Columns/Opinions

By TONI WALKER

In 1988, Michael Jackson released “Man in the Mirror.” In it, he talks about the problems he saw on a daily basis… children who did not have enough to eat, people with nowhere to go…all problems will still see and face today.

It is easy to look at a person in any particular situation and say “They need to change. They need to work harder to be better.” And many times, people could do better for themselves. However, it is going to take so much more than wanting other people to change before our country will be back where it needs to be.

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by ED STERLING

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott and members of Lone Star State’s congressional delegation last week signed a letter seeking $18.7 billion in Texas-specific Hurricane Harvey relief and recovery funding in the next federal supplemental appropriations bill.

Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Emergency Management Commission is working with county judges and mayors to secure funding and resources requested by those local officials.

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By ED STERLING, Texas Press Association

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott on Sept. 20 extended his state disaster declaration for 60 counties affected by Hurricane Harvey.

“As Texans continue to recover from this storm, I want to make it absolutely clear that the State of Texas will be there every step of the way. This disaster declaration extension will help ensure affected communities continue to get the resources they need to rebuild and return to full operation. Although the road to recovery will be long, Texas is fully committed to doing everything we can to assist those in need along the way,” Abbott said.

State disaster declarations must be renewed every 30 days for assistance to remain available, and Abbott said he would continue to renew the declarations as needed.

C.S. Lewis once said “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” I found this quote on Facebook one day, and thought how much this actually applies today.

Now, you know I don’t like to write political columns, and this is not entirely a political column. However, this directly applies to the state of our country and relations to each other, so I will touch on it first. I hear man people fussing about how slavery was wrong and we need to acknowledge that by removing items that are offensive due to their ties to the slave era. Well, if we remove history, and don’t talk about it because it offends certain segments of the population, isn’t that trying to go back and change the past?

By REBECCA SMITH

A funny thing seems to happen when we are surveyed about the behaviors of other people. In research about multiple topics, people often think others behave worse than they do.

So much for having faith in humanity!

This phenomenon is true about underage drinking. I give dozens of presentations a year to students and adults as part of my work with the Northeast Texas Coalition Against Substance Abuse. I often ask them to raise their hands and guess what the percentage is of students who drink.

They almost always guess the percentage is higher than it actually is.

Capital Highlights

ED STERLING, Texas Press Association

AUSTIN — Help-is-on-the-way announcements from the governor’s office came last week as residents of hardhit counties of the state labored to pull themselves out the watery mire and windblown nightmare of Hurricane Harvey.

On Sept. 14, Gov. Greg Abbott spotlighted Texas Department of Transportation contractors’ efforts to remove debris along state roadways in the Coastal Bend, the area that took a full frontal assault from the deadly storm that plowed ashore and battered Texas in late August and early September.

“The cleanup in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey is a job that will take months for Texans to complete,” Abbott said, “but our state agencies have been poised and ready to begin the work of clearing our roads and public spaces of the oftentimes dangerous debris left by this storm.”

By TONI WALKER

With all the negative things going on in the world, it is easy to forget that there are still good people. However, over the past several weeks, I must say that my faith in humanity has been restored, at least a little bit.

Over the last several weeks, I have seen people donating supplies to send to hurricane-flooded areas. I saw people buying bottled water, cleaning supplies, and more to send to those who lost everything and will have to deep-clean what they did not lose prior to rebuilding. I saw people giving without asking for receipts or proof of where their donations went. There were no stipulations put on who their donations went to, just simply that they went to those in need. There was no race, no ethnicity, and no division. There were, simply, people in need.