Perspectives

House Speaker Dade Phelan withdrew last week from seeking another term leading that chamber. After three rounds of voting on Saturday, state Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield emerged as the preference of most House Republicans. However, his opponent, state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, claims to have enough support from both Republicans and Democrats to clear the 76-vote threshold.

In the instant holiday- classic film “A Christmas Story,” a sub-plot within the narrative is Ralphie’s desire to get a Red Rider bb-gun, despite his mom’s protestations that it will “put somebody’s eye out.” Spoiler alert: Her admonition nearly comes true when one of Ralphie’s shots ricochets back and breaks the left lens of his glasses.

I read a story recently about a lady school teacher in Yazoo City, Miss., in the impoverished Delta country that is teaching unprivileged kids and there is not enough money to even pay her a salary. Yet kids that would fall through the crack of life are staying in school and making plans for the future. When asked about financial strain she faces, she uttered a phrase that applies to all of us: “What I don’t get in this life, I will get in the next.”