Commentary Archives - Uvalde Hesperian

When the Punishment Causes More Harm Than the Crime

admin — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 17:16:17 +0000

Top image generated by Grok AI

Commentary piece submitted by Stormy Dawn Stewart

08-04-26

Stormy Dawn Stewart

There is a question our justice system should always ask before creating or increasing criminal penalties:

Does the punishment fit the crime?

For violent crimes, most people agree that protecting the public is a priority. Assault, robbery, sexual violence, and murder directly harm victims and often require incarceration to protect others.

But when the offense is nonviolent—particularly simple possession of marijuana—the answer becomes much less clear.

Sending someone to prison is not a neutral consequence. Prison is a violent punishment. Prison removes people from their families, jobs, and communities. It leads to lost income, lost housing, damaged mental health, and long-term barriers to employment. Parents miss birthdays and graduations. Children grow up without a parent at home. Entire families absorb the emotional and financial cost.

Prison is also a violent place to be. It is a very violent punishment.

Large criminal fines can have similar effects. A person who cannot afford thousands of dollars in fines and court costs may fall deeper into debt, lose transportation, struggle to keep housing, or face additional legal consequences simply because they are poor. Add in a new felony charge, limit a person’s ability to find gainful employment and the cycle is never ending.

These are serious government-imposed consequences. While they are legal punishments, they can profoundly disrupt a person’s life.

The purpose of criminal justice should be to protect the public, hold people accountable, and reduce future crime. When a nonviolent offense results in years of incarceration or crushing financial penalties, we should ask whether those outcomes actually make our communities safer?

Texas already classifies many offenses involving real harm to others as misdemeanors under certain circumstances. That raises an important policy question: if conduct that directly affects another person can sometimes be treated less severely than certain marijuana offenses, is the system applying punishment proportionately?

Reasonable people can disagree about marijuana policy. Some believe it should remain illegal. Others support legalization. But regardless of where someone stands on that debate, we should be able to agree on one principle:

Punishment should be proportional to the harm caused.

If the goal is public safety, then our laws should focus the harshest penalties on those who commit violence, exploit others, or threaten the safety of the community. Nonviolent offenses deserve accountability, but accountability does not always require imprisonment or life-altering financial penalties.

A justice system is measured not only by the laws it passes, but by whether those laws produce outcomes that are fair, effective, and consistent with the values of justice they are meant to serve.

Whether someone supports or opposes marijuana legalization, this is a conversation worth having—not because it excuses illegal conduct, but because every criminal penalty should be examined with the same question:

Does this punishment fit the crime, or does it create more harm than it prevents?

The post When the Punishment Causes More Harm Than the Crime appeared first on Uvalde Hesperian.

The Net gets wider as Texas Criminalizes Previously Legal categories of THC Cannabis Products

admin — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:28:09 +0000

Michael Robinson
Uvalde Hesperian
Photo credit: Uvalde Photo

by Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian

08/01/26

As of Friday, July 31st, 2026, the State of Texas effectively criminalized the selling and possession of several hemp-derived THC cannabis products.

According to a report nu Texas Public Radio, the new ban includes delta-8 and delta-10 THC variants, making these drugs illegal to possess. However, delta-9 THC, the most commonly sold THC product in Texas, will remain legal.

“The recent change stems from a Texas Supreme Court decision in May that allowed the Texas Department of State Health Services to reclassify all hemp-derived THC, except for low-dose delta-9 THC, as a schedule I drug, prohibiting its possession and sale in the state. The ruling ended a 2021 injunction that paused DSHS from enforcing the new classification, which effectively allowed stores to stock different kinds of THC for the past five years,” according to the news report by Texas Public Radio.

Uvalde has several smoke shops which recently sold these products legally. It is unclear the impact of the ban will have on these stores.

Commentary by Michael Robinson (with KIMI AI)

Delta-8 was not some underground drug lab operation. It was sold legally at gas stations, smoke shops, and convenience stores across Texas. Working-class people bought it because it was cheaper than pharmaceuticals, more accessible than medical marijuana, and legal. It was a marginal product for marginal people—people who cannot afford the doctor, the prescription, the therapist, the legal cannabis dispensary in another state. Now it is illegal. And the moment it becomes illegal, possession becomes the crime. Not selling it. Not manufacturing it. Not harming anyone with it. Just having it. In your pocket. In your car. In your home.

They will say this is about protecting children. About preventing impaired driving. About stopping the “unregulated” market.

But the machinery underneath is social control and economic extraction. Texas did not legalize cannabis and regulate it. Texas did not expand mental health care. Texas did not make healthcare affordable. Texas made a cheap, accessible product illegal knowing that the people who use it are the ones who cannot afford lawyers, cannot afford to miss work, cannot afford to fight.

The People Most Affected
• The warehouse worker with chronic pain who cannot afford a doctor
• The veteran with PTSD who uses it to sleep
• The single mother with anxiety who bought gummies at the gas station because they were $15 and therapy is $150
• The young man in Uvalde who has a vape pen in his car when he gets pulled over for a broken taillight
• The person already living in the margin, already outside the system, already one emergency away from catastrophe

These are not drug kingpins. These are the people the extraction economy feeds on. And now there is one more thing they can be arrested for. One more record. One more fee. One more barrier to ever climbing out.

The post The Net gets wider as Texas Criminalizes Previously Legal categories of THC Cannabis Products appeared first on Uvalde Hesperian.

Those Who Rewrite History are Doomed to Regret It

admin — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 21:47:18 +0000

by Jennifer Fry | Uvalde Hesperian

07/02/26

Top Image Credit: Public Broadcasting Service

Jennifer Fry

The costume and setting is meant to invoke in viewers’ minds a sense of authority on the historical time period presented, in this case the Revolutionary War.

I recently came across a PBS Origins short-form documentary that fills me with a deep sense of ire, especially on the eve of our nation’s birthday. The presentation, posted to YouTube nine months ago from PBS’ “Rouge History” series, is called “The Founding Father They Don’t Teach You About.” The description of the episode identifies its purpose: it is “part of PBS’ America@250 collection, celebrating the country’s 250^th anniversary.” What was presented is a story of the founding of a different country entirely.

When I read the headline (which is itself a snob-appeal fallacy), I was intrigued. I am student of history and pride myself on my knowledge of the events that shaped the country in which I live. I had, in fact, clicked off in my head the events of that history as recounted on a recent podcast I had listened to. Is there part of this history I didn’t know? Perhaps I should know it.

The fallacy worked. If you click on me, the video seemed to say—as it was indeed designed to do—I will impart to you the knowledge necessary to look smarter than all of your friends. The serpent in the Garden could not have said it better, or been more misleading.

I clicked on the video expecting to find new information to enlighten my understanding of the events surrounding July 4, 1776. “Founding Father” in this context meant everything I understood it to mean: One of the 56 delegates to the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence on that day, or, conversely, the framers of the Constitution and, thus, our government. By using the phrase “founding father” in its title and coupling the video with the 250^th anniversary of the United States, this is indeed the association that PBS meant to invoke in its viewers’ minds.

Instead of a rousing retelling of the antics of Josiah Bartlett or Button Gwinnett—signers of the Declaration who get little, if any, mention in the history books—the host, Joel Cook, regales his audience with the story of a black man named Thomas Peters, an escaped South Carolina slave who fought on the British side of the Revolution, attempted settlement in Nova Scotia (a British colony), and later led a band of Black Loyalists to settle Sierra Leone with a British charter.

Cook calls Peters an “Egba prince” (a Nigerian people), the details of whose early “life in his homeland aren’t well known.” Cook presents him as the noble underdog who endures unimaginable hardship at the hands of the white man with unmatched strength (to say nothing of the Africans who first enslave him!). Without any reference to the United States—but, again, with that association firmly established in viewers’ minds—Cook proclaims of Peters that “his courage would soon make him the father of a nation.”

I listened to the entire story expecting the narrative to somehow turn back to the U.S. and Philadelphia; that turning point never came. Cook gets the timing right. According to him, Peters is born in Africa in 1738 and sails with his charter to Sierra Leone in 1792. But Cook’s assessment of Peters’ importance in American history is dead wrong.

Before today, I had not heard of Thomas Peters, and perhaps that is to my shame. I am not as well-read as I should be. Biographies are fascinating, and this one is quite intriguing. I certainly have not endured the trials which Peters was asked to endure. He did, indeed, play a significant role in the founding of a nation. But it is no wonder that I had not heard of him in my studies of the founding of the United States—because he did not found the United States! He may have been a founding father, but not of my country.

At the close of his video, Cook says the quiet part out loud: “For people like Thomas Peters, the American Revolution wasn’t the independence movement we celebrate today. While his enslavers preached a fight from liberty at their tables” (a phrase that appears in the original video, emphasis mine), “their hypocrisy forced him to pick up arms against the revolution. Thomas’ story reminds us that while the American Revolution is called a fight for freedom, that included the freedom to own human beings. For Black Americans who remained in the U.S., their revolution would continue for years to come.”

The message is clear: The United States is not a nation worth celebrating, the truth of its founding irrelevant to the plight of black people today. The reason this story is not taught in American history class is because of racism.

Talk about a bait-and-switch!

Liberals tend to think that white people don’t want to hear about stand-out black men and their histories. That could not be further from the truth. Men of integrity and grit of any color deserve to be celebrated, praised, and studied for their heroics. Thomas Peters certainly lived through more than I ever will, and his grit is to be commended. I will gladly retell his story in its proper context. But I will never claim that he is a “forgotten founding father” of my nation—because that is a lie.

I find myself surprised at presentations like Cook’s, but I shouldn’t be. Not only are we moderns facing an onslaught of “AI slop” these days—made-up facts and skewed perspectives generated by machines touted to replace God Himself—we are also facing increasing deception from the human-kind. But this is an old war. In Scripture, Jesus calls Satan “the father of lies” and those who perpetuate falsehood, Satan’s children. This is a stark warning against bearing false witness against one’s neighbor, even if the falsity is an elevation of status and the neighbor has been dead more than 200 years.

Not only does Cook lie about Thomas Peter’s legacy in his closing remarks, in order to do so he plays a game of comparison that podcaster Jack Henneman names “presentism.” Henneman, who calls himself a “humble history podcaster” instead of a bona fide historian, is the creator of the successful Spotify podcast “The History of the Americans,” which specializes in early American history prior to its founding in 1776. Henneman was recently on the conservative podcast “Dad Saves America” (DSA) to talk about the history of the United States being “weaponized” against her people. “Presentism” is one such tool by which this is accomplished.

Presentism is an anachronistic placement of an object, a person, or idea into a certain time in history which would not have existed at the time. Suggesting that Columbus sailed the ocean blue because he couldn’t afford jet fuel is an absurd example. But there are more subtle plays, which sometimes show up as a presenter’s own biases coming out in the narrative he tells. Recognizing this behavior by historians and those who write about history is what Henneman calls one’s “BS detector.” Depending on how developed the skill is, “you start to see people who write frivolously as having an axe to grind.”

Case in point: Joel Cook.

As Cook sets the stage for Peters’ heroics later in the narrative, he says at the beginning, “Now, as you might imagine, a prince didn’t take too kindly to being sold halfway around the world to harvest sugarcane. His first escape attempt resulted in a severe whipping, which probably isn’t the best way to convince someone they should stay.”

In this case, presentism appears as, first, Cook’s, or PBS,’ own views on slavery: not “tak[ing] too kindly to” it. Of course, no one wants to be forced into anything against his will; it should go without saying. This, though, is a modern judgment call. Historical fact should be presented without comment. Additionally—laying aside whether Peters was indeed a “prince” and whether he attempted escape prior to 1776, the facts of which are in doubt—the phrase “to harvest sugarcane” is out of place.

Cook is speaking of Peters’ early life, which he records as Peters being sold into slavery at 22 and sent to work in French Louisiana sugarcane fields. The year might have been 1760, if Peters was indeed born in 1738 as is claimed (a likely scenario). The historical record is in doubt about this development. Of the five accounts of Peters’ life which I have consulted, including Cook’s, three of them mention the French Louisiana narrative, although only Cook’s adds the detail about sugarcane fields.

This detail is speculative at best. It is unclear whether there would have been any sugarcane fields in Louisiana for slaves to work at the time Peters was sent there, provided his being sent there in the first place is historically accurate. The Louisiana State University Ag Center asserts that sugarcane was introduced to Louisiana agriculture in the early 1700’s but was not a widespread cash crop until 1795, well after Peters would have been in the area, if he was there at all. The Jesuits were the first to be successful with this crop in the 1750s; it is unclear whether they owned African slaves to accomplish the task.

Sugarcane, a tropical plant, is difficult to cultivate in Louisiana because of its subtropical location. According to the Ag Center, Louisiana is “the northernmost latitude” in which the crop is grown and has a much shorter growing season due to climate. The crop is still harvested in Louisiana today. Hundreds of years of cultivation have produced a hardier sugarcane plant able to withstand Louisiana’s less-than-ideal growing conditions. This would not have been so in the 1760’s.

Inserting a dubious detail like working the sugarcane fields in Louisiana long before there were such cultivation is not solid historian’s craft. It is simply an embellishment of the story to make the hero look better. Indeed, as John Papola, from Dad Saves America, points out, sugarcane fields were the “coal mines” of their time—brutal work. Having one’s hero first work sugarcane and later turn millwright (a detail confirmed by the historical record) makes him seem larger-than-life and all the more worthy of praise.

Softening or adding to the details of a historical narrative actually changes the story entirely into an interpretation instead of a representation of the truth, which holds implications for studying and writing about history for this and all future generations. I could go on about Cook’s misuse of the historical record, but I digress. Peters’ story needs no embellishment to be worthy of praise.

It is far more academically honest and accurate to state when the details of an historical account are not clear. Modern scholarship is full of embellishment when certain details are missing or in doubt; people tend to fall on one side of the debate or the other. But historian’s craft is not the place for taking up sides, but rather discovering the truth.

Though conversational in its tone, and, thus, more palatable to the masses, Cook’s scholarship is sloppy at best. But therein lies the danger: One cannot be so conversational as to betray the truth of history to the whims of the people.

The post Those Who Rewrite History are Doomed to Regret It appeared first on Uvalde Hesperian.

No Country (or Holiday) for Old Fathers

admin — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 19:38:50 +0000

06-20-26

Editorial by Michael Robinson

Top Image: Lewis Robinson

Mentioning Mother’s Day is fast approaching is like someone saying, “jump” and many will answer, “How high?” Mention Father’s Day in the same vein, and you will get some snickers or sneers. In one’s early childhood, mothers take the role of nurturer. Fathers, on the other hand, are often seen as stoic or as “the heavy” in the household, enforcing rules and making sure the chores and homework gets done. Sadly, many fathers aren’t around the home at all because of a divorce or abandonment or an early passing.

As an early teen, I struggled in school and at report card time was a time I dreaded. Dad expected A’s and B’s. I brought home C’s and a few D’s, Dad kept saying I had the ability to do much better. Back in the 70’s and early 80’s, learning disabilities like ADHD and Dyslexia were not considered. A kid falling short academically was chalked up to “Lazy Student Syndrome.”

If there is a parent in the home with a severe mental illness that also adds a detrimental factor to a student’s success.

Overbearing fathers who are too stern with their teenage sons can result in deep resentment.

If I see a young adult in real life or in the movies that seems maladjusted, I sometimes think, “overbearing dad.”

Movie Poster of The Great Santini Image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Santini

Strict dads that go too far are sadly commonplace in movies and real life. Movies like The Dead Poet’s Society, The Great Santini, and Ragamuffin are three movies that have messed-up dads in them.

A highlight of the week for me was riding with dad on a Friday night to pick up two large Pizzas from Pizza Inn or Ken’s Pizza. We’d get there and he’d pull out his wallet and pull out a “working man’s $20 bill” to cover the damages.

In my early teen years, my dad got so frustrated with me he told me I’d end up in prison because I wasn’t earning good grades in school: That really hurt me.I wasn’t a trouble maker. I just struggled in school.

At 59, and thankfully never ended up in prison, yet those words left a deep scar in me.

My father grew up in a dysfunctional and troubling household. My dad bore deep psychological scars from his dad. My dad was imperfect and scarred to

Despite this, my dad, like other dads, worked hard and sacrificed to make sure we had a roof over our heads, clothing on our backs and food on the table. On many evenings, he put on a baseball glove and played catch with me in the front yard before dinner.

My father suffered with terrible migraine headaches so debilitating there were countless days he stayed in bed in a dark room. Because he worked in my Grandfather Burl (my grandfather on my mother’s side of the family) business, he was able to keep his job.

My dad spent time with me, but it sadly wasn’t always enough. Oftentimes, he was so damned tired from working even the few moments he could offer were a sacrifice.

Later when dad was in his 40’s when my grandfather’s business faltered, my dad looked for work. Despite possessing a brilliance for mathematics, engineering and structural design, my dad got looked over for jobs because of age discrimination and the fact he didn’t have a degree. Things eventually worked out but that was a hard reality that dad faced. My dad was a working-class guy with no affluent family or country club connections to bail him out.

In a way, my Dad stood as a buffer between us and the hardness of the world.

Thankfully, in my adult years, my dad and I found common ground. We had thoughtful conversations about life, Star Trek TNG, politics and many other topics either in person, over the phone or via email.

At the end of our conversations, we felt like all the world’s problems were addressed only to see that by the next weekend, the problems remained.

In my dad’s late 60’s and early 70’s my dad got sick with colon cancer and pulmonary fibrosis. Over many months, my dad grew progressively weaker. It was hard to bear, My dad passed away in December 2014.

I love my Dad and miss him dearly.

My dad left a scrap piece of paper with my name on it and things he wanted to do with me: Go to the old glass plant in my hometown of Fort Smith and go rock hounding were on the list. Sadly we didn’t get to do them in his living years.

While Fathers Dad rings hollow for many, I don’t think any one day could truly honor good fathers. Dads are the glue that holds everything together and glue sadly doesn’t receive the recognition it deserves.

If your dad is still alive, take the time now to mend fences or make the effort to forgive dad for the mistakes he made as a father. He likely has or had it much harder than you realize.

The post No Country (or Holiday) for Old Fathers appeared first on Uvalde Hesperian.

Father’s Day Tribute-Guest Column

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:09:27 +0000

June 8, 2026

Guest Column by Jennifer Fry

Dad. For some, the word may strike fear in the heart. For me, it strikes the funny bone.

Jim Lowery sits with his second grandchild, Dawn Fry, in 2021, wearing one of his many Trout Fishing in America T-shirts.
Photo Credit Jennifer Fry

While my brothers and I were growing up, Dad’s favorite band was Trout Fishing in America. If you Google the name, a mix comes up of angling advice and lyrics to nursery rhymes, re-imagined for the kid at heart. Their song “The Window,” for example, features Little Miss Muppet and the spider who sat down beside her and “threw her out the window!” And don’t forget Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater, who who “put [his wife] in a pumpkin shell and threw her out the window!” You get the idea.

I can remember the day Uncle Bill—near-spitting image of my dad, and even today, hard to tell apart from him at first glance—first introduced Trout Fishing to my family. The year was 1991; my twin brother and I were seven years old. The five of us were over at Uncle Bill and Aunt Liz’s house to let the kids play together, when all of a sudden Uncle Bill blurted out, “You gotta hear this new band, Jim!”

Soon, cassette-tape lyrics like “It’s mine! I won’t share it!” whined into the room. From then on, my dad was hooked. He owns all the CD’s and more signed T-shirts than he can wear in a day. He’s been to eight concerts, the last of which filled the room with all 81 eager listeners. In their 60’s now, Mom and Dad might have been the youngest ones there, including the band members.

Formed in 1979, the two-member, Texas-based band is composed of acoustic-guitarist Ezra Idlet and upright-bassist Keith Grimwood. Idlet stands tall at 6 feet 8 inches, while his band partner Grimwood only reaches 5 feet 5 on a good day—a difference of about 15 inches that only adds to the comedic element of their performance. The pair depend heavily on word-of-mouth for their success. As of 2020, they had released 25 albums and were nominated for four Grammy awards.

In the band members’ own words, it is “impossible to tell you what sort of music Trout plays.” Their website lists inspiration from “rock and roll, blues, folk, country, bluegrass, funk, Latin, and reggea” to flavor their music. In a word, it’s weird, which is all the more fitting for my dad. Their music caters to children as well as adults.

Jim Lowery with his three children, now all adults, c. 1986. The author is the red-headed girl in his arms.
Photo Credit Jennifer Fry

Through the years, Trout Fishing’s lyrics have come in handy for me. As a parent now, they seem all the more apropos. If my child rubs his face with grimy fingers, my impulse is to belt out, “Don’t get it in your eye-o!”—a nod to a song they once wrote about pico de gallo. Or, if two of my children are fighting over a toy, I might sing defiantly, “It’s mine!” and stomp my foot like a five-year-old. Indeed, the apple falls not far from the tree.

I complained one day that my husband didn’t appreciate “Mine!” as a song. My dad replied, “Your husband has never been a child. And I have never grown up!”

Truer words have never been said. I should have expected as much from my dad, knowing how my parents met.

In 1979, Jim had a roommate named Howard whose girlfriend Rita (affectionately called “Rita-babe” by my dad) had a best friend named Marie. In the days when landlines put limits on telephone communication, Howard would call Rita from the shared apartment phone, sometimes while Jim was awake; Jim worked night shifts. Ever the jokester, Jim wanted to make Rita-babe laugh, so he’d steal the receiver from Howard. Unknown to Jim, sometimes Marie was over at Rita’s house and was privy to her end of the conversation. Upon hearing Rita laugh, Marie wanted to laugh, too—so she stole the receiver from Rita.

What started out as Howard talking with Rita became Marie talking with Jim. She married him two years later because he made her laugh. Sadly, the very thing that drew her to him was a source of conflict throughout their marriage. The conflict didn’t stop us kids from having fun with Dad, though. Mom, we thought, was just a stick-in-the-mud. As a wife myself now, I’ve come to see Mom in a more sympathetic light.

I remember sharing jokes with Dad that I had gleaned from the Reader’s Digest “Laughter, the Best Medicine” section. Usually, he’d have read them already. When the punchline didn’t come out right (it almost never did), he would say with an emphasis on each word, “Timing is everything.”

I did the same with the Peanuts comic strip from Dad’s collection of six volumes. He would, of course, have already read those, too—many times over. The set was the only thing he remembers ever asking from his dad. It was a special set. The jokes and comic strips, and later movie lines, became a sort of culture between us. It was an echolalic habit—“movie-speak,” for those unfamiliar—that somehow encompassed life’s great variety.

We have all heard the adage, “God must have a sense of humor.” If he does, I want it to be like my dad’s—off-beat, but not off-color; unexpected, but not out-of-character; child-like, but not childish. And in the end, right as rain.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad. May I never grow up to be just like you.

The post Father’s Day Tribute-Guest Column appeared first on Uvalde Hesperian.

Laundry Love to Economic Redlining: Two different responses to poverty

admin — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 04:46:49 +0000

Commentary by Michael Robinson -Uvalde Hesperian

Top Image generated by Grok AI

06-05-26

Several years ago, I helped organize a Laundry Love outreach event hosted by a local church with the cooperation of a locally owned laundromat.

Laundry Love is an outreach movement I learned about in the early 2000’s. The concept is simple and pretty straight forward. A group of individuals, charitable organizations or churches would get permission from a local laundromat to set up for several hours at a local laundromat and offer to pay for customers’ laundry. Back in the day, the whole effort would run several hundred dollars.

“Volunteers would set up a sign-up table and casually ask customers if they’d be willing to have us pay for their clothes washing and drying for free. The organization would estimate a budget of how many quarters an individual or family might need and then “feed” quarters into the machines.

Our church even brought laundry detergent too and dryer sheets.

Most people, upon realizing there were no strings attached would be delighted they would be the recipient of a delightful and unexpected surprise.

Typically, after a fistful of quarters were dropped into the machines and the washing started, the interaction was over but not always.

One man in his mid-20s said he was thankful for something good and unexpected to happen to him. He told his story about him and his wife moving to Uvalde after a big job loss. He and his wife were sleeping in a tent in his parents’ backyard. There was literally nowhere else they could stay.

Economic hardship is no stranger to many who live in and around Uvalde.

According to a Wikipedia article, in the U.S. Supreme Court Decision, City of Grants Pass vs. Johnson, it held, “that local government ordinances with civil and criminal penalties for camping on public land do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment of homeless people.[1]”

“In America, we are now having to debate a very basic question: Do human beings have the fundamental right to exist in public spaces?

Some elected officials governing towns with a high percentage of poor residents say “no.”

Even in a community full of working-class families, some believe if you cannot afford traditional housing, you have no right to sleep in your vehicle or rest on public property — even if you have nowhere else to go.

One lifestyle that grew in the early 2000s until recent years was van life or RV living. People from young adults in their 20s to the financially strapped retirees that found traditional housing unaffordable, chose to live in a vehicle out of necessity. The 2020 Academy Award winning movie: Nomadland showed the gritty realities of living in a camper or van.

Another emergent solution was the tiny-home movement. Tiny homes are like traditional homes but much smaller. Many municipalities existing zoning laws do not allow for tiny homes. Zoning laws in many American cities and towns are stuck on the 1950’s -1960’s “Leave it to Beaver” traditional single-family dwellings with a minimum total square footage requirement. These homes, sadly, have become way too expensive for more potential homebuyers than in decades past due to private equity firms buying up residential properties for investment yields.

According to a New York Times Opinion Piece titled, The ‘New Redlining Is Deciding Who Lives in Your Neighborhood, says, “Economically discriminatory zoning policies — which say that you are not welcome in a community unless you can afford a single-family home, sometimes on a large plot of land — are not part of a distant, disgraceful past. In most cities, zoning laws prohibit the construction of relatively affordable homes — duplexes, triplexes, quads and larger multifamily units — on three-quarters of residential land.”

With legal options for shelter quickly vanishing, many have chosen to live in rented storage building units. While most if not all storage rental businesses strictly banning it happens anyway and throughout the nation, it’s an all-too-common cat and mouse game between those living in storage units and the facility owners trying to catch them.

Many affluent residents have the mindset that “we can’t have that here” referring to the annoyance of seeing lines of vans and RV’s parked overnight on public parking spaces along municipal roads.

City governments can limit the amount of time a vehicle can park on a city street but making it suspicious and even illegal just to close one’s eyes while parked in a Kafka-Esque reality that should sober most people up.

Tone deafness to poverty is sadly not only common but local. During the midst of the 2022 Texas Winter Storm that left many Texans without power, one local publication framed its story as an opportunity to throw another log on the fire in the fireplace. I’m not making this up.

The choice remains: Are elected officials at all levels willing to address the hard economic realities facing poorer Americans, or will they just outlaw poverty?

The post Laundry Love to Economic Redlining: Two different responses to poverty appeared first on Uvalde Hesperian.

Hospitality varies depending on the venue

admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 22:45:27 +0000

04-19-26

Commentary by Michael Robinson

If you’ve ever been to events such as small concerts, recitals, classes, presentations held at a church of civic venue, then you may be accustomed to seeing amenities offered to guests like bottles of water, tea, soda, coffee, cookies or punch offered after the event at a reception or at the beginning of the event as a welcome gesture.

Over the years, I’ve attended many events at a variety of venues from small churches to large conferences held in big cities like San Antonio or Dallas. The accommodations offered for attendees varies. What I have found as you may have also, is smaller venues tend to offer the best welcome accommodations opposed to larger, elegant churches or venues located in big cities. Similarly, budget to middle priced motels/hotel chains offer more free amenities and niceties than four-and-5-star hotels. Those elegant large churches to luxury level hotels tend to not have any complementary amenities.

Within about a seven-day period, I accompanied my wife to a Sunday afternoon recital of portions of Handel’s Messiah at a large prominent church in San Antonio. We purchased tickets to attend so it wasn’t free. While the singers and orchestra were performing, I started feeling sleepy and quietly exited the sanctuary to see if there was any coffee offered. When I looked around and then asked, “Hey, do you have any coffee?” The answer was “no”. There were no water bottles either although if one walked down a long hallway, one could find a water fountain.

This isn’t the only church or event in San Antonio where no accommodations were offered to attendees.

At another large denominational church in San Antonio, the staff was actually confrontational to me when I asked if they had any coffee or water where a concert was about to be held. What was even worse was my wife was preforming in the musical group.

Both of these large churches probably operate on a 3+ million-dollar yearly budget.

Contrast that to Uvalde’s El Progreso Memorial Library’s Music on Main concerts. The library always offers a generous table with a punch bowl, a variety of cookies and bottles of water after the event.

Crossroads Community Church located by the Honey Bowl in Uvalde is holding a Grief Share, a grief recovery support group each Tuesday night at 7 PM. (Newcomer’s welcome)

My wife and I attended last Tuesday night. Although this is a small Nazarene church and the support group is attended by about a dozen people, the church offered coffee, bottles of water and some cookies.

I have noticed that even at other events in Uvalde held by other organizations most if not all offer something to guests. Although Uvalde is a small town, the welcome mat is generally large.

I was told that the reason nicer venues and four-five-star hotels don’t offer any welcome pleasantries is because just attending such prestigious venues and being “seen” is enough.

Nice destination hotels do offer full breakfasts at a price and many offer valet parking and concierge services most if not all of these services are for a price and a handsome tip is expected.

While I’m not attending these events for the free amenities, these small offerings do make the overall experience a more pleasant and warm experience.

Motel 6 isn’t close to being in the same league as a five-star hotel, but I can always count them to leave the light on for me.

Which hotel has the best free breakfast? TPG ate 10 meals to find the winner

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New Amazon distribution center will likely bring more AI and robots than jobs to Uvalde

admin — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 17:34:58 +0000

Commentary by Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian
Image by Alex Schuler from Pixabay
02-26-26

Near the end of Tuesday night’s City of Uvalde City Council meeting, Mayor Hector R. Luevano announced that the City has been communicating with Amazon officials on the sale of 12.62 acres of land located in the industrial park near Garner Field for the online retail giant to build a new distribution center.
The news was announced after city officials reconvened into open session from its executive session. As city councilmen proceeded to return to their seats, officials were seen and heard laughing. Perhaps because the news that was about to break was good news.
That said, it may not be the city or the citizens of Uvalde that get the last laugh.
According to a New York Times article, Amazon has said internally, they’ll automate seventy-five percent of ops by twenty twenty-seven, cutting hundreds of thousands of warehouse gigs company-wide.
In a New York Times article published October 25th, 2025, it reads,
“Now, interviews and a cache of internal strategy documents viewed by The New York Times reveal that Amazon executives believe the company is on the cusp of its next big workplace shift: replacing more than half a million jobs with robots.
Amazon’s U.S. work force has more than tripled since 2018 to almost 1.2 million. But Amazon’s automation team expects the company can avoid hiring more than 160,000 people in the United States it would otherwise need by 2027.”
Uvalde might get a boost—entry-level work, maybe seasonal spikes—but it’s not “thousands of jobs” like some big fulfillment centers. More like a pit stop that runs lean.
And dig deeper: warehouses mean truck traffic, diesel fumes, noise. The jobs are often part-time, high turnover, no benefits until you’re full-time. Not glamorous.
How much water will this new Amazon warehouse use? While this facility is not being called a data center, the AI, robots and digital components used at this center will likely be substantial and may draw heavily on Uvalde’s water supply.
What about the environmental impact? Remember the “clean”: solar energy farm located east of Uvalde that burned untold acres of brush emitting plumes of smoke into the air for the people of Uvalde to breathe?
The Uvalde Hesperian has reached out to Amazon’s public relations department via email with several detailed questions about automation and estimated jobs it will likely bring as well as other questions, and did get a general response, but nothing specific. (See previous article for that statement)
Amazon’s tight-lipped, so that’s your first red flag: expect maybe fifty to a hundred roles at best for a small delivery station—loading trucks, sorting, maybe some tech maintenance. But here’s the twist.
These locations are basically last-mile hubs: packages get dropped off, scanned, loaded onto vans. And Amazon’s already rolling out heavy automation—robots like these guys hauling bins, arms picking boxes, AI routing everything so fewer humans touch it.
Similar to a new neighbor moving next door, how will the situation be overall? I don’t think anyone knows at this point.

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Gen-X commentary on the Uvalde Area Chamber Banquet theme: “A Night at the Disco”

admin — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 02:16:28 +0000

02-11-26

Top Image by omar sahel from Pixabay

Michael Robinson
Uvalde Hesperian
Photo credit: Uvalde Photo

Commentary by Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian

On Friday, February 13th, the Uvalde Area Chamber of Commerce will be hosting its 106 Annual Uvalde Area Chamber of Commerce Dinner and Awards Banquet at the Uvalde County Fairplex. Event Center.

In an emailed invitation to Uvalde Hesperian, (a Uvalde Chamber of Commerce member) the message read, “This special evening is our opportunity to come together as a business community to celebrate achievements, recognize outstanding leaders, and reflect on another successful year in Uvalde.” And each year, the Chamber selects a theme for the gala. This year’s theme was announced as “A Night at the Disco”

When I read that, I said, “Wait, What?”

As an early member of Generation-X being born in the mid 1960’s, my childhood and early teen years were spent in the 1970’s and I remember Disco with its bell-bottom slacks, polyester leisure suits with wide collars and ladies platform shoes. Tons of people wanted to learn “The Hustle.” Saturday Night Fever was big back in 1977 with John Travolta strutting to the Bee Gee’s hit, “Staying Alive” and dancing under a spotlight hitting a mirror ball hanging above the center of the dance floor.

My working parents struggled along with everyone else with high gasoline prices. I remember my mom proverbially clutching her imaginary pearls when gasoline jumped to $59.9. In the late 70’s, gasoline shortages causing long lines at the pump and stagflation paired two economic killjoy buddies together: inflation and unemployment.

In 1979 a Revolution in Iran resulted in the capture of Americans who were held hostage for 444 days. The 70’s as a decade were gritty and dirty. It makes sense that Stayin’ Alive was a hit. Most were trying to do that! The 1970’s bright spots included amazing Major League Baseball with teams like the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankee, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team that rallied around a sister Sledge hit, “We are Family” and made it their World Series anthem.

The Swedish pop group Abba was amazing! So Was Olivia Newtown-John. Roller rinks were a blast when I wasn’t falling down.

A Disco “groan” hit in the 1970’s was “YMCA” by the Village People.
Then something amazing happened! Enough people came to their senses and realized, “Hey, Disco sucks.”

On July 12th, 1979, Major League Baseball held a Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park in Chicago which ended in a riot. According to Wikipedia it reads, “At the climax of the event, a crate filled with disco records was blown up on the field between games of the two-night doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. “

Then Bob Seger released his hit single in 1979, “Ole-Time Rock and Roll” with some choice lyrics against Disco.

As a Gen-X’er, Disco wasn’t my music. The Big 80’s were my era where MTV and some seriously good music played. Now in my late 50’s, I have a few grey hairs, and many consider me old.

If I had to guess, the theme, A Night at the Disco was probably picked to appeal to the last of the Baby Boomer hold outs. I don’t know.

What I can say is I’m giving a hard pass to this year’s Uvalde Area Chamber of Commerce Banquet. I do hope those that go have a great time and it turns out to be a success. But as for the Uvalde Hesperian, it will be designated as a “Disco Free Zone.”

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Commentary regarding the Windmill Water Supply Corporation

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 18:52:18 +0000

Commentary submitted by Diana Olvedo-Karau

01-29-26

Diana Olvedo-Karau

Over time, I have learned that it is often best not to engage with sensational posts on social media, as they tend to generate unnecessary drama. However, there are occasions when providing context is necessary.

For the past several years, I have assisted residents of Uvalde Estates with various issues, and I appreciate the trust they have placed in me. Most recently, I have supported efforts by some residents to remove Jim Shoemaker from the Windmill Water Supply Corporation board of directors. As a result, I am now facing legal action.

Uvalde Estates is one of 17 colonias in Uvalde County—unincorporated communities that are predominantly Hispanic and frequently lack essential infrastructure such as sewage, paved roads, and reliable water. Many residents have lived on the same property for generations, consistently paying for water services, yet some are now being told they are not members of the Windmill Water Supply Corporation.

Despite limited support from local officials, who often claim no jurisdiction over many Uvalde Estates matters, the community has continued to persevere. Elected representatives seek votes but rarely offer meaningful assistance. Lack of jurisdiction should not prevent elected leaders from supporting communities in need.

I, however, remain committed to advocating for the residents of Uvalde Estates and ensuring their concerns are heard and addressed. Equitable treatment, reasonable tariffs, and essential services for Uvalde Estates matter, and I will continue to support the residents of this community, as long as they continue to ask for my help.

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