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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide for Pecos Country
of West Texas
Opinion
Tuesday, October 5, 1999
Sage Views
By Smokey Briggs
Football, old glory
and aversity
I was in Balmorhea the last two Friday nights to cover the football
games.
This last Friday was also homecoming. We played Grandfalls then and
Borden County the Friday before.
Both nights were the type of experience that are good for the soul and
a lot of fun as well.
There are bigger football fields in the world, with newer stands and
more paint, but I've never seen one that could match the Balmorhea stadium
for evening beauty.
Sitting in the stands fans could see the sun setting in the west, the
Davis Mountains fading from sunlit hulks to dusky silouhettes in the south,
and a huge moon hanging low in the southeast all in one sweeping panaroma.
At both games the visiting school's band played the national anthem
before the game. The ACLU hasn't managed to have that declared discriminatory
or unconstitutional yet.
All of the notes probably weren't in the right key and a trumpet squeaked
once or twice about the time the rockets are glaring red. There weren't
enough band members and the sound was low and a little tinny. Not everyone
in the band had a uniform, and what uniforms they had were not new.
And it was beautiful. Old Glory flying high and several hundred people
paying homage to her, what she stands for, and the men who've sacrificed
and died in her name.
Everyone stopped what they were doing. Hats came off. Old mens' spines
stiffened _ men who knew of place like Anzio, Guadalcanal, the Chosin Reservoir,
and Khe San, or had friends and loved ones at those places. Parents grabbed
children who were playing and stood them still and faced them toward the
flag. Nobody spoke while the anthem played.
I've been to events where such was not the case and it was good to be
in a small town in West Texas where people still appreciate the importance
of such moments and still feel like I do about the flag.
When the anthem was over a bunch of kids took the field who probably
wouldn't start at a big 5-A school. Kids who reminded me of me, and of
most of the the people I've met in the world. People who have no real athletic
talent _ only a desire to play and the heart to do it.
And at small schools like Balmorhea, they can play _ and do.
Both games were good games. Homecoming was a heartbreaker for the Bears
but they kept the fans on the edge of their seats for four quarters.
When it was over you could see in in the faces of players and fans alike
that they had given it their all.
Some people say that it is a shame that one team has to lose, especially
when both teams play a good game.
I disagree. It is as important to have lost a great struggle as it is
to have won one. It builds character. My wish for the boys on the field
that night is that they should know both the bitter agony of defeat and
the sweet taste of victory before they hang up their cleats and go on to
other challenges. What they learn from both will serve them well for the
rest of their lives.
Even more important to me than who won, was what was accomplished. There
wasn't a lot of visible wealth out there. The stadium lights aren't bright.
The stands are old. The uniforms weren't necessarily new. The coaches didn't
have headsets on. The band was small. And the teams and fans on both sides
of the field accomplished everything that was accomplished at the big,
fancy stadiums in Odessa or Dallas or Houston, where athletic budgets have
a lot more zeros in them.
Maybe they accomplished more because it was accomplished despite not
having the best of everything.
Balmorhea lost both games, but we all won something in the process.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Smokey Briggs is the editor and publisher
of the Pecos Enterprise whose column appears on Tuesdays. He can be e-mailed
at: smokey@pecos.net
Our View
Fall Fair
The Reeves County Fall Fair and Livestock Show took place over the weekend.
According to everyone who witnessed this year's fair and last year's,
the 1999 fair was exponentially better than 1998.
Participation was up in every category - from quilts to booths to the
lamb show.
There was good food, interesting exhibits and plenty to see and do for
kids of all ages.
Quality events like this are a lot of fun and are important for a community.
They also don't happen without a lot of hard work. It takes time and
effort to organize the hundreds of different pieces that make up this kind
of puzzle.
Barabara Creagor and the rest of the Fall Fair Committee deserve a round
of applause for the success of this year's fair.
Without their sacrifice it would not have happened. We look forward
to next year's fair being even better under the guiding hand of this committee.
Your View
Reader disagrees with editor's opinion
Once again someone has missed the point on the Supreme Court ban on prayer
in public school, and this time it is the Editor himself. There are several
areas that I disagree with his interpretation of the constitution and what
in his opinion seems to be the country's religion.
First the separation of church and state definition is based on the
Anglican Church, which is the state church of England, from where many
of the framers of the constituion had left to be able to practice their
own beliefs without one church being held above all others.
The constitution does protect the free exercise of religion. But that
freedom has its limits, which in this case is what when others choose not
to participate in open demonstration are chastised. The court has therefore
stated that in order to allow all persons participation, at public gatherings,
in some form of prayer it should be silent.
His statement that we cannot create the United States without Christ
since without Christ there would be no rational basis for the Ten Commandments
leaves me confused. My confusion is based on the fact that, I could be
wrong, the Ten Commandments were given down long before Christ and are
not Christian in origin. This may come as a shock to many Christians, but
the Ten Commandments are part of Jewish teaching.
He also states that any non-Christian belief structure has no reason
for being in the structure of this country. I guess they should just leave.
I guess by Mr. Brigg's reasoning, you must believe in Christ in order to
be an American. Well, there are a lot of people who do not accept Christ,
but they do believe in something. Whatever they believe, or do not believe,
they can be American and receive the same protections under the Constitution
as Christians.
Mr. Brigg's idea on what makes an American scares me. Not that he has
his beliefs but that I read and hear the same belief from others. He says
in the beginning of his editorial that the definitions of church and religion
are not synonymous and yet if you do not believe in Christ you do not believe
in God. This is the same thinking that gave us the Crusades, the Inquisition,
the Hundred Years War, the Holocaust, and the current recurring rounds
of Jihads. All these conflicts were based on the reasoning that one's belief
is more important than someone else's and because of this self thought
value all those who are or believe differently should be eradicated. If
Mr. Briggs and others, who think like him, get what they want I hope they
will be happy in their very small corner of the planet.
GARRETT S. TIMMINS
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Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Peggy McCracken, Webmaster
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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