Remembering My Birth On Memorial Day

Memorial Day. Family get togethers, celebrating school end and the beginning of summer, pools, picnics, wafting smells off the grill, American Flags lining the streets of towns across the USA...these are a few signs that Memorial Day is in full progress.

Our family never lost a soldier on foreign soil. They all returned safely to their families. Grandpa died last year, he served as a medic in WWII. My Uncle died years ago, he had been in the Navy. My great granddaddy died when I was very young, he served in WWI, although a German he served on the Allied side. These are just a few from my family tree.

Daddy was drafted right after he married mommy. And right after he married mommy, they were pregnant with me. They left the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and moved to El Paso, Texas out to Fort Bliss. Mommy was very sick with me. Her blood is AB negative, mine is A positive...there's something deadly about that combination. Remember, I am old...we're talking about the early seventies before all these wonderful advances in medicine.

There's a handy dandy shot today of course that fixes this problem, but before now...negative blood mommies with positive blood babies was a huge dilemma. The Fort Blissian Doctors informed mommy and daddy that their child would be born with no hands, no feet and possibly be born with mental retardation. They encouraged mommy and daddy to abort and never give birth to this child.

Did I ever mention how stubborn I am? I fought that decision tooth and nail. I kicked and screamed, gave my mommy the worse morning sickness I possibly could. I jumped at the sound of my daddy's voice as he sang GI Blues to me. I sucked my thumb and nestled in. I planted my feet sternly against my mommie's back. I dug in and planned to stay.

I was born, despite what the Fort Blissian doctors suggested. And as mommy and daddy held me my very first day, they looked into the deepest bluest eyes of a most perfectly formed little girl and gave her a most fitting name. Joely Ann. Formed from my daddy, Joe, and my mommy Paula Ann.

Senator Sharpleigh Shooting from the Hip

Senator Sharpleigh echoes what a lot of us have been saying about the TCEQ: The agency is nothing more than a lackadaisical lapdog for BIG OIL & GAS polluters. What makes me certain that Senator Sharpleigh feels this way? El Paso's state senate representative went to court to demand that the TCEQ release documents relating to El Paso's copper smelting industry. Sharpleigh says that when these documents are released it will probably lead to a criminal investigation.

Glenn Shankle, TCEQ's former head man, reopened ASARCO's smelting plant located in El Paso, despite an unanimous decision from the presiding administration to keep the plant closed.

That's when the federal Environmental Protection Agency had to step in and prevent the reopening. Guess what Shankle is doing now. Yeah, he's a lobbyist for Waste Control Specialists, who are planning to build a LARGE RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP in West Texas.

You know what Asarco has in common with Express Energy? Asarco filed bankruptcy and Asarco has been accused of having "secret, illegal meetings" with the TCEQ. Hmm...do ya think ya smell something stanky in the smeltering business?

These "secret, illegal meetings" had to do with an application in regards to an air permit. Air permits being given on the sly? That sure does sound

familiar...can anyone say DISH? Curiouser and Curiouser.

By the way, who is DISH's state senate representative? And why isn't this
representative calling for an investigation? Why isn't this representative in DISH right now helping Mayor Tillman? This is a travesty!!! Hey, Senator Jane Nelson, do you think you should get BIG OIL & GAS to clean up their act and stop polluting the air and water with carcinogens?

And just like in every town across our great country, who's left with cleaning up after corrupt unchecked irresponsible BIG INDUSTRY? That's right...El Paso now has the auspicious pleasure of cleaning up the old smelter site...$500 MILLION.

All of Asarco and Shankle's cronies should be forced to wear orange jumpsuits and personally clean up El Paso, one dollar at a time.