 983-2982.

The project has almost doubled in size since Skyler Cornelius started this 4-H project to build this memorial. The beginning estimation was one of 2,000 names with a cost of $60,000. The list of names is now at almost 4,000 names and more panels will have to be added to the project.

"We started with 6  panels and now we will have to have 10 panels (front and back)", said Julianne Cornelius, a member of the Veteran's Memorial Board.

"This has been discouraging because we already have $58,497.80 which is so close to our original goal of $60,000. Now we need $90,000 for 4 more panels. But we know this is a worthy cause and the citizens of Floyd County are proud of the project.

"I know some people feel if they can't donate a large sum of money then they won't donate anything. But if everyone in the County would donate $15.00 then it would be paid for."

According to Cornelius a representative of Willis Granite Company told her that of the 30 war  memorials they have built (in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico), this is the first county that has not had to have a fund raiser separate from private donations.

"That says a lot for the generosity of the people in  our county," said Julianne.

The deadline to have your corrections in to Cornelius and be included on the Memorial Wall is June 4th.

This project is being overseen by a committee of 25 Floydada and Lockney 4-H junior board members and 23 adult board members.

FHS Sophomore Skyler Cornelius  is leading the project as his 4-H Citizenship and Civic Education Project.

"We started this project on Veteran's Day 2001," said Skyler. "We spent two hours walking through our cemetery reading tombstones of every veteran. I will never forget that day because we documented over 300 veterans dating back to the Civil War.

"I believe this granite memorial will inspire our county, be part of our county's history, be a teaching tool for schoolchildren, and pay tribute to another generation of veterans, whose sacrifices will be remembered."

Contributions can be mailed to:

Floyd County Historical Museum
Attn: Veteran's Memorial Fund
c/o First National Bank
Box 550
Floydada, TX   79235

$1,000 DONATION TO VETERANS MEMORIAL PROJECT--WWII Veteran Jimmie Wilson (left) donated $1,000 to the Veteran's Memorial project. Receiving the check is Veterans Memorial Board Chairman Skyler Cornelius and Board Member Lindsey Nutt.

 

Doctor's Spanish Studies Helps Patients
By Alice Gilroy

Dr. Kevin Stewart's Hispanic patients have noticed a difference in the way the doctor speaks to them now. His Spanish is  a lot easier to understand since he returned from his month long "working sabbatical" in Puebla, Mexico.

DR. STEWART stops to take a rest, and a picture, halfway up the climb inside a bell tower of an old chuch near Tecali, Mexico. The church was abandoned approximately 300 years ago.

A desire to better serve his patients, at W.J. Mangold Hospital, led Dr. Stewart to leave his home and family in Lockney and live as a "native" in Mexico for one month.

After researching a Spanish Immersion Program offered by the Spanish Institute of Puebla, Dr. Stewart made his reservations a year in advance.

Leaving home on March 3rd, Stewart flew to Mexico City and took a bus to Puebla.

His arrival was marked with some anxiety but Stewart was determined to "make it on his own".

"I didn't have anyone pick me up at the airport," said Stewart. "I wanted to jump right in and see if I could navigate around the country. There are a lot of people who speak English along the coast and in tourist  areas, but Puebla is different.

"Puebla is not frequented by tourists and English is not spoken there. When I got off my bus in Puebla I was trying to use my telephone card to call for my ride. It was very difficult to figure out how to use it on their machines without being able to ask for help."

Stewart said he learned right away that it was going to be hard to always appear like he was "staying in control".

Stewart was taken to the home of Felix Iribe and his wife Rosa Garcia. He was welcomed in as part of the family and given room and board with three meals a day.

"The family has had a student in their apartment for 4 years continuously. Most of them have been Americans--but the family does not speak English. Spanish is always spoken."

DR. STEWART snapped this photo of tourists climbing the pyramids at Teotihuacan. Murals found at the site date the temples to 750 A.D.

Stewart said Puebla is a city of 2 and 1/2 million people and approximately a 2  hour drive from Mexico City.

"Puebla is in the interior of Mexico. Some crime exists there but it is no worse than any American city of that size--it is probably safer than American cities."

Stewart said that although he already knew a fair amount of Spanish before he arrived, this time in Mexico helped him learn the correct way to speak.

"I've learned from my patients over the past 10 years," said Stewart, "but they won't correct me when I make mistakes. Down there (in Puebla) they corrected me right away--which was the whole idea.

"I've made the same mistakes for years and now I can correct that."

Stewart says that although he considers himself an extrovert around people he knows, he found it difficult sometimes to make himself join in conversations.

"I felt shy there," said Stewart. "It took me out of my comfort zone.

"I understand how people who can't speak English would feel in this country. I found myself feeling uncomfortable at times. It can be embarrassing and sometimes you feel kind of stupid."
Stewart's days consisted of study, study, study--and more study. Even the "excursions" out of the city were meant to educate and to practice communication.

Dr. Stewart's day began at the Institute with Spanish classes from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. "This was very serious business," said Stewart. "We covered a chapter a day and read stories about Mexican history."

After lunch with other students, Stewart spent two hours with a Spanish speaking guide. "We toured museums, malls, churches, and shopped," said Stewart.

Other students attending the Spanish Immersion program included a woman lawyer hoping to be able to communicate with Hispanic clients, and a software technician who spends a great deal of time in Latin America.

"Half of the people had just finished college and they just wanted to get more fluent in Spanish," said Stewart.

"When I got home there was always two hours of homework. I would spend time talking with the family and then go to my room to study. Every night I would also review all the new words I had learned during the day."

Stewart said studying is not a new thing to him. "I've been to school for 11 years out of high school. I had a drive to learn and I'm used to studying day and night. I saw this as a way to continue my medical education and to improve my service to my patients."

On Wednesday afternoons the Institute organized "excursions" to places outside the city. Students were taken to Six Flags, centuries old churches, safari parks, and to the pyramids in Teotihuacan.

Stewart says his accommodations were very nice. He had his own room and bathroom and a view from the family kitchen of the active volcano called Popocatepetl.

History and speech were not the only things Stewart learned. Experiencing the culture was also an important part of the program.

"I also learned what you don't talk about," laughed Stewart. "You don't talk about religion, politics, and bull fighting. You also never make comparisons to the U.S."

Actually as far as comparisons go, Stewart said the cable T.V. in Puebla was better than the U.S. "There programming was better there," said Stewart, "I watched a lot of good American movies--dubbed in Spanish or with Spanish subtitles."

Returning home through Mexico City, Stewart said it was odd to speak Spanish to Orientals in the food chain restaurants. "I stopped to eat some Chinese food and the Orientals spoke fluent Spanish to me. They knew it better than me."

Stewart says he has spoken Spanish a lot since he got back. "I want to be able to speak fluently. This is a long term project. It will take persistence.

"This trip allowed me to advance in the language what would have taken me three years to accomplish on my own."

Stewart says he has not needed an  interpreter since he returned and he has been able to see the difference in the way he can communicate with his patients.

"They can see a difference too," said Stewart. "I like to watch their eyes light up when they realize I am learning the language properly. They feel like I'm trying to make them more comfortable and meet them halfway."

OBITUARIES

CLOISE W. CHILDERS
Cloise W. "Chili" Childers, 78, a retired Bell Helicopter employee and insurance claim adjuster, died Monday, April 22, 2002 in Fort Worth after a short illness.
Funeral services will be Thursday, April 25, (today) at Greenwood Chapel. Burial will be at 5:00 p.m. at Lockney Cemetery in Lockney.
Cloise W. "Chili" Childers was born April 8, 1923 in Lockney, but spent the latter part of his life in Fort Worth. He was a World War II veteran and a member of Lakewood Center Church.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Walter Ray and Malitta Catherine Childers; sisters, Joyce Childers Elwell and Doris Childers Duff; and wife, Amy Cornelius Childers.
Survivors include a son, Walter Bryan Childers and wife, Karen; granddaughter, Kristin Childers of Midlothian; brother and sister-in-law, B.R. "Red" Childers and Jo Childers of San Antonio; stepdaughters, Judy Guthrie of Flower Mound and Deborah Davis of Lake Dallas; former wife, Lillian Childers of Weatherford; and a host of nieces, nephews and friends.

T.V. COPELAND
Services for T.V. Copeland, 87, were held Monday, April 15, 2002 at 11:00 a.m. at West College and Third Church of Christ in Lockney with Frank Duckworth, retired minister, and Boyce Mosley, elder, officiating. Interment was in Lockney Cemetery under the direction of Ertel Funeral Home of Cortez, Colorado.
Serving as pallbearers were Danny Lambert, Randall Stapp, Leonard Griffith, Roger Stapp, Kenny Hooten, and Lonny Hooten, all of Lockney.
Mr. Copeland died April 9, 2002 in Cortez, Colorado in the Vista Grande Restorative Care Center.
He was born June 5, 1914 in Canyon to Frank and Lula (Willmon) Copeland. He married Winzella Grantham January 7, 1939 in Petersburg. She preceded him in death on November 25, 1984. He was a blacksmith and a welder. He worked as a welder in the shipyards at Galveston during World War II. In 1945, he returned to Lockney, where he owned his own business, Copeland Welding, until his retirement in 1995. He moved to Cortez, Colorado in 2000. He was a member of the West College and Third Street Church of Christ of Lockney.
He was preceded in death by his sisters, Ruth Carthel of Lockney, Celia Martin of Medford, Oregon, Edna Watkins of Lubbock, Dora Allmon of Petersburg, and brother Lee Copeland of Wimberly.
Survivors include two sons, Thomas of Cortez, Colorado and Joe of Lockney; one granddaughter, Tamara and husband Michael Gabrel of Cortez, Colorado; one grandson, James of Odessa; and one brother, J. Dee Copeland of Lockney.
Memorials may be made to Hospice of Montezuma County, 1108 North Mildred Road, Suite B. Cortez, Colorado, 81321 or to a favorite charity.

A VIEW FROM THE LAMPLIGHTER

We note the lead story in the Washington Post a couple of days ago. It was all about the unhappiness of President George W. Bush's conservative base, and what that portends for the future. That alleged unhappiness among conservatives, it is said by the Post, is causing great glee among Democratic politicians and presidential hopefuls.

The Post, of course, is a partisan Democratic newspaper, part of a conglomerate that owns news magazines, television stations, etc. They can be expected to report, approvingly, any story, even a manufactured one, that might indicate unhappiness in conservative, or opposition, ranks. And they can be expected to ignore any story that might cause unhappiness among their own camp followers.

For instance, the same day the Post devoted many inches of news type to the quarrel among conservative "spokesmen" over Mr. Bush's shortcomings, it completely ignored the story, played prominently in Israel, that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is having to answer official charges that he took part in a scheme to create dummy (or "straw") off shore corporations to funnel foreign money into his campaign coffers in the last election. Sharon, like Clinton, and even more like Al Gore, says he didn't know anything about it, although others in the scheme say he did. Shades of Buddhist temples. We await, though not anxiously, some mention of Mr. Sharon's illegal money problems in the American press. In time, perhaps in the Israeli press, we will find out where the laundered money came from. Odds are that it came from right here in the good old U.S.A.

We will not dispute the allegation that some conservatives are unhappy, though not for the reasons laid out by the Post writers. Various conservatives are unhappy for various reasons. Some are, or were, unhappy that Bush evidently succumbed to the blandishments of Karl Rove and endorsed the worst person running in the California governor's primary race. (The good guy won, happily, and Mr. Bush's pick, the former Mayor of Los Angeles, lost.) Some are unhappy with what they see as the use, by Bush, of the "terrorist" thing in places where it does not, they think, belong. Some are unhappy simply because, with Congressional elections coming up, it is time (and natural) to be unhappy. Some, like the televangelist Pat Robertson, and the columnist George Will, are unhappy because Bush sometimes drags his feet before endorsing all of Sharon's positions.
So, yes, there is unhappiness around. But I wouldn't bet very much that things will be that way a year from now, or two years from now. And even if they are, even if there is still unhappiness around, elections are usually based on comparisons. Compared to most of those being talked about now as possible opponents for Bush in 2004, the current President looks pretty good.

                 -----------

On a completely different subject, one having to do with Texas democratic politics, we are indebted to Dave McNeely, a columnist with the Austin American Statesman, for passing along some facts and figures from the last primary runoff. McNeely quotes Dan Weiser, a Dallas political analyst. According to Weiser, by way of McNeely, we find out that 9 percent of the registered Hispanic vote turned out, and contributed 35 percent of the total vote in the Democratic Primary.  Of those who voted, Victor Morales got 67 percent. Ron Kirk, the black former Mayor of Dallas, got 33 percent.

Among black voters, according to Weiser, 12 percent turned out, and gave Kirk 97 percent of their vote. Weiser says black voters amounted to 35 percent of the vote also, the same as Hispanics. The way we see it, registered black voters were much more likely to turn out than Hispanics, and were much more solid in their voting. Had Hispanics turned out in the same numbers as blacks, and had they voted as solidly, racially speaking, the outcome would have been different.

Only 2 percent of the registered Anglo voters went to the polls, accounting for 30 percent of the total Democratic vote. Both Hispanics and blacks out voted Anglos in the Democratic runoff. Their (the Anglo) vote was split 53 percent for Morales and 47 percent for Kirk.

BY THE WAY

By The Way
For those of you who haven't read it yet--the price tag on the Veteran's Memorial has gone up.

Now don't go getting the wrong idea. This was not because anyone was misleading the public. It is just that the response to the project has been overwhelming and the estimation of the names that would be sent in has exploded.

Four more granite panels have had to be added to accommodate the names. Over $58,000 has already been raised and most of that has come in large donations. The original price tag was $60,000 and it is now $90,000.

That is a lot of money still to be raised--but if everyone sent in $15.00 it would be accomplished quickly.

Also--just to be pushy (because I can)--I would like to ask those people who called in a name to send $15.00. After all--$15.00 is not much to ask for to have your loved ones name included on the granite memorial.

The address of where to send the money is included on the front page of the paper.

Take a very close look at the veteran's names. This is your chance to make a correction. Don't gripe after it is engraved in

the granite.
 

********
 

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court on the child pornography issue took me completely by surprise.

I never dreamed the judges would consider the 1st Amendment as the protection for someone wanting to simulate children having sex via the internet.

It has always been against the law to holler "fire" in a crowded movie theatre (even though the 1st amendment gives you that right). Obviously the greater threat of people being harmed by the onslaught of others rushing out of the theatre over a false alarm weighs heavier than your right to holler "fire".
I could really get on a soap box here, but I feel like I'd be preaching to the choir.

I will share some thoughts from our founding fathers though--you know the ones--the guys who actually wrote our constitution. They said over and over again that a free and democratic system of government will only work in a moral society. When we lose our conscience we will lose our freedoms.   
Some of my favorite quotes come from John Adams.
(Addressing the military)..."Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

(In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, Adams wrote)"This form of government...is productive of every Thing which is great and excellent among Men. But its Principles are as easily destroyed, as human nature is corrupted...A government is only to be supported by pure Religion or Austere Morals. Private, and public virtue is the only Foundation of Republics."

(In another letter to Thomas Jefferson, Adams wrote) "Have you ever found in history, one single example of a Nation thoroughly corrupted that was afterwards restored to virtue?"

Samuel Adams wrote: "A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy....

"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt."

Edmund Burke said, "...Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportions to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites...It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."

James Madison wrote: "We have staked the whole  future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to government ourselves; to control ourselves; to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

© 2002, Floyd County Hesperian Beacon

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