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for Pecos Country of West Texas

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By Smokey Briggs

Wednesday, January 2, 2002

My wife's new year's resolution

Well, it is the new year and we all know what that means _ time for new year's resolutions.

Time to promise ourselves that we will only eat one half of the pecan pie mom made for Christmas dinner next year.

Time to promise to use the treadmill in the study for something more than an impromptu coat rack.

Time to promise to do things that are good for us or that make us better people and to stop doing those things that make us fat or not so nice.

I am not very good at coming up with new year's resolutions. I try, but I just cannot find much to criticize in myself.

It is not for a lack of trying. I earnestly look for faults and bad habits, but there is not much to find fault with. What can I say?

Well, when I was asked by She-who-must-be-obeyed what I was resolving to do, or not do, this year, I made the mistake of telling her that I just could not think of a single thing I could do, or not do, to improve myself.

"I think I've reached that pinnacle of near-perfection most men strive for their entire lives," I told my loving bride.

I added that perhaps she should add to her list a resolution to appreciate the fine figure of man she had luckily snagged.

Apparently, and I'm not sure where, I made a mistake in that transaction of words.

The next day I was handed a list of possible new year's resolutions _ suggestions from She-who-must-be-obeyed _ for me!

The list was typewritten and single-spaced. It weighed 22 pounds.

I was crushed. I was also incredulous.

Surely this was a joke.

It was not. I will not bother you with the details. It is sufficient to say that only the most hypercritical person could come up with any of those suggestions.

In response I created my own list of new year's resolutions _ a list for She-who-must-be-obeyed.

I strove to be fair and not to nitpick. I was pleased with the results. Contained in the list were a dozen or more honest evaluations of her performance as wife and mate over the past year and detailed instructions on how she might improve her performance over the coming months.

It was not received with the grace that I displayed when presented with my book of suggested resolutions.

Apparently, women do not take constructive criticism very well.

And, judging from the results so far, I will not need to resolve to diet this year. That particular problem may have been solved.

But the whole affair has led me to make one new year's resolution that I do plan to keep. I have written it down in several places so as not to forget.

"I will not be so silly as to think She-who-must-be-obeyed can be improved upon in any way."

Ever.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Smokey Briggs is the editor and publisher of the Pecos Enterprise. He can be e-mailed at: smokey@pecos.net

Our View

County librarian is a plus, not a minus

Two weeks ago the Enterprise printed a letter on this page that called for our city and county to lay aside old cultural hostilities in our quest to elect the best possible officials.

You cannot argue with that.

In arguing her point, the letter's author criticized our county library and head librarian, Sally Perry.

The letter stated that the filing system is in disarray and some books cannot be located.

There may or may not be some truth in that allegation.

Even if there is, we are lucky to have Perry as our librarian.

What we do know is that the library suffers from a lack of funding. We know that it is understaffed. These conditions go hand-in-hand with existing in Reeves County.

What we also know is that Perry works like a mule to improve the library. She is passionate about it and that passion is evident in her daily work.

If ten percent of the people in this county worked as hard at their jobs as Perry does at hers, and approached their jobs with the passion that Perry does, most of our economic and social ills would have been solved long ago.

If the library is in less than perfect shape, it is a safe bet that the problem lies with doing too much with too little, and not with the effort or credentials of Ms. Perry.

Your View

Locked City Hall doors a bad image

Dear Editor:
Regarding the editorial of December 26, 2001 in the  Pecos Enterprise I say, "Hear! Hear!"  The blacked-out, locked doors at Pecos City Hall are an abomination.  The glassed-in area for bill paying was bad enough.  Whatever possessed  our elected city council members to allow such "remodeling?"  Did  something happen to warrant this change? Are they and the city manager and  the city finance director, the latter two who receive high dollar salaries  not there to serve the people of Pecos? What goes on behind the  darkened locked areas? Are they hiding something? To me it smacks of  Mafia. Whatever happened to an Open Door policy? Or the common courtesy  for that matter? An official at the West Texas National Bank across the  street from the City Hall recently told me that there's more security there  than at the bank. And the absolutely crowning blow: the  Christmas wreaths on the darkened doors. Good will towards men. 

The people of Pecos had better wake up. We can start as the recent editorial said, "to take that concern to the candidates" (for the up-coming city council election) another thing to do is to attend the council meeting to see first hand what actually goes on. Think about it.

Sincerely,
EMILY FERNANDES

Community needs to work together to make Pecos a better place

Dear Editor:
Thanks to Janie N. Rodriguez for the informative letter to the editor  on December 18, 2001. We in the Anglo Community have known for years  that there was a conspiracy to put all Bi-Lingual's that in all the offices in  the city and county. If you notice very few Anglo even run for office anymore.

We citizens of Reeves County absolutely have got to work together, Bi-Linguals and Anglos, to get our city and county back on track, if it is not too late. We need someone to run for office that has a solid plan to bring business to town and keep it here, no matter the race. Surely there are some people that have good ideas and can relate to all of us their plans. Our current candidates have no such plans. I agree, we are hearing the same old political rhetoric from the candidates that are running. My theory is "If it's not broke, don't fix it, if it is broke, fix it", our poor little towns government is "Broke". Let's get together and fix it.

Thank you,
LINDA GLENN

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Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail newsdesk@nwol.net

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