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FRE

W
EE
KL
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Thursday July 13, 2006

Volume 1, Number 13

Gubernatorial
candidate
finds backing
Bell calls for end to TAKS as a
standard for student advancement
By Greg Rohloff
The Amarillo Independent

anking loose his

tie as his driver
pulled up at the
River
Breaks
Ranch, Democratic gubernatorial candidate
Chris Bell running late to
meet with supporters Saturday
evening was preparing for his
most important engagement of
the day.
Earlier, Bell had met with
reporters, laying out his case
that Gov. Rick Perry had failed
to provide leadership on the
school finance issue.
Bell also outlined what he
would do to improve education, and he made stops around
town to help turn up votes in
an area that regularly votes Republican.
Bell, a news reporter for
KVII-TV 20 years ago, still
possesses boyish looks, although the hair has turned gray,
and a booming broadcasters
voice. As he strode into the
hall at attorney Bill Cornetts
ranch northwest of Amarillo,
more than 100 backers were
there listening to Mike Fuller
sing and pick songs on a guitar, and more supporters arrived as Bell ran through a
speech that focused on why he
was there: We have to learn to
win again.
The last time a Democrat
won was 1990, when Ann Richards defeated West Texas millionaire Clayton Williams but
Richards went down to defeat

against the well-honed campaign of George W. Bush.

As Bell spoke, shades of
that confidence started to reemerge over two points.
The first was when Bell
explained that with four
other candidates on the ballot, he will corral more of the
smaller base of Democratic
voters than Perry will claim
of his larger Republican base Chris Bell, the Democratic candidate for governor, visits with Sean Kelley, left, and Amber Weir during
because Perry is contending a campaign fundraiser in Amarillo this month. (Photo by Greg Rohloff)
with State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who
the event sponsors, said Panamong the event sponsors beis the top priority, Bell said,
had the highest vote total of
handle supporters would probcause he and Bell had been
explaining that the tests should
any Texas candidate in the
ably have to pony up between
fraternity brothers at the Unibe used to assess student
2002 election.
$50,000 and $100,000 to help
versity of Texas at Austin.
achievement and to compare
Writer-musician-iconoclast
Bell get his message out.
My son said, Arent you
school districts.
Kinky FriedWhat imRepublican? Gaut explained.
He criticized linking teacher
man is running
pressed Clark
Republican, Democrat I
pay to student scores on the
as an indepen- Every time Rick Perry about
Bell
told him, American.
Texas Assessment of Knowldent, stirring
was how he
And pulling up just behind
edge and Skills test, a move
has had a bad idea,
up interest in
fought back
Bell as he was driven to the
boosted by Perry as part of his
Carole Strayhorn has and filed the gathering by longtime Demo- effort to improve teacher pay.
state politics,
been there to put the first ethics cratic stalwart Selden Hale
and Libertarian
Bell said he also favors
James Werner
complaint
was Potter County Sheriff
moves to expand the use of
lipstick on the pig.
rounds out the
against former
Mike Shumate, who made the
technology in the classroom to
ballot.
House Majorchitchat rounds as Bell spoke,
make students more competiThe second
ity
Leader
and later greeted Bell.
tive in math and science and
was when Bell revealed that
Tom DeLay after DeLays efSo whats a Republican
to reduce class size if the Legfor the campaign finance-reforts to force a mid-decade
sheriff doing at a Democrats
islature is able to make such a
porting period ending June
reapportionment had cost Bell
fundraiser?
financial commitment.
30, his campaign would report
his seat in Congress representJust say Im checking up on
When quizzed about his
$1.2 million in contributions,
ing part of Houston.
things, Shumate deadpanned.
stance on immigration and the
adding that they would equal
Bell was vindicated by the
Im the Israeli at the Arab
border, Bell said he favored
Perrys contributions for the
indictments in Austin and the
League meeting.
using the National Guard to
period coinciding with the
resignation, Clark said of
The message that Bell wants
shore up Border Patrol efforts,
special session and would be
DeLays departure from Conto get out, he said at a news
and he favored the Kennedyahead of Strayhorns.
gress.
conference earlier in the day
McCain bill that would inThe Amarillo fundraiser had
Just as impressive, though,
and reiterated at the fundraiser,
clude a path to citizenship for
brought in about $10,000 by
was the number of supporters
was the fallen state of public
illegal immigrants already in
the time the crowd was warmalready backing Bell financialeducation and school finance.
the United States.
ing up to an auction.
ly. And not all of them were
Getting rid of standardized
But he turned that issue back
Longtime Democratic Party
strictly Democratic.
testing as a means of student
backer Warren Clark, one of
Realtor J. Gaut said he was
advancement and graduation
continued page 2

page 4

Feeling the force

with Luke

Turning
Lemmons into
art

page 5

Explore fathering
and how
women add up to
more than two
parts
page 6

Page 2

The Amarillo Independent Thursday July 13, 2006

An Independent Attitude

he Bush administrations
attempts to suppress free
expression and the dissemination of
knowledge by a free
press continue.
If one scans the
wires, several news
outlets reported
that Cyrus Kar, 45,
a filmmaker, has
sued Secretary of
GEORGE
Defense Donald
SCHWARZ
Rumsfeld and the
United States military for violating
Kars civil rights, international law
and the Geneva Conventions.
The filmmaker was in Iraq to make
a documentary on Cyrus the Great,
the Persian king who issued the first
human rights charter.
It took a lawsuit by the American
Civil Liberties Union on Kars behalf
to free him after 55 days of military
captivity that Kar says included
torture, according to the Los Angeles
Times, which first broke the story.
The Times reported that after a
court cleared Kar, he remained confined another week.
According to the Times story,

(Kar) emphasized, I am not a

left-wing liberal. I agree with many
of George Bushs policies. But he
added, I dont think the Constitution
has to be gutted to achieve our objectives in the war on terrorism.
I felt it was my duty as an American
to take a stand for the constitutional
rights guaranteed to all Americans.
The L.A. Times broke the story
Saturday and when the Associated
Press followed up on it the same day,
Pentagon representatives didnt return
calls.
Stonewalling.
Monday the AP reported that gasp
a Republican congressman alleged
the administration broke the law by
not properly briefing Congress on
intelligence programs the executive
branch runs.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., said
he was informed about the programs
by whistleblowers in the intelligence
community and then asked the Bush
administration about the programs,
using code names, the AP reported.
Only then did the administration
come clean and only to the vague
extent that the White House would
continue to work closely on na-

tional security issues.

Stonewalling.
Of course, Hoekstra would never
have known about the secrets unless
whistleblowers had contacted him and
the public would never know about
these shenanigans without the media
to report them and to report the
stonewalling.
The administration and others have
demonstrated amply that they respect
no one and respect nothing but power.
The press has power and failure
to use it will continue to desecrate
democracy.
Using that power means reporting secret or classified things
because the government makes those
determinations to prevent the public
from knowing whats happening, not
because the issues really are deserving of secrecy.
In the past few years, the record of
governments at all levels has gotten
worse when it comes to giving out
information that we taxpayers have
ponied up our hard-earned money to
collect.
News outlets in New Mexico are
battling the State Police over that
agencys habitual hassling in making

what are clearly public records public.

Its been an ongoing fight in what is
becoming a less enchanted land.
Arrest logs, formerly easily accessible to the press, have been made more
difficult to get, with few understanding that the public posting of such
information is to prevent people from
disappearing in the night as some do
in banana republics or other totalitarian regimes.
Locally, The Amarillo Independent
is awaiting a ruling from the state
Attorney Generals office over a
request for information from the city
of Amarillo and another party who at
this time will remain nameless.
How that information request
comes to fruition will indicate how
the AGs office views public records
and open government in Texas.
Dont hold your breath.
What people need to consider is
that the Fourth Estate is one of the
checks and balances on government,
and censorship in any form is improper.
Even if the censorship takes the
form of an individual removing all of
the copies of this newspaper from a
hair salon in anger over an article.

Bell supporters: Panhandle deserves more than the hind teat

continued from page 1

to one related to state government: The number of illegal

immigrants cannot be used as
an excuse for Texas ranking
among the bottom of states for
social services, health care and
education.
While Bell took his shots
at Strayhorn, reminding both
the news conference and the
fundraiser crowd that she had
switched from the Democrats
to the Republicans more than
20 years ago, and describing
her as a key Republican ever
since, he saved his best for
Perry, when he wasnt tying the
two together.
Every time Rick Perry has

had a bad idea, Carole Strayhorn has been there to put the
lipstick on the pig, Bell said.
The school finance plan that
emerged from the special legislative session was essentially
a shell game, said Claudia
Stravato in her introduction of
Bell to the fundraiser.
Stravato, an aide to the late
Bob Bullock when he was
comptroller, said money that
was shifted to education meant
that Amarillo would have no
state funds for the homeless.
The Panhandle is often ignored by the Legislature now,
Stravato said, blaming Perry.
Little attention was given nationwide to the area wildfires,

What impressed Clark

about Bell was how
he fought back and
filed the first ethics
complaint against
former House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay
the largest so far during the
western wildfire season, because Perry did not come to the
area until long after the fact.
We suck the hind teat all the
time, Stravato said.
During Perrys tenure as
governor, Bell said the school
dropout rate has been under-

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The Amarillo Independent is published by The Amarillo
Independent, L.L.C. weekly 52 times per year at 301 South
Polk St., Suite 320, Amarillo, Texas 79101.
Unsolicited submissions, including but not limited to articles, artwork,
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2006 The Amarillo Independent, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

The Amarillo Independent now

offers subscriptions. We will send your
newspaper by FIRST CLASS MAIL
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Thursday publication date. The rates
are reasonable:

stated, with Amarillo ISD figures, based on the difference

for enrollments of ninth-graders in 2000-2001 and of 12thgraders in 2003-2004, reaching 32.8 percent instead of the
reported 2.3 percent rate for
2003-2004.
U.S. Census Bureau figures,
with 2000 the most recent year
available for Amarillo, differ
from Bells calculations: The
bureau said about 20 percent
of Amarillo adults had failed to
achieve a high school diploma.
In health care, Texas ranks
high among the states with
uninsured residents, Bell said,
adding that Amarillo has a 40
percent uninsured rate without
citing the source of that information.

Former Amarillo newscaster

Chris Bell visits with supporters
at an Independence Day Democratic picnic in Hurst. (Photo by
David Bowser)

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Thursday July 13, 2006 The Amarillo Independent

Show Me The News

Page 7

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Page 4

The Amarillo Independent Thursday July 13, 2006

Holder
awake
at the
wheel
By David Bowser
The Amarillo Independent

s Luke Holder
sits in Bodegas
or OHMS or the
Golden Light
Cantina, he is a Certified
Public Accountant, husband,
father and a successful
Amarillo musician by way of
Los Angeles and New York
City.
Perhaps, more accurately,
he is a folk singer who is also
all those other things.
Weve played the
Amarillo Art Museum,
Holder said. We can go
from quiet in a corner to loud
Luke Holder at OHMS, the scene of his latest CD release party. (Photos by David Bowser)
Golden Light.
Holder, who turned 32
achievable goals. I take these
He had continued to write
He found that people in the
on the Fourth of July, was
classes. Im done with this. I
songs, and he reached a point
Texas Panhandle also needed
born and reared in Amarillo,
dont have to do this again. I
where he realized it was time
accountants and that his daily
attending Austin Middle
take these classes and at some
to start performing them.
commute to his downtown
School and graduating from
point I get a degree. It was
Holder said he figured
office was only minutes, not
Tascosa High School.
great. The music business is
hed better become a singer
hours.
I went to (Texas) A&M
not like that.
because every band he had,
Earlier this month he
for two
From college,
the singer always flaked out
released his fourth album.
weeks,
on him.
The songs are his favorite
We got ripped off, but Holder went to
Holder
New York City
I guessed I had to sing,
tunes from three years of
we had a great time. It for a year.
said, But
although I never wanted to
writing.
was awesome.
I wanted to
I worked
sing, Holder said.
I wrote 100 songs and
start a band,
for a large
After a year, he figured
picked the best tunes,
so I came
accounting
hed better either do
Holder said.
back here and started a band
firm, Holder said. They
something about it or forget
For his first three albums,
called Brothers Grim. We
had me commuting from
about music, so he returned
he had gone into the studio
actually did pretty good.
Connecticut. Two hours there
to Amarillo to work on his
when he thought he had
Hed just turned 19 at the
and two hours back on the
first album at his brothers
enough songs.
time.
train. I regretted getting that
place, AMP Recording
After three albums
We played together for
job.
Studio.
of doing that, I wanted
two years, but we had two
While he had had his fill of
That was 1998. He quit his
something different kind of
great years. We got a bad
the music business, he was
job, bought a truck, packed it
strategy where I would have
recording contract and went
still smitten with music.
up and drove it home.
a stronger album, Holder
to L.A. for a month. We got
ripped off, but we had a great
time. It was awesome.
That was his first major
musical endeavor.
We got burned, Holder
said. Two of the guys quit.
The band consisted of two
sets of brothers, Holder and
his brother Drew and two
other brothers.
The two other brothers
just kind of dropped out on
us, Holder said.
We felt like it was our
band, all four of us, so we
couldnt go on.
Monday-Thursday 11am-9pm
He said hed had his fill
Friday & Saturday 11am-11pm
of the music business, so
Closed Sunday
he switched his energy to
college.
Serving award-winning handmade pizzas
Holder went to Amarillo
and calzones, freshly tossed salads and
College for a year and then
extensive beer and wine menu in a hip,
transferred to North Texas for
two years, where he earned a
unique atmosphere.
degree in accounting.
I just knocked it out, he
2803 Civic Circle
said. It felt good to have
331.DOCS (3627)
something where you had

in

n
eI

ak
or T

e Out Catering

Av
ail
ab
le

said.
Holder said that, depending
upon the reception the latest
album gets, hes considering
going on tour, but he said it
wont be nationwide.
Im not running off to the
Village or Haight-Ashbury,
Holder said. Ive already
done that.
Holder said he has a wife,
Becca, whose support he
enjoys, and a two-year-old
son and a daughter on the
way.
He said he doesnt plan
on sacrificing his life on the
musical altar.
Its just something that
makes life a little more
interesting and gets me
through the day, Holder
said.

Thursday July 13, 2006 The Amarillo Independent

Page 5

Bold strokes,
broad emotions

Mardy Lemmons opens in three-man

show at Sunset Center gallery
By David Bowser
The Amarillo Independent

ardy Lemmons
is a large, physical man and
thats reflected
in many of his works.
Known for his figure studies, Lemmons paintings are
often life-sized or larger with
canvases towering over the
viewer.
Ive always drawn, Lemmons said.
Hes taken that drawing one
step further, painting in bold
strokes on large canvases, the
way he sees the world.
Lemmons, 45, was born in
Landstuhl, Germany, when his
father served in the U.S. Air
Force, and has lived in Amarillo since his early teens.
After high school, he decided he wanted to go on to art
school and get into commercial art.
I went to Amarillo College
to work toward a commercial
art degree, Lemmons said.
While in school, I decided
fine art was more of what I
wanted to do.
Although his passion was
fine art, he shrugged that there
were always financial concerns, and he felt initially that
commercial art was a way of
staying in the studio, although
it meant he would be creating
projects for other people and
their tastes.
Through a quirk of circumstance, however, he ended up
in the oil fields north of Amarillo.
I work in the oil field, he
said. I enjoy what I do.
The unexpected change offered him opportunity.
This way I get to paint,
Lemmons said.
And he gets to paint for
himself. There is no pressure
to paint something that will
sell well.
I paint because I have to
paint, Lemmons said. I
strive to do paintings that will
evoke some type of emotion
using subject matter and the
style in which it is painted.
He has also been able to experiment and develop his own
medium.
Lemmons uses black pastel
with a turpentine wash that is
unique to him.
I dont know of anyone
else doing it, he said.
Its been developed over the
past 10 years that hes been
painting.
Lemmons said he developed
his style under Rick Peters in
Peters figure-drawing class at

Amarillo College.
Rick would tell me about
how there were artists who
did fine-art nudes, Lemmons
said. Thats where I kind of
went with it originally.
Today, he said he is flattered that his mentor has chosen to return to Amarillo and
join in a three-man exhibit in
Lemmons gallery at Sunset
Center. Featuring Lemmons,
Peters and newcomer Eric
Ratliff, the exhibition will be
up this month, and then remain through the centers August Lights Festival.

I strive to do
paintings that will
evoke some type of
emotion using subject
matter and the style in
which it is painted.
For the most part, Lemmons
has used his space in Sunset
Center as a large studio rather
than as a gallery. This months
exhibition will be the first
show hes had here.
Lemmons said that the styles
of the three exhibitors are distinct, but they are complimentary to each other.
They dont look the same,
he said, but they all work together.
Its been about a year since
Lemmons opened his studio
and gallery here. In September, soon after moving in,
Lemmons was involved in
another three-person show of
figures with his work and the
works of David Golbert and
Michelle Tamborino.
Although he exhibited in
the ALCA group contemporary show in 2005 and in a
two-man show with Kevyn
Bullards photographs at the
Yellow City Art Gallery in
February 2001, Lemmons said
this months show is the first
major exhibit for him since
2000.
This will be the first big
show since 2000, Lemmons
said.
I showed at Yellow City
when they were downtown,
Lemmons said. There was a
little place called Early Slick
where I had a show.
He has also exhibited at
Casa de Luz on Sixth Avenue.
His works have been exhibited in the Carey-McDuff Gallery of Contemporary Art, Studio X and Elemental Moods
through the late 1990s up to
2000, but with a wife and four

Amarillo artist Mardy Lemmons in front of three new works to be displayed this month during a
three-man show this weekend at his Sunset Center gallery. (Photo by David Bowser)

children, Lemmons had financial responsibilities that had to

be attended to.
I have worked in the oil
fields as an adult, raising
my four children, having art
shows in Amarillo and doing
my artwork part time, Lemmons said.
Now that my children are
adults, I am starting to pursue
art on a full-time basis.
Last year he started back,
devoting more time to his
painting.
Against the wall of his stu-

dio waiting to be hung are

three large canvases that will
be a part of the show.
One is based on a Scott
Hyde photograph of a woman
walking down a New York
City street in 1960.
I asked him if I could do
a painting from that, Lemmons said. He said, Sure, go
ahead.
Lemmons said hes only
spent one afternoon with Hyde
going through old photographs, but it was fascinating.
It was amazing, Lemmons

said.
Lemmons said hes been influenced by the artwork of Jim
Dine, a Cincinnati artist born
in 1935 and known mostly for
his pop art, and Egon Schiele,
an Austrian expressionist
(1890-1918), but it is time and
experience that have allowed
Lemmons to develop his own
unique style.
Lemmons describes his
work as nontraditional.
I keep mine completely
nontraditional,
Lemmons
said.

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Page 6

The Amarillo Independent Thursday July 13, 2006

Dr. Js Medical Minute

ets talk about annual exams. If you

and education are musts. But, as with most things
havent made an appointment for your anin life, a positive view can be obtained. Today we
nual exam, make a note to do that today.
will focus on breast and colon cancer screening.
No, do not put it off until tomorrow; othIf you think about screening in terms of a birtherwise it will end up with the still-not-completed
day present, cancer screening can have a positive
needlepoint youve been making Grandma since
connotation.
Christmas 1992.
Like, Happy 40th, time for your first mammoWhen I say annual exam,
gram! As per most guidelines, I refer all
I do mean more than the breast
women over age 40 for an annual mamand pelvic exam. The annual
mogram, and until recently never had one
exam for a woman should enmyself. I heard many comments about
compass all areas of a womans
mammograms such as They squish you
health, not just the breasts and
like a pancake or My breasts arent really
pelvic area. After all, arent we
big enough to bother or Im afraid my
more than those two parts? YES!
implants will explode.
During an annual exam there
I scheduled my own mammogram a bit
should be a discussion of many
earlier than 40 due to my family history.
aspects of a womans overall
Now, having had a mammogram, I can
health.
report that they do indeed flatten the breast
After the patient and I have
tissue, almost to a pancake, and there is
MARJORIE
discussed social stressors like
JENKINS, M.D. some physical discomfort, though not even
over-commitment, mental
close to, say, labor pain.
and emotional fatigue (due to
However, for me the most discomfort
spouses, teenage children, etc.),
was not the actual test but waiting for the
and sex drive (spouses again ), we review her
result. Overall, getting undressed, breasts flatindividual physical health checklist.
tened, images taken and waiting for a letter doesnt
This includes heart health such as blood pressound like a great birthday present, but it really
sure, cholesterol, smoking, family history and
is. I breathed a sigh of relief after my mammogradiabetes screening. If she is overweight, encourphy was completed and thankfully negative. I felt
agement is given to start losing the weight. Even
good that I had done it and it was over, at least for
if she has tried a hundred times to lose the weight
a year. Another positive is that I can now counsel
that came on with the kids 25 years ago, and never
my patients about the reality of mammography.
left, we still discuss giving it another try.
What about the 50th birthday? How about,
Moving down the list, we discuss bone health.
Happy birthday, lets schedule your colonosI then move the conversation to cancer screening.
copy! This one is a harder sell. When I mention
The dreaded C word even seems difficult to say.
colon screening, some make a face like they just
Some people fear cancer more than anything else.
drank bad milk. After all colonoscopy prep entails
Nevertheless, at the annual exam cancer screening
drinking a gallon of liquid or taking umpteen pills,

endent Ad
in July 2006 growing number
, 2006
of researchers and
professionals recognize the impor-

going to the bathroom all night, then arriving at

the doctors office or hospital to have your backside exposed (I mean most women do not like attention to their backside even when it is covered),
and then the colonoscope is Ill just stop there.
Yet, even after they make the face, I proceed
to sell the patient on getting this test (sometimes it
is like selling hot chocolate at the beach). Colon cancer is the No. 3 cancer killer of men and
women; more than 3,000 Texans died from colon
cancer last year and another 7,000 will be diagnosed in 2006. I also mention that most colon cancer starts as a benign polyp and it can take years
for a polyp to become cancer.
Therefore, a colonoscopy can identify a polyp,
remove it and prevent the cancer from occurring.
But if this doesnt convince them and they return
the next year for an annual exam and havent had
the colonoscopy, then I make the face.
The face is an expression many of my longterm patients recognize. My patients hate to see
me make the face, so I can usually convince
them the second time around, but if not, I keep trying every year. Its that important.
Overall, cancer is not a subject to be taken lightly, nor cancer screening, but then neither is overall
health. A positive outlook can help the medicine
go down. No one says staying healthy is easy,
but it is worth it. Do it for those who love you and
those who need you, but mostly do it for yourself.
Remember, its all about you and youre worth it!
Dr. Jenkins holds a bachelors degree in chemical
engineering and a medical degree from East Tennessee State University. She holds a joint appointment as
associate professor in internal medicine and obstetrics/gynecology and is the co-director of the Womens
Health Research Institute at Texas Tech University
Health Sciences Center in Amarillo.

A Fathers Cry

tance of family history. When

I speak to groups of dads, I
often bring up generational
family issues to try to help

men gain a better perspective

on their own challenge. I ask
a series of questions to bring
these issues to the surface.

Exploring your fathering heritage

These questions explore the

darker side of their fathering
heritage:
1) Was your father largely
absent while you were growing up?
2) Did your
father abuse you
or another family
member?
3) Did your father have addictive behavior?
4) Was your
father sexually involved
with someone
other than your
mother?
DAVE
5) Did your
CLARK
father commit illegal acts? These
questions usually draw silent,
sober stares.

As we discuss how to
process these dark issues
I re-ask the questions which
seem more redemptive and
hopeful:
1) Have you resolved your
feelings toward your father?
2) Do you have a close
friend or small group that

supports and holds you accountable?

3) Are you seeking to improve your fathering skills?
4) Do you interact with
other fathering role models
whom you respect?
5) Are you
involved and connected to a faith
community?

Action Points
for Committed
Fathers ...
Discuss your
childhood with
other family
members. Ask
if he/she had the
same expectations that you did.
Share a word of Thanks for
those positive influences in
your family heritage.
Spend some time thinking how to reconcile your
relationship with or at least
your feelings toward Your
Dad. Be Brave, Be Tender,
Be Loving and Full of Humility.
Next issue: The Power of
I Love You.

Thursday July 13, 2006 The Amarillo Independent

Open letter to grownups

he trouble with being a

annoying grieving women and
grownup is that youre
maimed children. And an earth so
always called on to fix
hot you have to hop on one foot to
messes, your own and
keep from being burned.
other peoples. In the process of doYoure an adult, damn it, do
ing that, you make more
something about it.
messes.
OPINION Bring on the children. ExAt some point, there
tort their innocence, invenare so many messes you need other
tiveness, natural compassion (how
grownups, more competent ones, to
did they come by that?) and let
clean them up. Competent grownthem do their healing work on your
ups are a myth, but even assuming
dulled senses.
for a moment that they exist, their
Let them cover you in snot and
solutions to your messes is to make
ketchup and play ball with your
everything incomprehensible so that
head until you see stars.
youll feel truly helpless.
If it gets a little Lord-of-the-Flies
flyish, you can always shake them
off, draw up to full adult height and
proclaim the power of your adultYou used to blame
hood.
all messes on God,
Theyll look up with sad, sudbut its not so easy
denly adult faces, and your misery

anymore now when

even the staunchest
believers want to
become children
again.

When everyone feels helpless,

these nonexistent competent
grownups, who may or may
not be parental, proceed to do
two things: take away all your
initiative and lock you up inside
a paradox so complex youll
never get out.
Feeling helpless and trapped
may be the normal state of your
average adult in the custody
of other adults, but its no fun
because it lacks innocence.
Which is why I say, like Jesus, bring on the children. Their
messes are understandable:
peanut butter and snot, ketchup
and blood, play dangerously
close to traffic, make physical
contact with your pals until the
world spins, take a ball seriously enough to cry.
Unfortunately, when adults
call on children to fix their
messes, the children have to
grow up fast and become nasty
little adults before they even
had a chance at childhood.
Now lets look at the problem
of adulthood globally. Adults
have messed up the planet
with carbon emissions that
are making the earth too hot.
Adults have taken their occasional moments of euphoria to
war and killed until they were
exhausted.
Wars are never started by
sick and tired people. They are
the work of the excessively
healthy, the super-optimistic,
the pheronome-flushed well-being addicts.
Pheromones allow for
glimpses of utopia, and testosterone promises that youll get
there. But something happens
in war and on the aggressive
road to wealth: messes. There
are wounds, puddles of blood,

will be mirrored in miniature.

You used to blame all messes on
God, but its not so easy anymore
now when even the staunchest
believers want to become children
again.
You can become a staunch
believer, but the mess will stay the
same. You may feel like a child, but
God doesnt feel like playing adult
anymore.
Global warming has affected God,
he feels sleepy, lacks ambition, and
would like a more adult God to fix
the mess. That would be you now,
wouldnt it?
Andrei Codrescu is a regular
commentator on National Public
Radio. His book, New Orleans,
Mon Amour: 20 Years of Writing in
the City has just been published.

Page 3

Airplane boardings rise

The airline business in Amarillo continues to
grow, according to the latest report from Rick
Husband Amarillo International Airport.
For January through June of this year, number
of passengers departing from Amarillo grew by
1.4 percent over the
same period of last
year, with 41,731
passengers. For the
same months last
year, the airport saw
40,632 passengers
boarding airliners.
Continental Express showed the largest growth in year-to-date
boardings over last year with a jump of 15 percent. American Eagle gained almost 4 percent
more passengers over last year while Southwest Airlines passenger load remained steady
and Great Lakes Aviation dropping by almost
one-third.
Southwest remained the market share leader
with 60 percent of the passengers, but the carrier also flies the largest aircraft.
George Schwarz

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