Category Archives: Our Town

I have decided to add to this web site my short stories I’ve written so far.   Looking for lots of feedback here, people — mainly, would you buy this or short stories like this? Why or why not?

Xinhua News Agency’s Houston Bureau learned of a primary school in Stafford, Texas, that begins teaching a Chinese language in kindergarten to enthusiastic pupils, and assigned me to do the English version of the story which ran Feb. 10, 2012.  As I only know one word in Chinese — Xinhua — I was suitably impressed with these remarkable children, their teacher and the school administrator who spearheaded the program.

HOUSTON, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) — Six-year-old Derrick Hill is eager to learn new words in Chinese during his dual language course at a primary school in Texas state. The Hispanic-origin boy now starts teaching his mom and dad Chinese at home.

Hill is not the only pupil fascinated by the Chinese language at Stafford Primary School, which is the only school in Texas offering English-Chinese dual language classes to kindergarten and first-grade pupils.

As the world becomes more integrated and China emerges as an economic powerhouse, Stafford Primary, the small town elementary school is ambitious to envisage its pupils a brighter future by teaching them one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

“Bilingual education starts here,” said Kim Vu, 43, principal of Stafford Primary School, who spearheaded the dual language classes in 2010 and implemented it last year.

READ MORE:

Have I mentioned that I am employed?  By angels?

No kidding.  After a year and a half of unemployment, religiously sending out hundreds of resumes that seem to have all turned into smoke signals and evaporated,  I am proud to announce that I am a working gal again, albeit on a part-tine basis.

For a small part of the week, I get to publicize and get news out about one of the truly great theaters in the world, Dionysus Theatre in Houston, Tx., the only theater in the Lone Star State that includes actors with disabilities alongside able-bodied actors.

There is no need to “spin” anything.  The truth of this little theater and its mission of inclusion, that it takes people with visible and hidden disabilities from the shadows to the spotlight –where they shine — makes this job a privilege.

I’ve only done publicity on one show so far, and already this is my favorite job of my entire life.  Thank you, all those people in my former job who decided that I was to be included in the 200 people laid off in March 2009, for making this possible.   Really.

These are the most talented people I’ve ever had the joy of working with.  Under the guidance of Deb Nowinski, who founded the theater 12 years ago, the best is brought forward in her actors and in her staff and in her audiences.  It’s amazing to watch this theater’s motto come to life:  “Saving Lives One Act at a Time.”

Next up is a “sampler” of what Dionysus Theatre does, a free meet-and-greet beginning at 7 p.m. at the Joe Frank Theater (space Dionysus Theatre rents from the Jewish Community Center, 5601 S. Braeswood. The casts of the past four productions that constituted the main theater’s, youth theater’s and touring troupe’s 12th season, will offer highlights from each show that paid homage to communities of differences — the autistic in Autistic License, the deaf in Children of a Lesser God, developmentally disabled in “The Boys Next Door” and the foibles of childhood in the musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

I hope everyone who is interested in entertainment, education, inclusion  and just having a good time on a Thursday evening will come out on Sept. 2 and meet this inspiring group of actors, directors and supporters, old and new.

I am working with angels.  I never really believed in angels before, but I have to now that I’m actually seeing them on a fairly regular basis.  Head angel is Deb, a fiery red-head who turns disabled people from introverted, shy people who have learned to stay in the margins of life, into stars. She’s a miracle worker.

This company will again drum up support during its 4th gala for supporters on Cct. 16 at the Mariott Hotel in Houston.  Come eat, bid on fantastic prizes at the silent and live auctions, and have a good time while supporting this excellent nonprofit theater.

The gala’s theme will be “Building on a Dream” to note that this theater company is looking for a permanent home.  Renting from the JCC is great, but Dionysus — a god who had a clubbed foot, did you know that? — needs his own digs.

Anybody have a theater for sale — or space that would lend itself to being built out as a theater — in Houston?

It’s been a bleak week, still no job, IRS audit and now, Texas Workforce Commission has my unemployment checks on hold, asking me to call them at a special number where no one answers. (I know, because I’ve hit redial several thousand times today since 8 a.m. I know the sound of the busy signal better than the beat of my own heart. I think it’s B-flat).

So imagine my surprise when I took a break from redialing to give my poor numb finger a rest, and checked my e-mail to find that I am a blogging star!

While I may have only a modest 60-something visitors as my high point since March (apprently, a lot of ya’ll liked the vitriolic Piece of Cake and depair-driven Bulgaria or Jacksonville the best), one of those visitors is Jacob Peebles, the main man behind a web site for freelance writers, Get Freelance Journalistm Jobs, or http://www.getfreelancejournalismjob.com.

He quotes me on that site from when I started this blog in March aboutwhat I intended to do on it:

“My favorite blog right now — and the bane of my existence — is my new blog, Betty Martin, Writer. As planned, it is to have Our Town features about Houston, as well as things about writing and media, plus remedies for all of mankind’s problems, Betty Lou Saves the World.”

I couldn’t be more thrilled about being a Featured Blogger if the New York Times sent me roses. Well, not much more delighted,  anyway.

And all Jacob Peebles asked in return was that I post his web site address — somewhere on my page.

http://www.getfreelancejournalismjob.com/resources/betty-martin-writer-462.html

Hey, Mr. Peebles. does this work for you?

As for fame, I would like to thank all the little people in life who have made this possible, beginning with the dear Hearst Corporation and the Houston Chronicle, without whose layoffs the page “betty martin, writer” could never have happened, much less risen to such acclaim.

And of course, no awards speech would be complete without giving tribute to my mom — and God. My mom has always been steadfast in her love and hope for me. The Almighty, not so much.

But I thank you. Thank you all. You have shown, through your visits and kind comments that even a gal raised near Denver Harbor, then Telephone Road, then Reed Road, then getting expelled from colleges across the state, then in the Navy in Japan and Hawaii and Italy, then winning awards at newspapers and magazines across the United States until Hearst decides to cut 200 people last March, can make good.

God Bless America!

When dinossaurs and I ran around Texas college campuses in granny dresses and fringed leather vests, searching for meaning behind the words of Vonnegut , Lennon and Dylan, my nightmare was that one day, I’d wake up to find myself in suburbia with the average 2.3 children,  member of a civic association and married to a certified public accountant.

Forty years later, 2009 happened.  The year’s horrible events so far have quickly put things into perspective.  I am now fully aware that being a middle-class American — even a calculator-pushing accountant —  isn’t the worst of all possible outcomes.  In fact, a former and current CPA, along with my supportive former coworkers, have been my lifelines as I continue my freelance work and search fof a real job.

Let us review: 

January:  2009 — or as I now call it, the Cursed Year from Hell –begins.

February:  I turned 60, an event that all by itself is proof of life’s injustices.

Mid-March:  My cat, Elmo, dies after 16 years as my foot-warmer and best feline friend, leaving me haunted and reaching down to pet thin air.   One week later, my wheelchair-bound mama gets an intestinal ailment and is rushed to the hospital, the first of three home-hospital-nursing home cycles. 

March 24:  “Black Tuesday”:  I ‘m called into an office and told that I am  laid off from the Houston Chronicle, along with 200 other loyal, dedicated, brilliant reporters, editors, clerks, pressmen and other jobs that enhanced the sixth largest newspaper in the U.S..  It isn’t our fault, the human resources counselor says, but  due to the economy, drops in circulation and advertising. 

April: Spent in shock and anger (see entry for March 24) except for a photographer friend and former CPA who sets up this blog for me and single-handedly forces me to start freelancing as a writer/reporter for hire.  My sisters, who worship at the alter of Martha Stewart, tell me now — at the very moment I have lost my job, income and identity —  that I am doomed to a failed life of chaos  as long as I remain a messy housekeeper. We part ways in a manner that a sit-down over vodka sodas, even with Joni Mitchell on the stereo, won’t fix.

May:   I continue to send out resumes and samples of my work — news and feature stories published under my byline — like little messages in bottles tossed onto the ocean, with as much result.   I also learn that journalism has changed to “citizen journalists” who write for peanuts from all over the world, even places where peanuts make up major banquets. 

June:   Just as I am thinking that life cannot possibly get any worse, I receive a letter from  IRS, informing me that I owe back taxes for the past three years.  It seems that I wasn’t supposed to use the E-Z form, the only one I know how to use, because it didn’t include spaces for me to declare the pittance–per-month royalties from a 1/36th interest in an oil and gas well (a bequest from a great-aunt who mistakenly thought she was spreading joy with this gift)

It was at this point that my photographer-former accountant friend suggested I find a current CPA, and so I discovered the world of Maximilano Jambrina on Westcott Avenue,.  I simply asked them to help me fill out the more-complex tax form — the 1040A, but instead, they made magic.

They re-submitted all three years of my taxes, actually itemizing things, a feat I had never accomplished in this lifetime so far..

In what has been the first damn good thing to happen so far this year, they told me that I don’t owe the IRS money, they now — as accountant Brandon-something figured — will be sending me a check for a hefty chunk of change, more than my freelance career has provided thus far.

I now love CPAs..  I wouldn’t mind waking up and finding out I was married to the entire team at that firm. Especially  Maximilano Jambrina, the most gorgeous CPA, with the sexiest accent in the entire world.  (He can make “Thank you for your business” sound like pillow talk).

Brandon also told me that if I did have to move to Bulgaria or somewhere where living is inexpensive,  there could be tax breaks ahead on my U.S. returns.

Isn’t that cute?

I never would have guessed that the one bright spot of 2009 — so far — would be brought by CPAs, a much more creative, imaginative bunch of folks — artists, even, with beautiful souls beneath those button-down shirts — than I would ever have guessed.

Love and peace to you, too,  guys!

We were wrong in the ’50s. It wouldn’t come from the Black Lagoon or Outer Space, although it would be coated in slime.

The menace taking over the world and terrifying the bejeezus out of everybody is the hate-monger with a gun. 

Lately, it seems like we have more than our share on our blue planet.

Not that our world wasn’t scary enough already,  just from its hate-mongering leaders.

But while we were waiting to see if Dear Leader Kim Jong Il will really set off his promised nukes, or if the Iranian guy will keep office for four more years, Abdulhakim Muhammad, a home-grown convert to Islam, shot up a stateside recruiting station on June 1.

Nine days later, James von Brunn, a senior citizen of 88 and a convicted felon who had already served time for hate crimes, declared open warfare at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington.

What I’d like to know  is where — when — why — how did these shooters certify to purchase and carry deadly weapons?  What gun salesman looked into the faces of these guys and said, Ok, I think we can simply skip the background check or waiting period here.

I’d like to know the same thing about Scott Roeder, who shot and killed Dr. George Tiller in a Lutheran church two weeks ago.  Or Richard Poplawski, 22, the guy with the high-powered rifle who shot three Pittsburgh police officers to death in April.

How did these guys get such weapons when they, like Brunn, were being watched for posting and spewing racial calls for murder on web sites for stupid white supremacists — people who, in my opinion, have good reason to lack self-esteem.

 The Anti-Defamation League has said that Poplawski believed Jews ran the world and that President Obama was going to enact stricter gun control — laws that would, heaven forbid, take the handguns, rifles and assault weaponry from the hands of the people like him.

His actions took the gun — and the life — away from 23-year-old William Andrew Long, an Army private who was visiting the recuiting station after just completing his basic training.

People may acknowledge the white supremacist crowd for the terrorists they are, just as many believe the more radical proponents of Islam are similar nut jobs.  Why, then, are we so blithely content with them that we keep giving these people guns?

We don’t need to wait for Dr. X, the Blob, the Invisible Man or other creature bearing warnings from six decades ago — films made after the atom bomb radiated Hiroshima.  Those celluloid warnings were a reaction against the consequences of playing with weapons we don’t understand, which seems to be everything from a .22 Saturday Night Special to the people-vaporizing, skin-shredding, city-nullifying mushroom cloud.

Were they alive to tell the tale, I’m sure the 16,000 Americans shot by other Americans each year would understand perfectly the need for more gun restrictions.  At least as far as keeping them out of the hands of hate-sliming crazy people.

We as a people in this country keep sending our quarters and dimes to what we’ve made into one of the biggest lobbies in the land, the National Rifle Association.

‘Cause after all,  we’re the good guys.

In a city so rich in its own history, art, energy, technology and patchwork quilt of ethnic groups that it has its own Museum District, a steering committee organized by the Houston Institute for Culture is weighing whether our town needs another multimillion dollar museum.

The focus? To tout our town’s diverse cultural heritage, hence the proposed name: The Houston Museum of Culture.
Fundraising hasn’t begun yet and no site has been selected, but a small group of people under the institute’s guidance have begun to meet monthly to study the idea. This small group of about 30 people so far are also forming subcommittees for things like defining “culture.”

The most popular definition so far is that “culture” will in this case be a big enough tent to focus on the city’s history, media, religion, arts and entertainment, language, environment and economics — things that effect Houstonians’ way and quality of life.

Part of our local culture, for example,  is that we are already blessed with some fine museums. 

We have the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (with a budget of $81 million), Houston Museum of Natural Science ($23.5 million), Space Center Houston, Menil, Buffalo Soldiers, etc., plus the cultural kingpin of our fair town, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo ($77 million).

The exploratory committee for the culture museum is envisioning — at least they were at the one meeting I’ve attended a few weeks ago ago — a hub for academic, social, historical and technological organizations, as well as for artists, musicians, schools and community advocates that would benefit tourists (and possibly teach us a thing or two about our own hometown).

It is because of Houston’s richness of diversity, its languages and ethnic flavors that have given the city its destiny as a portal to the global marketplace.

Envisioned, should fundraising prove successful in these dire economic times, is no mere exhibit-and-artifact center, but a living, vital place with rehearsal and performance halls — possibly a midsize theater, research library and plaza, much like the Institute for Texian Culture, that would spotlight Houston as a Mecca for energy, transportation, rural music, immigration and globalization. It would do this through — again, potentially — permanent, rotating and touring and exhibits, collections, presentations shared with — and from — other organizations and institutions.

But even if the “preliminary-potential- possible-projected” stages are worked through and this thing jells into a real committee with a real capital fundraising campaign, don’t go looking for admission tickets to this museum anytime soon.

The first possible opening date would be sometime in the spring of 2019.
That will give you plenty of time to ponder the question I posed in the title of this blog:

Does Houston need another museum?

Public healthcare providers and athletes have been under siege lately from just about everybody. 

The medical community has recently been painted as profiteers out of Charles Dickens’ pages, Uriah Heeps out to throw the middle classes into poverty so great they welcome the chance to freeze in the snow.  The move to reduce medical profit for the sake of equity comes at the same time as yet another sports figure, Michael Vick, has tarnished his professional league’s  image.

Vick, you may remember, recently completed his prison sentence and is out of the clink after sidelining himself into the dog house after his own barking mad behavior in staging public dog fights ending in bloody death or slaming dogs to their deaths for fun and profit.

So what could the health plans of managed healthcare people have in common with those in the Dog Killer’s profession, you wonder?

The maligning of these two groups — medical care planners and athletes — make this the perfect time to remember that there are real life heros — altruistic, life-saving physicians and hard-working athletes — who have big hearts.

 Their latest combined pool of fans are sixth graders who attend Houston middle schools in predominately low-income, ethically diverse neighborhoods, the kids docs and jocks have placed at the front of the line in a new heart-monitoring program that might help them live.

The hero list includes (1) Dr. John Higgins, assistant professor of medicine at University of Texas Medical School in Houston and the prime heart behind a new program to check 1,500 middle-school student athletes, and (2) the Houston Rockets, the study’s partner team with Memorial Medical School in Houston. 

 The program is estimated to raise and spend, between May and November, about $600,000 or more to check 1,500 student athletes in Houston-area middle schools to find out if they are at rist for a heart attack. Defibulators were being used for the same purpose in high schools, but Higgins thought that the diagnosis should come before high school, especially for children at risk of developing heart problems.

Houston Rockets are partnering with Memorial Hermann and UT Medical School in Houston to make the program happen within the next year or so, gathering letters of support and money to include as many students as possible.

Figuratively,  Higgins and his team are playing ball with the Rockets, and vice versa, in order to literallysave lives of Houston children. 

They are doing this  through proactively treating what has come to be known to them as the top killer among young athletes.  The program to discover any abnormal heart conditions, Houston Early Age Risk Testing and Screening, goes by the easy-to-remember trademarked acronym HEARTS.

In the first of four phases, Higgins and the Memorial Hermann’s medical team have scheduled visits with students at five Houston Independent School District middle schools thorugh May-December. Participating in what doctors say they hope will only be a first round of the program are:  Burbank, Hogg, Key,, Long and Fleming middle schools.

A Memorial Hermann news release to describe the program warns that results from a study last year in the HeartRhythm Journal showing that “less than one in 10 U.S. student-athletes who suffer sudden cardiac arrest survives.”  

One reason Higgins &  Co. are taking the tests seriously.  

“Sudden cardiac arrest is a condition in which the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating,” Higgins stated in the news release. “When this happens, blood stops flowing to the bain and other vital organs. It usually causes death if it’s not treated within minutes.”

HEARTS ™ is free for volunteer students and includes a cardiovascular exam, a 12-lead electrocardiogram more commonly known as an EKG, echocardiogram (ultrasound), plus a self-administered quesionnaire during the four-step program currently being administered to sixth graders.

“It’s around sixth grade that kids become more active and often get into sports on a more serious level,” Higgins said in the news release. Higgins also is director of exercise physiology at the Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine Institute. If his program uncoveres an abnormal heart rate in his sixth-grade subjects, then they are sent to cardiologist Dr. Gurur Biliciler-Denktas., UT Medical School’s assistnant professor of pediatricts, for treatment at Chidlren’s Memorial Hospital.

So what does all this really mean for Houston’s kids once the study information has been collected?

There are a few predictions — that Houstonians might see mprovements in the screening process or an expansion of the program to test, that they will screen all sixth-grade children in the Houston area, a tentative future program known as HEARTS Over Houston that is now developing a state program.

A woman who is helping to coordinate the program said she believe the study could revolutionize sports medicine in schools, if the state will grant the funding for heart-testing equipment.  

THE HANG-UP with piloting this potentially life-saving program is — Guess.  Go ahead.  Who do you believe are our state’s Charles Dickens’ characters who, in that author’s day, would likely thank God that there are still workhouses where the poor can go, die “and be done with.”  Who could possibly be happy that illnesses were performing their work, reducing the surplus populatons?

Our State Senate, collectively, is that august body that is, collectively, having a heart attack at the idea of purchasing heart-assessing equipment — defibulators — for schools.  They say no, so the program is reaching out to private donors through its partners.

“They don’t get it,” said the coordinator, who asked to remain anonymous in this blog, about the senators. “What the conservative wing fails to understand is that even the lives of low-income children are precious — and may one day impact the country’s futures.”

Director Evelyn Henry of that agency expressed the program’s potential for Houston’s middle schoolers in a program that no longer waits for children to enter high school before they are tested.

“Students who participate will receive a free physical examination, specialized cardiac examinations and any follow-up that’s needed at no cost to students and families,” Henry said in the news release. “We want to provide early screening and help save lives.”

Higgins said he believes schools will see a drop in sudden cardiac death among student athletes,  especially as the pilot program spreads its message and its tests to LBJ Hospital and others.

“With this screening in place, the incidence of sudden cardiac death among Houston school children may be reduced,” Higgins said. “At the end of the pilot program, we will report our findings and work with Memorial Hermann and the Houston Rockets to grow the program and offer screenings to all children in the greater Houston area.”

Houston schools that would like to participate in the study should call Memorial Hermann at 713-222-CARE or visit <a href=”http://www.memorialhermann.org/”>www.memorialhermann.org.

The mental image of Texas school children struggling to read outdated language arts textbooks while students in other states pass them by in tests and in finding careers in the future global marketplace is a frightening one, made noticeably less so by Texas senators’ support of Senate Bill 1, legislation that would  restore funding for new reading and language arts textbooks.

But while calling your senators to congratulate them on passing SB 1, consider asking them to also talk to lawmakers in the House Appropriations Committee, which proposes a 25 percent cut in new reading textooks and instructional materials under House Bill 4586.

Terry Abbott, chairman of Drive West Communications, a public relations firm with headquarters in Houston, formerly with the  Houston Independent School District Press Office and chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education, recently issued a warning over the LinkedIn network about the proposed cuts in new reading and language arts textbooks, which he said will leave school districts far short of funds needed to pay for books and educational materials the state has already ordered.

It’s a story local Houston media has been reluctant to cover — and not because it lacks importance or urgency, Abbott said.

It’s been 10 years, at least, since new reading and language arts books have been purchased by the state.  New textbooks would have given approximately 4.5 milion of the state’s students at least seven years of equity in educational materials with students in other states.The Texas Constitution requires the state to use Available School Funds to provide free textbooks, but the Legislature has asked that money for instructional materials be provided only under contingency funding.  That means that that new English Language Arts and Reading instructional materials will be included ONLY IF the Available School Fund hits the $1.4 billion mark in stock market earnings, a formula State Rep.  Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) has publicly predicted will leave about 5 million Texas students short changed.

A statewide survey showed that 73 percent of respondents wanted the state to fully fund reading and asked about the $47 billion education budget, which includes instructional material funding but makes the money dependent on how the Permanent School Fund performs on the stock market.

The House Appropriations Committee has agreed to authorize $347 million, or the total amount needed to cover continuing contracts under Proclamation 2010, but at the same time, reduced the budget for new reading instructional materials by 25 percent from the amount sought by the Texas Education Agency, from $547 million to $411 million.

Brittany Fish at Texas Curriculum, sent out a message Tuesday urging people to contact their senators today, first to congradulate them for including $895 million for the textbooks and for continuing contracts  in their budget, but to also ask for their help in getting the House to include funding in its version of SB 1 and to bring its HB 4586 supplemental appropriations bill’s 25 percent reduction in funding for reading and language arts back up to the level requested by TEA under Proclamation 2010.

“As you know, Texas is facing its most important textbook purchase in nearly a decade and it is vital that our school children have access to these new materials that will be funded in this session of the Legislature,” Fish said.

To locate the number for your senator to thank for fully supporting HB I – and to ask them to restore funding in HB 4586 — contact:

Senator Kip Averitt                                 (512) 463-0122

Senator John Carona                               (512) 463-0116

Senator Wendy Davis                              (512) 463-0110

Senator Robert Deuell                            (512) 463-0102

Senator Robert Duncan                          (512) 463-0128

Senator Rodney Ellis                                (512) 463-0113

Senator Kevin Eltife                                  (512) 463-0101

Senator Craig Estes                                    (512) 463-0130

Senator Troy Fraser                                  (512) 463-0124

Senator Mario Gallegos                            (512) 463-0106

Senator Chris Harris                                  ( 512) 463-0109

Senator Glenn Hegar                                   (512) 463-0118

Senator Juan Hinojosa                               (512) 463-0120

Senator Joan Huffman                                (512) 463-0117

Senator Mike Jackson                                  (512) 463-0111

Senator Eddie Lucio                                     (512) 463-0127

Senator Jane Nelson                                     (512) 463-0112

Senator Robert Nichols                               (512) 463-0103

Senator Steve Ogden                                     (512) 463-0105

Senator Dan Patrick                                       (512) 463-0107

Senator Kel Seliger                                          (512) 463-0131

Senator Florence Shapiro                            (512) 463-0108

Senator Eliot Shapleigh                                 (512) 463-0129

Senator Carlos Uresti                                     (512) 463-0119

Senator Leticia Van de Putte                      (512) 463-0126

Senator Kirk Watson                                      (512) 463-0114

Senator Jeff Wentworth                                (512) 463-0125

Senator Royce West                                        (512) 463-0123

Senator John Whitmire                                  (512) 463-0115

Senator Tommy Williams                              (512) 463-0104

Senator Judith Zaffirini                                   (512) 463-0121