Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald 11/25/2007

The media these days are full of stories where this person or that says “I know my rights” or “I have the right of free speech. Just recently the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to those rights related to the right to “bear arms” that many of us here in Texas take very seriously.
I would guess that few of us actually read the Constitution and think about its meaning and then take the time to consider what it all means when filtered through Common Sense and not the perversions of political correctness, partisan political or legal arguments.
The body of the United States Constitution is relatively short and sets out the only powers granted by “We the people” to the government and specifies what methods must be followed to use them. The first assumption was that “We the people” had all the powers and rights and were allowing our representatives and employees of the government to do certain things for us. That would seem to mean that any amendment to the Constitution in some way should provide a new power that was not previously granted. More »

Published Brownsville Herald 11/11/2007 

Up until a week or so ago health care, for me, was pretty much only an issue to be discussed. In just a few days it became one of the most critical issues, as I found myself in Valley Regional Medical Center bloated like “Michelin Man” with hives and other evidences of a severe allergic reaction. Though that was bad enough the treatment was aggravated by a preexisting skin problem and diabetes.  To that point in my life, health care was the country doctor in the rural area where I grew up. Then forty years ago there was the corpsman in the Vietnam conflict and the Jacksonville Naval Hospital that put me back on my feet when I returned to the “States”. While in the Philippines six years ago, I was hospitalized for three weeks for an emergency surgery and serious infection at one of that nation’s foremost hospitals, The Makati Medical Center. More recently I was the guest of the Brownsville Surgical Center for three days for a non-life threatening procedure.  More »