The kindness of strangers, part IV

Yesterday, around 130 new students, maybe more, began attending classes in the Brazosport school district. This morning, they returned for their 2nd day.

From first-graders to high school seniors, we are happy to report that teachers, administrators and their new classmates welcomed them.

To say this it will be a bit of a culture shock to these new students is an understatement.

B'port is mostly white. There are more Americans of Hispanic heritage down here than black Americans, and most of the new students are African-American.

Even so, the newcomers of whom we've become aware have nothing but positive things to say about their welcome. We expected nothing less, but still there's a small, faint voice in our collective unconscious telling us there might be, could be a few problems, given the historical record of racial relations and fear in this country.

But then we remembered something that Jerry Jeff Walker once told us about Texas, and what it's like to live here. Jerry Jeff, a native of the State of New York, said to his mind Texas is a place where a "live and let live" attitude prevails.

We think he's right.

Then we remembered that the most famous song Jerry Jeff ever wrote, "Mr. Bojangles," has its roots back to the City of New Orleans. JJ was in the New Orleans drunk tank (for good reason, no doubt) where he happened upon Bill Robinson, known to many as Shirley Temple's tap-dancing partner in films of the 1930s.

Anyway, at the risk of stretching this good karma analogy way too far, Jerry Jeff eventually found a home in Texas, where he is nothing less than a goodwill ambassador for The Lone Star State, and now there are thousands of New Orleanians (and others) who will be making Texas their new home, some temporarily, but many, we figure, permanently, like Jerry Jeff.

So far so good.

So, let's remember what Jerry Jeff said about us and our state: Live And Let Live.
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Half-price "q"

Joe's Bar-B-Q in Alvin, arguably the best "q" restaurant in Brazoria County, is offering half-price meals to Hurricane Katrina survivors.
It ain't crawfish etouffe, but it'll do.
Just show a driver's license from Louisiana or Mississippi, reports The Bulletin, the Angleton-based weekly.
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LJ meeting for evacuees

A meeting for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina will be 10 a.m. Friday at the Lake Jackson Civic Center. [the facts]
Hurricane relief supplies collected. [the facts]