Sixty-six years ago last week, the De Leon Bearcats defeated the Stephenville Yellow Jackets 32-14, according to Ben Barnes, who played tackle in that game. Barnes graduated from De Leon High School in 1956. At age 22, he was represented Comanche County and surrounding counties in the Texas Legislature.
Barnes was Lieutenant Governor of Texas from 1969 to 1973. Mr. Barnes knows a thing or two about Texas, and he advised Beto O’Rourke, a candidate for Texas Governor, to visit De Leon. He told O’Rourke that people in Comanche County have concerns similar to people in most rural Texas counties.
O’Rourke met with a small group of Comanche County voters on Monday, November 22. After reminiscing about his 2018 visit to the county, O’Rourke said, “If you want to win in Texas, you have to serve everyone in Texas, you need to go everywhere, and take nobody for granted.”
A long-time educator advocated letting teachers teach, guided by standards for students and teachers, instead of teaching to a test. O’Rourke said he had heard the same from other teachers, who felt teaching the children in front of them was more important than teaching to a test. He emphasized that education is neither a Democratic nor Republican issue, saying, “We thrive or die on the quality of our education [system].”
To keep up with national averages, O’Rourke said teachers’ salaries should be increased by $10,000, right now. For teachers to work two jobs, to make ends meet, is not acceptable, he said. He supported additional education funding “to help catch students up after COVID setbacks.”
The talk turned to health care. O’Rourke said, “Our state has left around $100 billion on the table,” by not expanding Medicaid. Medicaid expansion would relieve some of the tax burden on property owners, who pay for patients who receive medical care that they cannot pay for. Expansion would close the gap for people who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to receive a Healthcare Marketplace subsidy.
Medicaid Expansion enjoys broad support among business in Texas, but recent Texas Governors and the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature are reluctant to accept the federal funding involved.
O’Rourke clarified his position on gun ownership, which has been subject to much misrepresentation. “I don’t want to take your guns away!” he said. He grew up around guns and learned to use them responsibly. “I believe in the Second Amendment,” he said, “but I don’t want people to have to worry about going to Walmart or school and being shot with a weapon of war.”
“People across the board are concerned about basically the same things,” O’Rourke said, listing jobs, school, and healthcare. “Other issues become a lot more solvable, when we take care of these three.”
Handling most issues, O’Rourke said, comes down to talking about them. “We expect reasonable people to disagree, but we respect that disagreement, and we must be honest about our own opinions.” Later, he added, “Spend time with people, and it gets harder to dislike them.”
A voter in the group said, “We don’t have to like each other to work for the common good.”