Explanation

On Monday, Dec. 17, the University Interscholastic League approved my media request for a “videographer” credential as well as requests for the two other media people in my company for whom I was requesting credentials.

See the following email:

 [UIL FootballMedia Credential Request Approved 
Inbox 
UIL Media Department Dec 17 (5 days ago) to me 

Thank you for submitting your online credential request. Your credential request was received and approved.] 

I made it through the gate inspection without incident with the sideline pass I had picked up at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. When I got to the sideline, an eagle-eyed employee wearing a “Platinum Security” uniform (I assume he is affiliated with Cowboys Stadium and not the UIL) noticed my camera (which is only 2.4 inches tall and 4.8 inches long and weighs 9.5 ounces) and questioned my credential. 

He informed me that he would have to call a UIL official over to ask him whether I would be allowed to use that camera as a videographer. The UIL official and the “Platinum Security” man came over to where I was standing on the sideline a few minutes later (just as the coin toss was being held) and told me I could not, even though I had been approved as a “videographer” (as I had explicitly requested to be on the online application form on Monday, which also included a link to a previous production). 

So I took only still photos during the game. As the game wore on and it was clear my team was not going to win, I realized that God Himself (in the form of the double-crossing UIL official who had accosted me) had intervened to keep me from having to produce a video of the game action. 

I was fully prepared to do so, regardless of the outcome of the game, as I have videos on this channel of two rare Gilmer losses to Argyle in December of 2011 and to Prestonwood in September of 2012. I bow to the almighty authority of the University Interscholastic League, though. I don’t have the kind of bucks (pardon the pun) that State Farm, FOX Sports or others have to be able to have any clout with the Leaguers. It’s always all about the money in this country. We all know that. 

Speaking of that, I recently monetized my channel, but I want all viewers to know that every dime I ever receive from YouTube will be donated directly to the Gilmer Athletic Booster Club. (My account has cleared almost $25 so far in just over two months.) I personally am not in this for the money. I love high school football because it is the one level of the sport that is NOT totally (although even it is becoming that way) about making money. 

Congratulations to both teams for making it this far. The Gilmer Buckeyes have made our entire community proud once again. Villafuerte! Also, congratulations again to the Navasota Rattlers for a perfect 16-0 run to the state championship and I wish I could have briefly documented on YouTube your awesomely dominant performance during the game to make up for the fact I didn’t video but a few plays of your offense the other time our two teams met in Lufkin in 2009. C’est la vie and life goes on. Thank God (the REAL One, not the UIL) for Texas high school football! 

 Sincerely, 

 gilmergreene aka William Russell Greene

A DRAWING of a $20 bill with Sam Houston in place of Andrew Jackson, published in the Oct. 6 Dallas Morning News, caught my attention. The fictional bill illustrated a column by Teacher Voices volunteer writer, EdWisneski. An 8th-grade student had asked him why Jackson’s image was on the bill “when he did such horrible things to the Cherokees.” As the history teacher had told his class, the “Trail of Tears” was the name given to the forcible removal of 16,000 Cherokee Indians from the southeastern U. S. to the Indian Territory in 1838, long before it became Oklahoma. Wisneski quoted Andrew Jackson as writing of the Cherokees: “Established in the midst of a superior race, they must disappear.” SINCE I have lived in four different Gilmer houses within a few blocks of what we know as the Cherokee Trace, I was inspired to renew my memory of how the Trace got its name. In short, it was the route that Texas Cherokees, then living south of here in what is now Rusk County, were driven into Indian Territory as a little known part of the Trail of Tears. Thanks to Wikipedia, I learned that In 1807 an early band of Cherokees, most likely migrating south from the Arkansas area of the Louisiana Territory, founded a village along the Red River. That same year, an inter-tribal delegation, including Cherokees, petitioned the Spanish officials at Nacogdoches for permission to settle there, which was granted. Cherokee immigration into Texas increased between 1812 and 1819. The Republic of Texas, following Sam Houston’s recommendations, established a reservation for Cherokees, but the Treaty of 1836 was never formally ratified. (Houston had lived with the Cherokees for six years, adopted their citizenship and married a Cherokee woman.) THE CHIEF known as The Bowl led many Cherokee families into Texas in 1820. They settled near present-day Dallas but were forced by local tribes to move south into what is now Rusk County. By 1822, an estimated 800 Cherokees lived in Texas. When Mexico took Texas over from Spain, Cherokees petitioned the Mexican authorities for formal land grants but were denied. In 1830, an estimated 800 Cherokees lived in three to seven settlements in Texas. When the Texas Revolution came, Cherokees tried to remain neutral. While Sam Houston, himself adopted into the tribe, sought an alliance with Cherokees while he served as president of the Texas republic, his successor, Mirabeau Lamar forcibly removed the Cherokees from their Texas lands in the Cherokee War of 1839. ALMOST 600 Cherokees, mostly women and children, led by Chief Bowl, fought the Texans, were defeated and the Bowl was killed in the battle. Most of the remaining Texas Cherokees were driven north into Indian Territory. As president of Texas Houston negotiated peace treaties with the remaining Texas Cherokees in 1843 and 1845. In 1836, when the Mexican general Santa Anna split his forces in April, Houston had ordered the attack at San Jacinto that gained Texas its independence. Sam Houston has always been my favorite Texas hero, deserving of the humongous 67-foot tall stone statue that stands outside of Huntsville. And his last residence, the Steamboat House in Huntsville, has been turned into a museum that is well worth a visit from anyone interested in Texas history. It’s not likely that anyone in the future will pack as much into 70 years as old Sam: governor of two states; president twice of a republic, Texas, and commander of its armies, and U. S. senator for 13 years. And so much more.