Page 4 • INDEPENDENT • JANUARY 30, 2013
AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOODS Qual Valley Garden club By CAROLYN BOWDEN THE BEGINNING: 1972 Quail Valley home owners were looking at yards with just little sprigs of grass (they did not “sod” in those days), two sparsely planted flower beds, and one six foot tree. If you were lucky, the back yard was sprigged. When Spring “turned the corner” the demand was high for a Garden Club. Many residents came from “far distant” places and needed to know what to grow in our “socalled” soil. In October the Garden Club started with 64 charter members. Their theme was “Watch Us Grow.” Dues were $5 per year. One of the first gatherings was a wine tasting at the Club. One of the new members was overheard saying: “If I had known Garden Clubs were like this, I would have joined one earlier.” THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TOUR: At one of the earlier meetings the President asked for ideas “to make money.” One of the members suggested a Christmas Tour of Homes. The President considered
Bowden this an excellent idea and said: “You be the chairman and put your house on the tour.” Eight homes were chosen for the Garden Club’s first “Christmas in Quail Valley.” The entry and “specific” rooms in each house were decorated, using the owner’s decorations and were assisted by the three member Tour Committee in deciding “what to put where” so the room and decorations would look the BEST. There was a volunteer in each decorated room to answer questions. Every home displayed a different theme and comments were: “I got so many good ideas to use at my house.”
The Tour charge was either $3 or $5. Of those I asked, no one seemed to remember “exactly.” FIRST SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED: 1972 Christmas Tour proceeds enabled a $300 scholarship for a student at Dulles Senior High school. OUTSTANDING SPEAKERS CAME: John Teas of Teas Nursery presented The Care and Feeding of Indoor Plants and Dewey Compton, a well-known garden authority, answered questions on gardening in the Missouri City area. Christmas gifts were delivered to a Nursing Home in Richmond as their December project and for Arbor Day they planted five trees at the Missouri City Park. WHO WAS AT THE HELM? A lady who moved to Quail Valley with countless awards “under her belt” and experience in organizing over 75 Garden Clubs: Patsy Hudson-Armbruster. RESOURCES: Patsy Hudson-Armbruster and Iris Young. NEXT COLUMN: (February 13th) “The Next 40 Years” Write to: CVBneighbors@ aol.com
Letter: Gun control To the Editor: We are seeing The Beginning. Our own Federal Government, with the viper of Progressivism lying coiled within, is seeking to take away not only our God-given right to defend ourselves and our families, but our very Identity as a Nation and as a People. Based as we are upon the eternal realities of Human Liberty, for us to succumb to honeyed words of child. care and lying promises of peace and security, only to gain collars around our necks, would be to betray all that America has ever stood for, and to shamefully fade from History into the nameless grey masses
Stafford St ff d From Page 1 Infrastructure improvements included completing Stafford/ Staffordshire Roads from Fifth Street to Scanlin Road and the lighting on U.S. 90A. The mayor also said “significant progress” has been made on expanding Dulles Avenue and said more is about to begin on Brand Lane. On the financial side of the progress ledger, for 17 years Scarcella has proudly expounded on the fact that there are no property taxes in Stafford. Today he can add that the result of such is an accumulation of strong cash balances, which is “many times greater
of Totalitarianism. Will this be? Will we timidly allow this to be? I say NO! I know that there is enough of 1776 still coursing through the veins of our Citizens that we can act together and save our Inheritance and our futures. While this struggle still rages in the halls of Power, between Agents of Treason and Men of High Principle, we must loudly demand that all Representatives live up to their Oaths and defend the Constitution, besieging them with support and pressure. Failing this, then a curse on both their Houses, and
The People will have to do the work of physically defying Absolutism by any means necessary and preserving the Honor of our forefathers as they stand beside us and among us. Our Tea Party must stand. The entire Patriot Movement must stand. Our People must stand. The future is in doubt, but with the Grace of God on high we will weather these dark times and emerge into that long lost sunlight of true Freedom. Long Live the Republic! James Ives President The Greater Fort Bend County Tea Party
than when this elimination th h thi li i ti off property taxes was initiated.” Eliminating property taxes combined with prudent fiscal management, he said, also has allowed Stafford to cancel all its general obligation debt. Currently the outstanding principal balance has been reduced to $435,000 and would have been paid earlier “had it not been for provisions of the bond indentures preventing” that. Scarcella wrapped up his state of the city address with goals for the next year. His goals for Stafford in 2013 are maintaining zero property taxes, adopting a “responsible” no smoking
ordinance, providing di idi SMSD students with the “utmost protection,” continue improving infrastructure and assuring future water rights, attract quality development to the U.S. 90A corridor, continue efforts for a U.S. 90A commuter rail line; enhance city’s technology, maintain solid pay scale and benefits for city employees and collaborate with Texas Instruments for the transformation of its site. He concluded by telling his fellow citizens, “There is much on Stafford’s plate most of which is anything but simple or inexpensive.”
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Red Cross needs volunteer drivers The Red Cross wants you! The American Red Cross has a transportation program for people who are elderly and people with disabilities. The Red Cross is looking for help in the Fort Bend County office to transport those in need in our community to and from non-emergency medical appointments. There are no special licenses required, only a clean driving record and willingness to help your neighbor. Red CRoss will provide the training and the vehicles. You are required to give a commitment of 4 or 8 hours. You pick the day. If you are interested, contact Herbert Melton at 713-313-1757, or Steve Atchison at 713-313-1762.
Obama’s second-term wish list By KARL ROVE President Barack Obama’s 15-minute, 2,108-word second inaugural address followed the old wedding advice to offer “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” The “something old” was Mr. Obama’s habit of serving up straw men before triumphantly demolishing them. “No single person,” he harrumphed, “can train all the math and science teachers” or “build all the roads and networks and research labs” America needs. I’ll pay for a year’s subscription to this newspaper for anyone who can identify a single person who has suggested such a thing. While we’re at it, who exactly is proposing we “choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future”? The “something new” was Mr. Obama’s unapologetic liberalism. Since he started running for president six years ago, Mr. Obama had pretended (against all evidence) that he was a centrist. But with his final election behind him, the president is free to reveal his true self—a man fully of the left. The president’s address made clear that his principal domestic concerns are no longer petty ones of the economy (45 words in three sentences) or deficit reduction (19 words in one sentence, followed by 155 words in six sentences saying entitlements won’t be cut). Instead, Mr. Obama’s priorities for his second term are climate change (nine sentences and 160 words) and “our generation’s task” (10 sentences and 358 words) of equal pay for women, access to gay marriage, the repeal of laws requiring photo identification to vote, immigration reform and gun control. The “something borrowed” was Mr. Obama’s poaching from Abraham Lincoln’s 1858 “House Divided” speech
(“no nation . . . could survive half-slave and half-free”), his December 1862 message to Congress (“fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges”), and his Gettysburg Address (“a government, of, and by, and for the people”). But a speech that borrows so heavily from others ends up with no memorable lines of its own. The “something blue” was Mr. Obama’s astonishingly partisan edge, echoed by a chorus of his aides. He ungraciously slapped at his defeated Republican rival, Mitt Romney, saying Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security did not make America “a nation of takers” (playing off a phrase uttered by Mr. Romney during the campaign). Mr. Obama also suggested that Republicans were name-calling absolutists and clowns, not a loyal opposition to be treated with any respect. So his point wouldn’t be lost, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer telegraphed it in Sunday’s Washington Post, saying, “[W]e don’t have a political system or an opposition party worthy of the opportunity.” The media will clearly help Team Obama try to marginalize the Republican opposition. Take the jaw-dropping posting last Friday by CBS News Political Director John Dickerson on Slate.com, in which he counseled Mr. Obama to “declare war on the Republican Party” because he “can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP.” According to Mr. Dickerson, if the president “wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat” and “pulverize” and “his goal should be to delegitimize his opponents.” After a wave of conservative outrage, Mr. Dickerson tried to back-peddle on Tuesday, saying his piece was “analysis—not advice.” The proper response to this is a belly laugh. Media bias is hardly confined to Dan Rather’s former network. Mr. Dickerson
simply wrote what many of his colleagues believe. But even with them shaping the coverage of his second term, Mr. Obama is unlikely to fulfill his liberal wish-list. The president could not pass climate-change legislation in 2009 when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. What chance does he have now with a Republicancontrolled House? Same for gay marriage (the Supreme Court and the states, not the White House, are the centers of action here), an assaultweapons ban, or federal preemption of state voter-ID laws. Immigration reform might become law, but only if Mr. Obama forges bipartisan legislation. As to the president’s goal of retaking the House in 2014, that’s highly unlikely. In the last half-century, the party in the White House has lost an average of 10 congressional seats and almost half as many senators in the second term midterm election. Only President Bill Clinton presided over a pick-up in either chamber (five seats in the House, zero in the Senate in 1998), mainly due to GOP overreach on impeachment. Overreach of any kind is not likely with John Boehner as House speaker. Moreover, the 2014 midterm will be only the second election in House districts that were solidly drawn to the GOP’s advantage—and seven Democratic senators are up for re-election in states Mitt Romney carried. Mr. Obama’s inaugural address was below average, like his Gallup job-approval rating of 48% last Friday. But it served to demonstrate that the president isn’t focused on the issues Americans most care about—namely jobs, the economy and deficits. We’re about to find out what a Barack Obama not facing re-election is like. My guess is that many Americans won’t like what they see. A version of this article appeared January 24, 2013, in The Wall Street Journal.
Bye Bye Birdie at Stafford Centre group seating. Group rates for 10 or more in the General Seating Section are $7.00. The cast includes over 85 students and is sponsored by the City of Stafford, Stafford Choral Boosters Club, Stafford Municipal School District, local businesses, churches, Stafford parents, SYBA, and many Fort Bend County political leaders. The award-winning musical production is produced through special arrangements by Tams-Witmark, Inc., New York, NY.
“An English Tea Party” : Dad & Daughter Dance
Courtney Jackson, lft, Tevin Scott, Katrina Alf, Nikia Giddings in Bye Bye Birdie. The year is 1961 and Conrad Birdie is the biggest Rock and Roll star of the 60’s ever to be drafted into the Army! Song writer and Conrad’s agent, Albert Peterson, is convinced he can save his fledgling music company and marry his girlfriend if he can swing a deal to get Conrad on the Ed Sullivan Show kissing a high school girl goodbye as a “symbol” of him kissing all teenage girls across the USA. Sounds like a winner, except there’s Albert’s mother who will do anything to break him up with his girlfriend. Kim McAfee, the girl chosen to kiss Conrad farewell, and Hugo, her insecure nerdy boyfriend, live in Sweet Ap-
ple, Ohio where most of the action takes place. All is progressing as planned until a blow-up in front of millions of viewers on the Ed Sullivan Show. Directed by Stafford Choir Director, Ladricca Price, the show will be performed on Friday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m, and two performances on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. and at 8 p.m. All performances are at the Stafford Centre-Performing Arts Theatre, located at 10505 Cash Road, Stafford, TX 77477. For tickets, go online at www.staffordcentre.com or call the Stafford Centre at (281)208-6900 to set up your
It’s a special evening that Dads and Daughters have been looking forward to in Missouri City: The 17th Annual Dad & Daughter Dance. This year’s royal theme is: “An English Tea Party”! The elegant event will be held at the City Centre at Quail Valley on Saturday, Feb. 9 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.; 2880 La Quinta Dr. Buy tickets early at the Recreation & Tennis Center, 2701 Cypress Point Dr.; 281-403-8637. Ticket prices are $30 for each Dad and Daughter duo, and $25 for each additional daughter. The purchase includes dinner, exciting door prizes and a keepsake professional photograph—so Dads and daughters should wear their best “Tea Party” finery! Prizes will be awarded to girls with the most creative “Tea Party” hats and corsages will be available for purchase.