June Scene and Heard

Did you know that May was National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month? You’d think that would be bigger than Cinco de Mayo here in S.A., where we have the dubious distinction of one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the country. And believe it or not, we’ve improved quite a bit in the last 15 years or so. In 1994, nearly 60 percent of Bexar County’s births were to girls between 15 and 17 years old. That’s high school age.

Now local folks can proudly say that only about 40 percent of births are to those 15 to 17 years old. But that’s still a spectacular 73 percent higher than the national average. We may have come a long way, baby, but where high school age moms are concerned, we’ve got a long way to go.

Mayor Julian Castro, Metro Health chief Dr. Fernando Guerra, Project WORTH director Janet Realini and many others were in the spotlight last month at news conferences and community forums. All over town, future-oriented leaders are working to help teens understand the consequences of premature parenthood, including low birth weight babies, single-parent families (most of the teen births are to unmarried moms), and diminished opportunities for young women to finish school and realize their own dreams. If they have dreams.

What’s it to you? Even if you don’t know one single teen mom, consider this: Bexar County taxpayers shelled out about $175 million in public dough to support new moms between 10 and 19 years old in 2004, according to Metro Health department figures.

There are no quick answers to the problem. But a recent local survey by Project WORTH folks (whose members range from ultra-conservative to liberal groups) produced some powerful food for thought. Asked about how schools should approach the hot-button topic of sex ed, more than 80 percent of the parents from low-income, predominantly Hispanic families said they favored teaching middle and high schoolers about safe sex, pregnancy prevention and abstinence, instead of abstinence-only.

Considering the price we pay in money and lives, surely it’s worth a shot.

China cabinet

“The largest event in human history.”

That’s how S.A.’s Jose Villarreal describes the Shanghai Expo, the massive trade fair that opened May 1 and is expected to attract more than 100 million visitors over its six-month run. Villarreal’s role as commissioner for U.S. involvement in the Expo—symbolized by a $61-million-dollar pavilion boasting multiple massive movie screens showing the glories of American life—surely boosted S.A.’s participation in the fair. It also helped former mayor Henry Cisneros (who made the city’s first major push for involvement with Japan), councilwoman Elisa Chan and others raise an impressive half mil to give S.A. a larger role than any other Texas city at the fair—three solid days of non-stop exposure for the city’s big-bucks tourism and biz-boosting videos featuring the River Walk, lush rolling golf courses, factories and labs, an assortment of happy children, the Spurs, and Tony Parker and Eva Longoria.

Will it boost S.A.’s stock in world trade? Time will tell. But it should give some S.A. biz-folk a shot at more China trade.

Eastern etiquette

A biz-minded S.A. delegation of 70-plus, with Mayor Julián and Councilwoman Chan at the head, planned to fly to Shanghai for the three designated “San Antonio” days at the Expo. A few weeks before the trip, dozens of them spent an evening at a China Business Etiquette seminar sponsored by the Alamo Asian-American Chamber of Commerce, S.A. Free Trade Alliance, and UTSA’s new Confucius Institute. Asian-American Chamber prez Melinda Rodriguez welcomed Greater S.A.Chamber prez Richard Perez, Councilmen Ray Lopez, John Clamp and A. J. Rodriguez, CPS powerhouse Jelynne Burley, S.A.’s International Affairs director Beth Costello, honorary Belgian counsel Bob Braubach and the rest of the etiquette students. As Texas Secretary of State, Hope Andrade will be at the Expo during June’s Texas Days, but she drove in from Austin for the session, she said, to express pride in her hometown’s involvement and to pick up a few more tips.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Sichan Siv gave some simple protocol tips, and UTSA scholars Dr. Don Lien and Danielle Xu launched into a short course on Chinese manners and language. Tips ranged from “take plenty of toilet tissue with you” to warnings about the high alcohol content of Chinese liquor (“don’t get drunk…”) and taboo conversation topics (human rights, the U.S.-China trade deficit and Taiwan). The session wound up with the reassuring advice that aside from a couple of words (ni hao for “hello” and xie xie for “thank you,”) English will do just fine—a big relief to most workshop attendees.

In-spire-ation

Things are going swimmingly at Our Lady of the Lake U. these days. Earlier this spring the historic spire on the venerable S.A. school’s main building, destroyed by fire last year, was replaced with a new one, and it seemed to symbolize a certain rebirth of energy and hope. Adding to the momentum were a couple of big gifts announced last month—a cool million from H-E-B, and a whopping 2 million from commencement speaker Bill Greehey, who received an honorary doctorate in social work for his vision in creating the new Haven for Hope.

Hall of Famers

Good news for S.A. on several Hall of Fame fronts. Last month the Texas Business Hall of Fame announced it will honor two S.A. business powerhouses in its annual induction this fall. Carlos Alvarez, president of the Gambrinus Co., and Sirius Computer Solutions CEO Harvey Najim give our town the leading edge in this year’s group of five honorees from around the state.

Then there’s the Western Swing Hall of Fame, where S.A.’s homegrown band, Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition was honored in May, along with Dennis Fallon of S.A.’s rockabilly fave Two Tons of Steel. Rock on!

Pride of place

“This Place Matters” was the theme that showed up all over town during May’s official Tourism Week. The epicenter of the visitor industry, the S.A. Convention and Tourism Bureau, gave its top awards this year to the late, great caterer Don Strange and the Gordon Hartman Family Foundation for the visionary creation of Morgan’s Wonderland.

City leaders did a good bit of boasting about another civic coup—S.A. made it into the Top Ten on Relocate America’s widely publicized annual list of “Top Places to Live.”

Good news and a nice plug for our town. But then the Number One city on the “best place” list, for the second year running, was Huntsville. Okay, Huntsville, Alabama. But still, it kind of takes the edge off the glow.

Paper tiger

S.A.’s Kathleen Trenchard has been practicing the art of papel picado—cutting paper—for years, and her work has gained wide acclaim and exposure, from her installations in the AT&T Center to the Conservation Society’s official Fiesta medal this year. Now she’s working on a book, to be published by Wings Press, with most of the writing by Wings’ stalwart Bryce Milligan and photos by Al Rendon and others. Currently they’re trying to raise the money to cover printing costs. Want to know more? Check out Trenchard’s cutting edge web site, www.cut-it-out.org.

Elder statesman

S.A. showed up nicely in this year’s annual honors from the Texas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. Longtime community leader Glenn Biggs won the state group’s Philanthropist of the Year award for his work for Morningside Ministries. Biggs, 77, has raised more than $750,000 for Morningside through his tireless volunteering—and he’s not even slowing down. Morningside staffers Jill Utterback and Eva Mata also won top honors for their work, and all three were celebrated at a special reception in May. S.A.’s Air Force Villages and New Braunfels’ Edenhill Communities also came in for the association’s highest praise. Kudos all round.

S.A.’s man from Mars

President Barack Obama’s recent comments about expecting a manned U.S. landing on Mars in his lifetime made for unusual headlines on the rabble-rousing S.A. Lightning news site.

“Obama Not Welcome: Improper Papers!” declared Lightning owner/editor R.G. Griffing. “I am the legitimate owner of the planet Mars, and I forbid Barack Obama or his emissaries, from attempting to land on my planet.”

The gleefully pugilistic Griffing backed up his claim by posting a story from People magazine’s archives about a legal claim of ownership of Mars that he filed in Maricopa County, AZ back in 1988. The prank got Griffing a flurry of publicity and a wad of cash too, after he sold a thousand or so “titles” to 100-square-kilometer plots on the planet for $19.95 each (probably to many of the same folks who bought pet rocks).

Even back then Griffing was declaring folks persona non grata on “his” Mars, including “Sean Penn, G. Gordon Liddy, the phone company, those involved in changing the formula for Coca-Cola or the guy who hit my car.”

Asked why anyone would buy a tract on Mars even if they could get there, considering the 225-below-zero temperatures, Griffing waxed philosophical. "I figure anyone who can tolerate Phoenix in the summer could adjust to life on Mars," he said.

Signs of the times

At the height of the national health care debate, “No Socialism” yard signs suddenly started popping up on lawns around town. Now we’re seeing a yard-sign backlash of sorts. The new signs read “no selfishness.”

Cheers!

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