Buddy Holly, Glenna Goodacre, and Judge Tom Head

Lubbock Girl, Glenna Maxey Goodacre, poses with some of her work.

     When I was in Lubbock High School in 1953 or 1954, a rumor floated around town about a report Lloyd’s of London published.  The report concluded Lubbock would be one of the top ten most populated cities in the United States by the year 2000.  Some of the rumor mongers flatly stated Lubbock would be the largest city in the nation.  Most everyone in town wanted to believe this notion and it was fifty years before anyone would know, so, even though no one saw the report, it was accepted as fact.

     Back then, Lubbock was just starting to show up on the national radar. In 1959, Buddy Holly died in that plane crash, but other Lubbock folks were gaining national attention.  E. J. Holub became the first consensus All-American football player at Texas Tech and went on to a stellar career with the Dallas Texans, and later the Kansas City Chiefs.  Ralna English signed a long term contract to sing on the Lawrence Welk Show.  Waylon Jennings lived to carve his niche in country music after he gave his seat on Buddy’s ill-fated plane to Richie Valens.  Mac Davis’s songwriting career took off—Nancy Sinatra, Elvis, Bobby Goldsboro, and others recorded his music.  Mac’s TV and movie career developed later, during the seventies and eighties. Glenna Goodacre attracted some attention with her compelling bronze sculptures, and in a relatively short time, she gained world-wide recognition.

     Most everyone in Lubbock had some contact with one or more of these celebrities, and everyone knew they were “regular” folks.  Any sort of “uppity” behavior or pretense is frowned upon in West Texas and these people all grew up in that atmosphere.  Lubbock citizens have come to expect some of their associates to become internationally famous.  They also expect these people to say “Hi” when they see them on the street. 

     In addition to this “down home” attitude, people from the panhandle have developed a quiet confidence that the world revolves around that part of Texas.  They are convinced that Lubbock plays an important role in world affairs.  

     Some people on the South Plains become famous for less than noble reasons, and consequently, the whole country gets to point at Lubbock and giggle.  Judge Tom Head is the latest plainsman to gain the attention and ridicule of the national media.  Judge Tom was minding his own business, trying to get a bond issue passed.  He brought up a ”worst case scenario” during a local TV interview and all hell broke loose.

     A little more background here.  Lubbock was named “The second most Conservative City in the Nation” in cities with more than 100,000 people by the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, a California think-tank concerned with such things.   (Provo, Utah, was first, although it couldn’t have been by much)  Liberal Democrats are not so rare in West Texas, but it is next to impossible to find anyone out there who will admit they voted for Obama.

     Judge Tom said he is expecting civil unrest if President Obama is re-elected.  “He is going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the U.N.” Judge Tom said.  “O.K.  What’s going to happen when that happens?  I’m thinking worst case scenario: civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war, maybe.  And we’re not talking just a few riots here and demonstrations.  We’re talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy.”

     The judge went on to say that he would block the road by standing in front of the U.N. armored personnel carriers to keep them out of Lubbock County, and the county sheriff has already promised to watch his back.

     A local criminal defense attorney, Rod Hobson, immediately went to the A-1 Flag Company and bought their entire stock of U.N. flags.  Both of them.  He has one hanging outside his office, two blocks from the court house.  Rod’s wife made a blue U.N. beret for their five pound Yorkie, a “war dog” now on duty protecting the law office.

     Many Lubbock people are embarrassed by all this, and several Democrats have called for Judge Head to resign.  The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal has also called for his resignation, but, not surprisingly, he has a small, very vocal group of supporters.
 
     That’s the way it is in Lubbock.  The judge publicly repeated something he and his cronies have been saying privately  for months.  They don’t like our current president.  They don’t want him in office.  They’re afraid of what he might do and they feel powerless to prevent the disasters he has planned.  So they think about it and they talk about it.

     My friend, Charles Flowers, said, “You can’t let people go to thinking.  If you let them go to thinking, there’s no telling what they might think up and get to believing.”  That’s true in Lubbock and it is true everywhere else.

     I’m not embarrassed by Judge Head.  I’m amused.  He is obviously very Lubbock in his thinking.  People out there believe that the world revolves around West Texas and the nation is waiting to hear what Lubbock thinks before making a move.  Some of them actually believe that Obama has singled out Lubbock County for attack by the United Nations Peace Keeping Force.  That’s silly.  Everyone knows they’ll hit New York City first.