Who says bitter rivals, fighting tough and nail for the most powerful seat in the land can’t also be BFFs? According to the New York Times, Texas Congressman Ron Paul and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, veterans of the 2008 presidential campaign, are quite friendly with each other “behind the scenes” in the 2012 campaign. According to the article, Paul points to Romney as the impetus behind such civility.

A man walks along a border wall on the Mexican side of the border with West Texas and New Mexico. Photo by Dawn Paley via Flickr, used through Creative Commons.

The Times also says the Texas Department of Agriculture, “typically concerned with detecting plant disease and regulating grain-storage warehouses,” has become a strong albeit unlikely voice in the fight to end violence on the U.S.-Mexico border. Their new website, ProtectYourTexasBorder.com, collects testimony and local news footage to illustrate the problem. The site is worth a click if you’ve ever wondered how regional leaders feel about this specific threat or wondered what a large groups of undocumented immigrants entering our country actually looks like. Next to heading down to the border yourself, this is the closest you’re likely to get to the struggles currently being experienced along the border.

Is being resource-rich a curse? The Economist takes that question and applies it to Texas, providing historic examples from Zaire to the Netherlands for comparison.

Taiwan’s Taipei Times reports that Texas Sen. John Cornyn is attempting to gain support against the Obama administration’s decision to not sell 66 F-16s to Taiwan – the plants that manufacture the jets are in Texas. Cornyn has declared that he will hold up the nomination of Mark Lippert as assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs until the issue is addressed.

What could unite a ranchland owner, a Tea Party activist, an environmentalist and an Occupy Wall Street protester? The proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, which drew some of each of those crowds to protests in Texas, as the Los Angeles Times reports. President Obama effectively postponed approval of the pipeline, but that hasn’t stopped TransCanada from moving ahead with its plans.

Beaumont artist Randy Welborn featured Pig Stand #41 in "The Celebration," a tribute to his childhood in Southeast Texas. Once a popular hangout for residents in the Golden Triangle, the diner's current owners plan to raze the building and build a convenience store. Art courtesy of Randy Welborn.

By Mary Baswell
For Reporting Texas

BEAUMONT — This industrial city is poised to lose one of its most significant cultural landmarks — and for once it has nothing to do with oil, gas or the Gulf.

Demolition day is approaching for Pig Stand #41, a once-popular, circular-shaped restaurant constructed in 1941. Local historical groups, along with a grass-roots movement, are now trying to raise $350,000 to save the shuttered eatery, which is on the Society for Commercial Archeology’s list of 10 Most Endangered Roadside Places. But in October, the city approved zoning ordinances that allows the current owners to raze the building.

Its mid-century futuristic roadside design stood out in Beaumont. “This is the cover of the calendar, the iconic post-war commercial building in Beaumont,” said Gregory Smith, National Register coordinator for the Texas Historical Commission.

The original, less distinctive Pig Stand opened in Dallas in 1921 and is regarded as the nation’s first drive-through restaurant. In his book “The American Drive-In: History and Folklore of the Drive-in Restaurant in American Car Culture,” Michael Karl Witzel credits the chain as the birthplace of “car hops,” the chicken-fried steak sandwich and onion rings. He says that #41 originated Texas toast, now ubiquitous across the country. In 1934, there were more than 120 locations nationwide; now there are less than a handful left.

Artist Randy Welborn featured the Beaumont diner in “The Celebration,” a piece from his Moments to Remember collection. In the Panhandle, #41’s signature design is depicted alongside Elvis Presley in a mural that pays tribute to Route 66 pop culture.

The restaurant closed unexpectedly in 2006. Two years later, unaware of its history, Port Arthur businessmen Hamidullah Habib, Abdulla Moosa and Saleem Meghani bought the property, intending to demolish the deteriorated diner and build a convenience store. The appeal was the diner’s location, the intersection of Martin Luther Jr. Boulevard and Calder Avenue, a busy commercial corridor and main artery to Beaumont’s downtown and Lamar University as well as Interstate 10 and Highway 69.

"Save Me" appears on a window of Pig Stand #41 on Calder Ave. Preservation groups are currently working to save the cultural landmark from being demolished. Photo by Ben Griggs.

In 2009, Darlene Chodzinski, executive director of the Beaumont Heritage Society, met with the men, who own several gas stations in the area, to tell them about the building’s history. Surprised by its significance, they agreed to work with anyone interested in purchasing the property. Despite local media coverage of their offer, no buyers came forward. In October, the three returned to their original plan and the city approved a zoning request, leading many to believe a demolition permit is not far behind. The businessmen did not respond to interview requests.

The 2011 appraisal records show the land and its contents are worth $115,000, but restoring the property would cost nearly triple that amount. It’s eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, which carries a 20 percent tax incentive for restoration costs, but the 71-year-old building would need to be brought up to code, including costly asbestos abatement and a new fire suppressant system.

But restoration is just one part. Chodzinski said that in order for preservation to be truly successful, the structure must be not only saved but also function as a business, a particularly risky investment in Beaumont’s struggling economy. Others in town don’t think the building is worth saving. “Let’s take lots of photos, save souvenirs from the building, then let it go — tear it down,” Elmer117 commented on a recent Beaumont Enterprise blog post.

Smith fears it’s may already be too late. He said that a community must mobilize as soon as a historic landmark like Pig Stand #41 is threatened. “Once the wrecking ball is in place, it’s too late,” he said.

In an eleventh-hour attempt, Save Our Pig, a group of young tech-savvy residents has begun a Web campaign to “fight” for #41. The organization, which declines to talk to the media, hosts social media pages as well as a website. In a recent Facebook post, it said it was “hoping” to speak with the owners “in order to further our goal and solidify our stance.”

Carolyn Howard, executive director of Beaumont Main Street, confirmed her organization is advising the group and said that its members are staying mum in an effort to avoid “over-promising and under-delivering” but are “getting ready to do great things.”

Smith called Pig Stand #41 a “one-of-a-kind building.” Inside, waxy-purple booths still line the dining room, swivel-stools are still perched at the bar. But outside, the building’s pink and blue paint is faded and rust flakes from its whimsical, wavy awnings. Someone has scrawled “Save Me” into the dust covering the windows.

“It’s not an easy problem and there’s no simple solution,” Chodzinski said with a sigh. “But most people are looking at it with their eyes wide open. They think it would be wonderful to save the building, but they just don’t see it happening.”

Katrina Vander Horst, 11, prepares to show her 4th place Jersey cow at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo's Youth Day. The state's education budget cuts have inhibited schools' agricultural science programs and the ability of teachers to fully promote their students' success in the industry. Photo by Lynda Gonzalez.

By Lynda Gonzalez
For Reporting Texas and the Diboll Free Press

SAN ANTONIO — On a recent Saturday morning, Jordan Hevner, 16, stood by the Alamo watching longhorn cattle and horseback riders in the San Antonio Western Heritage parade, an event kicking off the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. In a few days, Hevner would show the steer, heifers, broilers and turkeys she has raised nearby. Unlike other competitions throughout the year, travel costs weren’t an issue this time.

“We about used all our bus money going to one trip to Madison,” Hevner said about going 200 miles to compete in an East Texas county. “We’ve had fundraisers to help pay for things, and we mostly rely on our booster club to help out.”

As is happening throughout Texas, her FFA chapter at East Central High School in Southeast San Antonio is dealing with budget shortfalls that affect its ability to promote students. These cuts might hurt their chances to compete for livestock prizes and command auction prices that can help pay for college.

Agriculture and livestock still define Texas. The state leads the country with the largest FFA membership, according to the association’s website, setting a record with 81,535 members in 2010. The Texas FFA says that more than 112,000 students are enrolled in high school agricultural education classes. The state has about 1,800 ag teachers, according to Clay Ewell of judgingcard.com, which handles event scoring at stock shows. The shows and rodeos dot the Texas calendar this time of year, with the annual Angelina County Youth Fair holding its 63rd edition this week.

“The number of programs has grown over the years,” Ewell said. “I think it’s because of ag’s increasing relevance in the world. Ag is a great lab experience for concepts students learn in their science, math, engineering and biology classes.”

Yet some youth fairs across the state may be drawing fewer participants. Despite their growth, ag programs still face reduced funding — with cutbacks in travel and increased costs for students. In Aubrey, northeast of Denton, FFA adviser Tracy Yarbrough said that his chapter is preparing for a likely cut to its funds next year after facing only a minimal reduction this year.

“We’ll probably be able to go to less shows,” Yarbrough said at the San Antonio show. “If the travel budget is cut, we can’t afford to send a teacher with the student, and some students don’t have parents who can take them. So, we might lose kids showing because of this.”

Many communities are trying to keep their local FFA chapters running through booster clubs, alumni associations and fundraising. Even in a metropolitan area like San Antonio, East Central High has seen increased enrollment, and its teachers rely on the local FFA booster club and other methods to fund their program.

“We always fund-raise the same amount every year, and we do a good job with that,” said Claudia Thames, president of the East Central FFA Booster Club. “But now we just really have to watch our money because of the cuts. We don’t have wiggle room anymore in our budget like we used to, and our money is going out as fast as it’s going in.”

While East Central High avoided teacher layoffs, it shouldered a 10 percent cut in supplies and a one-third cut in travel funds, according to Lorie Kempen, a teacher in her 20th year at the department.

“We took a pretty substantial hit this year,” she said. “Many times, we’re spending money out of our pocket or the booster club’s pocket because it’s important to our kids.”

Thames of the booster club added: “We even had to buy printers for our teachers in their classroom this year.”

“We have larger classes to account for,” Kempen said. “The program is something that’s important enough to our community for them to help in the adjustments, and it’s valuable to them obviously because we’re putting kids in jobs in agriculture.”

Ag programs, she said, are “one of the largest suppliers of jobs, not just by those working in the field or feeding animals, but because of all the subsidiary jobs that come from it.”

Kempen said that more than $120,000 worth of scholarships went to East Central seniors last year. However, Hevner is worried how the education cuts, as well as the statewide drought, will affect her.

“It has been more difficult raising this year when feed alone has gone up $3 for steer and turkey feed is up to $20 a bag,” Hevner said. “A lot of people have decided not to show this year because of the price of feed, and it’s one of the things that’s most affected the show industry.”

Created in 1928 as Future Farmers of America, the FFA’s mission has transformed beyond the initial intent of feeding a growing population to equipping students with the ability to pursue a variety of career paths, from engineering to science to entrepreneurship. The funding issues in local chapters, however, have hit at its core mission.

“The hardest thing is when you take the money out of the program, it limits the ability of the teacher to be at the stock show or the ability to travel to competitions,” Kempen said. “This takes out a lot of the leadership that the program requires, and it limits the resources to be successful at an event.”

The New York Times frugal traveler Seth Kugel traversed Texas, visited the Dr Pepper Museum, ate brisket at Louie Mueller’s Barbecue and couch surfed in an attempt to spend just $100 over the weekend. Meanwhile, The Toronto Star’s Kate Allen went on a taco tour of Austin on a quest to “[defend] tacos for future generations.”

The Dr Pepper Museum in Waco, one of Central Texas' many gustatory attractions. Photo by Mike Davis via Flickr, used through Creative Commons.

Texas’ crippling drought continues to make national news.  The Wall Street Journal examined the ongoing drought’s effects on the cotton industry, as planting is down 7.5% this year.

Texas legislators are still getting attention, though not necessarily in a good way. CNET reports Lamar Smith, an author of the unpopular SOPA Bill and representative of Texas’ 21st Congressional District, may pay a harsh price for his part in a bill that “become loathed by millions of Internet users.” (Our own Forrest Burnson reported this week on Smith’s challenger, a former Arizona sheriff.)

Bloomberg reports Texas mortgage holders may soon feel relief following a government settlement with the big banks that played a part in the financial crisis.

One person who failed to notice the eyes of Texas upon him: A Texas judge who was caught on videotape sleeping during testimony, says a Fox News report.

Richard Mack, a former sheriff challenging Rep. Lamar Smith in Texas' 21st Congressional District, speaks at a Phoenix event last year. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr.

By Forrest Burnson
For Reporting Texas

Rep. Lamar Smith, who ascended to the chair of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee by looking out for traditional Republican interests, has run afoul of the party’s libertarian grassroots with his attempt to bolster copyright law.

Smith, a 25-year incumbent in Central Texas’ 21st Congressional District, faces a rare primary challenge from a newly minted Texan, who has built a campaign around his opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act. In return, Internet activists are lending their support to this unlikely figure: former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack.

On Jan. 18, several major websites, including Wikipedia’s English site and Reddit, blacked themselves out in protest of SOPA, prompting a public outcry that caused the House Judiciary committee to postpone plans to draft the bill. Still, some have expressed concern that the bill’s provisions will be reintroduced under a different name. Opponents of the bill – largely Internet activists – have since been targeting its authors and supporters, funding the campaigns of their electoral opponents in retribution.

The bill, which aimed to combat online piracy of copyrighted material, was supported by entertainment organizations such as the Motion Picture Association of America. Lobbyists and interest groups that pushed for SOPA are some of Smith’s biggest campaign contributors. Between 2009 and 2011 Smith received $411,349 from these groups, according to the nonpartisan congressional research organization MapLight. Critics of the bill have said that it would unduly limit the constitutional rights of free speech and due process, giving unprecedented power to the federal government to shut down websites that violate the bill’s provisions.

Enter Mack, who moved from Arizona to Fredericksburg last year and has since filed to run for Smith’s seat in congress. The staunchly libertarian lawman has been capitalizing on the online community’s opposition toward to the bill, using it as a rallying cry against Smith, who has typically run unopposed in the primary races of his 12 terms in congress.

“The American people have asked that the federal government reduce its size and scope, and the next thing you know, this supposedly conservative Republican authors legislation to increase the power of the federal government immensely,” Mack said in an interview in late January.

Across the nation, activists are mustering support for Mack’s campaign. Outraged by SOPA, Jeremy Goodall, 32, and Bob Clarke, 29, decided to join the campaign as staffers in order to help defeat Rep. Smith during the primary race. But Goodall and Clarke don’t live in Texas’ 21st Congressional District – they don’t even live in Texas. Hailing from Colorado Springs, the two libertarian-leaning political consultants assist the campaign by raising awareness and soliciting contributions on the Internet.

“I decided the best way to communicate my distaste for SOPA and other bills like it was to go after its figurehead in D.C.,” Goodall said. “That figurehead is Lamar Smith.”

On Reddit, a popular social news aggregator website that is considered to have a generally liberal-leaning audience, congressional candidates who have voiced opposition to SOPA have succeeded in raising campaign contributions from these activists or people opposed to SOPA. For example, the Democrat challenger to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI 1), Rob Zerban, raised more than $20,000 in about a week after asking for contributions on Reddit. Ryan changed his stance and has come out against SOPA.

Mack, a former sheriff of Graham County, Ariz., drew national attention when he and a group of other sheriffs challenged the constitutionality of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, leading to the repeal of several of the bill’s provisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997. After eight years as sheriff, initially elected as a Democrat, Mack moved to Utah and made an unsuccessful bid for Utah County sheriff in 1998. In 2006, Mack ran as the Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate in Arizona, garnering 3 percent of the vote. He moved to Fredericksburg less than a year ago to work with the town’s local tea party group, though he says he never intended to run for Smith’s seat in congress until people asked him to.

“I’m probably more of a Texan than Lamar Smith is when it comes to knowing and understanding state sovereignty and independence,” Mack said in a telephone interview. “I don’t think it matters where I’ve lived. What matters is what I know about the Constitution and the proper role of government.”

Some of Mack’s positions may turn off some supporters, such as his unwavering support for gun ownership rights and his adamant defense of Arizona’s controversial immigration law that was passed by the state’s legislature in 2010. The bill gave local law enforcement the power to detain or arrest individuals suspected of being undocumented immigrants.

Conversely, the conservative constituency of the 21st District may be turned off by some of  Mack’s more libertarian positions. A former undercover narcotics officer, Mack now opposes the war on drugs and is in favor of legalization.

Recognizing that some more liberal-leaning opponents of SOPA – particularly those who congregate on Reddit – might be hesitant to support a candidate with such a conservative record, Clarke argues they need see the broader picture.

“For someone who is very liberal, your options are the candidate you hate who wants to mess with the Internet, or the candidate you hate who wants to keep the Internet free,” Clarke said.

The two consultants believe it’s a pragmatic decision for Internet activists to get behind Mack, as Smith is considered unbeatable against any Democratic opponent in this largely conservative district, which encompasses parts of San Antonio, Austin, and several rural counties in central Texas. Smith, who typically votes with the party line in congress, has never faced a serious contender in a general election.

“He’s only vulnerable in the primary,” Goodall said.

Some liberal-leaning Reddit users have expressed their support for Mack, despite some ideological differences.

“Man, I like the cut [of this] dude’s jib and I am liberal Freethinker from the Guadalupe valley,” said Reddit user “ranscot” in a thread discussing Mack’s candidacy.

The ongoing redistricting battle in Texas has added an unusual flair to this election cycle. After federal judges in San Antonio rejected the new electoral maps drawn by the Texas legislature, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s ruling. As a result, the primary elections in Texas will be delayed until the legislature and the lower court can reach an agreement. The Republican primary, originally held in March, may be pushed back as late as June, giving Mack more time to campaign and raise money. And he’s not complaining.

“The longer it goes, the better off I am,” said Mack, whose website has benefited in the past week with upgrades from anti-SOPA activists. In the past couple of weeks, Mack has raised nearly $10,000, mostly from online supporters.

Though Mack’s online clout is growing, Smith’s campaign doesn’t seem too worried.

“Congressman Smith finds it amusing to have his conservatism called into question by a man who’s only served as a Democrat, lost as a Democrat, a Republican and twice as a Libertarian, and who staunchly advocates for legalizing drugs and quitting the war on drugs,” said Mike Asmus, Smith’s campaign manager.

Goodall waved off the dig at his candidate. “Beating Lamar Smith in the primary means that the chief architect of SOPA has to walk the halls of Congress for over nine months as an object lesson,” Goodall said.

Forcing a lame-duck Smith “to walk that halls of Congress for over nine months,” Goodall said, would underscore “that the Internet can and will remove you from positions of power if you stand against freedom.”

Photo by Cecil Lindsey Jr. via Flickr.

Reuters also reported on a drought-related phenomenon that got some attention last fall: Some Texas cattle ranchers are leaving for greener (and wetter) pastures up north, thinning the state’s longhorn herds. The Atlantic looked more closely at the state’s declining longhorn numbers.

Plenty of Texas politics to grab the nation’s attention this week—The Los Angeles Times took a look at what’s next for Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s never-say-die presidential campaign (calling him a Mr. Magoo lookalike in the process). ABC News was in Round Rock to report on Gov. Rick Perry’s future back here in Texas.

Within the state, the big political story is the battle over Congressional redistricting, starting with April’s primary. Bloomberg explained the compromise reached Monday to give Hispanics more representation, but … the federal court rejected it, saying they haven’t done enough to gain consensus, as the Houston Chronicle reported.

Finally, two Texas foodie ideas gained some notice outside the state. The Wall Street Journal featured an El Paso man who attempted a diet of beer and water (the doctor in the video does not approve), and the AP reported on inmates at a Gatesville women’s prison who’ve published a cookbook, featuring one of Reporting Texas’ favorite Texas delicacies, Frito pie. Bon appetit!

Praise dancers embrace during their 12th Street Black Heritage Festival performance. Photo by Erika Aguilar for KUT News.

By Autumn Caviness
For Reporting Texas and KUT News

AUSTIN — Praise dancers in blue and white robes swayed to the music at the 12th Street Black Heritage Festival on Saturday morning as hundreds gathered for one of the first local celebrations of Black History Month. It was the 16th year of the one-day festival, held in the parking lot of Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church.

The month has special meaning for Jason Carr, a festival board member and a longtime Austin resident.

“It is a constant remembrance of the people who blazed the trail before me,” he said. “It is a reminder of what I have to be. If I’m not trying to be successful for myself, then I’m dishonoring all of those people in the past, who sweat, who shed blood, who cried at night, who did all the struggling to make today possible for me.”

“So Black History [Month] for me is remembrance of where I come from and also reminding me, of where I need to be going, and if I’m not going up, something’s wrong.”

Although Black History Month was officially recognized in 1976, it actually began as Negro History Week. In 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson chose the second week in February to commemorate the lives and notable achievements of African Americans. He chose this specific week because the birthdays of both President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass fall during the first half of February.

Landon T. Shultz, another festival board member and pastor of the Bluebonnet Hills Christian Church, said it is important to acknowledge the contributions that Black Americans have made.

“I can’t think of any people as a group who have endured more oppression and hardship,” he said, “and to come out of it and not only survived, but come out of it and thrived—to come to positions of leadership and creativity, and I don’t just mean President Obama.”

When EoT was last published, Rick Perry had begun his slow fade from the presidential race. Shortly after Perry bowed out of the race earlier this month, the New York Times wrote a national political obituary for Perry while  looking forward at his future here in Texas. Meanwhile, the Texas Tribune, which partners with the Times, put together a nifty-looking timeline of the highs and lows of the Perry campaign.

Rick Perry speaks during his presidential campaign, which he suspended earlier this month. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr.

Gawker is somewhat less concerned about Perry’s political future; it’s just enamored with his new gun.

The Guardian notes that British artist Jeremy Deller is spending a week in a Texas cave to be one with bats. In addition to any art considerations, notice the Texas details that British writers seem to relish: “Apart from the bats, the biggest attraction in this desolate corner of Texas is the state’s largest live oak tree. On the road to Utopia, every vehicle is an enormous pickup. We pass a dead armadillo and stop in a metal shed for a hot taco lunch.” (Note possibly offensive language, besides pairing armadillos and tacos in one sentence.)

The Los Angeles Times’ take on illegal Texas deer breeders focuses on the sentencing of prominent east Texas breeder Billy Powell last fall. The Houston Chronicle wrote a similar feature on Powell and illegal deer breeding back in October.

An Austin American-Statesman feature isn’t from outside Texas, but it discusses the decline of an aspect of Texan-ness that’s especially recognizable for those outside the state: The Texas twang. Researchers at the University of Texas are trying to trace the evolution of our state’s distinctive accent, and they believe they’ve pinned down the source of its gradual decline: Young, white women from the Dallas area.

By Andrew Moore, Huma Munir and Natalia Bernard
For Reporting Texas

It’s been several months since the fires in the Bastrop area have been extinguished, and the effects can still be seen on the trees and the homes. But the people are a different story. They are alive and well, and still focused on living through the fire.

Some residents, like Tina Longoria, had insurance and were lucky.

“Every business, every church, every school — you name it, everybody got together,” Longoria said. “Everywhere you go you get a fire-relief waiver or discount. They just provide anything.”

Longoria lost her house but thanks to insurance was able to buy new property. Her friends, including one with a tractor, helped her clean her old home site and avoid paying for a company to do it. Volunteer groups provided her clothing and water during the transition to a new home.

One source of support for residents was the Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry. Director Tresha Silva could not have done it without the outpouring of community support.

“We had just been hit really hard during the summer, and so our shelves were extremely bare,” Silva said. “But the community and people all over reached out in big ways and we started getting donations brought in immediately.”

Silva said that many businesses, including Wal-Mart and Walgreens, donated supplies while Dell employees organized food drives. The United Way and University of Texas student organizations were among the groups that also helped. The pantry was able to donate more than 40,000 pounds of food.

Such largesse was especially vital for residents like Christopher Alvarez, who didn’t have insurance.

“People were coming in with blankets, clothes, shoes, food, water … and just passing them out,” said Alvarez, who lost almost everything in the fire. Now he and his family are staying with friends while he saves money for a new place to live.

“It was amazing seeing everybody as a community” as well as people from “the neighboring towns like La Grange and Austin,” he said. “People who didn’t even have a relation to anybody here were coming in and offering their help.”

Environmental Investigator Gretchen Gardner said Bastrop residents are generally coping well.

“I think, without fail, everyone that I spoke to had a big smile on their face and just a ‘We’re going to get it done, we’re going to rebuild’ kind of attitude,” said Gardner, who lives and works in Bastrop and says she can’t imaging living anywhere else.

Photo illustration by Lizzie Chen

By Carson Lane
For Reporting Texas

“Viewpoints” are reported opinion pieces written for Reporting Texas.

In the 8th century B.C., the Greek poet Hesiod lamented, “I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words.”

Not long ago, New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks added to a long tradition of criticizing the moral vision of youth, this time targeting Millennials in his commentary “If It Feels Right.” Pointing to a 2008 study by Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith and a group of graduate students, Brooks criticized the high level of moral individualism in young America. “Now more people are led to assume that the free-floating individual is the essential moral unit,” he wrote. “Morality was once revealed, inherited and shared, but now it’s thought of as something that emerges in the privacy of your own heart.”

But not a few Millennials will beg to differ.

“I think the researchers got it wrong,” said Valarie Kaur, director of Groundswell, a social action initiative at Auburn Seminary in New York City. “It’s not that we don’t have a shared vocabulary to address moral issues — we just don’t have theirs. My generation is the most open-minded in history.”

Be that as it may, situational ethics have likely been with humans since the beginning. What’s different today is Millennials represent the first generation to grow up in a digitally hip, multicultural environment — one marked by the unprecedented volume of ideas, and competing moral points of view, they encounter in the course of daily life. That has led to a degree of intellectual complexity and, some argue, a generally finer feel for social and cultural diversity than previous generations.

“Nearly half of us are nonwhite or multiracial,” Kaur added. “Most of us support interracial dating, and the majority of us, including conservatives, accept gays and lesbians. We don’t frame our moral commitments in the black-and-white language of previous generations because we’ve inherited the damage that comes from absolutes, whether partisan politics or fundamentalisms.”

According to a 2004 study, “It’s all good: Moral Relativism and the Moral Mind,” conducted by Developmental Testing Service, the Millennial Generation has had access to the Internet and a diverse range of viewpoints and topics during their most inquisitive years. Its members therefore have more flexibility to choose the standards they agree with.

“I think that modern Americans have advanced moral philosophy in many ways,” said Joel Green, a 33-year-old astronomy researcher at the University of Texas at Austin. “We are now much more tolerant of differences because we better understand ourselves, and have some perspective on how much accident or circumstance determines fate, as much as skill or preparation or intelligence.”

More often than not, these beliefs stray from the moral precepts of more traditional generations. “I don’t believe my generation is more or less moral than the generations that follow,” said Kathy Olfers, 43, a stay-at-home mom who is raising teenage Millennials. “I think we may have had an easier time establishing what we believe to be right because we did not have as many choices to make. This generation of young people is bombarded with information, and it is difficult for people who are just forming moral standards to distinguish what is true, false, real or imagined.”

Green agrees. “Each generation is bombarded by new ideas,” he said. “Younger people now are much less expecting of privacy. They are much less bigoted about homosexuality, ethnicity, or drug use. So there are differences, but they are products of our evolving culture, not innate.”

In his column, Brooks warned of moral individualism, in which a person’s moral compass is determined not by either-or teachings inherited from previous generations, but instead created through personal emotion and experience.

According to Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman, that can be a good thing. Writing in the Huffington Post, Mitelman asserted that it is essential for young people to engage moral issues at a critical and personal level. “If we can lead young people to own their sense of morality — rather than feeling like it was ‘given’ to them — we may be able to help them further develop their sense of right and wrong,” he wrote.

This sense of ethics often comes from conflicting sources — not just friends but also television and films. And at least to that degree Millennial moral coordinates may line up with those belonging to Babyboomer parents or grandparents, as well.

“I would be lying if I said the media has not affected my morals,” said Hilary Holmes, 21, a psychology major at UT-Austin. “It would be impossible not to be affected by the media that happens around us unless we fully secluded ourselves from it entirely. At various times in my life, a movie or the Internet probably did affect what my morals were. However, this effect was likely fleeting because morals are not created based on one event, but rather on the way in which we perceive the world.

“More so, my own morality has affected how I read, view and interpret what I see on the Internet and television,” she said.

What would Hesiod have said about that?