Journalism about Senate Race in Texas is getting interesting 11 months before the election. A serious campaign asking supporters to write letters to the editor in Texas could help win this for him. ALL politicians should be doing this once in a while, as a refreshing change from asking for money time after time. What do you think? Please comment and please share this article widely, especially to Facebook political groups!

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Congressman Beto O'Rourke on Immigration Reform, speaks on the House Floor about the need to pass comprehensive Immigration Reform, and that we can not be held hostage by border security concerns.

(There has been much unexpected interest all over the nation in the last article I published a few days ago on this subject, especially in the context of Facebook groups of many stripes, with some calling for more of such coverage, especially as we could go back to the early days before the announcement of his candidacy. I personally am very interested in what do the people themselves have to say in letters to the editor, which I call the Battle for the Editorial Pages.

Clearly, such letters show a coalescing and building of grassroots support, and have a powerful effect on the very same editorial page writers who end up writing the endorsements right before the primaries and then right before the general election. I believe this to be especially valuable in a large far flung state like Texas, with its more than 250 counties and lots of small- and medium-sized newspapers, who have a sometimes surprising and very healthy ability to dig deeply into the issues that concern their readers.)

By the candidate himself, almost one year ago, before he announced his Senate candidacy:

Beto O'Rourke: Mexico helps keep America great

OpEd in the Dallas Morning News Feb 14, 2017 (excerpted)

U.S.-Mexico trade supports 463,132 jobs in Texas and 6 million nationally. Those numbers reflect Mexico's status as Texas' biggest trading partner and the third largest for America. More than just exchanging goods, Texas and Mexico actually build things together. Big things, valuable things. Like cars, medical devices and consumer electronics. Mexico is unique among our trading partners because Texas workers benefit from exports to Mexico and imports from Mexico. Forty percent of the value of finished products we import from Mexico is U.S. content, for China, it's 4 percent. Exit NAFTA or start a trade war with Mexico, and say goodbye to those jobs.

Mexico has willingly sacrificed so much in the U.S.-led war on drugs, despite the fact that it is the United States that creates the demand for these illegal drugs. It would be a wonder if this sacrifice and cooperation were to survive repeated attempts to humiliate our neighbor.

It's up to us. If we allow President Donald Trump to refer to Mexico as the source of rapists and criminals in the United States without challenging his statements; or to build a wall that would physically isolate our two countries from each other; or to add a 20 percent tax on goods coming in from this critical manufacturing partner; or to threaten to send the U.S. military to fight drug gangs in Mexico while American consumers continue to smoke, snort and inject 25 percent of the world's illegal drugs, we may very well lose a good friend. This essential ally and indispensable partner ensures that we keep America great.

Beto O'Rourke is a U.S. congressman representing El Paso, Texas. He wrote this for The Dallas Morning News.

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Interview with Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks, that spells it all out brilliantly!

.youtube.com/watch?v=VzipRjUwQgo

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(Below is one of the few letters to the editor that I could find, and it reminds me of letters I wrote two years ago on behalf of Bernie Sanders at a time when mainstream media was either virtually ignoring him or treating him like some kind of eccentric socialist from the eccentric state of Vermont. Remember though that this is Dallas, and the rest of Texas' newspapers are treating his candidacy in an open and more egalitarian manner. The dearth of such letters to the editor also completely proves my point that gearing up their presence on the editorial pages of Texas, to increase name recognition, should be a strong campaigning priority for Beto and his team!)

Dallas Morning News: Why not cover O'Rourke event? November 15, 2017

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, has been traveling all over Texas conducting town hall meetings and feeding them live on Facebook. I attended a town hall Saturday at Plano Senior High. The lines snaked out the door. There were about 500 people in attendance. IN PLANO! At the close of his speech, there was a question and answer period. Attendees could ask any questions they wanted, and questions didn't need to be "vetted" or pre-approved.

O'Rourke spoke mostly about his amendment requiring a mental health assessment for service members transitioning out of the military, which is included in the final text of the National Defense Authorization Act. This being a preventive measure to avoid PTSD and suicides of service members, and get them the help they need. He also touched on all the wars we have going on and on reasonable gun control. I was bitterly disappointed that I saw so little in The Dallas Morning News about this event the next day. O'Rourke does not have the name recognition that Cruz does. Why wasn't there more coverage? Sandy Elkins, Plano

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(A superb and exemplary letter, from early in the campaign, an enthusiastic constituent of O'Rourke's sounding off in support in the also very enthusiastic hometown newspaper. These should really be appearing all over the state, in very short order, while it is still possible, since as the election grows nearer, the percentage of those getting published decreases)

O'Rourke a great candidate for Senate: Letters to Editor, El Paso Times, April 5, 2017

As a constituent, active voter, and as a veteran, I look forward to the campaign of Congressman Beto O'Rourke for the U.S. Senate. H would be a crucial voice for the state of Texas and especially for El Paso. He would be a stronger and more powerful advocate for veterans, an area I'm interested in. The Senate carries more weight than the House, obviously. That's where we need Beto. But for him to win, we will have to get behind him 100 percent. He will need the support of El Pasoans.

To do this, we must get past the Democrat vs. Republican mentality. We should focus more on someone with the passion and desire to do what's right and best for the people, and not according to a political party's interests or the status quo. Some say it's a long shot, he hasn't a chance. Let us remember when he first ran for Congress. It was a shocker for many. He won. We have the power.

Albert A. Hernandez West Side, El Paso

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A really charming and inspiring piece that ran in the New York Times early in his campaign, on the editorial page, the kind of sought after media exposure you can't buy---in short, you have to DESERVE such exposure! Here it is slightly condensed:

Why Texas Democrats Are Betting on Beto O'Rourke

Opinion by CONTRIBUTING OP-ED WRITER Mimi Swartz MAY 19, 2017 New York Times

If you haven't heard, our junior senator from Texas, a.k.a. Darth Vader, a.k.a. Voldemort, a.k.a. Ted Cruz, has a challenger for 2018, a 44-year-old Democratic congressman from El Paso by the name of Beto O'Rourke. Older Democrats like to compare him to the Kennedys, in his politics and looks. (He is handsome and toothy, with a thatch of shimmering brown hair.) Millennials like him because he played in a punk band, because he started a software company, and because he has things in common with Bernie Sanders, to go it alone, without support from political action committees. He pulled off two upsets, the first to become a city councilman, and the second and more important in his 2012 congressional victory against 16-year incumbent Silvestre Reyes.

Here's the bad news: Thus far, Mr. O'Rourke has a $400,000 war chest compared with Mr. Cruz's $4.2 million, a big deficit to make up when the cost of running a statewide campaign in Texas starts at $1 million a week. There's the power of incumbency, too. Mr. Cruz even has 2.6 million Twitter followers to Mr. O'Rourke's 25,000, proving once again that social media is not just for hipsters. Democrats haven't won in Texas since 1994. John Cornyn, the senior Texas senator, has described Mr. O'Rourke's run as "a suicide mission." Maybe, but this is Texas: If you can't dream big, why bother?

Mimi Swartz, an executive editor at Texas Monthly, is a contributing opinion writer.

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Defending 'Beto' in the McAllen Monitor

Regarding a letter Tuesday by Jake Longoria, he is obviously a Republican who praises conservative issues, including the present White House dweller. He criticized U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke for his name. Does he know he is from El Paso? Is he familiar with their demographics? Is that name (Beto) and marijuana legalization the best he got? U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was the first candidate to visit then-candidate Donald Trump at Trump Tower. He thought (like many of us did) Trump would not go far. And he likely speculated that he could pick up the pieces of Trump supporters afterward. Cruz is widely considered to be astute but he is boorish, pompous and a general overall suck-up who is looking to gain personal power at any cost. Trump ridiculed Cruz repeatedly and held his wife up to public ridicule! He is scorned all over Washington, D.C., for his actions because his self interests are over powering and obvious.

Longoria supports the national tragedy that is Donald Trump. He supports Cruz because he has conservative values that he apparently identifies with -- although Cruz' only accomplishments have been to twice shut down the federal government because he could not get his way. Name one accomplishment of Cruz designed to help Texans, much less the Rio Grande Valley?

The man is contemptible. You can keep him! I will take a white 'Beto' over an 'Uncle Tomas' Cruz any day of the year.

Felipe Garcia, Edinburg

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More of a hardboiled business-oriented article that ran in the Houston Chronicle by their Business Correspondent, Ileana Najarro, November 11, 2017, about a month before Roy Moore took his drubbing. I really like his comment about how "Trump is pouring the concrete in the wrong place: instead of building a way against Mexico, those monies should be used to help Houstonians and their beleaguered infrastructure to recover from the Hurricane:

O'Rourke's grassroots approach to his candidacy, namely avoiding any funding from political action committees, has struck a chord with constituents in the Katy area who have expressed dismay at Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's stint in Senate, including voicing concerns over his support for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who last week found himself embroiled in a sexual misconduct with minors accusation.

Borrowing sound equipment from a rock-and-roll band performing on the courtyard stage of Katy's No Label Brewing Company, Beto O'Rourke, got a crowd going on Saturday as he addressed campaign issues varying from universal background checks for gun ownership to clean energy jobs. O'Rourke's grassroots approach to his candidacy, namely avoiding any funding from political action committees, has struck a chord with constituents in the Katy area who have expressed dismay at Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's stint in Senate, including voicing concerns over his support for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who last week found himself embroiled in a sexual misconduct with minors accusation.

The Senate hopeful delved into his support for the investment in storm-surge infrastructure in the wake of Hurricane Harvey's devastation. At the Saturday rally, one constituent thanked him for having co-sponsored an appropriations bill in 2016 meant to grant $311 million to the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control projects and storm damage reduction projects shortly after the Tax Day floods.

"Trump's pouring the concrete in the wrong place," O'Rourke said, referring to President Donald Trump's continued call for the construction of a border wall between Mexico and the United States.

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(This article does a superb job of contrasting O'Rourke's ideas on immigration with both of the Texas US Senators, and although its central premises are now a little moot since the government didn't shut down, Beto's points of view are very vital and incisive, especially on the DACA issue, which has deeply concerned me for some time now)

O'Rourke: Don't shut down the government like Ted Cruz / Fort Worth Star Telegram

Andrea Drusch McClatchy News DECEMBER 11, 2017

Ted Cruz's Democratic challenger isn't buying his party's strategy for helping the 800,000 people living in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. This could lead to a partial government shutdown, if the two parties can't reach an agreement on how to protect DACA recipients from deportation when President Donald Trump plans to end the program this spring. Now Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, who's seeking Cruz's Senate seat next year, says Democrats risk becoming just like the man he hopes to unseat -- stubborn and unable to negotiate on an issue that has an outsized impact to Texas.

O'Rourke is a champion of Texas-Mexico relations, asking his party to consider some of the GOP's proposals for increased border security. "I can't speak for Democrats, I can just speak for myself, and I can't be a part of shutting down the government."

Cruz ... has consistently staked out hard-right immigration stances. Now he's running for reelection in a state with the second largest population of DACA recipients, behind California. More than 120,000 DACA recipients live in Texas, and 7,700 live in Tarrant County.

Cruz told the Star-Telegram that "anything that provides amnesty and a pathway to citizenship and potentially chain migration for millions of people here illegally would be a mistake." Those standards are in line with the White House's demands, which call for a DACA fix to include an end to chain migration, the construction of a border wall and substantially stronger immigration enforcement."

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A very good condensed biography in WhoRunsGov

Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas)--Why He Matters

Beto O'Rourke was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, where he currently resides. He received a bachelor's degree in English literature from Columbia University. His mother, Melissa, worked for many years in a furniture store that she now owns, and his father, Pat, served as El Paso county commissioner and then county judge in the 1980s. Pat O'Rourke was a popular longtime Democrat before switching parties in 1996, when he unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Republican. The younger O'Rourke is a former guitarist for Foss, an El Paso rock band that included members who now play in the Grammy Award-winning act The Mars Volta. He was arrested in the 1990s on burglary and drunken driving charges and has called his public service a way for atoning for those mistakes. O'Rourke says the burglary arrest happened after he tripped an alarm while jumping a fence at the University of Texas-El Paso in 1995 but prosecutors declined the case. He said he received deferred adjudication 15 years ago on the drunken driving arrest and was not convicted. He called the incident "a mistake." In 1999, O'Rourke founded an El Paso Internet company called Stanton Street Technology with some friends. He served on El Paso's city council from 2005 until 2011. O'Rourke and his wife, Amy, have three children.

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The hometown newspaper comes down enthusiastically and very early on for Beto's candidacy in an Editorial from the Editorial Board, El Paso Times, February 10, 2017, a few months before he announced:

Why Beto O'Rourke should run for Senate:

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke of El Paso seems almost certain to run for the U.S. Senate in 2018. It's a long-shot run for a Democrat, but he should take the plunge. As we said when we endorsed him for re-election to the U.S. House in 2016, O'Rourke is El Paso's best advocate and has set the benchmark for accessibility by elected officials. He is respectful, even to those who disagree with him.

O'Rourke has repeatedly said he's considering a Senate run in 2018, and he is under no illusion of how challenging that will be. No Democrat has won a statewide election in Texas since 1994. The last Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas was Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. No one from El Paso has ever been elected to statewide office.

A statewide race in Texas would require at least $30 million, mainly to run advertising in Texas' multiple media markets. O'Rourke only raised about $500,000 in 2015 and 2016, so he doesn't have a ready-made donor base to tap. O'Rourke, who has little statewide name recognition, would face enormous obstacles in a Senate run. But that doesn't mean he shouldn't run.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz will be up for re-election in 2018, and he has been a divisive figure, even in his own party. Cruz might even face a significant challenge in the GOP primary. President Trump will be in his second year in office in 2018, and history shows that the party controlling the White House loses a significant number of Senate and House seats in mid-term elections.

Texas urban areas have become increasingly Democratic in recent years. As a result, the Republican margin of victory in the presidential race dropped from 16 points in 2012 to nine points in 2016. Trump's margin in Texas was similar to his margin in Ohio, long viewed as a battleground state.

What happens to House seat? Running for the Senate would require O'Rourke to give up his House seat. He has been an exemplary legislator, representing El Paso well, especially on border, military and veterans issues. O'Rourke said when he first ran in 2012 that he would serve no more than four terms in the House, meaning he would leave no later than 2020. Running for the Senate speeds his inevitable House exit by two years.

El Paso has a number of very good candidates who would seek to succeed O'Rourke in the House. Our community likely would continue to be well-represented. Running for the Senate would give O'Rourke a major platform to talk about issues of greatest concern to him and El Paso -- immigration, trade, veterans, national defense. It would certainly be a bigger platform than he is afforded as a junior member of the minority Democratic Party in the House.

An O'Rourke Senate candidacy would be good for him, for El Paso and for Texas. He might even win. Run, Beto, run.

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An excellent article to get a sense of how Beto's campaign events routinely flow, in the Caller Times in Corpus Christi, part of USA Today Network:

Beto O'Rourke, the El Paso Democrat challenging Ted Cruz for his U.S. Senate seat, made a campaign stop in Corpus Christi on Saturday and was greeted by supporters. During the event, O'Rourke chatted with attendees at the Havana Club and addressed the crowd. O'Rourke, who represents the 16th congressional district in El Paso, is considered an underdog in the race. Texas hasn't elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994, and he does not have the name recognition of Cruz, a former presidential candidate. Still, O'Rourke has made some waves since beginning his senate run and supporters Saturday seemed optimistic about his campaign. "I want them to know that I'm here, and that I've shown up to listen," O'Rourke said before entering the event.

The El Paso Times reported that he had raised nearly $2.1 million between April and June. That amount is nearly half a million dollars more than incumbent Cruz, who raised $1.6 million in that time, the story also reported. Keeping with his campaign promise to not take funds from PACs, the money for O'Rourke came from 46,574 individual contributors, who on average gave $44.40, the El Paso Times reported.

Jennifer Ellis, the Nueces County Democratic Party chair, said a Democrat could win a statewide seat this time because people are starting to realize the importance of their vote: "Texas, as well as the rest of the country, is starting to wake up, that their vote does matter and that it's time to put the right people in places of leadership."

O'Rourke discussed everything from immigration to dynamics of the current presidential administration. "It's not just stopping the bad stuff, and listen there's a lot of bad stuff got to stop. But it's also about doing the great things that animate us as Americans."

Charles Rey Luna, a Corpus resident who came out to the event, said O'Rourke seems to be in tune with the community. "He seems to have a really good insight on the community here and the community in Texas."

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I commend this article to your attention, because of its environmental focus and its blunt discussion of Trump's Border Wall, and also because the writer took the time to really ask people for their reaction to what O'Rourke was saying"

BY LORENZO ZAZUETA-CASTRO | STAFF WRITER / ALAMO, Texas

To attract additional attention to the government's looming plan to begin border wall construction through prestigious pieces of land in the Rio Grande Valley, Beto O'Rourke, toured Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge Monday, as part of his Tour of Texas, making stops in every county in the state as he challenges Ted Cruz, visited the refuge after a town hall drew more than 300 people.

"We want to share the border because shame on us for getting to a point in this country where they think it's okay to put a wall through the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge," O'Rourke said to a group. "Obviously we haven't done a good enough job sharing our story, describing what's at stake, letting people know the border is safe, it's secure, it's successful, it's positive, we're proud of it, (and) we're going to protect it, but it's going to be incumbent on us to share that with everybody today. Your being here is helping us to do that."

Led by Sierra Club Executive Member Scott Nicol, O'Rourke took a tour of a portion of the more than 2,000-acre refuge, home to some of the world's most unique species of animals and plants. Pointing to where workers began marking off areas for the proposed wall, which would sit on top of the levee, Nicol said the construction would cut the public off from the rest of the refuge. "It would also fragment more habitat and wildlife." Nicol answered O' Rourke's questions about the local species and possible damage that could come as a result of the wall's construction as they walked a portion of the refuge's seemingly endless trails.

Gary Cooper, 58, of McAllen: "I hope it'll wake people up. I hope it'll get people's attention of what we're losing here. And can it be stopped? I don't want to have to tell future generations that I did absolutely nothing about it."

When asked what could be done to stop the wall construction, O'Rourke said: "There are authorities that the administration already has; resources that they can already use to move forward with projects like these. (But) short of an explicit denial of that authority by Congress, which is really unlikely, what you're going to have to count on is the power of public opinion, and the political will that is built by people taking matters into their own hands. I feel like the border is rising up, standing up for itself, sharing this incredibly positive, beautiful and powerful story of who we are. Santa Ana is part of who we are. This is the heritage that we've inherited, that we want to pass on to our kids, that we want the rest of the country, the rest of Texas to see. We don't want a wall to close off that possibility. It is the people who live around Santa Ana who are going to save Santa Ana and that's exciting to me, that's the power of democracy."

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The Economist, in the United States section on Aug 24th 2017

(A particularly compelling point is made at the end of this article, one that goes far in explaining why O'Rourke's campaign is so important, win or lose. I say he will win, so I don't agree at all with the very predictable stance of the Economist to look down their noses, askance at anything resembling Populism. However, remember that this article appeared at the end of August last year, a very long time ago in a fast moving campaign like O'Rourke's! Stephen Fox)

A Democrat in a deep red state

Beto O'Rourke suggests how the Democrats might recover

The Democrat was Representative Beto O'Rourke--a rangy, earnest former punk-rock musician, software entrepreneur and congressman. . With each day, such partisans are sure that this president will disgust more decent Americans and disappoint the bigots and chumps who still admire him. Angry resistance to such a brute, they feel, must bring victory. O'Rourke, a floppy-haired 44-year-old who reminds fans of Robert Kennedy, sees a different opportunity. His campaign amounts to a bet that when voters chose an outsider-strongman as president, they showed a desire to take risks to end Washington gridlock--and are not too fussed about ideological questions like the size of government.

A conventional Democrat running for the Senate in Texas would lambast the Republican up for re-election in 2018: Ted Cruz, a divisive, God-and-guns, government-bashing conservative and former presidential challenger. Instead, O'Rourke barely mentions Cruz. He merely contrasts his own record of holding monthly town-hall meetings in El Paso (meeting voters instills a "healthy fear" when casting votes in DC, he says) with Cruz's relative inaccessibility.

O'Rourke frequently concludes that "the only way to get meaningful things done" is to work across party lines. Though he disagrees with Trump over such issues as immigration, the environment and criminal-justice reform, when he sees common ground--for instance, their shared skepticism about open-ended foreign wars--he says so. He stresses apprenticeships, job-training and health policies that both parties can support.

El Paso is home to a large army base and 54,000 ex-servicemen, and the Democrat has made veterans' affairs a focus of his work. In Waco, and the next day in Killeen, near a giant army base at Fort Hood, O'Rourke described a bill he is co-sponsoring with a Republican from Colorado, Mike Coffman, allowing troubled veterans with a less-than-honorable discharge access to mental health services at veterans' hospitals.

With his anecdotes about suicide prevention for veterans, or about Republican-voting Christians in rural cafe's who worry about public-school funding, O'Rourke is--in effect--exploring ways for Democrats to be the party that helps reasonable Republicans make government effective.

O'Rourke is likely to lose next year. Still, his experiment deserves to be taken seriously. His campaign aims to make politics more like public service than war. If he makes any headway, national leaders should take note.

In conclusion: Would you like to write some short letters to the Editor of Texas Newspapers, or recommend to your progressive friends, relatives, and associates in Texas that they do so? Here are two excellent lists. The USNPL (United States Newspaper List for Texas has quickly accessible names, positions, and contact info) and the other one is just a good thorough list that requires some work after you open it.

Texas newspapers, with editors' names accessible: .usnpl.com/txnews.php

a more general list at 50 states Texas: .50states.com/news/texas.htm

TEXAS NEWSPAPERS

Texas Daily Newspaper Association [Austin]

Texas Press Association [Austin]

Abilene Reporter-News [Abilene]

The Allen American [Allen]

Alpine Avalanche [Alpine]

Alpine Observer [Alpine]

Amarillo Daily News/Amarillo Globe Times [Amarillo]

Angleton Times [Angleton]

Arlington Morning News [Arlington]

Athens Daily Review [Athens]

The Austin American-Statesman [Austin]

Austin Business Journal [Austin]

Austin Chronicle [Austin]

Azle News [Azle]

The Bandera Bulletin [Bandera]

Bandera Review [Bandera]

The Banner Press [Brenham]

The Battalion [College Station]

The Baytown Sun [Baytown]

Beaumont Enterprise [Beaumont]

Beeville Bee-Picayune [Beeville]

The Brazosport Facts [Clute]

The Brownsville Herald [Brownsville]

Brownfield News [Brownfield]

Brownwood Bulletin [Brownwood]

Bryan-College Station Eagle [Bryan]

Bullard Weekly News [Bullard]

Bulletin Online [Angleton]

The Bulletin Online [Conroe]

Cameron Herald [Cameron]

The Canyon News [Canyon]

Cedar Creek Pilot [Seven Points]

The Clarion [Palestine]

Cleburne Times-Review [Cleburne]

Clifton Record Online [Clifton]

The Commerce Journal [Commerce]

Commercial Recorder [Fort Worth]

The Community News [Aledo]

Coppell Gazette [Coppell]

Corpus Christi Caller-Times [Corpus Christi]

Corsicana Daily Sun [Corsicana]

Coastal Bend Winter Texans [Coastal Bend]

The Courier [Conroe]

Courier-Gazette [McKinney]

The Cuero Record [Cuero]

Daily Commercial Record [Dallas]

Dallas Business Journal [Dallas]

The Dallas Morning News [Dallas]

Dallas Observer [Dallas]

Denton Record-Chronicle [Denton]

The Dispatch Record [Lampasas]

The Eagle Press [Fritch]

The El Campo Leader-News [El Campo]

El Paso Internet Courier [El Paso]

El Paso Times [El Paso]

Ellis County Press [Ferris]

The Examiner [Beaumont]

Focus on the News [DeSoto]

Forward Times [Houston]

Fort Worth Business Press [Fort Worth]

Fort Worth Star-Telegram [Fort Worth]

Fort Worth Weekly [Fort Worth]

Fredericksburg Standard [Fredericksburg]

Frisco Enterprise [Frisco]

Gainesville Daily Register [Gainesville]

The Galveston County Daily News [Galveston]

The Gazette-Enterprise [Seguin]

Gilmer Mirror [Gilmer]

Greenville Herald-Banner [Greenville]

Hamilton Herald-News [Hamilton]

Herald Democrat [Sherman]

The Herald-Coaster [Rosenberg]

The Highlander [Marble Falls]

Hood County News [Granbury]

Houston Business Journal [Houston]

Houston Chronicle [Houston]

The Houston Gazette [Houston]

Houston Press [Houston]

Howe Enterprise [Howe]

The Huntsville Item [Huntsville]

Jacksonville Daily Progress [Jacksonville]

Johnson City Record Courier [Johnson City]

Junction Eagle [Junction]

Katy Times [Katy]

Kerrville Daily Times [Kerrville]

Kilgore News Herald [Kilgore]

Killeen Daily Herald [Killeen]

Laredo Morning Times [Laredo]

Lewisville Leader [Lewisville]

Lockhart Post-Register [Lockhart]

Longview News-Journal [Longview]

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal [Lubbock]

McKinney Messenger [McKinney]

The Mesquite News [Mesquite]

Mineral Wells Index [Mineral Wells]

Moore County News-Press [Dumas]

The Monitor [McAllen]

The Monitor [Palestine]

Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune [Mt. Pleasant]

Navasota Examiner [Navasota]

New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung [New Braunfels]

Odessa American [Odessa]

Optic Herald [Mount Vernon]

Orange Leader [Orange]

The Ozona Stockman [Ozona]

Palacios Beacon [Palacios]

Palestine Herald Press [Palestine]

The Pampa News [Pampa]

The Paris News [Paris]

The Pasadena Citizen [Pasadena]

Pecos Enterprise [Pecos]

Plainview On The Net [Plainview]

Plainview Daily Herald [Plainview]

Plano Star Courier [Plano]

Pleasanton Express [Pleasanton]

Polk County Enterprise [Livingston]

Port Arthur News [Port Arthur]

Port Lavaca Wave [Port Lavaca]

The Progress [George West]

Rains County Leader [Emory]

The Rockdale Reporter [Rockdale]

The Round Rock Leader [Round Rock]

San Antonio Business Journal [San Antonio]

San Antonio Express-News [San Antonio]

San Marcos Daily Record [San Marcos]

Standard-Times [San Angelo]

Stephenville Empire-Tribune [Stephenville]

Sweetwater Reporter [Sweetwater]

Snyder Daily News [Snyder]

Temple Daily Telegram [Temple]

The Terrell Tribune [Terrell]

Texarkana Gazette [Texarkana]

Texas City Sun [Texas City]

The Victoria Advocate [Victoria]

Times Guardian [Canyon Lake]

Times Record News [Wichita Falls]

Uvalde Leader News [Uvalde]

Valley Morning Star [Harlingen]

Van Horn Advocate [Van Horn]

Van Zandt News [Canton]

Waco Tribune-Herald [Waco]

Waxahachie Daily Light [Waxahachie]

Weatherford Democrat [Weatherford]

Westlake Picayune [Westlake]

Weimar Mercury [Weimar]

Wharton Journal-Spectator [Wharton]

The Wilson County News [Floresville]

Wise County Messenger [Decatur]

(Article changed on January 6, 2018 at 00:51)

Authors Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/592985284186083/

Authors Bio:

Early in the 2016 Primary campaign, I started a Facebook group: Bernie Sanders: Advice and Strategies to Help Him Win! As the primary season advanced, we shifted the focus to advancing Bernie's legislation in the Senate, particularly the most critical one, to protect Oak Flat, sacred to the San Carlos Apaches, in the Tonto National Forest, from John McCain's efforts to privatize this national forest and turn it over to Rio Tinto Mining, an Australian mining company whose record by comparison makes Monsanto look like altar boys, to be developed as North America's largest copper mine. This is monstrous and despicable, and yet only Bernie's Save Oak Flat Act (S2242) stands in the way of this diabolical plan.

We added "2020" to the title.


I am an art gallery owner in Santa Fe since 1980 selling Native American painting and NM landscapes, specializing in modern Native Ledger Art.


I have always been intensely involved in politics, going back to the mid's 1970's, being a volunteer lobbyist in the US Senate for the Secretary General of the United Nations, then a "snowball-in-hell" campaign for US Senate in NM in the late 70's, and for the past 20 years have worked extensively to pressure the FDA to rescind its approval for aspartame, the neurotoxic artificial sweetener metabolized as formaldehyde. This may be becoming a reality to an extent in California, which, under Proposition 65, is considering requiring a mandatory Carcinogen label on all aspartame products, although all bureaucracies seem to stall under any kind of corporate pressure.


Bills to ban aspartame were in the State Senates of New Mexico and Hawaii, but were shut down by corporate lobbyists (particularly Monsanto lobbyists in Hawaii and Coca Cola lobbyists in New Mexico).


For several years, I was the editor of New Mexico Sun News, and my letters to the editor and op/eds in 2016 have appeared in NM, California, Wisconsin, New York, Maryland, the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, and many international papers, on the subject of consumer protection. Our best issue was 10 days before Obama won in 2008, when we published a special early edition of the paper declaring that Obama Wins! This was the top story on CNN for many hours, way back then....


My highest accomplishments thus far are

1. a plan to create a UN Secretary General's Pandemic Board of Inquiry, a plan that is in the works and might be achieved even before the 75th UN General Assembly in September 2020.


2. Now history until the needs becomes clear to the powers who run the United Nations: a UN Resolution to create a new Undersecretary General for Nutrition and Consumer Protection, strongly supported ten years ago by India and 53 cosponsoring nations, but shut down by the US Mission to the UN in 2008. To read it, google UNITED NATIONS UNDERSECRETARY GENERAL FOR NUTRITION, please.


These are not easy battles, any of them, and they require a great deal of political and journalistic focus. OpEdNews is the perfect place for those who have a lot to say, so much that they exceed the limiting capacities of their local and regional newspapers. Trying to go beyond the regional papers seems to require some kind of "inside" credentials, as if you had to be in a club of corporate-accepted writers, and if not, you are "from somewhere else," a sad state of corporate induced xenophobia that should have no place in America in 2020!

This should be a goal for every author with something current to say: breaking through yet another glass ceiling, and get your say said in editorial pages all over America. Certainly, this was a tool that was essentially ignored in 2016, and cannot be ignored in the big elections of 2020.


In my capacity as Editor of the Santa Fe Sun News, Fox interviewed Mikhail Gorbachev: http://www.prlog.org/10064349-mikhail-gorbachev