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The great number mystery has been solved.
As you might recall, I noted in a column here about a month ago about
whether or not this past West of the Pecos Rodeo was the 113th or 114th.
Several years ago the number conflict got started.
After conferring with Peggy Walker, long active member of the rodeo
committee in a number of capacities and a wealth of information, the
reason for that conflict came to light.
She noted that the very first one should have been called the first
annual. Apparently over the years, that first one wasn't counted and
treated like you would a person's age, the day of birth is zero instead
of one.
However, with an event, it should be one instead of zero, thus this
past rodeo was the 114th.
This might not seem very important, but it is, as it solidifies our
claim as the world's oldest rodeo. The people in Prescott, Arizona are
trying to lay claim to having the longest running rodeo. Apparently
theirs got started not long after our first one, so they are running
really close to us. Thus, our claim of having a rodeo for 114 years
becomes very important for longevity.
Since we've got the world's oldest rodeo and home of the world's first
rodeo, we have to be very careful and ward off claim jumpers, just like
in the old west.
And there are plenty of pretenders to the throne. As you'll recall, the
upstart Mesquite Rodeo tried to claim they were rodeo headquarters of
Texas and even got the state legislature to pass a resolution to that
effect.
Well, we got the legislature to correct that little situation by
passing another resolution that we were the home of the world's first
rodeo and home of the world's oldest rodeo.
There's lot of people out there making false claims, and you've got to
watch em.
And of course there are people trying to say their cantaloupes are
sweeter than ours. Just making the comparison is a compliment, at least
in my mind. And some will say they have sweeter onions than ours.
Baloney!
Every place in this world has something that belongs to them and them
alone. The rodeo, cantaloupe and onion titles belong to Pecos. Other
people need to find their own niche in history.
Pass the word.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Mac McKinnon is editor and publisher of the Pecos
Enterprise. His column appears on Wednesday and Friday.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Healing a drug addict in your family
By JOHN S. DUFF & CLARK CARR
Today in America and around the world, drug use is rampant. Very few
families are left untouched. The drug addict population consists of our
sons and daughters, and all too often our mothers, fathers, aunts,
uncles, cousins and even grandparents. This problem faces us all, yet
there is hope for those that have become addicted.
The smart parent today knows their children will have tobacco, alcohol,
and marijuana (the gateway drugs) made available to them at very early
ages. Some children will experiment with these drugs as early as eight
years old and the majority will have at least tried them before
graduating high school. The number of 8th graders using any illicit
drugs has doubled since 1991 from findings of the Monitoring the Future
Study by the Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan.
Also found was that 30 percent of our 12th graders had five or more
drinks of alcohol in a row during the two weeks preceding this survey.
Once drug addiction has surfaced in the family, parents are often
distraught and on an emotional roller coaster ride. All too often drug
use has been going on for sometime either undetected or constantly
denied. And it is this time in which the parent must be strong and
resilient to help his or her loved one. If the alcohol or other drug
problem has not already escalated to a crisis, the family must confront
gateway drug use head-on. What is needed is a full and honest family
discussion. As a parent you are going to have to take the bull by the
horns, so to speak. To start with you are going to have to be honest and
talk about your own use of either legal or illegal drugs and the
problems you have experienced with them. This includes coffee, tobacco,
alcohol, prescription drugs, and all illegal drugs, especially
mari~juana, as this is the illegal drugs, especially marijuana, as this
is the illegal drug of choice by our youth. Your children must feel and
understand you are not trying to apply some double standard to them in
which drug use is okay for you but not for them.
This family discussion should not be done so that you can make them
wrong for their use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs and defend your
own use of them. This will only make matters worse. The purpose is to
create an atmosphere of care, concern, and understanding with the goal
of raising the understanding of the immense amount of risk involved in
utilizing tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs.
To accomplish a true and full family discussion will take preparation
and notification to your loved ones that such a family discussion is
about to take place.
If you need help, you can call us at Narconon or call other experts in
your community. But remember you first must be honest about your own
experiences and addictions or your children will feel a double standard
is being applied.
Narconon International is a network of substance abuse prevention and
treatment centers located around the world. Our successful programs have
been saving the lives of those addicted to alcohol and drugs for the
past 30 years utilizing a very unique program developed by philosopher
L. Ron Hubbard. In addition, Narconon can be found in the classrooms of
schools delivering effective substance abuse prevention programs.
For more information on Narconon services or help call 1 (800) 4656933.
EDITOR'S NOTE: John Duff is co-author of The Truth About Drugs, The
Body, Mind and You and is President of Narconon International, a
worldwide network of residential treatment centers also involved in drug
prevention programs for schools. Clark Carr has directed Narconon
treatment centers for the last eight years and has counseled numerous
families through this crisis successfully.
OTHER VIEWS
Put stock in
`Invest in Kids'
A new nonprofit policy recommendation group called Fight Crime: Invest
in Kids deserves everyone's best wishes because it is going to lobby for
more programs to keep kids from becoming criminals.
It is not new idea that giving kids a better start and better direction
at an early age is preferable to watching them drift into crime and
violence. Indeed, a search through our files revealed that the
Star-Telegram was editorializing in favor of that idea in 1947.
We still think it is a good plan. A Fight Crime survey of police chiefs
showed that nine out of 10 agreed that helping children now would mean
paying less later in the cost of crime, welfare, etc. Former U.S.
Attorney General Elliot Richardson equates investing in childhood
development to taking the offensive against crime rather than just
reacting to crime.
We need cops. We need prisons. But we need early intervention to
prevent crime, too. If we'd done more of it in 1947, we'd have less
crime today.
- The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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arising from any of the foregoing.
_
Copyright 1996 by Pecos Enterprise
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
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http://www.pecos.net/news
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