Carol Parsons MY TWO CENTS

Time and tides wait for no man and Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for coming in and going out.

These past four years at the Colorado City Record have been an adventure. I’ve met interesting people, covered exciting events and expanded my learning from the ins and outs of city and county government to the science of using beetles to combat salt cedar infestation.

Each and every one of you in Colorado City has played an important role in my life and I am blessed by your friendship.

Raising children overseas had its perks, as well as its downside.

Although we didn’t have access to on- demand television, we did have family that sent videotapes of the kids’ favorite cartoons, which meant when a new tape arrived the whole family sat down together.

Celebrating birthdays became another family together time since it was hard to throw a party and invite the neighborhood children who had substantially less but felt obligated to bring the best gifts.

Like many of my generation the great wars that formed this nation are places and dates in a history book.

I have been privileged to live in a country that enjoys a peace and freedom purchased with the blood of those I do not know.

However, while typing the list of names of Mitchell County veterans who were killed in service to their county, I was struck by the richness of our heritage.

We hear a great deal about the right to vote in America. And in a land where at one time or another certain groups did not have that ability, I can understand the passion for the focus.

However, having been privileged to live outside the US in countries where the “right” to vote is mandated by the government, I’d rather focus on the “freedom” to vote.
There is a distinct difference.

The right to vote is often hard fought, with words and violence, and then enforced through much of the same.

It all started with a simple class assignment in college in the late 70s. Find a need, develop a product, then create an advertising campaign to fill the niche market.

Back then dorms had neither refrigerators nor microwaves. Sodas were expensive or only available in the cafeteria.

College students are a notoriously thirsty bunch, so I proposed our group create – Koolaid juice boxes. Compact, with straws and a long shelf life. Good bye ants and goodbye spoiled Koolaid.

And in 1980 drink boxes hit the US market. Who knew?

There is an incredible Youtube video which pinpoints the real problem in the American educational system.

While Texans are busy worrying about No Child Left Behind and TAKS, other cultures are busy working on creative ways to incorporate technology and science. In other words, they make their students think.

The video? Four plus minutes of footage of a water fountain in a train station in Osaka, Japan. What makes this impressive is the falling water makes patters from flowers, to musical notes, to the current time and the station’s name.

The more I study our nation’s history, the more impressed I am with the fortitude and endurance of our pioneer ancestors.

From sautéed tumbleweeds to mesquite bean jelly, they not only made the best of a harsh environment, but seemed to have fun doing it.

We have a tendency to take our current situation for granted. Life is so much easier today we have trouble visualizing a time when water did not come out of a tap, ground beef wasn’t served up saran-wrapped on a Styrofoam tray and personal comfort on a summer afternoon wasn’t controlled by the touch of a button.

There always seems to be an upside to any situation or circumstance, although some aren’t readily visible.

While the hot, dry summer cancelled summer concerts by crickets and cicadas (and other creepy crawlies), dragonflies are the silent masters of the sky.

I love dragonflies, but I’ve always associated them with ponds or stock tanks.

Sitting on my porch, drinking tea in the early morning or late afternoon, my husband and I have enjoyed their aerobatics all season long.

Sometimes they glide on fixed gossamer wings, a gentle ballet on the warm air.

We still live in the United States of America.

Unfortunately, some folks seem to have forgotten that in America:
*a person is innocent until proven guilty
*police cannot simply break into your home or arrest you without proof
*being convicted by one’s peers must take place in a court of law to have any affect
*just because someone doesn’t follow the norm doesn’t make them guilty
*citizens don’t need police permission to move from one place to another

One of the things I enjoyed most about watching the 1980s show MacGyver were the ingenious methods he used to solve supposedly unsolvable problems.

Sometimes it was a paper clip to disarm a missile or using matches, string and a rifle as a timed diversion.

His creativity ranged from sliding down a sand dune on a laminated map to escape the bad guys to turning a casket into a jet ski (pre-planned, of course).

My favorite was using a chocolate bar to stop a sulfuric acid leak.