New Nonfiction Book, Adobe Walls to Tularosa

Adobe Walls to Tularosa is a true story of Ben Hewitt, Texas rancher, gunfighter, lawman, and sometime fugitive.

My grandfather, Benjamin Tarrant Hewitt, died before I was born, but I know him well because of the many stories I heard from my mother, my uncles, and aunts. I interviewed his oldest son, Ebenezer Cole Hewitt, "Uncle Eb," in 1962 when he was 91. I spent 5 hours interviewing two 85-year-old aunts, Minnie Jackson Hewitt and Lavenia Victoria Hewitt Jackson in 1980. Over a period of many years my uncle Robert Frank Hewitt filled in many details of his father's life. I also heard details of Ben Hewitt's life from my mother, Grace Gordon Hewitt, who didn't think much of him. She said he had killed at least 12 men in gunfights and always looked over his shoulder for fear that someone would try to kill him. All the others, including my own father, Joseph Benjamin Hewitt, spoke well of Ben Hewitt.

Ben was present at the Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874 when Quanah Parker led 1,000 Comanches and Kiowas against 28 buffalo hunters huddled within the thick adobe walls of a small fort north of the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle.

Ben was primarily a business man. He bought and sold ranches, but had a quick temper and often encountered another quick tempered man. A gunfight resulted in one of them dead. Ben survived. He had 8 sons and a daughter. My father, Joseph Benjamin Hewitt, was Ben's seventh son, born on a 13-section ranch in Motley County, Texas.

This book and all of Joe B. Hewitt's books are available in e-book or print form at your on-line bookstores. E-book, ISBN 9780463551462; printed book, ISBN 9781719441902. 

Discover other titles by Joe B. Hewitt, including Murder on the Sky Ride; Mystery of the Vanished Gold; My Love, My Enemy, and Yellow Rose of Texas.

Debating 101

 

            If two people disagree on an important issue, they can argue, discuss, or debate.

            Much of the debates we hear are poor examples of convincing arguments.

            For example, "You're ugly," is not an argument; it's an insult. By insulting an opponent you may bring a chuckle to the lips of your people who agree with your position, but it will not convince others that you are correct in what you say. Rather, it makes people angry, and when they get angry, some people's logic processor shuts down.

            "That's the way you people are," insults your family and friends, inflames and angers rather than convinces.

            The purpose of debate is not to punish with words, or show an opponent as stupid by stinging him with well-chosen words. Debate is to convince others that your position is correct. Insults and ridicule are counterproductive.

Now

A cold and empty bed,

In a quiet, dark house,

Steeps the heart in dread.

 

But when love’s arms enfold,

The lonely chill evicts,

And warmth glows in the soul.

 

A heart that fought defeat,

And grief without relief,

Pumps hope with every beat.

 

Like morning sun on dew,

Filled eyes with tears of joy,

Plain things sparkle anew.

 

While love’s arms do enfold,

The past is still the past,

But Now defeats pains old.

 
---Joe B. Hewitt (2001)

Midnight Snap

In the deep dark of the night,

A small creature with big appetite,

 

Silently crept in a pantry to raid,

Not knowing a trap had been laid.

 

The poor little mouse squeaked out his pleas,

“Open the trap. You can keep the cheese.”

                        ---Joe B. Hewitt

Argentina, 1954; USA, 2013

We Have Peronists in the US too

Written, 8/27/10, still true today.

 by Joe B. Hewitt

Argentines are still sucking on the pacifier Juan Peron gave them in 1946. All they get out of it is frustration. But they still believe the Peronist promises and remain suckers, left with debts and piles of printing press money.

The disastrous snowball Peron started rolling with promises of something for nothing has left Argentina billions in debt and still sinking. In spite of the Peronist’s track record, voters continue returning them to office.

Peronist-to-the-bone President Carlos Menem had brief encounters with reality when he tried to privatize businesses such as the money-losing national telephone company. His constituents failed their painful course in cause-and-effect. Feather-bedded employees, rewarded with jobs from the political pork barrel, with no expertise and nothing to do, didn’t want to give up their cushy jobs. Like others before his, the inflation morass swallowed Menem’s administration.

Peronist, Nestor Kirchner apparently supposed printing press money would work this time when it never worked before? Then his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner succeded him and continued with the printing press money mentality.

The United States has its share of Peronists. They don’t call themselves Peronists, but their philosophy is the same. Get the vote by promising the descamisados, shirtless ones, or in North American parlance, “The little man,” a better cut out of the national pie. “Tax and spend, penalize the producers. Look not to productivity but to government handouts for a better life.” And who pays for it? “Why, the government. They have lots of money, and can print more.”

Fortunately the North American Peronists are much in the minority. Everyone doesn’t believe their divide-and-conquer slogans, such as “We’re for the little man. We’re for the old folks. We’ll keep the opposition from destroying Social Security. We’re fighting poverty. How can the richest nation in the world still have poor people?” Like Juan Peron and his ilk, they are either political opportunists who want power at any price or sincere liberals out of touch with reality.

I suggest a good lesson in cause-and-effect. Look at Argentina. Argentina has been a great nation. The country has a climate and natural resources, much like the United States. The Peronist political philosophy continues to drag it down like a panicky horse in quicksand.

Look at Great Britain and its declining pound sterling. I remember when it was worth around $5.00. Then for a long time it was worth around $3.50. Now it’s more like $1.50.

Look at Canada and its declining dollar. I remember when it took $1.10 US to buy one Canadian dollar. Now it’s more like 90 cents.

The US dollar has continued to depreciate at the same time, so these currencies fall is accelerated. Why? What have these great nations done differently? They have given in to the urge to have the government take care of everyone for life,  provide medical care for all, and a regular government check for those who don’t work.

I met a 27-year-old man in England who had never held a job. He was big, strong, healthy, and intelligent. The government had helped him get a job several times. Each time he got sick at his stomach and couldn’t work. As soon as the job was terminated, he got well. The government declared him disabled, so he lives on the dole.

Our “Peronist” politicians encourage that way of life here.

Key to Economic Progress

Key to Economic Progress

We have witnessed the folly of printing money and giving it away to fat cat corporations. It’s obviously not working. Unemployment, the best economic health indicator, keeps going up. The answer to our economic crisis has been demonstrated many times in past history and forgotten.

The answer is increased productivity.

·         Bill Gates was more responsible for the great leap forward in prosperity and a balanced budget than the government. His genius made us all more productive.

·         Before that the space program’s research helped;

·         Before that the telegraph, and telephone;

·         The Industrial Revolution and the steam engine; and before that

·         In around AD 1000 a newly invented horse collar enabled horses to plow much better than oxen and doubled farm productivity.

All these increased productivity and benefitted everyone. The Government cannot increase productivity, but can encourage it.

Death and resurrection are better than rusting away. World War II destroyed the industrial might of Germany and Japan. They were forced to retool from the ground up. It hurt  and took time, but with their new industries up and running those countries progressed more rapidly than our older technology. Giant China emerged from its long sleep and started new industry with new technology. What was China’s secret? The oppressive government finally recognized that people had to be free to use their natural initiative based on hope of reward rather than fear of punishment motivation that destroyed the Soviet Union.

General Motors was a dying dinosaur, diseased with greed, but instead of letting it die,  the Government put it on life support. Greedy executives thought only of their bonuses. Their partner in crime, the Auto Workers’ Union, demanded and got two or three times more pay than equivalent workers in other industry. The results were decreased productivity and shoddy products. Had General Motors had been allowed to die a natural death, something better would have replaced it. Volkswagen after World War II was practically worthless, it rose up like a phoenix from its ashes and became a major auto producer. As in other WWII cases of renewed technology strength and enthusiasm, VW first had to be reduced to ashes. That’s the way nature works.

 The Government fooled with nature by encouraging sorry mortgages, resulting in fat cat corporations “too big to fail” teetering on the edge of oblivion. It was a concocted artificial problem. So the Government threw around a trillion dollars, so we have an artificial solution to an artificial problem. It’s not working.

AIG was “too big to fail,” we heard. Its layers of top management and partnership with quasi government mortgage companies had swollen it into a monster too fat to rise and walk. Its failure would have had an impact world-wide and it would have hurt. But after disintegration the pieces have a way of coming back together into new and efficient companies. But we have to allow a top heavy beast to collapse.

Apparently most of the stimulus money went to banks. How productive is two entities swapping money? Not very. They are like an old story of two little boys, one with a lemonade stand and the other across the street with a popcorn stand. They had only a nickel between them. So the lemonade boy bought popcorn all day and the popcorn boy bought lemonade, trading their single nickel. After running out of the products their moms had so generously provided, each boy reports that he made a dollar. Each bought the other’s product with the same nickel. They produced nothing, used up their stock, and while crossing the street, they lost their only nickel to a bully who claimed to be a tax collector charging 10 per cent of net profit. They were short five cents and would be subject to late fees and interest.

While the banks got the money, the workers got laid off; small businesses had to cut benefits and reduce workforce. Business that produces wealth is hurting, while those who trade money prosper.

The economic stimulus behaves like a morphine addict: feel good now, hurt later. (When Heroin was first introduced it was hailed as a cure for morphine addiction.) The economic stimulus has not increased productivity. Rather it is the narcotic that keeps recipients going back for more and has decreased output of real goods.

 The Government can keep on printing more money, but it only makes the addiction worse.

Bureaucracies and politicians don’t produce, they consume. They may take our money and give some of it back, and we feel good temporarily. But the money we have left is worth less. Inflation is lower than I can remember, but it is being held up artificially. When the natural order of things begins to come together, we will see how inflation is the equal opportunity

Use Your Grudge Bucket

Use Your Grudge Bucket

Intentionally or not, with malice or without,

Close kin, strangers, friends and all will do you wrong,

Will make you so angry you’ll scream and shout.

Stay calm and build a grudge to last so long,

Then put the big bad grudge in your grudge bucket.

Take the grudge from your mind; replace it with a song.

Be sure your grudge bucket has a hole in it.

---Joe B. Hewitt