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THIS WEEK: The Wall started as an applause line at President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies. Then he won, and essentially forgot about it for two years. Now, with an incoming Democratic majority in the House, Trump has partially shut down the government. Trump is doing this because he wants to have a fight; the substance of the thing doesn’t matter. But in the process of having that fight, columnist Chris Hooks writes, The Wall has gone from a stupid idea to a vortex of stupidity that’s sucking in everything it touches.
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The Lede
Plight at the Museum
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- The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon is the state’s largest history museum by both number of artifacts and square footage. About 7,000 students visit the museum each year, and for many in the Panhandle, it’s one of the only cultural resources for miles around.
- But the museum has fallen on hard times — the building is sorely outdated, and the number of annual visitors has fallen by 53 percent since 1994. Part of the problem is the Legislature. State museums — often part of public universities — have been a quiet casualty of Texas’ sharp cuts to higher education funding.
- “I’m not saying we don’t have support, but we need a champion,” says Bill Green, history curator emeritus at the museum. “That’s what it’s going to take. A champion in Austin, plus the backing of legislators and the A&M system.”
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Sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin's Briscoe Center
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An officer with the Austin Police Department tries to redirect UT students marching south on Guadalupe St during an anti-Vietnam War protest on campus, circa 1968-1972. University Archives, UT Austin’s Briscoe Center for American History.
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UT Austin’s Briscoe Center was founded in 1991. One of the nation’s largest archives for Texas and Southern history, the center’s collection strengths have evolved to include American news media history and photojournalism, congressional and political history, and the history of public commemoration. These collections are open to the public for research in the center’s recently renovated reading room on the UT Austin campus. The foundation of countless academic pursuits, these collections also provide inspiration for the center’s own books, documentaries, exhibits, programs, and digital projects.
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Support the Texas Observer with a tax-deductible
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From the archives
Party Crasher
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- The 86th Texas Legislature convened this week. In light of that, we're resurfacing this 2006 profile of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Before bathroom bills and school choice fights, before Trump was president, before his tight re-election campaign last November, Patrick was in a four-way race for an open state Senate seat and still most famous for his radio talk show.
- From the story: “Tall and lanky with a ready smile, Patrick sports a thatch of brown hair, parted toward the middle in the style of an Irish bartender. At 55, despite some graying at the temples, he projects a youthful demeanor. A graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Patrick—whose given name was Dannie S. Goeb—came to Houston from WTTG in Washington, D.C., in the 1970s as a local sportscaster. He went bankrupt as a restaurateur in the mid-1980s. Then he reinvented himself, becoming owner of a radio station, a millionaire, and the host of a Houston drive-time talk show on KSEV-AM (700).”
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What’s Happening at the Observer
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- Save the Date! Our 2019 Rabble Rouser is set for February 26. Local music faves Shinyribs and TC Superstar will play. This year also sees the return of our annual silent auction. Tickets will be $30 in advance, $35 at the door. Watch this space for an RSVP page next week.
- Molly Ivins called the Texas Legislature the “national laboratory of bad ideas.” To keep up with all the craziness, we’re launching WTF Friday, a new weekly newsletter. Sign up to get coverage and analysis you can’t find anywhere else. The first email goes out January 18.
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