If You Can Keep It

We have a school board election upon us, here in northwest Harris County, Texas. Early voting is October 20-31. Election day is Tuesday, November 4. I wrote about the ballot propositions here; the only other items on my ballot are three school board races. 

This is going to be a ridiculously long post. I'm sorry. But I figured, if you're here to find out who to vote for and who not to vote for, you'd want it in one place. Feel free to scroll to information you need, but I'm trying to offer valuable context to the decisions. The extremely condensed version is: vote for the NRG slate.

The NRG slate: Natalie Blasingame, Radele Walker, and George Edwards,
image from their website

The State of the School Board

Our school district is Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (CFISD, or Cy-Fair ISD). We’re one of the districts that led the nation a few years ago in overturning “woke” leadership and replacing it with conservatives. This took two elections to accomplish. We elected three conservatives in 2021, leaving us still a 7-3 minority. Then in 2023 we got three more, giving us a 6-1 majority. Now the question is, can we keep the board conservative—maybe even make it more so.

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.

Texas Ballot Propositions 2025

Compared to the US Constitution, the Texas Constitution is long and convoluted. There’s more a state should do than a federal government. And the amendment process is much easier to accomplish than a US constitutional amendment. A joint resolution passes out of both legislative chambers, and then appears on the following November ballot. If it receives a majority of votes, it becomes part of the Texas Constitution.

Proposed amendments are more likely to pass than not. Since 1876, there have been 714 proposed constitutional amendments; 530 were approved, and only 181 were not. (If you’re keeping track, there were also 3 that came out of the legislature and never made it to the ballot, for reasons somewhat lost to history.) My math shows a 75% pass rate. Maybe it’s because many people trust the legislature—maybe more than they should. But this year my recommendations for the 17 proposed amendments are just over ¾ in favor, with 13 for and 4 against.

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.

When Your Soul Was Full of Sorrow

 

"When your soul was full of sorrow"[i] 

It has been a tough few days for Latter-day Saints, including me.

I heard the news of the passing of our beloved prophet President Russell M. Nelson just before I went to bed late Saturday night. It was about two hours after he died. He was 101, and while we will greatly miss him, it’s hard to feel sorrow when we already had a great many bonus years with him. But we will be mourning his loss.

President Nelson image found here; Grand Blanc image found here

So my heart was heavy as I got up Sunday morning. And then I heard about the attack on the church in Grand Blanc (pronounced Grand Blank), Michigan, which is horrifying. At this point, several days later, the only known motive is anti-Mormon hatred.

Latter-day Saints are a tightly connected people. We are typically just two or three degrees of separation from anyone we meet. We will know a missionary who served in an area, or know someone who used to live there, or moved there from where we are. I don’t know those connections yet for Grand Blanc, but I have seen others online that are connected.

The sense of unsafety while going to church is unsettling. Our ancestors went through some serious persecution. The state of Missouri had an extermination order, legalizing the murder of Latter-day Saints back in the 1830s, which wasn’t removed from the books until a few decades ago. The Saints had been driven from New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois before crossing the plains to get some peace and safety in the Rocky Mountains, in a desert region with a huge salt lake, where no one else had wanted to settle.

This week, the vast majority of responses have been supportive of us. But there have been the occasional hurtful comments, like, “It’s good they’re dead; they were going to hell anyway.” Since Jesus Christ is the only judge, and “he employeth no servant there,” (2 Nephi 9:41) for He cannot be deceived—then to be glad for the death of people who were worshipping Him on a Sunday is something those commenters will have to answer to Him for.

To read full article FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

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[i] From verse 3 of “Did You Think to Pray,” Hymn 140

Thirty-year-old Prophecy Fulfilled

On Saturday, September 23, 1995, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” was given. It was in a worldwide broadcast for women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I heard the broadcast live that evening.

President Gordon B. Hinckley presented "The Family: A Proclamation
to the World" September 23, 2025, screenshot from here

At the time, I had a church assignment (a calling) to do media press releases for our local area. It became an assignment to send out press releases related to this proclamation. A proclamation from the Church is a rather rare thing; there have been only 6, and this was the 5^th; three were in the 1800s. So that was newsworthy. But the proclamation’s content didn’t seem at the time that newsworthy. The importance of family to society was so basic, it was like announcing that grass is green. But what we can see now, with thirty years of hindsight, is that it was prophetic. Society has changed so much since that day. I believe that makes the Family Proclamation even more potent today, and therefore even more worth sharing.

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.

We’re at a Turning Point

This would have been a nice week to talk about the US Constitution (Constitution Day is September 17.) But I am distracted by the news and mourning the death of Charlie Kirk, a good man.

Charlie Kirk image found here

I’m going to look at three scriptures, and then try to think things through.

Scripture 1

And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord.—D&C 112:25

This prophecy came to my mind several times this past week, particularly as we see #IAmCharlie spreading across the country—and even the world. There have been 540,000+ requests for new chapters of Turning Point USA to open in colleges and high schools.  That’s chapters, not individuals. And people are going to church, to be like Charlie.

To read full article, follow link to Substack.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Normally on 9/11 there’s plenty to talk about related to that event 24 years ago. As of yesterday, there is news eclipsing that right now. It is the assassination of Charlie Kirk yesterday (Wednesday, September 10, 2025).

As of this writing, the perpetrator has not been apprehended, and therefore we don’t know a precise motive. Charlie Kirk, despite what the enemy says, was a peacemaker. Those who have done this deed or delighted in it do not want peace.

Most of what I’m going to cover today is just a tribute to Charlie Kirk. But there are a few details I’ll cover related to the place where it happened. 

Charlie Kirk, image found here

 

To read the full article, follow link to Substack.

Labor Matters

This past Monday was Labor Day. I spent it working as usual. I’d like to share a little something about work, mainly about a perspective that, if the work matters, it doesn’t matter if it’s unpleasant.

I’ve just finished reading Zach Mercurio’s book The Power of Mattering. The book is mainly about showing other people that they matter, and how to do that, particularly as a business leader, although the principles apply to parents, friends, and everybody. Near the end is a section called “Develop a ‘So-That’ Mindset.” Mercurio tells a story of someone he met as a doctoral student:

When I was a doctoral student, one of the first research interviews I conducted was with Susan, a sought-after cleaner in the housing department at the local university. Her interview reflects much of what researchers know about how people perceive their work as meaningful, and themselves as mattering. I asked Susan, “What part of your job is the most meaningful to you?” Without pause, she described cleaning the university dormitory bathrooms on Monday morning. To me that sounded extremely unpleasant. She admitted it was, but then pivoted, saying, “I’m cleaning their bathroom so they don’t get sick. You know?”

Susan told me that she regularly uses this “so-that” framing, repeating the statement to herself as she’s doing the task: “I’m cleaning this bathroom so that these kids don’t get sick.”

Later in our interview she recalled a blind student who lived in the dormitory. “When we cleaned her room, we had to make sure we put everything back when we vacuumed—make sure the trash can was in the same spot, and that nothing was moved—so that, when she would come back into her room, she would not trip over anything.”

Then he added this:

Susan’s story is also a reminder that what’s purposeful isn’t always pleasurable. Experiencing mattering has less to do with what we’re doing and more with how we see the impact of what we’re doing. Everything has a “so that.” If you look hard enough, you’ll see another human being at the end of almost every act.

That got my attention this week. It’s certainly true that not all work is pleasurable. There’s a saying that, if you find work you love, then it never feels like work. It’s a nice sentiment, but in real life work entails hard things. Sometimes the unpleasantness is icky or dirty-hands kind of work—like Susan’s cleaning dorm bathrooms. Sometimes it’s mundane, boring tasks, like paperwork or billing, things that have to be done whether you like them or not. Sometimes it’s interpersonally unpleasant tasks like laying off employees or dealing with conflict within a team.

But if you have a larger picture, a “so-that” mindset, you can see the meaning that makes the unpleasant tasks worth doing.

To read the full article, follow link to Substack.