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An Eastland County sheriff’s deputy died Thursday as wildfires swept through several small Texas communities west of Dallas, destroying at least 50 homes and charring more than 54,000 acres as of Sunday.

Deputy Sgt. Barbara Fenley died while going door to door warning people to flee, according to the Austin American-Statesman. 

Sgt. Fenley ran off a smoke-covered road and was engulfed in the fire, the sheriff said.

Several wildfires merged to form what is now known as the Eastland Complex fire. The blaze started last Thursday afternoon and in less than three hours destroyed 86 houses in Carbon, a town of just 272 residents in Eastland County, about 120 miles west of Dallas.

Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 11 counties in response to the wildfires. 

“I commend the hard work and selfless acts of thousands of first responders and firefighters who are risking their own lives to protect our communities,” Abbott said.  “I also ask Texans to join me in praying for those who have been affected by these wildfires, including Eastland County Deputy Barbara Fenley, who was tragically killed while trying to save lives.”

Two dozen teachers
added to task force

The Texas Education Agency has added two dozen teachers to its recently formed Teacher Vacancy Task Force. TEA faced criticism when the original 28-member panel only contained two teachers, with high-level administrators making up the rest. 

The task force was formed at the behest of Abbott in response to a growing shortage of teachers across the state. Its goal is to “better understand the significant staffing challenges facing Texas public schools and to make comprehensive recommendations to address these issues,” according to TEA.

Josue Torres of Forney, an elementary school math teacher from Dallas ISD, will serve as chair of the task force. 

“The reason I got into education is because I believe that a student’s zip code shouldn’t determine his or her fate,” Torres said. “This task force has the ability to recommend the needed changes and innovative solutions necessary to ensure all Texas students have access to the high-quality educators they deserve.”

2021 second-deadliest year on Texas roads

Traffic fatalities in the state were up 15 percent last year, making 2021 the second-deadliest year on Texas roads with 4,480 people killed — the highest total since 1981, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

Commissioner Laura Ryan pointed out that roadway safety is a shared responsibility between the public, engineers and law enforcement. 

In 2021, 1,522 people died because of speed-related causes, and 1,219 were killed because they were not wearing seat belts, Ryan said. 

“Driver behavior is one of the causes but also one of the most important solutions,” she said. 

With increased focus on engineering, enforcement and on the critical role drivers play in road safety, Ryan and TxDOT leaders believe the state can end the streak of daily deaths on Texas roadways. #EndTheStreakTX is a broad social media and word-of-mouth effort that encourages drivers to make safer choices while behind the wheel, such as wearing a seat belt, driving the speed limit, never texting and driving, and never driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. 

The last deathless day on Texas roadways was more than 21 years ago — Nov. 7, 2000.

Nominations sought for Heroes for Children award

Thousands of Texas volunteer at the state’s public schools, and the State Board of Education would like to recognize some of them with a Heroes for Children Award. Any Texas resident who contributes time, service or support to public schools and student can be nominated. School employees or elected officials are not eligible. 

One recipient will be chosen for each of the 15 SBOE districts in the state. Award recipients will be recognized at the board’s September meeting. The deadline for nominations is July 15. Additional information and access to the nomination form can be found at https://tea.texas.gov/Heroes_for_Children.aspx .

COVID-19 cases still dropping

The number of new COVID-19 cases dropped once again to 18,744 in the past week, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University, with 418 deaths recorded. Two months ago, largely as a result of the omicron variant, 440,341 cases were reported along with 2,311 deaths.

The number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations also dropped to 1,605, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, down 20 percent from the previous week.

DSHS reports 17.373 million Texans are fully vaccinated, which is 59.6 percent of the total population. In addition, 6.429 million of the state’s residents have received a booster dose.

Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches and Cedar Park. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

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by Jim Powers
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There is a sexist expression popular in the 1950s that says that “A women’s place is barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.” Are you offended by that? Good. Because it seems that everything old is becoming new again.

“Constitutionally unsound rulings like Griswold v. Connecticut, Kelo v. City of New London, and NFIB v. Sebelius confuse Tennesseans and leave Congress wondering who gave the court permission to bypass our system of checks and balances.” U.S. Senator (Tenn.) Marsha Blackburn

“Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said Tuesday that he would be open to the Supreme Court overturning its 1967 ruling (Loving v. Virginia) that legalized interracial marriage nationwide to allow states to independently decide the issue.”From a Washington Post column.

Our country is in a political culture war. I say political because most of the country, in poll after poll, support progressive policies that move the country forward, socially, politically, and economically. Many politicians in the Republican party, in contrast, as reflected in the quotes above, seek to undo Supreme Court decisions that are decades old and move the country back to the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Before I talk about what has been settled law, and most of you consider as just common sense now that they have been in place so long, I want to share some personal history.

I was born in Woodville, TX in 1950. My dad was 17 years old, my mom 21. They were married in April of 1950; I was born in September. All you need is one hand and kindergarten level math skills to figure out that I was not conceived in April. It seems clear that when she reached the time when she could no longer hide her pregnancy, they married.

This kind of thing in a small East Texas town in 1950 was a scandal. Unmarried couples didn’t live together. Most did not have sex until marriage. So, this was a big deal.

My conception was, however, not an accident. My mother still lived at home at age 21 and had a very controlling stepfather. So much so that he determined my mom was better off if she lived under his control permanently. My dad was a 17-year-old teenager, with the usual overabundance of hormones. Because a woman usually needed either a father or husband to do all kinds of legal things, she decided a husband was the way out. Her father, though, wouldn’t have allowed her to marry.

So, they decided that her getting pregnant would force the situation and achieve both of their goals. And the plan worked. Kind of. The fact that a 17-year-old would probably not be the easiest husband to live with never occurred to my mom. It was a rocky relationship for a while.

The story has a happy ending, though. When they died a month apart in 2002, they had been married 52 years.

My point in telling the story is to drive home the fact that the U.S. was a very different place in the 1950’s and 1960’s. A lot of the personal freedoms we live with now didn’t exist. And as a result, people often ended up making bad decisions out of necessity. Things were pretty good for white men, not so good for women. It took women decades to achieve any sort of equality with men.

Now back to those quotes I used to start this column.

Marsha Blackburn referenced Griswold v. Connecticut, a Supreme Court ruling she deemed “Constitutionally unsound.” She believes it should be reversed.

Before 1965 when the Supreme Court ruled in this case, it was illegal in many states for even married couples to possess any kind of birth control. That includes condoms, pills, diaphragms, etc. You could be arrested and fined or imprisoned for having them in your home. Connecticut was one of them. And the Griswold’s were being prosecuted under that law. 

Contraceptives were made illegal under obscenity statutes. Possessing Contraceptives was considered obscene. When the case reached the Supreme Court, the Griswolds won. But it was still five years before every state had revised their laws to make the sale of contraceptives legal for married people. And 1972 before a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for unmarried people to get access to contraceptives.

Marsha Blackburn says that the Supreme Court ruled wrongly and wants the current court to reach back 50 years and again make birth control illegal. 

Republican Senator Mike Braun last week took a swing at another 50-year-old Supreme Court ruling, Loving v. Virginia, that struck down state laws banning interracial marriage. Interracial marriage has been legal now since 1967. And he wants to undo that ruling. He’s not alone.

These are just two examples of U.S. Senators wanting to return the U.S. to the 1950s. But there are many more who share these views. Which seems a little odd, as one of the Supreme Court Justices, Justice Thomas, is in an interracial marriage, as is our Vice-President.

Now throw in the likely successful push to strike down Roe v. Wade, which had the effect of legalizing abortion, and the push back to the mid 20th century appears to be a triple-play for Republicans.

My mother at 21 was a beautiful, intelligent young women without many good choices. She became a stay-at-home mom and never held a job outside the home. Effective, legal contraception empowered women by allowing them to decide when to have children, and to take control of their lives.

Majorities of Americans support birth control, interracial marriages, and a host of other laws that empower people. But a growing number of politicians are saying out loud now what they could never say before. They want to mandate when and with whom you can have children, and who you can love and marry.

Watching old 8mm movies from the 1950s is a lot of fun. Perfect mom, dad and three kids family living in neat mid-century modern homes. But behind that façade things were not so great. 

Don’t allow politicians to undo the progress we’ve made over the last 50 years. The 1950s is a fun place to revisit, but you do not want to live there.

 

Declaimer – I referenced quotes from Republican politicians in this column. In the interest of full disclosure, I am politically Left-Libertarian (fiscal conservative/social liberal).

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The newspaper is full of stories and photos about local people who are spending part of their workdays and even some nights and weekends, volunteering for worthy organizations. These organizations are faithful to communicate with their community newspaper about positive happenings and part of our job is to share them publicly.

Because of worthy nonprofits and churches, our less fortunate are fed, clothed, have electric bills paid when needed, are provided healthcare, eyeglasses, even beds to sleep. Our churches provide much-needed mental and spiritual help, keeping all of us who take advantage of the teaching in good churches focused on the most important things in life and reminding us to count our blessings every day.

Other organizations maintain special events for all to enjoy. These include rodeos, livestock shows, festivals, student events and holiday celebrations. Then, some help preserve our history, restoring old structures and keeping the memory of our past alive.

But let me tell you about a few other volunteers we may forget are also working to help our communities. I have met or heard about so many over the years. You may not see them at Lions Club and Rotary or leading a banquet or an event for our children, but they are working all the same.

One gentleman baked pies every week and delivered them to shut-ins amongst the community. This went on for years. One lady leaves her home each Friday morning and spends the weekend with her brother who has cerebral palsy … every weekend. Another man who covered sports in East Texas for four decades secretly bought athletic shoes for every student athlete who could not afford a pair. Only the coaches involved, and a few close friends knew about this generosity. Finally, a lady who recently passed spent years mowing her church’s property (and for others less fortunate) faithfully and without pay.

What is my point? It is twofold. Just because we do not report on all volunteers, we know you are out there. You are appreciated and our community is better because of the work done behind the scenes and without recognition.

I encourage all of you to find something you can do to help. It doesn’t have to be working with one of the typical organizations … not everyone is comfortable there, or their job keeps them from committing to that type of volunteerism. Instead, do something you love, that fits into your lifestyle. Both you and the recipient of your kindness and generosity will receive a benefit — even if no one is watching.

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My wife and I were having a conversation last weekend about budgets and the rising cost of just about everything, which is normal, but this time, my 16-year-old daughter was in the room as we were watching the same television program.

We came to the elephant in everyone’s living room, which is gas prices, which of course gets our dander up. It got my daughter’s up, too, but at us.

She went where all liberals, Democrats and denizens of the internet — America’s No. 1 source of “information” — go, which was to blame Putin for the price hikes.

I know, I covered most of this last week, but I had to dredge up that same information for my daughter, while at the same time trying to determine who or what was responsible for her ignorance.

She has a TikTok account — surprise! — and to anyone of that age group, that’s the be all, end all of anything.

Once we enlightened her on the wider scheme of things, such as energy independence, pipeline and drilling permits, shale oil deposits, etc., she became very quiet, and it is my fervent hope that was the seed that will grow into a new process of information gathering.

But right now, though, that’s going to be tough, since kids today are adamant that some drag queen shuffling to some new-age hip hop spouting political has all the right stuff. That’s never going to happen, though, since our vaunted leaders have been tapping into that market for quite some time.

For instance, a couple of weeks ago the White House and the Biden Administration had an invitation-only conversation with TikTok influencers (which is a thing now, apparently) to discuss this highly sensitive national policy matter.

In actuality, the Biden Band played the standard tune of “It’s Not Our Fault” and gave these people their reasons for Putin being the problem, and of course, these influencers commenced to influencing their assembled masses, who now have even less idea about the way the world works.

I find the idea of using internet personalities to sell the lie almost diabolically clever, but ultimately sad. That the administration chose to take the path of least resistance, instead of working with people with facts and figures and reasoned arguments, as well as not trying any avenue to ameliorate the situation for the Americans, but giving us a shrug, is lazy and an abdication of the responsibilities of the office.

It’s a shame, really, that the dumbing down of America continues unabated, and the outrage that is now directed at Putin and any other macguffin should be directed squarely at Washington, D.C., and the kind of people, like Biden and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer (who are telling people that the way to cure the deficit is to spend more money).

It boggles the mind that our leaders would not only claim that other countries are responsible for our travails, but then try to get oil from other countries that are just as sketchy, and then give it all to people with little skin in the game and no reason to look harder to pass on to an already uneducated masses.

It shows yet again that our leaders have little interest in what is best — or what is wanted — by the constituents of this government.

So here’s my thinking. There’s an old saying, and I’m paraphrasing here because that there are conflicting reports about its source, that there are lies, damned lies and statistics.

I’m thinking it should be changed to there are lies, damned lies, statistics and TikTok.

Or say, a la Albert Einstein, “The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with joy are goodness, beauty, and the internet.”

I’ll go with Friedrich Nietzsche, who said “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.”

Tony Farkas is editor of the Trinity County News-Standard. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..