Opinion

Rio South Texas, a bi-national region on the U.S.-Mexico Border, encompasses seven Texas counties and 10 municipalities in the State of Tamaulipas. On the U.S. side the region spans from the Gulf of Mexico ports in Brownsville-Cameron County in the east to the logistics centers of the Laredo-Webb County area in the west. The Mexican portion of the region extends from the beaches of Matamoros in the east to the manufacturing plants of Nuevo Laredo in the west. This unique location allows for deep international relations in culture and trade.

Robert E. Lee is to this day the only person to pass through the U.S. Military Academy at West Point without a single demerit. In the Mexican War, General Winfield Scott called him “the greatest soldier I’ve ever seen.” As an Army Engineer, he re-routed the Mississippi River and saved the city of St Louis. When he inherited slaves from his father-in-law, he educated them and set them free, and he referred to slavery as “a political and moral evil.”

Although my most recent CT Scan shows that my tumor has disappeared, I still make the rounds in terms of doctor visits (and will be receiving chemo for some time yet). On those doctor visits everyone wears masks, and I notice I sometimes have difficulty understanding what the masked health professional is saying. That got me to thinking about what the effect of masks is on the deaf. For some reason nobody ever seems to talk about that.