“Celebration”

By Terrence Cain

Today was a beautiful day my ears. A guy named Eric, last name unknown; who’s major is computer science came into the lounge area where everyone breaks for lunch and studies. He sat down at the piano and began to play this thirty minute somber, dark, movie soundtrack-esque song on the piano. It was awe-inspiring to hear him. After he finished his song I found out that he, like me, cannot read music and was self-taught. Eric played beautifully and you could really feel what he was bringing out of his soul in his playing. I was in there today at lunch time studying for my U.S. Government test that I had at one. In case you don’t remember, or are reading this blog for the very first time, I am a HUGE music fan, so whenever I hear a talented person pouring their heart and soul out in an artistically expressed way, especially through a musical instrument, I find myself in another world. Eric is very talented for sure and I really appreciate his song keeping me focused on my studies for my test. If his computer science major doesn’t work out for him he should go and make music for movie soundtracks because he’s got the talent for it for sure.

 This week has been one long haul for me. I had tests in both criminology and U.S. Government, I had quite a bit of homework in horticulture, and algebra as usual gave my brain a pretty good kicking around. I’m doing well, I have an A average in the class right now, but math is just one of those subjects that just frustrates me to no end. Well I don’t want to harsh too much on what gets to me, so I will leave you on a good note. I passed my criminology test on Tuesday. I’m not going to say what I made exactly, but I did pass it with a pretty high score.

This weekend will be great too. I went down yesterday to The Fun Shop on Moss Creek Rd. here in Big Spring. It’s one of the last few relics of the old movie rental stores that still rents out VHS tapes. The owner, Jason, also sells snow cones, Halloween gifts, and rents DVDs. Go check it out if you got the time. He’s right off exit 184 on I-20. You’re probably thinking I’m some really old guy now. No, I’m just a nostalgic person. I grew up in the 80s and early 90s in the days of vinyl records and video tape rentals from the local movie rental store. Great times growing up back then. Much more simpler and peaceful time I think. I’m probably part of the last generation to do so too. I believe they’ve coined us the Cold War babies because I, and many others, were born near the end of the Cold War. Well I off to watch some great movies, do some algebra, and get some much needed rest before next week’s classes. If you get a chance this Friday go to the 65^th anniversary celebration of Howard College. I’m proud to be a part of Howard College, so if I get the chance I know I’ll be there. At the end of this blog are the schedule and the events that will take place for tomorrow’s celebration, have a great weekend! This is Howard College’s blogging machine, over and out!

Schedule Of Events

* 10:00 AM - Stan & Sue Partee Residential Complex Building Dedication, Stallings St.

* 10:45 AM - Charles O. Warren Center for Community Service Building Dedication, Thomas St.

* 1:00 PM - Old Main / P.W. Malone Plaza 1001 Birdwell Ln. - Celebration

Refreshments & Tours Will Follow

“Fall On Me”

By Terrence Cain

Today is the beginning of the Autumn Equinox, a pagan ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and God during the winter months. Now why am I telling you this? Because I’m in a Horticulture class and one of the main topics this week was about the Farmer’s Almanac. The Farmer’s Almanac is an almanac that predicts weather patterns, gives astrological predictions, and assists farmers by telling them what time is best to plant their crops. Since the fall season officially begins today I thought it would be kind of cool to tell you all about what the autumn season truly means. Hope you enjoyed that little fun fact there. That’s part of the reason for the title of this week’s blog. The other part is that the title is also my tribute to R.E.M. who broke up this week after thirty-one years together. ‘Fall On Me’ is one of my favorite songs by them so this week’s blog is dedicated to R.E.M.

Okay, this week has been pretty cool. In my Criminology class with Prof. Calvio we watched an episode of the History Channel’s Gangland about two black mobsters who were notorious for heinous crimes in Harlem, New York in the 1970s. The point was to see what triggered the actions of these individuals who became the notorious drug peddlers in Harlem. Both stories were tragic, but I didn’t feel sorry for them when they were sent to prison because they could have taken the tragedies they went through in their youths and made something positive of them as adults and they chose instead to use fear and greed in the most negative of ways.

In my Horticulture class we had a couple of tests and spent our lab time in the green house getting rid of dead plants, cleaning up the place, and repotting plants with new soil. Horticulture is a difficult class when it comes to the tests, but it’s also a fun class because I’m learning a lot more than I knew about plants in my early education.

In my U.S Government we talked a lot about amendments and the early stages of the U.S. and State Constitutions. I really dig Prof. Hamby’s class because he, like Prof. Tune, allows you to discuss things in his class and doesn’t try to make you feel intimidated or like you’ll be in trouble with the Dean of Students if you speak out on a subject in his class like some professors I had last semester did.

Not much to say about my Algebra class with Prof. Buske. Just did the usual work and that’s really it. Well that’s it for now. I’ve got a lot of studying to do this weekend because I have tests in Criminology and U.S. Government next week. A word of advice to all the students attending a Howard College, keep pressing on and don’t give up. College can be hard, but it is very rewarding in the end when you get that degree you worked so hard for. This is Howard College’s blogging machine, over and out!

“Now That The Dust Has Cleared”

By Terrence Cain

The last few weeks have been totally crazy for me. I wound up getting sick last Friday. It was gnarly for a few days. I wound up missing classes on Monday unfortunately, as well as Dominique Dawes’ appearance at the Dorothy Garrett Coliseum on Howard’s campus here in Big Spring. I’ve been a fan of hers since I first saw her in the Summer Olympics back in the nineties. I had even planned to make an attempt to interview her after the event, but because I’ve been sick I stayed home.

Well, even though I’m not 100% out of the clear, I was able to return to my classes on Tuesday. On Wednesday, however, my absence from one class showed because I did miserably in my algebra class this week due to being too ill to study, let alone attend my classes on Monday. I’m not going to blab about my grades, but I will say I didn’t pass my algebra test this week, so now I have homework to do to bring my grade up. That’s right; this semester’s algebra classes are different. First you work with tutorials, practicing and studying, then you take a pre-test. If you fail the pre-test you have to do homework to bring your grade up. Then there is the post-test that you have to pass as well. It’s all very complex but it seems to work out for us in the end.

Getting back to Tuesday, that day was quite awesome for me. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my horticulture and U.S. Government classes. On Tuesday my horticulture class with Prof. Berry was assigned groups to find a total of fifty different plant lives. We were split into groups of three or four and given strict instructions on what to look for and how to assemble the book we will be putting together towards the end of the semester. My part will be to find, photograph, and label twelve different trees. It’s not due for a few months, but I plan to get started today on the project while it’s cool outside. I’m learning a lot about plant life, some I already knew from science classes I had in elementary and junior high school, and some things that are new to me. Prof. Berry is a great professor and I highly recommend him if you are attending Howard here in Big Spring.

I’m also enjoying my U.S. Government classes with Prof. Hamby. A man that truly believes in compromise, and like a lot of us, feels that the government has made that word out to be something derogatory in the English language. I’ve been learning a lot in his class and I’m very happy that I chose him this semester. Another professor at Howard I recommend if you’re attending the one here in Big Spring.

On Wednesday, besides my algebra class with Prof. Buske, I had criminology with Prof. Calvio. I had him my first semester with his sociology class, so I figured another semester with him would benefit me, not only as a person but as a writer as well. The class is coming along nicely and the class has started off with some of the same basic sociological perspectives as his other class, but in the coming weeks we’ll be getting more into the actual minds of criminals so stay tuned for that. Well, that’s all I have to share for now. Don’t forget to support the college sports teams as well as the theatrical and musical activities coming up. This is Howard College’s blogging machine, over and out!

I'd like to apologize for taking so long to post this. There was a lot to go over for this article, then I got sick. I'm okay now, it was just a little head cold. This article is politic based, so I apologize in advance for any offense I may cause anyone. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this special edition of the Howard College Blog.

 Sincerely,

Terrence

The Day A Congressman Came To Class

By Terrence Cain

On Thursday, September 1^st, 2011, a congressman came to class. Congressmen Randy Neugebauer, a fifth term Representative for the 19^th congressional district of Texas, came to Howard College of Big Spring, Texas to talk with the students in Professor Richard Hamby’s U.S. Government class about what’s going on in Washington D.C. and how things there have come to affect us, the citizens. Also in the room was the Mayor of Big Spring, Tommy Duncan, and the President of Howard College, Dr. Cheryl Sparks. In the middle of the meeting the congressman gave an award to Dr. Sparks for the 65^th Anniversary of Howard College’s first day of class.

The room seemed rather cold, and I don’t mean the thermostat was down too low. To me it felt like a lot of people were a bit intimidated having a high powered congressman, the mayor of Big Spring, the president of Howard College, and a local law enforcement official all in the same room they were in. In other words, very few questions were asked by the students in the class room. Most of the questions were asked by Prof. Hamby through questions students from his other classes wanted to know, as well as students from a second classroom across the hall and students from other locations via cameras and monitors.

So what did the congressman have to say to us? Surprisingly a lot, but was it all the same talking points that we hear day in and day out from the Grand Old Party, or was it truly from his own thoughts and concerns for his fellow citizens? Well I believe it was a bit of both.

In the beginning the congressman gave the typical Republican/Tea Party spiel that you and I alike have been hearing from them since 2009 which, by the way, I won’t bore you to death with. The congressman did have some good ideas, but he also had some ideas I think are quite despicable in our most dyer time of need from the government. When asked about his thoughts about spending cuts towards education, this is what the congressman had to say.

“You have to start prioritizing how you spend money. And what a lot of people’s voices equate when you cut something is that you make it worse. There are ways, I believe, that you can trim government down and still deliver the same level of service but do it in a more cost effective way, but we’re going to have to prioritize how we spend the tax payer’s money. What we have to do is that we have to get away from a nation where people all believe that they’re entitled to certain things. The principles of this country were founded on empowerment, not entitlement.”

I, however, have to disagree and disprove the congressman’s statement about our forefathers believing solely in empowerments, not entitlements. In the U.S. Government textbook for Prof. Hamby’s class there is a section in chapter one that states; “In 1776, Americans believed most fundamentally that the purpose of government was to secure rights to which all were entitled by their nature as human beings.”

Now that is not something new. I’m 28 and I’ve been hearing that line in text books and documentaries about our nation since the early 90s when George H.W. Bush was our president, and I’m talking about documentaries from as early as the 1950s. So yes, we as human beings are entitled to certain things to which the government is to secure for us.

So, to me this whole notion that entitlements are bad or unconstitutional is ridiculous. I believe that you are entitled to a good education, to food every day, to a roof over your head, to healthcare benefits, and most importantly I believe you’re entitled to have money available to you for your retirement when you’ve been saving it away in a Social Security or 401k account.

Now do all current entitlements need to be fixed? You bet! Social Security can easily be fixed. This is one thing I think President George W. Bush had the right idea for, but wasn’t able to do. Privatize Social Security by taking the money that you put into the system every pay check and transfer your payments to a private bank of your choosing that will add an annual interest of say three percent to your Social Security account of the total you put in that year. Now along with the three percent from the bank you’d also have another five percent from the federal and two percent from the state. All that incurred interest on top of your original five percent cut from your annual earnings, or however much you can afford to put into the account, would help you build up a very nice nest egg.

If you just put in five percent of your yearly earnings with all other interest incurred, on a $15,080 annual income (based on a steady $7.25 average minimum wage at a full forty hour work week) after about forty-five years of employment you would have approximately $101,790 saved. Now that’s a decent retirement to live on! This would stop the government from borrowing your tax dollars, and would be out of the hands of the stock market as well. Of course the savings would be more with raises to your pay and any promotions you might get. I would also keep it locked up with a special password until I was not able to access until I was ready to retire or if some emergency came along. That way I am not tempted to borrow from it and waste the money I worked so hard for me to retire on.

Now you do, however, have to fix the tax code and flatten all tax rates at around five to eight percent to make it fair and just for you to retire on at the lowest wage earnings. That’s something the congressman is for as well, a flat or fair tax. As the congressmen continued; he went on to say this about Pell Grants.

 “Now with the Pell Grants I recently voted against the government takeover of that program. What we actually did with Pell Grants is we didn’t cut the total amount of funding for Pell Grants, but we did reduce the amount of Pell Grants so that we can spread those grants over a larger number of students, but we’ll have to see in the future how we’re going to do that.”

They didn’t really cut much from the Pell Grants, and made it solvent through 2013, but I will have to disagree with the congressman about the government’s takeover of Pell Grants. That’s actually been a good thing because when I tried to go to college in 2001 I was told that my parents made too much money for me to go to school on a Pell Grant. I find that dumb because my father was laid off that year after working at a welding supply company for some twenty-three years. I even tried to go back to college in 2004 and I was told the same thing, and what was dumb about that is that my father was already retired and my mother wasn’t working then either.  In 2010 I applied for college, two years after moving here to Big Spring, and now I’m in school because of Pell Grants after President Obama took the Pell Grants and fixed them to make them more available to people. It just seems to me Pell Grants are far better off in the government’s hands than the private sector.

Overall it was great to have Congressman Randy Neugebauer take the time to talk to us. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a high level politician before coming to a college classroom to talk to the students in an unprepared and unscripted Q&A meeting. There were a few things he said that I agree with, but overall I found his ideas to be a bit repressive. The fact that he said that we should tell the government we don’t want Social Security is just preposterous to me. Social Security was created after the stock market crashed in 1929 to help the people start to save money again. I will agree that we do need a smaller federal government, but we do need a more efficient one as well. We do need a flat tax, but at a rate below ten percent. We do need to repeal Obama’s healthcare plan, but keep the parts that stop insurance companies from kicking you off because you have a “pre-existing condition”, the biggest oxymoron I’ve ever heard. We do need to fix all the problems in Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, but we don’t need to abolish these “entitlements” as some people like Governor Perry and Congressman Paul have said we should do. I do believe there is a happy medium in making the government smaller while making it more efficient in the things they do run for us. Unfortunately it would take me the length of a novel to tell you about it all. Well that’s it for this week’s blog post. This is Howard College’s blogging machine, over and out!