Dear Editor,
The news from Marfa City Hall about the malfeasance of past (and we pray no current) city staff and/or elected officials just keeps getting worse. First, current city leaders learn (even though it was publicized some years ago and obviously long known by city staff) that $576,101.35 in utility bills has gone uncollected! Now city leaders learn (even though it was also discovered some years ago) that an unknown number of city fire hydrants are completely non-functional!
It does not take a genius to understand that all of the honest, utility-bill-paying and tax-paying property owners in Marfa have gotten the shaft. Why are we paying our utility bills when others have obviously paid none, and why has the city not published the list of those scofflaws? How many pitiful city streets could have been repaired, not to mention the city pool, with that uncollected half-million-plus dollars? Why do we own property that is at great risk of burning up when our tax payments have not been properly used to maintain vital municipal fire suppression infrastructure?
The city’s response to the utility bill fiasco appears anemic at best. City leaders appear ready to just give up collecting at least $220,000.00 of unpaid bills. In the real world, before doing such, municipalities hire attorneys who will gladly recover overdue utility bills on a contingency basis with no cost to the city. As one, I can tell you that a hungry attorney can milk more money from a scofflaw than any mailed notification from some municipal employee. Hopefully the city response to the fire hydrant fiasco will be more rapid and effective because also in the real world property owners and insurance companies hire attorneys who will gladly sue a city into bankruptcy for property losses or god forbid lives lost caused by such negligence as inoperative fire hydrants.
Current city staff and elected officials may or may not be responsible for causing these city ills but they absolutely have a responsibility to all Marfa residents to vigorously correct them. Collecting every penny owed to the city and protecting us all by replacing or repairing all non-functioning fire hydrants as soon as possible are the proper ways to begin.
Kent C. Anschutz
Austin/Marfa
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Dear Editor,
Alpine’s downtown has a building being renovated. It is across 6th Ave. from the Old Holland Hotel, and it is beautiful!!
It would be wonderful if all the buildings could get some updating. Paint the outsides different colors so as to make them distinctive, and many buildings could use updating on the inside too. Take Judy’s Bread & Breakfast for instance –– the electricity is so bad that a fuse was blown as soon as the staff tried to use a small vacuum to clean up the dead flies.
This does not need to take place all at once, as just a couple per year would suffice. Make Alpine a true tourist destination and a city that people look forward to coming to — one that has a clean feel to it!
Beth Collins
Alpine
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Dear Marfa,
We want to thank everyone who took part in this year’s Agave Festival. It came together over the course of just a few weeks, which required the hard work and goodwill of many, many people for it to happen.
In particular, we would like to thank the City of Marfa, the Marfa Visitors’ Center, Cactus Liquors, the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute (CDRI), Crowley Theater, Judd Foundation, and all of the hotels, El Cosmico, Hotel Saint George, Paisano Hotel, Riata Inn, and the Thunderbird Hotel for their remarkable support.
We’d like to thank all of the participants for sharing their expertise and love of the Chihuahuan desert with us. In particular we’d like to thank Jim Martinez for creating the beautiful garden at the Marfa Visitors’ Center Pavilion, which made a lovely home for us this year, and for his participation in the creation of Judd Foundation’s new Agave Garden on Oak Street.
We’d also like to thank Meredith Dreiss and David Brown whose film Agave is Life helped us to understand the significance of agave culture.
To all of our friends who attended the festival this year, thank you. You are the heart of what we do.
Tim Johnson, Founder and Director Agave Festival Marfa
Caitlin Murray
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Dear Editor,
There is a lot of hype about critical race theory these days. The best explanation I’ve seen can be found here: https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/critical-race-theory-2653581376/.
But we really should “de-racialize” the whole argument. The reality is that discrimination that harms equality of opportunity is not just a racial issue. There is, aside from racial distinctions, systemic discrimination based on sex, religion and on disability status. The issue is really one of XENOPHOBIA – fear of or disregard for “others.” And it’s not a matter of whether we recognize the “otherness” of groups and individuals. It’s fine to recognize color, to see that someone else is Black or Brown, of Mexican or Irish origin, to see that they are male or female or neither, or to recognize that they hold different religious beliefs. The problem is the ASSUMPTIONS we make and are taught to make about otherness and the translation of those assumptions into laws or policies that result in inequality of OPPORTUNITY for those others.
The example given in the article about the disparate effects of crack/cocaine sentencing is a good one. But another would be the construction standards for public buildings. For years, we built curbs, stairs and doorways for the majority able to walk on two legs easily. We disregarded those who could not (it wasn’t a matter of hatred, just disregard). Then, recognizing that these standards actually harmed the OPPORTUNITY for those who could not walk on two legs, we finally came to our senses. Without the slightest harm to the walking public, we started making travel more accommodating to those with physical disabilities.
Well, what about voting? The fact is that if we just seek to expand the opportunity for EVERYONE to vote in elections, without harming anyone, we can extend that opportunity equally to people of color, those living in big cities and rural areas, women and men, disabled and homebound alike. The problem is that too many people hold to the dead-wrong myth that equal opportunity for others somehow deprives them of opportunity. It’s a false ASSUMPTION that has a discriminatory outcome.
Mary Bell Lockhart
Alpine
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Dear Editor,
Hello! I am Fr. John Paul Madanu, current administrator at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. After enthusiastically serving the beautiful community of St. Mary’s for four years, I am being transferred to continue serving in El Paso, Texas.
I wanted to thank all city employees for all the help and support you provided for me each in your own capacity. To the various healthcare workers and the law enforcement personnel for always keeping me healthy and safe. To employees from the water, electric and gas companies for sustaining and restoring our services whenever necessary. To postal workers and bank personnel for all your services. To The Big Bend Sentinel for updating us with current affairs and especially the Marfa ministerial alliance for all your support and encouragement. I owe each one of you a huge “thank you” for all your kindness, and for all the protection you provided for me constantly. You are definitely the pillars within this community due to your dedicated hard work and commitment. You are everyday heroes that through your daily labor keep Marfa functioning as a peaceful community.
Thank you for everything. Please be safe and God bless you!
Sincerely,
Fr. John Paul Madanu
Marfa
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Dear President Gallego,
I am a two-time graduate and third generation alumni of Sul Ross and a theatre arts professional working in theatre education. I was also raised in Marfa during the start of its artist renaissance and because of that, I chose to get my theatre degree from SRSU. That educational experience changed my perspective on the world and gave me confidence in myself that I never knew I had. It helped develop me into the artist I am today.
I just heard news of the proposal to combine three fine arts programs into one generalist BFA to cut spending at the university. As a graduate of the theatre program, let me say that I have had direct interaction with documents and records from the program’s past that showed me that theatre at Sul Ross is as old as the university itself. Closing this chapter would be closing a direct link to the earliest days of SRSU. The combination of these three arts programs into one “generalist” program would not only greatly eliminate the number of arts students on our campus (I personally think it would doom the arts program all together), but it would create a completely useless degree. I can’t think of one professional institution that would be interested in accepting a graduate into a specific fine arts field with a “generalist” degree. When you are applying to graduate schools, they expect you to have an undergraduate degree in that field. A general degree simply will not cut it. We study a specific art because we aspire to work in that art. A painter is learning to paint, not play the piano. An actor is learning to act, not make ceramics. Would you combine the English program with the Spanish program and create one “generalist” languages degree? I think not.
It is so unfortunate to hear that our university is in such dark financial times. I believe that hard times require hard decisions, but I implore you to consider other options. As our world becomes more and more data driven, we are losing the most important and ancient of human activities, the ability to use our powers of observation and imagination to create art that holds a mirror up to the human experience. Data can’t teach us how to be better people. The arts can. Perhaps this is an opportunity to look around and realize that West Texas is now home to more artists than ranchers and our burgeoning tourist economy is because of the landscape and the art that is made here. The largest educational institution in the region could and should be a leader in this field instead of looking for ways to reduce its place in a world-renowned arts region.
I would like to leave you with this: In all fields of learning, we educate the brain. In the arts we educate the brain but also the heart and the soul.
Reducing the arts program at Sul Ross will save money but at the expense of its heart and soul. We can do better.
Thank you for your time,
James M. Scott
SRSU graduate – BA (theatre) MA (history)
Houston and Marfa
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Mr. Gallego,
My name is Dr. Matthew Short, and like you, I stand proud as a Sul Ross State University alumnus. I will never forget June 5, 2020, when you were announced as the 13th president of Sul Ross State University. I was ecstatic because I knew the university would be taken care of by one of its own for the first time in its history. You instilled this through your welcome letter, where you stated your goal, to ensure that Sul Ross provides its students with the same types of unique experiences and the same types of career opportunities it gave you.
Today, I am writing to express my concern with the recent proposal to create one general Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and delete the bachelors in music, art and theatre and the Master of Arts in art. This decision will not only have a crippling effect on the students of Sul Ross and the Alpine community, but this proposed plan will decrease the faculty in these programs to one in each discipline, releasing 10 faculty lines out of 13.
My wife Rebecca and I graduated from Sul Ross with our Bachelor of Arts degrees in 2013. I continued and pursued a Master of Education in 2015 and, with the guidance of the Sul Ross faculty (yes, the same one you’re proposing to release), Rebecca and I landed our first jobs, and I earned a spot in the highly competitive doctorate program at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Our experiences at Sul Ross are priceless. We benefited from the instruction of many talented professors, had opportunities that our peers who attended more prominent universities could only dream about, and both had excellent student teaching experiences. I can say with complete conviction that Rebecca and I would have never had these opportunities from a general fine arts degree. Just like you, our most ardent wish is for students to continue to receive the same incredible experience and education that we received during our time at Sul Ross.
The Recommendation Report created by the Academic Planning Committee fails to acknowledge the proposed general fine arts program will not provide a significant depth of experience and study in any one area. Because of this, Sul Ross will be robbing each of their current and prospective students of the opportunity to learn and develop specific technical skills to a proficient level. Faculty members in these areas are critical in training students to think, create and problem solve — abilities students will need in life, in any job they might hold after graduating from Sul Ross.
The point of education is — or at least should be — to make the world whole and comprehensible for the learner through instruction and prepare the young for adulthood. Having a job is part of being an adult in the real world, and education that does nothing to provide for this is hardly an education at all. Simply put, SRSU graduates will find themselves without the entry-level skills required for professional jobs and advanced studies if you allow this consolidation to happen.
College is too expensive and too time-consuming to be entered with a whimsical disregard for the student’s future in the real world. That is the hard truth of life, and hiding away in the collegiate land of general fine arts make-believe will only make the eventual crash much more devastating.
I will end my letter to you with the same charge you left the graduates of Sam Houston State University in 1999 when you delivered their commencement speech. “I urge you to think about what it was that helped you get here. What made a difference for you? How can you make a difference for someone else? How do you choose to make society better?”
Dr. Matthew Short
Waco
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Dear Editor,
I was saddened to learn that Sul Ross’ financial struggles may result in significant changes to the university, including the dismantling of the theatre and art departments and a probationary arrangement for the new nursing program. In addition to the detrimental impact to students and professors, the lack of access to theatre performances and creative professors and students (who help make things like our beloved annual ArtWalk possible) will be a real blow to the Big Bend community, as will a loss in potential new healthcare workers. I respect the efforts of the Academic Planning Committee in meeting the difficult challenge of keeping Sul Ross solvent (see Report on-line) but hope that the university might find an alternative approach that brings more support without reducing what is being offered.
Sincerely,
Helen Snook
Alpine
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Dear Editor,
I read the recent article in the BBS regarding the departure of many teachers in PISD and the main reason so associated: the actions of the superintendent.
One must start to wonder if everyone is “out of step,” except the superintendent. Good committed teachers are not in short supply, but getting them to move to Presidio is problematic.
I suggest an independent third panel be assigned the task of reviewing the situation before it gets worse!
Richard L. Stone
Austin
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Dear Editor,
Happy Independence Day Weekend
This Fourth of July weekend, I’m taking time to pray for our country, and I hope you will too. And I don’t know about you, but when I pray for our nation, I find that the language of my prayer oscillates between gratitude and lament. I thank God for the noble ideals upon which our nation was founded and all the examples down through history of us living up to them; I thank God for freedom and peace and the people who have sacrificed much (or even all) to maintain them; I thank God for the Bill of Rights, the rule of law, representative democracy and national parks. There is so much to be thankful for in our country, and it is such a holy thing to pray our gratitude.
Yet prayer should be honest, and so we pray for those places in our society that are not what they are intended to be. Though our Declaration of Independence professes that all men are created equal, 244 years later the lived reality of our Black, Brown and Native citizens reveals dangerous, lingering inequalities; though we are a nation founded on the talent and spirit of immigrants, too often we close ourselves off from those who desperately need to reach the safety and opportunity of our shores; though we have sacrificed much to ensure the freedom of all people, too often we turn to weapons to resolve complex diplomatic disputes.
And so this weekend I’m going to take time to pray longingly for God to help us pass to future generations a more just and virtuous and peaceful nation than the one we inherited. In our efforts to get to a place where all lives matter, we need to show by our words, deeds, laws and truth-telling that Black lives, Brown lives, Native lives matter. In defiance of this human tendency to un-matter people, didn’t Jesus — all over Galilee, at the Cross and after his Resurrection — matter to people? Isn’t that why his words and example continue to soften our hearts and save us from the status quo? As individuals, it is possible to be grateful for who you are and what you’ve received, while also recognizing you are not yet the fullness of what God intended for you to become. The same is true for societies and for nations. So this weekend, I hope you’ll lift up prayers of thanksgiving, hope and intercession for our nation and for our world.
Mike Wallens
Alpine
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Dear Editor,
“When it counts”
Count on less than the fingers of right-handed Senate Republicans voting June 22 to just debate Democrat’s For the People Act, reforming election laws, government ethics, campaign finance law and strengthening voting rights. Romney, Collins, Murkowski, Sasse … the “reasonable” bi-partisan standing-up to McConnell or Trump – once or twice – display character or integrity?
Name one among 50 GOP senators not touting “strict constructionist” and “original intent of the Founding Fathers.” But what is “original intent”?
It is the foundation of our “Rule of Law-Due Process” Constitution. Recall the Preamble’s “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union … ” It is the essence of the relationship between all the People and our government!
Has any GOPer operated with integrity or character concerning that relationship, or fractured the cement of their office’s oath? There may even be a couple of outliers among Senate Dems resisting filibuster reforms. We’ll know soon.
Remember, the filibuster is a procedural rule not mandated by the Constitution. Several prophetic drafters vehemently opposed it for reasons occurring now, defeating the will of a representative majority.
The story goes that Benjamin Franklin was asked after the 1787 Constitutional Convention, “What have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” He responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Do we deserve to keep it? It won’t return easily. Not when resting upon Senate Republican shoulders failing our nation when character and integrity matter most.
Respectfully submitted,
Rev. Barry Abraham Zavah
Alpine
