Opinion

For many decades, football-loving men gathered in coffee shops to dissect the previous Friday night’s schoolboy football games. There was more dissecting than coffee- drinking. Many may not have realized it, but those games--won, lost or tied-helped to unify community spirit.

House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, said Friday he opposes a push by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to end tenure for new professors at the state’s public universities and to revoke it for faculty who teach critical race theory, the Austin American- Statesman reported. Phelan, speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival, said the feedback he has gotten indicates ending tenure would make it more difficult for universities to recruit professors. That includes those with conservative viewpoints, who benefit from tenure’s protection against being fired for openly sharing their ideology.

Because I have closed my office and now use it as a guestroom, I’ve moved my desk, printer, and stuff into a corner of my bedroom. These items take up a little more room than expected, but I’m not back there much. I’ve given up on the “great American novel… written by a woman over seventy.” So, I’m only back there to pay bills, send emails, check my Facebook page, and write this column. It’s different.

I, as well as most others who string words together, will never be confused with Robert Frost, the poetry genius from whose pen flowed marvelous words about his beloved New England. One of his best--published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1915--was “The Road Not Taken.” Actually, it was intended as a joke to a writer friend.

The U.S. Census Bureau released its latest estimate, which indicates Hispanic residents in Texas make up more of the state’s population than white residents. The new population figures from the American Community Survey indicate Hispanic Texans comprise 40.2% of the state’s population last year, while non-Hispanic white Texans made up 39.4%, as reported in the Texas Tribune.