8/19/2019 Inbdy July 13 2006

1/8

DUSTERS

vs

BATTLE WINGS

Best

servedraw

call 806.322.7277

online at

www.DustersFootball.com

Saturday July 22

7:05 pm

tickets while they last 

8/19/2019 Inbdy July 13 2006

2/8

Yanking loose histie as his driver

 pulled up at theRiver BreaksRanch, Demo-

cratic gubernatorial candidateChris Bell – running late tomeet with supporters Saturdayevening – was preparing for hismost important engagement of

the day.Earlier, Bell had met with

reporters, laying out his casethat Gov. Rick Perry had failedto provide leadership on theschool nance issue.

Bell also outlined what hewould do to improve educa-tion, and he made stops aroundtown to help turn up votes inan area that regularly votes Re-

 publican.Bell, a news reporter for

KVII-TV 20 years ago, still possesses boyish looks, al-though the hair has turned gray,and a booming broadcaster’s

voice. As he strode into thehall at attorney Bill Cornett’sranch northwest of Amarillo,more than 100 backers werethere listening to Mike Fullersing and pick songs on a gui-tar, and more supporters ar-rived as Bell ran through aspeech that focused on why hewas there: “We have to learn towin again.”

The last time a Democratwon was 1990, when Ann Rich-ards defeated West Texas mil-lionaire Clayton Williams butRichards went down to defeat

against the well-honed cam- paign of George W. Bush.

As Bell spoke, shades ofthat condence started to re-emerge over two points.

The rst was when Bellexplained that with fourother candidates on the bal-lot, he will corral more of thesmaller base of Democraticvoters than Perry will claimof his larger Republican base

 because Perry is contending

with State Comptroller Car-ole Keeton Strayhorn, whohad the highest vote total ofany Texas candidate in the2002 election.

Writer-musician-iconoclastKinky Fried-man is runningas an indepen-dent, stirringup interest instate politics,and LibertarianJames Wernerrounds out the

 ballot.The second

was when Bell revealed thatfor the campaign nance-re-

 porting period ending June30, his campaign would report$1.2 million in contributions,adding that they would equalPerry’s contributions for the

 period coinciding with thespecial session and would beahead of Strayhorn’s.

The Amarillo fundraiser had brought in about $10,000 bythe time the crowd was warm-ing up to an auction.

Longtime Democratic Party backer Warren Clark, one of

the event sponsors, said Pan-handle supporters would prob-ably have to pony up between$50,000 and $100,000 to helpBell get his message out.

What im- pressed Clarkabout Bellwas how hefought backand led therst ethicsc o m p l a i n tagainst formerHouse Major-ity Leader

Tom DeLay after DeLay’s ef-forts to force a mid-decadereapportionment had cost Bellhis seat in Congress represent-ing part of Houston.

“Bell was vindicated by theindictments in Austin and theresignation,” Clark said ofDeLay’s departure from Con-gress.

Just as impressive, though,was the number of supportersalready backing Bell nancial-ly. And not all of them werestrictly Democratic.

Realtor J. Gaut said he was

among the event sponsors be-cause he and Bell had beenfraternity brothers at the Uni-versity of Texas at Austin.

“My son said, ‘Aren’t youRepublican?’” Gaut explained.“Republican, Democrat – Itold him, American.”

And pulling up just behindBell as he was driven to thegathering by longtime Demo-cratic stalwart Selden Halewas Potter County SheriffMike Shumate, who made thechitchat rounds as Bell spoke,and later greeted Bell.

So what’s a Republicansheriff doing at a Democrat’sfundraiser?

“Just say I’m checking up onthings,” Shumate deadpanned.“I’m the Israeli at the ArabLeague meeting.”

The message that Bell wantsto get out, he said at a newsconference earlier in the dayand reiterated at the fundraiser,was the fallen state of publiceducation and school nance.

Getting rid of standardizedtesting as a means of studentadvancement and graduation

is the top priority, Bell said,explaining that the tests should

 be used to assess studentachievement and to compareschool districts.

He criticized linking teacher pay to student scores on theTexas Assessment of Knowl-edge and Skills test, a move

 boosted by Perry as part of hiseffort to improve teacher pay.

Bell said he also favorsmoves to expand the use oftechnology in the classroom tomake students more competi-tive in math and science and

to reduce class size if the Leg-islature is able to make such anancial commitment.

When quizzed about hisstance on immigration and the

 border, Bell said he favoredusing the National Guard toshore up Border Patrol efforts,and he favored the Kennedy-McCain bill that would in-clude a path to citizenship forillegal immigrants already inthe United States.

But he turned that issue back

Volume 1, Number 13 Thursday • July 13, 2006

F   R  E   E   W  E  E  K  L Y  

page 5 page 6

page 4

Feeling the forcewith Luke

continued page 2

By Greg Rohloff The Amarillo Independent

Gubernatorial

candidate

fnds backingBell calls for end to TAKS as astandard for student advancement

Chris Bell, the Democratic candidate for governor, visits with Sean Kelley, left, and Amber Weir duringa campaign fundraiser in Amarillo this month. (Photo by Greg Rohloff)

‘Every time Rick Perryhas had a bad idea,

Carole Strayhorn hasbeen there to put thelipstick on the pig.’

Explore fatheringand how

women add up tomore than two

parts

TurningLemmons into

art

8/19/2019 Inbdy July 13 2006

3/8

to one related to state govern-ment: The number of illegalimmigrants cannot be used asan excuse for Texas’ rankingamong the bottom of states for

social services, health care andeducation.While Bell took his shots

at Strayhorn, reminding boththe news conference and thefundraiser crowd that she hadswitched from the Democratsto the Republicans more than20 years ago, and describingher as a key Republican eversince, he saved his best forPerry, when he wasn’t tying thetwo together.

“Every time Rick Perry has

had a bad idea, Carole Stray-horn has been there to put thelipstick on the pig,” Bell said.

The school nance plan thatemerged from the special leg-islative session was essentiallya shell game, said Claudia

Stravato in her introduction ofBell to the fundraiser.

Stravato, an aide to the lateBob Bullock when he wascomptroller, said money thatwas shifted to education meantthat Amarillo would have nostate funds for the homeless.

The Panhandle is often ig-nored by the Legislature now,Stravato said, blaming Perry.Little attention was given na-tionwide to the area wildres,

the largest so far during thewestern wildre season, be-cause Perry did not come to thearea until long after the fact.

“We suck the hind teat all thetime,” Stravato said.

During Perry’s tenure asgovernor, Bell said the schooldropout rate has been under-

stated, with Amarillo ISD g-ures, based on the differencefor enrollments of ninth-grad-ers in 2000-2001 and of 12th-graders in 2003-2004, reach-ing 32.8 percent instead of thereported 2.3 percent rate for

2003-2004.U.S. Census Bureau gures,

with 2000 the most recent yearavailable for Amarillo, differfrom Bell’s calculations: The

 bureau said about 20 percentof Amarillo adults had failed toachieve a high school diploma.

In health care, Texas rankshigh among the states withuninsured residents, Bell said,adding that Amarillo has a 40

 percent uninsured rate withoutciting the source of that infor-mation.

 An Independent AttitudeThe Amarillo Independent • Thursday • July 13, 2006Page 2

The Bush administration’sattempts to suppress freeexpression and the dissemi-nation of

knowledge by a free press continue.

If one scans thewires, several news

outlets reportedthat Cyrus Kar, 45,a lmmaker, hassued Secretary ofDefense DonaldRumsfeld and theUnited States military for violatingKar’s civil rights, international lawand the Geneva Conventions.

The lmmaker was in Iraq to makea documentary on Cyrus the Great,the Persian king who issued the rsthuman rights charter.

It took a lawsuit by the AmericanCivil Liberties Union on Kar’s behalfto free him after 55 days of militarycaptivity that Kar says included

torture, according to the Los AngelesTimes, which rst broke the story.The Times reported that after a

court cleared Kar, he remained con-ned another week.

According to the Times story,

“(Kar) emphasized, ‘I am not aleft-wing liberal. I agree with manyof George Bush’s policies.’ But headded, ‘I don’t think the Constitutionhas to be gutted to achieve our objec-tives in the war on terrorism.

I felt it was my duty as an Americanto take a stand for the constitutional

rights guaranteed to all Americans.’”The L.A. Times broke the storySaturday and when the AssociatedPress followed up on it the same day,Pentagon representatives didn’t returncalls.

Stonewalling.Monday the AP reported that – gasp

 – a Republican congressman allegedthe administration broke the law bynot properly brieng Congress onintelligence programs the executive

 branch runs.“Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., said

he was informed about the programs by whistleblowers in the intelligencecommunity and then asked the Bush

administration about the programs,using code names,” the AP reported.Only then did the administration

come clean and only to the vagueextent that the White House would“continue to work closely” on na-

tional security issues.Stonewalling.Of course, Hoekstra would never

have known about the secrets unlesswhistleblowers had contacted him andthe public would never know aboutthese shenanigans without the mediato report them – and to report the

stonewalling.The administration and others havedemonstrated amply that they respectno one and respect nothing but power.

The press has power and failureto use it will continue to desecratedemocracy.

Using that power means report-ing “secret” or “classied” things

 because the government makes thosedeterminations to prevent the publicfrom knowing what’s happening, not

 because the issues really are deserv-ing of secrecy.

In the past few years, the record ofgovernments at all levels has gottenworse when it comes to giving out

information that we taxpayers have ponied up our hard-earned money tocollect.

 News outlets in New Mexico are battling the State Police over thatagency’s habitual hassling in making

what are clearly public records public.It’s been an ongoing ght in what is

 becoming a less enchanted land.Arrest logs, formerly easily accessi-

 ble to the press, have been made moredifcult to get, with few understand-ing that the public posting of suchinformation is to prevent people from

disappearing in the night as some doin banana republics or other totalitar-ian regimes.

Locally, The Amarillo Independentis awaiting a ruling from the stateAttorney General’s ofce over arequest for information from the cityof Amarillo and another party who atthis time will remain nameless.

How that information requestcomes to fruition will indicate howthe AG’s ofce views public recordsand open government in Texas.

Don’t hold your breath.What people need to consider is

that the Fourth Estate is one of thechecks and balances on government,

and censorship in any form is im- proper.Even if the censorship takes the

form of an individual removing all ofthe copies of this newspaper from ahair salon in anger over an article.

GEORGESCHWARZ

Publisher/Editor — George Schwarz

 george@amarilloindy.com

 News Editor/Writer — David Bowser 

bowser@amarilloindy.com

Business Manager — Dedra Stevensdedra@amarilloindy.com

Business Correspondent — Greg Rohloff 

 greg@amarilloindy.com

Production — Troy Foos

troy@amarilloindy.com

Sales Manager — Sherri Williams sherri@amarilloindy.com

Voice: (806) 331-5066 Fax: (806) 331-5096

Ads – ads@amarilloindy.com

Calendar – calendar@amarilloindy.com

News – news@amarilloindy.com

The Amarillo Independent is published by The AmarilloIndependent, L.L.C. weekly 52 times per year at 301 SouthPolk St., Suite 320, Amarillo, Texas 79101.

Unsolicited submissions, including but not limited to articles, artwork, photographs and résumés, are not returned.

© 2006 The Amarillo Independent, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

Bell supporters: Panhandle deserves more than the ‘hind teat’continued from page 1

What impressed Clarkabout Bell was howhe fought back andfled the frst ethics

complaint against

former House MajorityLeader Tom DeLay…

The Amarillo Independent nowoffers subscriptions. We will send yournewspaper by FIRST CLASS MAILto the address you request on theThursday publication date. The ratesare reasonable:

• One Year (52 weeks) - $52 · Sixmonths (26 weeks) - $26 · Threemonths (13 weeks) - $15.• Subscribing to Real News, HonestJournalism is easy. Fill out the form

 below and mail it to:The Amarillo Independent301 S. Polk St., Suite 320Amarillo, Texas 79101• Please enclose a check with your

 payment or ll out the credit cardinformation.• Or e-mail us at subscriptions@amarilloindy.com with your contactnumber. We can call to get your credit

card number.

 Name: ________________________ 

Address _______________________ 

 ________ Apt. ____ 

City __________________________

State _____ ZIP _____ 

Phone, with area code: ___________ 

 __Visa _ MasterCard Account number:

 ______________________________

Expiration: _____ 

SUBSCRIBE TODAY 

Former Amarillo newscasterChris Bell visits with supportersat an Independence Day Demo-cratic picnic in Hurst. (Photo byDavid Bowser)

8/19/2019 Inbdy July 13 2006

4/8

Page 7Thursday • July 13, 2006 • The Amarillo Independent

Show Me The News

Find Amarillo’s premier Independent news source at:

Boost your intellect today 

All Happy State Bank Branches

All HastingsAmarillo Cardiology Center

Amarillo International Airport

Amarillo Senior Citizens

Amarillo United Citizens

Forum

Ambassador

Arbors

Atomic Lounge

Barbara Tabor European Day Spa

Beauty MartBelmar Bakery

Big Texan Steak House

Café Marizon

Catfsh Shack

CellularOne of Amarillo

Central Branch Library

Coffee Memorial Blood Center

Connies Cleaners

Coyote Flight Service

Dr. Paul MundenEast Branch Library

EatRite

El Patio

English Field Restaurant

Exclusively Rose

Family Medicine Centers

Fort Amarillo

Gold’s Gym

Hilltop Senior Center

Leal’sM&R Liquors

Market Street United

McCartt & Associates

North Branch Library

Northwest Professional Building

Northwest Texas Healthcare

Nu-Castle Diner

NW Sports Medicine Center

OUTstanding Amarillo

Park CentralRoasters

Small Business Development

Center

Southwest Branch Library

Southwest Retina Specialists

St. Andrews Episcopal Church

Sunset Center

Surgery Center on Soncy

TACAir

Texas Dawg HouseTexas Tech School of Medicine

Texas Tech School of Pharmacy

The Amarillo Building

West Texas RX

Western Bowl

Wolin Avenue Barbershop

WTAMU JBK 

and more to come!

8/19/2019 Inbdy July 13 2006

5/8

As Luke Holdersits in Bodega’sor OHMS or theGolden Light

Cantina, he is a CertiedPublic Accountant, husband,father and a successfulAmarillo musician by way ofLos Angeles and New YorkCity.

Perhaps, more accurately,he is a folk singer who is alsoall those other things.

“We’ve played theAmarillo Art Museum,”Holder said. “We can gofrom quiet in a corner to loudGolden Light.”

Holder, who turned 32on the Fourth of July, was

 born and reared in Amarillo,attending Austin MiddleSchool and graduating fromTascosa High School.

“I went to (Texas) A&Mfor twoweeks,”Holdersaid, “ButI wanted tostart a band,so I came

 back here and started a bandcalled Brothers Grim. Weactually did pretty good.”

He’d just turned 19 at thetime.

“We played together fortwo years, but we had twogreat years. We got a badrecording contract and wentto L.A. for a month. We gotripped off, but we had a great

time. It was awesome.”That was his rst major

musical endeavor.“We got burned,” Holder

said. “Two of the guys quit.”The band consisted of two

sets of brothers, Holder andhis brother Drew and twoother brothers.

“The two other brothers just kind of dropped out onus,” Holder said.

“We felt like it was our band, all four of us, so wecouldn’t go on.”

He said he’d had his llof the music business, sohe switched his energy tocollege.

Holder went to AmarilloCollege for a year and thentransferred to North Texas fortwo years, where he earned adegree in accounting.

“I just knocked it out,” hesaid. “It felt good to havesomething where you had

achievable goals. I take theseclasses. I’m done with this. Idon’t have to do this again. Itake these classes and at some

 point I get a degree. It wasgreat. The music business isnot like that.”

From college,

Holder went to New York Cityfor a year.

“I workedfor a largeaccounting

rm,” Holder said. “Theyhad me commuting fromConnecticut. Two hours thereand two hours back on thetrain. I regretted getting that

 job.”While he had had his ll of

the music business, he wasstill smitten with music.

He had continued to writesongs, and he reached a pointwhere he realized it was timeto start performing them.

Holder said he guredhe’d better become a singer

 because every band he had,the singer always aked out

on him.“I guessed I had to sing,although I never wanted tosing,” Holder said.

After a year, he guredhe’d better either dosomething about it or forgetabout music, so he returnedto Amarillo to work on hisrst album at his brother’s

 place, AMP RecordingStudio.

That was 1998. He quit his job, bought a truck, packed itup and drove it home.

He found that people in theTexas Panhandle also neededaccountants and that his dailycommute to his downtownofce was only minutes, nothours.

Earlier this month hereleased his fourth album.

The songs are his favoritetunes from three years ofwriting.

“I wrote 100 songs and picked the best tunes,”Holder said.

For his rst three albums,he had gone into the studiowhen he thought he hadenough songs.

“After three albumsof doing that, I wantedsomething different kind ofstrategy where I would havea stronger album,” Holder

said.Holder said that, depending

upon the reception the latestalbum gets, he’s consideringgoing on tour, but he said itwon’t be nationwide.

“I’m not running off to theVillage or Haight-Ashbury,”

Holder said. “I’ve alreadydone that.”Holder said he has a wife,

Becca, whose support heenjoys, and a two-year-oldson and a daughter on theway.

He said he doesn’t planon sacricing his life on themusical altar.

“It’s just something thatmakes life a little moreinteresting and gets methrough the day,” Holdersaid.

The Amarillo Independent • Thursday • July 13, 2006Page 4

By David BowserThe Amarillo Independent

Holder awakeat the

 wheel

‘We got ripped off, butwe had a great time. It

was awesome.’

Luke Holder at OHMS, the scene of his latest CD release party. (Photos by David Bowser)

Dine In

 or Tak e

Out   • Cater ingAvaila ble

Serving award-winning handmade pizzas

and calzones, freshly tossed salads and

extensive beer and wine menu in a hip,

unique atmosphere.

Monday-Thursday 11am-9pmFriday & Saturday 11am-11pm

Closed Sunday 

2803 Civic Circle331.DOCS (3627)

8/19/2019 Inbdy July 13 2006

6/8

Mardy Lemmonsis a large, physi-cal man andthat’s reected

in many of his works.Known for his gure stud-

ies, Lemmons’ paintings areoften life-sized or larger withcanvases towering over theviewer.

“I’ve always drawn,” Lem-mons said.

He’s taken that drawing one

step further, painting in boldstrokes on large canvases, theway he sees the world.

Lemmons, 45, was born inLandstuhl, Germany, when hisfather served in the U.S. AirForce, and has lived in Ama-rillo since his early teens.

After high school, he decid-ed he wanted to go on to artschool and get into commer-cial art.

“I went to Amarillo Collegeto work toward a commercialart degree,” Lemmons said.“While in school, I decidedne art was more of what I

wanted to do.”Although his passion was

ne art, he shrugged that therewere always nancial con-cerns, and he felt initially thatcommercial art was a way ofstaying in the studio, althoughit meant he would be creating

 projects for other people andtheir tastes.

Through a quirk of circum-stance, however, he ended upin the oil elds north of Ama-rillo.

“I work in the oil eld,” hesaid. “I enjoy what I do.”

The unexpected change of-fered him opportunity.“This way I get to paint,”

Lemmons said.And he gets to paint for

himself. There is no pressureto paint something that willsell well.

“I paint because I have to paint,” Lemmons said. “Istrive to do paintings that willevoke some type of emotionusing subject matter and thestyle in which it is painted.”

He has also been able to ex- periment and develop his ownmedium.

Lemmons uses black pastelwith a turpentine wash that isunique to him.

“I don’t know of anyoneelse doing it,” he said.

It’s been developed over the past 10 years that he’s been painting.

Lemmons said he developedhis style under Rick Peters inPeters’ gure-drawing class at

Amarillo College.“Rick would tell me about

how there were artists whodid ne-art nudes,” Lemmonssaid. “That’s where I kind ofwent with it originally.”

Today, he said he is at-tered that his mentor has cho-sen to return to Amarillo and

 join in a three-man exhibit inLemmons’ gallery at SunsetCenter. Featuring Lemmons,Peters and newcomer EricRatliff, the exhibition will beup this month, and then re-

main through the center’s Au-gust Lights Festival.

For the most part, Lemmonshas used his space in SunsetCenter as a large studio ratherthan as a gallery. This month’s

exhibition will be the rstshow he’s had here.

Lemmons said that the stylesof the three exhibitors are dis-tinct, but they are complimen-tary to each other.

“They don’t look the same,”he said, “but they all work to-gether.”

It’s been about a year sinceLemmons opened his studioand gallery here. In Septem-

 ber, soon after moving in,Lemmons was involved inanother three-person show ofgures with his work and theworks of David Golbert andMichelle Tamborino.

Although he exhibited inthe ALCA group contempo-rary show in 2005 and in atwo-man show with KevynBullard’s photographs at theYellow City Art Gallery inFebruary 2001, Lemmons saidthis month’s show is the rstmajor exhibit for him since2000.

“This will be the rst bigshow since 2000,” Lemmonssaid.

“I showed at Yellow Citywhen they were downtown,”

Lemmons said. “There was alittle place called Early Slickwhere I had a show.”

He has also exhibited atCasa de Luz on Sixth Avenue.

His works have been exhib-ited in the Carey-McDuff Gal-lery of Contemporary Art, Stu-dio X and Elemental Moodsthrough the late 1990s up to2000, but with a wife and four

children, Lemmons had nan-

cial responsibilities that had to be attended to.

“I have worked in the oilelds as an adult, raisingmy four children, having artshows in Amarillo and doingmy artwork part time,” Lem-mons said.

“Now that my children areadults, I am starting to pursueart on a full-time basis.”

Last year he started back,devoting more time to his

 painting.Against the wall of his stu-

dio waiting to be hung are

three large canvases that will be a part of the show.

One is based on a ScottHyde photograph of a womanwalking down a New YorkCity street in 1960.

“I asked him if I could doa painting from that,” Lem-mons said. “He said, ‘Sure, goahead.’”

Lemmons said he’s onlyspent one afternoon with Hydegoing through old photo-graphs, but it was fascinating.

“It was amazing,” Lemmons

said.

Lemmons said he’s been in-uenced by the artwork of JimDine, a Cincinnati artist bornin 1935 and known mostly forhis pop art, and Egon Schiele,an Austrian expressionist(1890-1918), but it is time andexperience that have allowedLemmons to develop his ownunique style.

Lemmons describes hiswork as nontraditional.

“I keep mine completelynontraditional,” Lemmonssaid.

Page 5Thursday • July 13, 2006 • The Amarillo Independent

By David BowserThe Amarillo Independent

A M A R I L L O500 South Taylor, Suite 800

Amarillo, Texas 79101

(806) 372-5050

Fax (806) 372-5086

L U B B O C K  1500 Broadway, Suite 700

Lubbock, Texas 79401

(806) 765-7491

Fax (806) 765-0533

D A L L A S2515 McKinney Ave., Suite 1425

Dallas, Texas 75201

(214) 754-0040

Fax (214) 754-0043

SolidO N T H E L A W

www.mullinhoard.com

Fr om t he C our t hous e t o t he B oar dr oom

F ROM S I M P L E T O COM P L E X — M HB HA S A

LAWYER TO SERVE YOUR LEGAL NEEDS

COMPLEX BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS · TRIALS · APPEALS · BUSINESS PLANNING · CONTRACTS · F INANCIAL

WORKOUTS · ESTATES · TAX MATTERS · BANKING · EMPLOYMENT · FAMILY LAW · PERSONAL IN JURY

Bold strokes,broad emotionsMardy Lemmons opens in three-manshow at Sunset Center gallery 

Amarillo artist Mardy Lemmons in front of three new works to be displayed this month during athree-man show this weekend at his Sunset Center gallery. (Photo by David Bowser)

‘I strive to dopaintings that willevoke some type of

emotion using subjectmatter and the style in

which it is painted.’

8/19/2019 Inbdy July 13 2006

7/8

The Amarillo Independent • Thursday • July 13, 2006Page 6

 

Let’s talk about annual exams. If youhaven’t made an appointment for your an-nual exam, make a note to do that today.

 No, do not put it off until tomorrow; oth-erwise it will end up with the “still-not-completed”needlepoint you’ve been making Grandma sinceChristmas 1992.

When I say “annual exam,”I do mean more than the breastand pelvic exam. The annualexam for a woman should en-compass all areas of a woman’shealth, not just the breasts and

 pelvic area. After all, aren’t wemore than those two parts? YES!

During an annual exam thereshould be a discussion of manyaspects of a woman’s overallhealth.

After the patient and I havediscussed social stressors likeover-commitment, mentaland emotional fatigue (due tospouses, teenage children, etc.),

and sex drive (spouses again …), we review herindividual physical health checklist.

This includes heart health such as blood pres-sure, cholesterol, smoking, family history anddiabetes screening. If she is overweight, encour-agement is given to start losing the weight. Evenif she has tried a hundred times to lose the weightthat came on with the kids 25 years ago, and neverleft, we still discuss giving it another try.

Moving down the list, we discuss bone health.I then move the conversation to cancer screening.The dreaded “C” word even seems difcult to say.Some people fear cancer more than anything else.

 Nevertheless, at the annual exam cancer screening

and education are musts. But, as with most thingsin life, a positive view can be obtained. Today wewill focus on breast and colon cancer screening.

If you think about screening in terms of a birth-day present, cancer screening can have a positiveconnotation.

Like, “Happy 40th, time for your rst mammo-

gram!” As per most guidelines, I refer allwomen over age 40 for an annual mam-mogram, and until recently never had onemyself. I heard many comments aboutmammograms such as “They squish youlike a pancake” or “My breasts aren’t really

 big enough to bother” or “I’m afraid myimplants will explode.”

I scheduled my own mammogram a bitearlier than 40 due to my family history.

 Now, having had a mammogram, I canreport that they do indeed atten the breasttissue, almost to a pancake, and there issome physical discomfort, though not evenclose to, say, labor pain.

However, for me the most discomfortwas not the actual test but waiting for the

result. Overall, getting undressed, breasts at-tened, images taken and waiting for a letter doesn’tsound like a great birthday present, but it reallyis. I breathed a sigh of relief after my mammogra- phy was completed and thankfully negative. I feltgood that I had done it and it was over, at least fora year. Another positive is that I can now counselmy patients about the “reality” of mammography.

What about the 50th birthday? How about,“Happy birthday, let’s schedule your colonos-copy!” This one is a harder sell. When I mentioncolon screening, some make a face like they justdrank bad milk. After all colonoscopy prep entailsdrinking a gallon of liquid or taking umpteen pills,

going to the bathroom all night, then arriving atthe doctor’s ofce or hospital to have your back -side exposed (I mean most women do not like at-tention to their backside even when it is covered),and then the colonoscope is … I’ll just stop there.

Yet, even after they make the “face,” I proceedto sell the patient on getting this test (sometimes it

is like selling hot chocolate at the beach). Co-lon cancer is the No. 3 cancer killer of men andwomen; more than 3,000 Texans died from coloncancer last year and another 7,000 will be diag-nosed in 2006. I also mention that most colon can-cer starts as a benign polyp and it can take yearsfor a polyp to become cancer.

Therefore, a colonoscopy can identify a polyp,remove it and prevent the cancer from occurring.But if this doesn’t convince them and they returnthe next year for an annual exam and haven’t hadthe colonoscopy, then I make “the face.”

“The face” is an expression many of my long-term patients recognize. My patients hate to seeme make “the face,” so I can usually convincethem the second time around, but if not, I keep try-ing every year. It’s that important.

Overall, cancer is not a subject to be taken light-ly, nor cancer screening, but then neither is overallhealth. A positive outlook can help the “medicinego down.” No one says staying healthy is easy, but it is worth it. Do it for those who love you andthose who need you, but mostly do it for yourself.Remember, it’s all about you and you’re worth it!

 Dr. Jenkins holds a bachelor’s degree in chemicalengineering and a medical degree from East Tennes- see State University. She holds a joint appointment asassociate professor in internal medicine and obstet-rics/gynecology and is the co-director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Amarillo.

MARJORIE JENKINS, M.D.

Agrowing numberof researchers and professionals rec-ognize the impor-

tance of family history. WhenI speak to groups of dads, Ioften bring up generationalfamily issues to try to help

men gain a better perspectiveon their own challenge. I aska series of questions to bringthese issues to the surface.

 ————— 

These questions explore thedarker side of their fatheringheritage:

1) Was your father largelyabsent while you were grow-ing up?

2) Did yourfather abuse youor another family

member?3) Did your fa-

ther have addic-tive behavior?

4) Was yourfather sexu-ally involvedwith someoneother than yourmother?

5) Did yourfather commit il-legal acts? Thesequestions usually draw silent,sober stares.

 ————— 

As we discuss how to process these “dark” issuesI re-ask the questions whichseem more redemptive andhopeful:

1) Have you resolved yourfeelings toward your father?

2) Do you have a closefriend or small group that

supports and holds you ac-countable?

3) Are you seeking to im- prove your fathering skills?

4) Do you interact withother fathering role modelswhom you respect?

5) Are youinvolved and con-nected to a faithcommunity?

 ————— 

Action Points

for Committed

Fathers ...

Discuss yourchildhood withother familymembers. Askif he/she had thesame expecta-tions that you did.

Share a word of Thanks forthose positive inuences inyour family heritage.

Spend some time think-ing how to reconcile yourrelationship with – or at leastyour feelings toward — YourDad. Be Brave, Be Tender,Be Loving and Full of Hu-mility.

 Next issue: The Power of

“I Love You.”

DAVE CLARK

 A Father’s Cry 

Dr. J’s Medical Minute

Exploring your fathering heritage

8/19/2019 Inbdy July 13 2006

8/8

The trouble with being a

grownup is that you’re

always called on to x

messes, your own and

other peoples’. In the process of do-

ing that, you make more

messes.At some point, there

are so many messes you need other

grownups, more competent ones, to

clean them up. Competent grown-

ups are a myth, but even assuming

for a moment that they exist, their

solutions to your messes is to make

everything incomprehensible so that

you’ll feel truly helpless.

When everyone feels helpless,

these nonexistent competent

grownups, who may or may

not be parental, proceed to do

two things: take away all your

initiative and lock you up inside

a paradox so complex you’ll

never get out.

Feeling helpless and trapped

may be the normal state of your

average adult in the custody

of other adults, but it’s no fun

 because it lacks innocence.

Which is why I say, like Je-

sus, bring on the children. Their

messes are understandable:

 peanut butter and snot, ketchup

and blood, play dangerously

close to trafc, make physical

contact with your pals until the

world spins, take a ball seri-

ously enough to cry.

Unfortunately, when adults

call on children to x their

messes, the children have to

grow up fast and become nasty

little adults before they even

had a chance at childhood.

 Now let’s look at the problem

of adulthood globally. Adults

have messed up the planet

with carbon emissions that

are making the earth too hot.

Adults have taken their occa-

sional moments of euphoria to

war and killed until they were

exhausted.

Wars are never started by

sick and tired people. They are

the work of the excessively

healthy, the super-optimistic,the pheronome-ushed well-be-

ing addicts.

Pheromones allow for

glimpses of utopia, and testos-

terone promises that you’ll get

there. But something happens

in war and on the aggressive

road to wealth: messes. There

are wounds, puddles of blood,

annoying grieving women and

maimed children. And an earth so

hot you have to hop on one foot to

keep from being burned.

You’re an adult, damn it, do

something about it.

Bring on the children. Ex-tort their innocence, inven-

tiveness, natural compassion (how

did they come by that?) and let

them do their healing work on your

dulled senses.

Let them cover you in snot and

ketchup and play ball with your

head until you see stars.

If it gets a little Lord-of-the-Flies

yish, you can always shake them

off, draw up to full adult height and

 proclaim the power of your adult-

hood.

They’ll look up with sad, sud-

denly adult faces, and your misery

will be mirrored in miniature.

You used to blame all messes on

God, but it’s not so easy anymore

now when even the staunchest

 believers want to become children

again.

You can become a staunch believer, but the mess will stay the

same. You may feel like a child, but

God doesn’t feel like playing adult

anymore.

Global warming has affected God,

he feels sleepy, lacks ambition, and

would like a more adult God to x

the mess. That would be you now,

wouldn’t it?

 Andrei Codrescu is a regular

commentator on National Public

 Radio. His book, “New Orleans,

 Mon Amour: 20 Years of Writing in

the City” has just been published.

Page 3Thursday • July 13, 2006 • The Amarillo Independent

You used to blameall messes on God,but it’s not so easy

anymore now wheneven the staunchestbelievers want tobecome children

again.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open letter to grownups

OPINION

The airline business in Amarillo continues togrow, according to the latest report from RickHusband Amarillo International Airport.

For January through June of this year, numberof passengers departing from Amarillo grew by1.4 percent over thesame period of lastyear, with 41,731

 passengers. For thesame months lastyear, the airport saw40,632 passengers

 boarding airliners.Continental Ex-

 press showed the largest growth in year-to-date boardings over last year with a jump of 15 per-cent. American Eagle gained almost 4 percentmore passengers over last year while South-west Airlines’ passenger load remained steadyand Great Lakes Aviation dropping by almostone-third.

Southwest remained the market share leaderwith 60 percent of the passengers, but the car-rier also ies the largest aircraft.

 — George Schwarz

Airplane boardings rise