Three-Point Shots, Vol. 1, No. 21: End of Summer Edition

Cooling temperatures, a Texas-sized impeachment trial, and shooter drills in our schools — what could go wrong?

         Welcome to another edition of Three-Point Shots, a part of my Life Its Ownself Substack page. If you enjoy reading it, please 1) hit the Like button, 2) subscribe to the Life Its Ownself, and 3) share it with others in the link below. Comments are welcome and encouraged.

         But first, your Moment of Zen … one of my favorite songs about the wistful feelings that come with the passing of time.

I can see you
Your brown skin shining in the sun

You got your hair slicked back and those Wayfarers on, baby
I can tell you, my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone

— Don Henley, “The Boys of Summer”

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Friday, September 1, 2023

1.    We Survived the  Summer, But Texas’s Electric Grid Is in Trouble.

         I may be tempting fate here, but I am predicting we’ve reached the end of our hottest summer on record, from Austin to Houston to San Antonio to Dallas-Fort Worth. And the unrelenting heat has put stress on our electric grid. ERCOT – the ironically named Electric Reliability Council of Texas — issued eight conservation alerts during the month of August, asking Texans to conserve energy lest the entire grid flounder. The alerts have been so frequent that ERCOT officials worry that heat-harried Texans are tuning them out.

         “I don't feel like ERCOT is reliable,” stated Kristen Kougias, a Fort Worth mother of five, according to the Texas Tribune. She added that she doesn’t believe Texas politicians have done enough to protect the state from a repeat of the 2021 energy crisis during Winter Storm Uri.  

         Spoiler: she’s right.

         The same problems that plagued the grid in 2011, during the Groundhog Day blackouts, and in 2021, during Winter Storm Uri, still exist. Texas is one of the fastest growing states, constantly adding rows upon rows of residential rooftops, shiny glass office towers, and gigafactories. We simultaneously add capacity to our electric grid, but don’t have the nerve to take the regulatory steps to make sure that capacity is available when and where we need it. We were lucky this summer not to have a (literal?) meltdown, but the structural problems that endanger our citizens and our economy still exist.  

2.    School’s Back In: Remember Your Three R’s and Your Active Shooter Drills

         The Gun Violence Archive reports that there were at least 57 mass shootings incidents in the USA in August. Texas had at least five of them, including one last night in Austin. Gun violence sometimes breaks into the national news and consciousness, as it did last week in Jacksonville, FL. It was the shooter’s racist motivations that drove the headlines there.

         The truth is, most shootings are motivated by nothing more than transient anger and hate, and easy access to guns. (You rarely hear about multiple victims attacked by, say, a steak knife.) But some mass murders are motivated by a very specific, ideological kind of hate, or by cascading mental health issues leading the gunman to lash out violently at his or her fellow citizens.

         And so, schools are adding active shooter drills to their back-to-school activities. Check out where your locker is! Meet your new teachers! Rally for the varsity football team! Practice your active shooter drills!

         In an eerie reminder of what can, and does, happen, the University of North Carolina – Charlottesville student newspaper published this collection of text messages on its front page two days after the whole campus was placed on lockdown during an active shooter incident in which a grad student killed a professor:

(Source: UNC-Charlottesville Daily Tar Heel, August 30, 2023.)

3.    Ann Richards’s 90^th Birthday – A Personal Remembrance

(Ann W. Richards. Photo credit: By Kenneth C. Zirkel - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17425479)

         Today would have been Ann Richards’ 90^th birthday (she passed away in September 2006.) She was the 45^th Governor of Texas, serving from 1991-1995. Among many other firsts, she was the first woman Governor chosen by the people in her own right. She managed to change some things for the better, and rather permanently, most importantly the way gubernatorial appointees reflected the population they served: less good ol’ white boys, more women and people of color. She also made significant improvements in pro-consumer insurance laws, drug and alcohol treatment in prisons and jails, economic development, and stronger environmental regulations. Unfortunately, many of her reforms were undone by subsequent governors and legislatures. The arc of the moral universe is long, and in Texas it sometimes bends backwards on itself.

         I was privileged to be able to serve in her administration, and it changed my life. I’d graduated from law school and was working for a San Antonio law firm. A colleague and I were the advocacy component of the firm, and we spent all of 1989 lobbying the Legislature as it sought to pass workers’ compensation “reform” bills. Over the course of that long year (the Lege had six special sessions), I became acquainted with Ann Richards, who that summer had announced her candidacy for the 1990 Governor’s race. During 1990, I got to know her a little more, running into her at campaign events and helping to raise money for her. A few weeks after she was elected, she called and asked me to serve as one of her senior advisors, and I quickly accepted. (One does not say “no” to Ann Richards when she has a head of steam on.)

         I was in over my head, of course. I did not know her expectations (very high), her governing style (fast and furious), or Texas state government (slow and lumbering, often deliberately so). Four years went by in a whirl until she was defeated in her bid for reelection by George W. Bush.

         But those four years launched my 30-year career in public service, from leading a state agency to serving as chief of staff in the Texas Senate to representing Travis County as its government affairs guy until I retired in 2020.

         Ann, Happy Birthday, and thank you for your faith in me.

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Programming Note:

         Remember, the impeachment trial of Ken Paxton begins next Tuesday, September 5, at 9:00 a.m. It will be broadcast live on the Senate TV channel. People in the Austin area who have Spectrum cable can view it on Channel 290. I have not seen a confirmation, but I assume the Texas Tribune, which typically livestreams legislative sessions, will do so with the impeachment .   

         If you want to get up to speed on all the melodrama, Texas Monthly’s brilliant Mimi Swartz has this cheat sheet for you. Or, you can read my newsletter from Tuesday, “So Long, and Thanks for all the Fibs.”

         On Tuesday morning at 9:00, I will host a Chat on the Substack app. If you do not have it, you can get the app here on Apple or here on Google. Please join for a lively discussion of the important procedural and preliminary issues that day!

         I have not finalized plans for subsequent days yet. This will be during the evidentiary part of the proceedings. I likely will watch all day – so you don’t have to – and then publish an update every evening. Let me know in the Comments what you think about these arrangements.

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         Some reading for the weekend …

         Why we celebrate Labor Day … from the History Channel.

         New laws taking effect … in Texas with the beginning of the state fiscal year. And if this list isn’t geeky enough for you, try this.

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         Have a great weekend!