Published: January 05, 2009 07:50 am      

1/4/2008 Letters to the editor

Thanks for support of Goodfellows



On behalf of the King’s Daughters and Sons of Johnson County I would like to thank all who were involved in helping us with Goodfellows Christmas this year.

We’ve been affiliated with Goodfellows since 1921 and were able to help a record number of more than 700 children in 2008.

Through monetary donations we buy clothes, and with toy donations we then pack Christmas boxes for families.

Families must live within the Cleburne ISD boundaries and come in for an interview, where we obtain the children’s sizes and ages, etc. The families are given a date to come pick up their boxes for their children and receive well wishes for a Merry Christmas.

We are running a list of this year’s donors and want to thank them from the bottom of our hearts.

We also want to especially thank the Cleburne Times-Review for allowing us to advertise and share this charitable event with the community.

First Baptist Church deserves great recognition for allowing us to use its facilities to conduct our interviews, pack our boxes and be the hub for families to pick up their boxes.

We are grateful to Wal-Mart and Goody’s, who both graciously allow us to do our clothes shopping for the children and assist us with any orders we need in the process.

The Book Case in our local mall partnered with us and asked for book donations from their customers, and we received two huge boxes. We want to thank the store and customers for their contributions.

The Plaza Theatre also asked for toy donations from their customers as they came to enjoy the plays this fall.

Local dentists donated toothbrushes and toothpaste for the families as well.

Cleburne schools and Camp Fire girls all helped with a toy drive in December.

Rosser Funeral Home came through with goody baskets for teenagers. The list just goes on and on. What a generous and loving community we live in.

Founded Jan. 13, 1886, the International Order of The King’s Daughters and Sons is an international and interdenominational organization of Christian men and women dedicated to service in Christ’s name. Not only do we help families at Christmastime, but we donate to many local and international charities throughout the year. We kindly accept your donations and welcome anyone interested in joining the order or wanting to find out more about us.

Please contact us at P.O. Box 1411, Cleburne, TX 76033 or at www.iokds.org.



Lisa Waits

City Union president of

Johnson County

King’s Daughters and Sons



Clabberheads are among us



Did you ever imagine that we would be countrymen with this large number of clabberheaded celebrities who claim to have all of the right answers?

Every day I am discouraged with the saps that frequent the TV, newspaper and radio political scene — those celebrity orators and professional commentators who seem to become overnight, biased experts on each political and social event.

Some are downright rude and arrogant and will not allow any dissenting commenter’s view to linger.

There are both conservatively and liberally oriented people in this group, along with the screwball Hollywood crowd who remind us how to live our lives.

Free speech also allows other rabid groups to seek control of the podium on controversial issues, leaving a fertile field for intelligent and unbiased middle of the road political speakers and writers, who are now such rarities.

However, according to Jack Proctor, controversy is necessary to stimulate the interest of listeners and readers.

Angry roars went up when Obama named Christian evangelical pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his upcoming inauguration. What ‘audacity’ for the president elect to select his own invocator!

Warren claims to love all types of people but doesn’t fondly embrace those who prefer same sex intimacy or wedlock partnerships within the same gender.

The loudest fuss is coming from surprised pro-Obama groups, particularly in the messed up state of California where there are well organized variant and antireligious groups pouncing on others’ differing opinions and acts.

Surprisingly, to me, Californians recently voted down legal same-sex marriage. I can’t forget the arrogant and deregulated mayor of San Francisco who urged illegals to defy federal laws and who also claimed “his” city to be a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants.

Is the behavior of Californians a result of all of the earthquakes, mudslides and forest fires affecting their minds, and do they believe that Hollywood and pro wrestling are real?

Considering Obama’s candidacy platform embracing pro-confused philosophies, I am also surprised at the selection, but who knows if Obama is honestly reaching out to the general population, or is this just a political move?

I wish for it to be a genuine gesture of goodwill to all segments of our society as I’m trying to be optimistic about our new president. After considering other potentially unthinkable selections, I say let’s go with Warren.

Congress is overloaded with clabberheads, as proven by their daily actions.

They had been warned of the fragility of the home finance and mortgage businesses, yet they sat on their hands and allowed this terrible economic fix to become reality.

Clabberheads like Ted Kennedy, Barney Franks, Reid, Pelosi and some Republican stalwarts were in positions to correct this mess before it got out of hand and now will only say that, ”we tried but the other side voted down our bills to correct it.” Maybe, but those bills were weak and carried too much pork to consider.

Alan Greenspan, the financial wizard, admits to being a very wrong clabberhead. With all of the economic downturn that was permitted, our arrogant congressmen just voted themselves a raise! Their self anointing is beyond belief.

Celebrity Hanoi Jane Fonda is certainly to be remembered for her treasonous activity in Vietnam, which caused severe suffering for American POWs held there, and now she has been nominated as one of the 100 top women of the century!

Movieman Michael Moore, maybe the No. 1 clabberhead of this decade was named as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world in 2005 by Time magazine. Has his influence been good, productive or morally beneficial?

Just when we need fewer and less dangerous leaders, as well as nonpolitical entertainers and preachers, what happened to Alvin, Dopey, Kermit, Bugs, The Fonz and Mickey Mouse?

Our political and government scene would seem a comedy if it were not so serious.



Monte Swatzell

Cleburne