Dear Editor,
My 16-year-old daughter recently started a snow cone stand to make some extra spending money for the camps she will be attending. As she opened up on the 28th of June she was approached by the code enforcement letting her know that someone had reported her for selling snow cones in a residential area.
I am very disappointed and disgusted that someone would report a young girl just trying to earn her own spending money to take to her camps. I remember when I was young we had the snow cones from Mrs. Machuca, and they were the best and there were no issues with it being residential because she wasn’t hurting anyone — just providing a cool treat on the hot summer days as my daughter intended to. I have started a petition to change that so that during the summer season it would be legal to sell snow cones on residential property.
David Gomez
Marfa
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Partisanship and Democracy
A recent book, Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics, published in 2023 by U.T. history professor H. W. Brands, pointed out that extreme partisanship in U. S. politics has a 200+ year history.
Although our first President George Washington thought that parties were unhealthy for our fledgling democracy, that was soon undercut by the developing factions of Hamilton-Adams, who favored a strong central government, and Jefferson-Madison, who favored state government and agriculture. Those factions rose to extreme lengths during the presidential electoral-college contest between Adams, Burr and Jefferson. Ultimately, Jefferson prevailed in the tied electoral college contest when the Federalist Hamilton belatedly decided to support Jefferson over Aaron Burr to win the presidency in 1801.
That election, when Adams declined to attend the inauguration of Jefferson, resulted in almost a lifetime of animosity between Jefferson and Adams who had been respected colleagues during the revolution and diplomats in Paris seeking a treaty between the U.S. and England to end the Revolutionary War. In the brief period prior to their same-day deaths on July 4, 1826, both Adams and Jefferson sought reconciliation with one another by exchanges of letters.
In the last few years, extreme partisanship appears to threaten the stability of our country, with some partisans saying that democracy is not necessary for the proper functioning of our republic. It behooves all citizens of all parties to respect democracy by accepting the wishes of voters. Only then can the foresight of our founders, admittedly not initially respectful of all races and genders, ensure that the rights of lawful voters will prevail.
Robert Martin
Fort Davis
Jeff Davis County Democrats
