Report by D. A. Sharpe

Today, October 9, 2017, the Wise Republican Women’s organization sponsored a political luncheon at the Decatur Civic Center, Wise County, Texas. Congressman Mac Thornberry of Lubbock, Texas was the keynote speaker.

Some dozen or so elected officials, mostly from Wise County positions or City positions, including Deon Starnes, the Texas District #30 Republican Committeewoman on the State Republican Executive Committee and Texas State Senator Craig Estes.

Deon is the newly appointed Texas State Republican Convention Chairperson for the 2018 Convention, the venue at which November general election candidates are confirmed and readied for campaigning. Many people do not realize it, but the Texas Republican State Convention is the world’s largest delegated (elected) political convention. More delegates are present there, representing multiple citizens from our 254 Counties in Texas, than even at the National Political Conventions in the United States!

Congressman Thornberry Chairs the U.S. Congressional House Services Committee, and is the first Texan to be Chair of that most important Committee. He reported on the status of our U.S. Military and its needs.

He also addressed us about the elements of sociological and spiritual elements that scientific researchers have proposed are the four major elements to measure your degree of happiness: (1) your spiritual faith, (2) your family, (3) your community involvement, and (4) your work. He quoted an impressive number of measurable statistics that reveal marked depreciation in all four of these categories in our society, as compared to 40 or 50 years ago. He continued to reflect how such social depreciation affects how people vote and how they care for or ignore the structures of government around us at all levels: local, county, state and national. Congressman Thornberry’s exhortations suggested the obvious areas in which we as a nation need to undergird our lives, our views and attitudes, and how our nation needs to determine ways to find unity in more and more aspects of the issues that challenge us. Those goals are among those four elements of happiness.

At the end of the address, Congressman Thornberry fielded numerous inquiries or spoke to comments expressed from people in the audience. This forum was moderated by Wise County Republican Chairman Allen Williamson. The lingering after the meeting of a majority of the audience, continuing their interfacing with each other and with our elected officials, signaled a circumstance of favorable response among them.

Photographs:

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