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Weekly Newspaper and Tourism Guide for Ward County Trans Pecos, Big Bend of West Texas

Opinion

October 1, 1998

Monahan's Well


By Jerry Curry
Wandering through the backyard after midnight with a sliver
of moonlight playing along the green and gold of the trumpet
vine, the ghost of a founding father stopped me and asked:
"How doth the nation go, bro?"

And I look at this midnight shade.

"How doth the nation go, bro?" says the ghost.

And I can't figure out if it's Dan'l Boone or Dan'l Webster
talking to me.

"I don't know how to answer that," I say because I don't
know how to answer this guy wearing a coonskin cap and
carrying a dictionary.

"How doth the nation go, bro?" the ghost asks again.

I think of what is happening here.

I think of my grandson Jonathan, who's knocking on the ripe
old age of five or so, and I think of the report that he
walked into his Aunt's house the other day and tells his
Aunt.

"Hey! Bill Clinton is sexing all of us!. Who is Bill
Clinton? What does sexing mean?"

That is a true story. It is not made up.

Here we have a little boy who is much more interested in
Saturday Morning cartoons and whether or not he is ever
going to be allowed to come to Texas so he can ride a horse
than he is in politics. He does not know, nor does he care,
what politics, Washington D.C. 1998 vintage, is supposed to
be which makes him equal to most of the rest of us.

I suspect he was interested in sexing because one of the
guys asked him what the devil it was. I suspect the guy was
just repeating on the playground what the guy's parents have
been talking about lately at home.

I am not certain how Jonathan's aunt answered the question.

I would have told him there was no such thing as Bill
Clinton.

I would have said Bill Clinton was like some of the horror
movies starring assorted types of serial killers which make
beaucoup bucks without much of a capital outlay. I would
have said Bill Clinton was made up one dark and lonely night
in the Arkansas Ozarks by a moonshiner testing his own brew.

Denial sometimes works. Denial does not work often. But it
might buy some time until you could come up with a better
explanation.

Therefore, Bill Clinton does not exist.

I also would have told Jonathan Hillary Clinton does not
exist. Al Gore does not exist. Newt Gingerich does not
exist. The only thing that exists is Mark McGwire and his 70
homers and Sammy Sosa and his 66 homers and Babe Ruth's 60
homers, which would have been more if he had ever shown up
at the plate sober. Jonathan understands McGwire, Sosa, Ruth
and home runs.

After denying Clinton's existance, I would have then
embarked on a clinical explanation of sexing that included a
lot of thirty-seven syllable words which no one but a Latin
scholar would have understood.

This probably would have resulted in Jonathan looking at me
askew and saying he had been pretty certain there was no
such thing as Bill Clinton but he figured he had to ask. In
reference to my sexing lecture purposely delivered at the
postgraduate level, I believe Jonathan would have said he
had to go to the bath room and ran.

"How doth the nation go, bro?" says the ghost by the
trumpet vine.

Says I: "Not good, bro! Not good!"

Debate may spark fireworks


In this corner we have the incumbent and the Democrat,
County Judge Sam G. Massey, and in this corner we have the
challenger and the Republican, Candido Gutierrez.

Voters will decide the issue in the November general
election.

Before then though, we have The Great Debate where Massey
and Gutierrez will square off with each other on Saturday,
Oct. 10, at 11 a.m. in the Ward County Convention Center at
Fourth Street and Dwight Avenue.

All the citizens, of course, are invited.

This debate between a GOP and Democratic challenger for a
county office in Monahans is more than a rarity. A quick
check could find nothing this side of Reconstruction where a
local Democratic and a local Republican candidate decided to
go before the people and debate the issues.

Rare indeed is a Republican political candidate for any of
the varied Ward County offices. It may be a harbinger of GOP
things to come in the future. This is a county where the
majority of the citizens always vote Democrat on the local
level. There are some years in which less than a dozen GOPs
vote in the Spring Republican primaries.

It is not known, but it may be, the Gutierrez candidacy is a
harbinger of things to come.

Sam Massey did not shy from the Candy Gutierrez challenge to
debate.

There might be a few fireworks. We believe something truly
strange is going to happen in Ward County's Great Debate.
Both men actually will discuss the issues. That is rare
indeed in late 20th Century politics.

The debate is sponsored by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Howard doffs prexy hat


Curtis L. Howard, the Edward Jones investment man in
Monahans, has decided to take a well earned rest from at
least one of the many hats he wears.

Civic leader, City Council member, golfer par excellence and
president of the Monahans Economic Development Commission,
Howard has decided to resign as president of the economic
development group although he plans to remain a member of
the board, a major necessity in the county's drive to
attract a more diversified economic base that will not
depend too much on only one item.

Howard has vision. He is a valued asset. And he will remain
a valued asset even though he has decided to cut his work
day back to 20 hours with his decision.



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Copyright 1998 by Ward Newspapers, Inc.
Joe Warren, Publisher
107 W. Second St., Monahans TX 79756
Phone 915-943-4313, FAX 915-943-4314
e-mail monnews@ultravision.net

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Copyright 1998 by Ward Newspapers Inc.