CardinalBacker

The problem is this... your online posting about abortion, climate change, election results, or reparations could also be considered in whether or not you get to own a firearm depending on who's in power at the moment.

No offense, but I get where you're coming from. But you have to understand that pretty much every single parent of a mass shooter felt the same way as you do. And as parents they were wrong, and a whole lot of somebodies paid with their lives. I got my first rifle in the fourth grade, I'm pretty sure. I was turned loose to hunt by myself before that. And it had nothing to do with whether or not I'd get mad enough to shoot up a school. Hormones, mental illness, young love, etc.... Leaving your guns unattended with kids around isn't a lot different than having a really friendly pitbull around the house. You're still just crossing your fingers that nobody gets bitten. And for what it's worth, I decided early on that I'd never own a dog that my kids couldn't fight off.

Sadly, a Sunday School class probably would.

Jeez..... For what it's worth, there used to be a gun/liquor store right off of main street in Uvalde. Literally... guns and liquor.

Yeah... i bought a new pistol during the pandemic and I literally told the guy at Academy "I'm going to take my mask down so you can verify that it's me. And I think you should do that with anybody buying a gun." I read that this kid had two AR pistols on him. I very seriously doubt that he bought them in the week that passed since his 18th birthday. It means that he either 1. stole them from an irresponsible gun owner who didn't have them secured. 2. Took them from a parent that felt like he was familiar with safe gun operation and knew the rules... like a lot of y'all keep saying about your kids. 3. Had them given to him by parents whose #1 concern was giving him everything he wanted while turning a blind eye towards possible mental/emotional defects. But "not being so easy to purchase a gun" might not be the answer that all of us are looking for. It's such a grey area.

Obviously this was the act of one mentally deranged person.... The blame lies there. Having said all of that, gun owners need to be more responsible. I literally got all of mine out of the house when my boys were teenagers. We had a few instances that caused me just enough concern that I didn't want to live with myself if they did something stupid/harmful to themselves or anybody else. Keep them locked up. Don't sell a gun to anybody that you don't know. Buying a gun is a life-long commitment... If individual sellers did a better job of a)locking up their firearms and b)not selling them to people that they don't know, we'd all be in a better place. I predict that we're going to see where this kid had tons and tons of warning signs, but his family just ignored them. At least that's what it seems like in most of these cases. I was all for prosecuting the parents of that last kid (in florida, I think) that shot up his school after his "cool" parents gave him a gun. Or the guy that shot Dimebag after his mom got him a pistol to celebrate him doing a good job of taking his anti-psychotic meds. The second amendment isn't just a right... it's a responsibility.

WOS has (had) a much better program once the kids got into JH ball... it doesn't hurt when the program is implemented by a hall-of-famer. I'll be the first to claim that our kids didn't develop even a little between being 6th graders in the STJFL and playing varsity ball. That class won a game or possibly two as sophomores, then made a first round exit in 2015, then went undefeated in District and three rounds in 16. If a coach can come in and install the Slot T before their junior year (an offense to which they'd never been exposed) and have that kind of success, it tells you that the coaching was an issue right up until Coach Dubois arrived.

honestly, we had a really good STJFL staff but the staff at the JH and high school were not very good for about four years there. I can remember watching the kids from WOS warm up before the 8th grade game and they were all practicing techniques and drills. Ours were doing backbends and stuff... just playing around and I thought then that it didn't look good. Coach Stump and his staff had that group from 7th grade until Coach Dubois arrived in the spring of their sophomore year and salvaged a third round appearance their senior year (2016). They just wasted too much developmental time those four long years. I'm not saying that our kids would have developed into a powerhouse like WOS had those years... that was a very, very special bunch among all of TX high school football. But our kids could have done better than they did if not for wasted time, in my biased opinion. It's also important to note that the freshman group from BC in 2016 went undefeated in district and were heralded as the next big thing. I think they won one or two games as seniors, total. You really can't judge what a group will do based on performance at lower levels.

Yeah... which makes it so much more frustrating that BC wore them out in STJFL, 7th grade, and lost a close one in 8th grade. But it also goes to show that you really can't pick a future top performer based on youth football or even JH football.

The problem that I'm worried about is that the guys on the far right will see the reversal as a sign that we're ready for a Taliban-like religious state. Now there's talk of criminalizing abortions and even banning all contraceptives. That's the kind of extreme talk that will move a lot of people right back over to the left side of the ticket. [Hidden Content] [Hidden Content] [Hidden Content] I'm sure that a lot of the reporting is a knee-jerk reaction to the possible overturn of Roe, but the fact that some in the R party are tossing those views around unchecked is a little unsettling.

I read an article on Drudge today that stated that 70% of Republicans are in favor of impeaching Biden if the Rs win the House this November... with no evidence of a "high crime or misdemeanor." Those are the same people who want to see Trump run again.

I've been saying this.

They were just racist.

That’s the whole problem. If Beaumont really is a place where the majority prefers to heap honors upon men like Dr Thomas, then it’s not the place for decent families. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s the same thought process I have when people talk about Donald Trump being the greatest president of our lifetime. In fact, that’s probably a good comparison. If once or twice a year the board was moving to name the stadium after Donald Trump, I’m guessing you’d feel a lot less supportive of your board. These clowns will hate the truth, but while I disagreed with practically all of President Obama’s political beliefs, he was a much more honorable President and worthy of having something like a stadium named after him. My opposition to renaming the stadium after Dr Thomas is based on the fact that his legacy is basically that his tenure at the helm was marked by rampant corruption that led to a state takeover. But if you add to the fact that despite being one of the absolute worst administrators in history as evidenced by all of the convictions and takeover, he was also the highest paid administrator in the state at the time. It’s obvious corruption and criminality, yet a certain segment of the community still lauds him as their hero. It’s baffling to reasonable people.

I saw on the news that the motion was voted down and the stadium won’t be renamed. I think that it’s a positive for most of the community and I hope that the ISD and community can get back to basics with supporting education and hopefully BOTH sides can look forward instead of always looking to “right the wrongs” of the past.

I do appreciate your perspective, though.. I know it has to seem like 30 to 1 when you weigh in on this subject.

Man, it’s close…. But he left in 2004 and the berry center wasn’t named after him until 2006. [Hidden Content] It’s a small distinction, but a truth nonetheless… we just don’t typically name facilities in our own honor while we’re still in charge.

I don’t think that you and I are that far apart. I have no doubt that there is plenty of history of which I’m not aware that could motivate people to act like the trustees are now. Doesn’t make it right, though. Can you point me at an instance where a district has named any facility (not just a stadium) after a sitting super? I’m not aware of any. This is me being honest… I can’t WAIT until they start naming things after President Obama… There will be some folks losing their minds, lol… even though the guy deserves it. But the fact is that it didn’t happen while he was still president, and it typically doesn’t happen during his lifetime, even. It wasn’t Dan Hooks Stadium until after he retired, etc.

I agree with what you're saying with the exception of these two points. 1. Changing from Thomas was removing the name of a disgraced former leader from a place of honor in the community... at least in the eyes of the detractors, anyways. Nobody on either side has expressed that "Memorial" is somehow not fitting or improper as a name. 2. A private donor paid to have the name changed... the school didn't pay for that. In fact, Corey Crenshaw claims that the school will not only be responsible for the cost of renaming the stadium back to Thomas (unless a donor for that side shows up), but also responsible for reimbursing the original donor from the last renaming. Unless somebody steps up to foot the bill, BISD is voting to pay double to rename the Stadium after Dr. Thomas. I guess my questions are: How can people who don't want to see Dr. Thomas's name up there be racist if they're offering up other possible candidates to be honored who are also black? AND Can you give any reasons why Dr. Thomas should be honored in spite of what been proven to be a remarkably bad period of leadership? Do you recognize the hypocrisy of demanding that schools and streets be renamed and even statues be torn down in this very city because it offends the black community, but then the black community is seemingly determined to name this stadium after a guy who has a ton of skeletons that no closet can hold? Nobody is ready for that conversation, either.

Just for an instant imagine that the races of the parties were reversed… would you have a hard time identifying racism then?

Well, you could start with the fact that they haven’t had single white board member vote to name (or rename) the stadium after Dr. Thomas. The thing is this. I can’t recall a single time that a district anywhere has named ANYTHING after a sitting super. Ever. Then you add in the fact that he was the highest paid super in the state… think about places like Dallas, Houston, etc…. This guy from Beaumont was out-earning all of them. Then you add in the indisputable fact that the district was hopelessly corrupt and required the state to take over operations. The fact that his administration was a corrupt disgrace where numerous fellow administrators were imprisoned for corruption that occurred on Dr Thomas’s watch and ultimately led to state intervention says the guy probably doesn’t deserve the honor. And if he cared about the children of Beaumont at all, he would drop a letter to the Enterprise saying “it’s an honor, but no thanks.” So having said all of that to say, since there’s obviously nothing to honor about Dr Thomas’s time at the helm of BISD, why do black trustees keep trying to rename the stadium if not because of animus which is likely racial in nature?

I'd be curious to see if any of the bigtime Beaumont fans on the site (Soulja, etc) have an opinion on the subject. I think at this point it's just people like myself without any skin in the game that are here complaining.

It's so dumb because the people in charge should be able to see that crap like this is the reason that so many people make a decision to relocate to Hardin/Orange/Chambers County... or even out to HJ or HF. When you make it abundantly clear from the highest levels that you are mostly uninterested in improving any aspects of the educational process, but would prefer to redress the "wrongs" of generations past, folks are going to leave... but then they'll blame "white flight" as the reason that the community/schools are abysmal when that time comes. Just look at Port Arthur...it'll tell you everything that you need to know about your future. That's the thing... I can't think of another school district in the area that is as poorly managed as BISD. There's not another community (excepting Port Arthur) that would not immediately move to run off a board/super that was determined to do something this.... out of the scope of what a board should be focused upon.

I don't remember him being the highest paid employee in the state... I'd assume that the head coaches at the college level would win that award. But I distinctly remember him being the highest paid super in the state and the second highest in the whole United States. Which I don't hate on the for... but when you're clocking them dollas and then the state has to come take over the district because of mismanagement and criminal activities.... it just seems kinda dumb to be re-re-naming buildings after the guy. It's not about him, it's about who will be agitated by renaming it after him. Anybody that says any different is kidding themselves. [Hidden Content]

It was just a bad scene... when the allegations of impropriety started rolling in, the board moved to name the stadium after the then superintendent who would best be described as "embattled" at that point. It goes back to the Civil Rights era.... when the bond issue was passed, Thomas and others moved to eradicate all traces of the old "white" schools that were folded into BISD. It's been back and forth ever since.... and I'm sure that the school demolitions weren't the first salvo in an ongoing war. The initial naming of the stadium after Thomas was a great big middle finger at this critics, then the Board of Managers appointed after Thomas left moved to have the stadium re-named something neutral.... but it is also seen as big middle finger back at the black community. As soon as the BOM handed power back to the locally elected trustees we have now, they continuously return to the issue of re-naming the stadium after the disgraced former super. Thomas left about a year before the state had to take over. So basically the school board wants to re-re-name the stadium after a guy who either (a)rebuilt BISD and got them great new facilities or (b) name it after the guy who was in control when millions of dollars were stolen, testing fraud ran rampant, things got so bad that the state had to come and take over the district and numerous administrators went to prison.... and you'd be talking about the same guy.