Gary Hall
09-23-07, 11:24 AM
People, please bear momentarily, with an obsolete old white male, but the other day as I was panhandling on the streets and business mall parking lots of Tyler, TX, attempting to gather support for the cast of characters running for President (maybe hopefully in return for the promise of a little patronage), I overheard some of the following: Perhaps I was hallucinating, this couldn't be happening in the USA. " ,,, whatever happened to Moon Unit ... did she marry Match Box 20 ... was she a (one of the) Valley Girl(s) ... ". I'm not sure but this may have occurred in one of Tyler's 3 institutions of higher learning: TEXAS COLLEGE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TX AT TYLER OR TYLER JUNIOR COLLEGE. The last time I was in the TJC Student Union there was a uniformed campus policeman present, carrying a .45 ACP and I'm thankful he was there and armed and present on the front lines. This civilian version of a Marine slop Shute was filled with students, none studying, the majority had the politically incorrect ( I don't care) appearance of being unfriendly male Middle Easterners, all attempting to outstare the gringos. This was during 86-87-88, my time there (age 55-58) trying to get retrained as the oil field work had fallen apart and I was out of work, once again. TJC I would say is a public institution of higher learning, possibly ranking on a level with Columbia and others, maybe some in Colorado, Calif, and perhaps in the NE USA area. In 1988 TJC had a student enrollment of some 8000 students and graduated about 400, I was among them. When I asked around about this inefficiency of taxpayer money, the consensus was " ... well, we provide the opportunity here, if anyone is interested ...". You suppose any of the intelligent ones and the candidates approve of this circumstance, if in fact I have correctly stated the facts? Janet Reno and Arlen Specter would certainly be interested " in the facts ". As I see them Texas public schools have gone from being highly regarded (deservedly once upon a time) in my lifetime to presently being almost totally unworthy and lost. I was a fortunate benefactor of the GI Bill, in that the government (Taxpayer) money went to me and I chose the school of my choice. This option (of Vouchers to the student) is the only way to provide worthy education to the students, by correcting and stopping the inefficiency (the kindest word I can present) of public schools. Gary Hall, Tyler, TX (4 time graduate of Public Colleges & Universities, but I would not recommend them any more.