Category Archives: Articles

Dear Legislator: Congratulations on your recent election! The easy part is over! Between now and the end of May, you will set the state’s priorities for the next two years. You will consider thousands and pass hundreds of bills. The … Continue reading →

The U.S. House of Representatives seems to be thinking about censuring President Clinton. It has ample precedent for so doing. Just 166 years ago, the House of Representatives censured (reprimanded) another former Southern governor, soon to be a President. That … Continue reading →

Get out of my face! It’s finally happened. They are warning us against the expensive safety devices with which they have cluttered up our lives. The new cars have warnings on the sun visors that the air bags that the … Continue reading →

There is a familiar Irish revolutionary song titled, “It’s Off to Dublin in the Green, in the Green.” Until recently, any story about the Irish economy could be titled, “It’s Off to Dublin in the Red, in the Red.” Not … Continue reading →

Is not voting a civic sin or a rational decision? Is low voter turnout an indication of apathy–or satisfaction? There’s more than one view about those questions. Only about nine per cent of Texas voters came out last November 4, … Continue reading →

Texas has a new telescope, a 10-meter giant light bucket that this month started peering into the dark skies of west Texas. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope, officially dedicated and open for business at the University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory … Continue reading →

Foxhunting in Ireland is a jewel with many facets–humor, beauty, thrills.  And, as a fine jewel shimmers in the light, the recollections of an Irish foxhunting holiday shimmer in the memory. Nothing in the literature of foxhunting really prepares the … Continue reading →

We are looking into the future and the view is enlightening. One of the interesting enterprises we have under way at the University of Houston System is a Vision Commission. We have asked 19 national and local leaders in education, … Continue reading →

We’ve read a lot about job training programs that don’t work. This is about one that does. With manufacturing jobs migrating offshore at a rapid rate, structural unemployment has become one of the most difficult barriers to economic prosperity. For … Continue reading →

Barbara Jordan was the most revered public official I have ever known. She had a presence that permeated the classroom in which she taught the most popular course at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University … Continue reading →