Opinion

GAIL WATERFIELD’S LETTER (at right) appeared on my desk this week unanticipated. It is a contemplation of home and of aging—and how our definitions of both inevitably change.

THE PANDEMIC FELT so far away out here. My husband and I live eight miles south of Glen Rose—the nearest town of any size—barely over the Somervell-Bosque county line. Our house sits a mile and a half off Texas Highway 144, past two ranch gates and cattle guards, and at the end of a winding, up-and-down gravel road that leads to a ridgetop. There are no other houses in sight, just a wide western view of layered blue mesas.

MOST OF THE VOTE counting is over. Most of the noise, with any luck at all, is behind us—although, the Electoral College voting happens in two weeks. Cross your fingers, if you haven’t stuck them in your ears.

AT THE FREEDOM FORUM, we’ve thought about creating t-shirts that read: “Free speech: Complicating Thanksgiving Dinner since 1791.” But this pandemic-era Thanksgiving, as families and friends assemble around a Zoom screen or an actual dining room table to celebrate, all of the freedoms of the First Amendment should be high on the list as we count our blessings.

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC has laid much of the American economy on its back—but a bright spot made the disaster less crippling than it might have been. That is the Paycheck Protection Program, which funneled money to workers through small businesses.

THE LAST 10 DAYS of election fracas have recalled to mind a prayer, from the evening of Nov. 4, 1992, less than 24 hours after William Jefferson Clinton defeated George H.

IN A POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT like Washington, D.C., the kinds of legal perils encircling Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton might be grounds for firing, impeachment, or congressional investigation. Paxton, indicted more than five years ago on securities fraud charges, has not yet had his day in court.

FOR OVER 11 DECADES, savvy Hemphill Countians have set their holiday clocks for 11:30 am on the first Friday in December—the date of the Annual WCTU Bazaar. Some of us schedule playoff football games around the event.

FOR ANYONE WORN-OUT from the election and disillusioned by the state of our politics (and that probably covers most of us), we now have the perfect antidote–Veterans Day. It is a day to honor those who have served, who had a purpose bigger than themselves, who protected what is most important, and whose service helped make our country stronger and better. Veterans Day is intended to honor them, but this year the rest of us may need it even more than they do.

THIS IS THE 200 HALL at Hemphill County Hospital. The entryway is draped in plastic, marked with signs warning visitors not to enter. The hall—which has been converted to serve as the hospital’s COVID Unit—is restricted now to medical personnel and the acute care patients who are hospitalized there.