GOV. ABBOTT COVENES EL PASO STUDY COMMITTEE

   Texas Governor Abbott is convening a committee to study the El Paso shooting.  First, a study committee is usually a gaggle of people (mostly politicians) that talk much and accomplish little.  Second, the most effective committee is a committee of one.  Whatever results (good, bad or otherwise) any committee proposals are usually killed by the legislature.  Too many beneficial contributors object.
   This reminds me of something my mother told me years ago.  She was part Cherokee born in Indian Territory.  (No, Elizabeth Warren is not my mother.)  The tribal elders decided it would be good to educate the kids. They set up a school of 1st through 8th grades. They finally employed an elderly man that could do arithmetic.  Kids from very young until late teenagers were encouraged to attend the school.  Attendance varied from a handful to a dozen or more day to day and week to week depending.  After a while two big teenage boys began to harass the elderly teacher.  It was their version of fun.  They made physical threats and sometimes actually hit him.  Finally, one day they threatened the teacher with a gun.  He was so unnerved that he resigned.  The school was without a teacher for over a year.  Finally they found a young man from elsewhere willing to come teach, but only on his terms.
   The first day of school after all were seated at their desks, the young man sat at his desk, slowly but deliberately opened his desk drawer.  He very plainly removed a six-shooter and laid it at the front of his desk.  He announced, "The previous teacher was hurt and threatened with gun.  If anyone here is threatened or hurt it will not be the teacher."
   Mother was one of the very young kids. She said that was the meanest looking gun ever and it was on his desk every day.  No more trouble.  Over the next several years the attendance actually increased to about forty students.  Mother completed the 8th grade there, passed a county certification test, and returned as a second teacher at the school.
   Whatever, a show of force is usually all it takes.