Category Archives: Opinion & Commentary

The Coupland Times welcomes the opinions of its readers. However, no anonymous postings will be allowed. if you are afraid of what people think of your opinion, you should probably keep it to yourself. Be honest but mind your manners. Make your momma proud!

Does the Declaration of Independence Still Apply?

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If you have not read the Declaration of Independence lately . . . or ever . . . today would be a good day to do it. While you are reading it, ask yourself if the government abuses that concerned the leaders of the Thirteen Colonies sound familiar. Some say it is time for a new Declaration of Independence. Some say we need a new Constitutional Convention. Some say that their State should peacefully secede from these united States. Regardless of how you feel about these issues, there is no doubt that the federal government has grown far beyond the role envisioned by the early leaders of this nation. As Coupland’s new city government becomes established, it seems appropriate to remember the concerns of our forebears who merely wanted to be free to live their lives without excessive government intrusion and control.

By the way, here is a well-documented recounting of what really happened to the men who signed the Delclaration of Independence: The Price They Paid

Here is an image of the original Declaration of Independence, followed by a transcript from the National Archives:

Declaration of Independence Image

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2

North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3

Massachusetts:
John Hancock

Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5

New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple

Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Page URL:

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

U.S. National Archives & Records Administration

www.archives.gov

8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001, • 1-86-NARA-NARA •  1-866-272-6272

Remembering Don Summers

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DonSummersOn Saturday, June 15, a memorial service was held at St. Peter’s Church of Coupland, followed by a luncheon. When I learned that Don was in the hospital back in May, and that he was not expected to live, I was filled with a profound sense of regret that I hadn’t taken the time to get to know him better.

I met Don soon after I moved to Coupland and exchanged greetings with him several times after that. Earlier this year, I spent some time with Don and his wife, Sylvia, in connection with volunteer service to the Coupland Civic Organization. At that time, Don was at home recovering from a previous health issue but I enjoyed talking to him and was struck by how powerful was his presence when he looked me in the eye and shook my hand. He reminded me so much of my own father during the last year of his life, when he was frail in body but strong of spirit.

I visited another time to keep him company so Sylvia could attend a social gathering. We watched television and chatted about all sorts of things. He was often frustrated by his inability to find the right words when he was conversing. I told him that my father, who passed away almost 20 years ago, had suffered from a similar condition. I told Don how my mother had arranged to put my father in a nursing home and that he didn’t mind, at first, because he was getting “three square meals” a day. However, they had put a “wander” bracelet on him, which would set off an alarm if he went out any of the exterior doors. My father was an old Army man who had flown Dustoff medical evacuation helicopters, commanded a medical battalion in Vietnam, served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, and later was the Inspector General for all US military hospitals in Europe and the Middle East . He hated that bracelet. He could never think of the phrase “nursing home.” The only word that would come to his mind was “jail,” which, I am sure, was no accident of the mind.

This story prompted to Don to speak, with tears in his eyes, about how grateful he was to Sylvia for all her love and sacrifices and how lucky he was to have her in his life. I was so looking forward to becoming better acquainted with Don but then it was too late and I was kicking myself for missing an opportunity to share his life.

The memorial service gave me that chance. I listened as his sons spoke of how he raised them with discipline and love. I learned how he lost his first wife to a disease I had never heard of and how he became a leading figure in the effort to find a cure and to support people who were suffering from that disease. Local artist Jim Huntington spoke about how he had worked with Don on various community projects and how much he admired and respected him. I learned how in 1975, Don had sold everything, packed up the family in a motor home, left Colorado, and hit the road for 6 months, having the adventure of a lifetime, which turned out to be a major turning point in the life of his family. I learned how they settled down in Austin and Don started a business.

During the luncheon, I visited with a man and his wife who had business connections with Don. They sat at the same table I was at because they, too, wanted to see the repeating slide show on the screen in the corner of St. Peter’s Fellowship Hall. Old family portraits, pictures of scenery, a house in the woods, a turtle on a beach, a deer that had been field-dressed, newspaper articles showing his advocacy for small businesses, and tons of kids told the story of his life in images alone.

I’m not feeling quite so sorry for myself now because now I know that he was as remarkable a man as he seemed and that, even though I didn’t get to know him directly, I learned so much more by hearing how his actions affected the people around him. Again, I am reminded of my own father and how in a eulogy my oldest brother and I prepared for his funeral, we made reference to something the Wizard of Oz told the Tin Woodsman: “A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.”

Don Summers surely had a heart as big as Texas because the love he engendered in others could barely be contained in our little church on the hill.

Stewart Dale Spencer

The following obituary was published in the Austin-American Statesman on May 26:

Donald Fred Summers, Sr Donald Fred Summers, Sr. passed away on May 22, 2013 surrounded by his family. Friends and family will gather on June 15th for a memorial service at St. Peter’s Church in Coupland, Texas at 10:30 am to celebrate his new life. Don was born on April 7, 1932 to Fred and Nora Summers in Lemoore, California. After graduating from high school, he joined the United States Air Force. While stationed in Denver, Colorado at Lowry Air Force Base, Don met and married Gwendolyn Neill. They raised their four sons in and around the Denver area. Don’s career as a skilled technician afforded him many opportunities, including working for Neoweld, a manufacturer of specialized equipment used in power plant construction worldwide. After nearly 9 years of traveling nationally and internationally, Don and Gwen decided it was time for a change. In February of 1975, they embarked on an adventure of travel across the USA with their sons. The “family trip of 1975” exemplified Don’s commitment to his family and his passion for adventure. This event became a pivotal event for Don and his family, resulting in his and many of his family turning to faith in Jesus Christ. After 6 months of family travel, they settled in the Austin area. In 1978, Don made the leap from employee to employer when he opened his small family business, Austin Welder and Generator Service, Inc. As with all of his endeavors, Don poured himself into his business, continuing to set an example of strength, work ethic and service to others. Don soon became involved in promoting sound public policy for American family business through his active involvement in the National Federation of Independent Business, the NFIB. And as active members of Allandale/ Great Hills Baptist Church, Don and Gwen enjoyed singing in the choir and teaching Sunday School. In 1997, Don’s wife of 43 years passed away from a rare illness called Shy-Drager Syndrome. Don became very active in promoting the awareness of this disease and served as the President of the SDS/MSA Support Group for 10 years. In June of 1999 Don remarried a long time friend and neighbor Sylvia Hoffman and moving to Coupland, Texas, in 2000. Don retired from his business in 2002. Don became very active in the community and served as the first president of the Coupland ESD #10, President of the Coupland WSC, and attended the St. Peter’s Church of Coupland (UCC) where he continued his musical passion in leading the congregation in musical worship. Don’s faith in Jesus Christ was foundational in his life and he always sought to show the love of God to those around him. Don was predeceased in death by his wife, Gwen, their son David Neill Summers as well as his parents, one brother and five sisters. He is survived by his wife, Sylvia; three sons, Donald Fred Summers Jr. and wife Mary, Kurtiss Eugene Summers and wife Cathy, and Kenneth Wayne Summers and wife Annette; stepdaughters Cindee Chard and husband Mike, Jamie Mayfield and husband John; 13 grandchildren, 1 great grandchild, many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made in Don’s honor to SDS/MSA Support Group, http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/MSACoalition/multiple-system-atrophy-memorials or to St. Peter’s Church of Coupland, PO Box 146, Coupland, TX. 78615

Summer Has Arrived in Coupland – We Need a Weather Station!

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The forecast was for a high of 95 today. Our properly placed, digital thermometer recorded a high of 100 and it felt like it. The closest official weather stations are several miles away in Taylor or Elgin and I have noticed that it is often warmer in Coupland than the “official” temperature.

heatwave_web

I would like to hear from readers what their thermometers topped out at today. Perhaps, now that Coupland is an official city, we can arrange to have an automatic weather station installed in Coupland. Perhaps the Civic Organization, or some other civic-minded group or individual could spring for the modest cost to install a weather station.

Weather Underground (wunderground.com) has personal weather stations available. If you are a weather junkie like me, you drool at the prospect of having one of these devices nearby. “Look Ma, the relative humidity rose 15% in the last hour and the barometric pressure is dropping rapidly. I think we’re in for a storm!”

Of course, no machine replaces personal observations or your grandma’s aching joints but having access to measurable data is just plain cool. Well, I think so anyway. And since this is a farming and ranching community, I know I’m not the only weather freak in town. If we could find the best overall location for measurements, maybe a few of my fellow junkies could pitch in a little to get a weather station for Coupland. Whadaya say?

If you agree, let me hear about it by commenting on this article. Oh, and don’t forget to let us know how hot it got at your place!

By the way, we all know that summer in Central Texas begins as early as May and can run well into September. You can always count on June through August to have summer weather every day unless a storm system comes through and even then you won’t be breaking out your cool-weather jackets. Pay no attention to the media hype that summer begins on the summer solstice, usually around June 21 – 23. That just a bunch of pointy-headed silly science. Our air conditioner failed today. There was no spring in the air in our home! Thank the Lord for kiddie pools and watermelon!

Stewart Dale Spencer

Look What They Gave Me at the Bank!

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IMG_2685

Wow! Look what they gave me at the bank just for being so incredibly cute!

Kaliska Spencer makes a lollipop withdrawal from the Coupland branch of Citizens National Bank every Friday. Today, she was surprised with a special gift: a $10 gift card to Dairy Queen.

I think they have more so if you are a customer, you might want to stop in and get one!

You just can’t beat having a bank account in a place where they don’t need to see your ID to make a withdrawal.

Take your money out of the “Too Big To Fail” banks. They couldn’t care less about you. Do a little research on the LIBOR rate scandal or the so-called “robo-signing” of foreclosures if you have any doubts.

Stewart Dale Spencer

Who Cares What YOU Think?

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I care, that’s who! I’ll bet others will care as well. And even if they don’t care, I’m pretty sure they will at least respect your opinion. Of course, if they don’t respect your opinion, who needs ’em anyway, right?

Opinion and commentary on the Internet is a funny thing. It’s amazing how rude some people can be when they think that no one knows who they are. It’s kind of like driving on the highway. When you’re in a big city or a long ways from home you might be tempted to be a little less patient, a little less charitable, in your driving manners. But when you are in a small town or in your own neighborhood . . . assuming you care about what people think of you . . . you are less likely to drive aggressively or to lean on the horn or, heaven forbid, to make an obscene gesture toward the object of your frustration. After all, that person probably knows your mother.

It’s important that people feel free to speak their mind but having a sense of shame (the healthy kind, not the toxic variety) is an important element in the functioning of a community. So speak out and speak up and be prepared to defend your opinion but always remember that courtesy goes farther than rudeness.

Did I mention that rude comments and posts will be deleted or returned for revision? I don’t expect to have to do that very often, if at all. So far, the only rude person I have encountered in Coupland was a customer at the Stock Up who blamed the store clerk for his credit card being declined and said some very rude things on the way out. Let’s hope he was just having a bad day and lost his composure. I would hate to think he has to go through life carrying that kind of attitude around with him all day.

Stewart Dale Spencer