I’ve been captivated by the trail of Kimberly Dawn Trenor, the mother of the little girl dubbed Baby Grace.
Since our country has laws stating we are innocent until proven guilty, I’ll lay off my deep personal feelings about Trenor and her husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II.
Two-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers was tortured to death, her body stuffed inside a plastic container and stored in a shed before she was dumped in Galveston Bay.
All part of a discipline lesson to teach her manners.
“In her final hours, 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers screamed as she was whipped with leather belts that turned her skin black and blue and was dragged by her hair into a bathroom where her head was repeatedly dunked into a tub of cold water — all part of a discipline session to teach her manners,” Trenor said in a videotaped statement shown during her capital murder trail as reported by The Galveston Daily News.
But the brutality didn’t stop there. Trenor blames Zeigler for violently throwing the child several times across the family room causing the tot to hit her head on the tile floor. Autopsy results conclude her death was caused by skull fractures.
The mother, near the end of her statement, said she never meant for “what happened to happen.”
I started this blog wanting to rant and rave about these atrocities, delve into the fear this innocent child must have felt as she was about to die allegedly at the hands of someone who loved her, express sadness at the fact she was stuffed into a plastic tub partly filled with cement and left to rot for two months like garbage before being tossed into Galveston Bay.
Then there’s the anger and frustration I feel. I remember reading stories of how a fisherman found the tub containing Riley’s remains in October 2007 and the ensuing coverage where authorities asked for the public’s help in identifying the mystery child dubbed Baby Grace.
There’s sympathy for the Ohio grandmother, Sheryl Sawyers, who saw an artist’s sketch and believed the unidentified child was her granddaughter — and it was.
The mother could receive an automatic life sentence without parole if convicted of capital murder or the jury could also convict her of a lesser charge.
Prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty against either her or Zeigler, 25, because they didn't think they could prove that the pair would be a future danger, a requirement for such a punishment, according to The Galveston Daily News.
So, what are your feelings on the case?
Mary Meaux, Port Arthur News
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
My smoking quizibuck
I don't smoke.
So the really big problem isn't me trying to quit anything. At the same time, I wish to stress that I don't have a problem with people smoking - what people do on their own time to their own bodies is none of my concern.
What my problem is when adults subject their own nasty habit upon their kids.
Case in point: My wife and I walk out of a restaurant the other day and a vehicle drives by, slowly. We see the window cracked and a hand flick cigarette ashes on the ground.
Okay, I think, just someone smoking. No biggie, right?
And then I see the kids in the backseat...three of them and they're coughing.
Nothing makes me want to rip some fool out through the car window than someone pumping a car full of cigarette smoke with kids in the backseat. I mean, really...ravaging your own lungs is one thing, but putting your little, innocent children's health in jeapordy just makes me sick.
This wasn't a father either...this was a mother. I would hope, if she was a smoker during pregnancy, that she gave it up for her children's well being. And if she did, then why isn't it just as important to give it up AT LEAST while your kids are around, much less in the same car.
What do you think? Grind that, and let me know!
Mike Tobias, Port Arthur News
mtobias@panews.com
So the really big problem isn't me trying to quit anything. At the same time, I wish to stress that I don't have a problem with people smoking - what people do on their own time to their own bodies is none of my concern.
What my problem is when adults subject their own nasty habit upon their kids.
Case in point: My wife and I walk out of a restaurant the other day and a vehicle drives by, slowly. We see the window cracked and a hand flick cigarette ashes on the ground.
Okay, I think, just someone smoking. No biggie, right?
And then I see the kids in the backseat...three of them and they're coughing.
Nothing makes me want to rip some fool out through the car window than someone pumping a car full of cigarette smoke with kids in the backseat. I mean, really...ravaging your own lungs is one thing, but putting your little, innocent children's health in jeapordy just makes me sick.
This wasn't a father either...this was a mother. I would hope, if she was a smoker during pregnancy, that she gave it up for her children's well being. And if she did, then why isn't it just as important to give it up AT LEAST while your kids are around, much less in the same car.
What do you think? Grind that, and let me know!
Mike Tobias, Port Arthur News
mtobias@panews.com
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
What happened to my oldies?
Why must the line for what constitutes a song as an oldie change?
Just because the years go on doesn't mean we should lump everything that was
put out twenty years ago and beyond in the same genre of music.
When I think of an oldies channel on the radio, I think of Beatles...Van Morrison...the Mamas and the Papas. Janis Joplin for crying out loud.
Motown. Elvis. Buddy Holly.
Not Styx. Not Billy Joel. Please don't let there ever be a day when I get my "Brown-Eyed Girl" back-to-back with "Hungry Like The Wolf."
I tell you what has to happen, and this could very well benefit radio, is to diversify their stations even more. Country already does it by offering stations with Top 40, contemporary Country music and stations with Classic Country,like Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, George Jones and all those legends.
I consider 50's music as the "Rock n' Roll" era, and a station dedicated to just that would be awesome. I consider the 60's and 70's Classic Rock. And to me, because those were pretty much the founding years of relevant music, those genres should remain untouched.
From then on, music thus far can be put into genre's by decade. 80's. 90's. Today's Top 40.
In my truck now, I have a Top 40 rock station programmed, a country station, a country legends station, an 80's station programmed, and my greatly diluted oldies station.
All I ask is for a little separation. When I'm in the mood for oldies, I'm in the mood for a little "Satisfaction"...not "Come Sail Away."
What do you think? Grind that, and let me know.
Mike Tobias, Port Arthur News
mtobias@panews.com
Just because the years go on doesn't mean we should lump everything that was
put out twenty years ago and beyond in the same genre of music.
When I think of an oldies channel on the radio, I think of Beatles...Van Morrison...the Mamas and the Papas. Janis Joplin for crying out loud.
Motown. Elvis. Buddy Holly.
Not Styx. Not Billy Joel. Please don't let there ever be a day when I get my "Brown-Eyed Girl" back-to-back with "Hungry Like The Wolf."
I tell you what has to happen, and this could very well benefit radio, is to diversify their stations even more. Country already does it by offering stations with Top 40, contemporary Country music and stations with Classic Country,like Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, George Jones and all those legends.
I consider 50's music as the "Rock n' Roll" era, and a station dedicated to just that would be awesome. I consider the 60's and 70's Classic Rock. And to me, because those were pretty much the founding years of relevant music, those genres should remain untouched.
From then on, music thus far can be put into genre's by decade. 80's. 90's. Today's Top 40.
In my truck now, I have a Top 40 rock station programmed, a country station, a country legends station, an 80's station programmed, and my greatly diluted oldies station.
All I ask is for a little separation. When I'm in the mood for oldies, I'm in the mood for a little "Satisfaction"...not "Come Sail Away."
What do you think? Grind that, and let me know.
Mike Tobias, Port Arthur News
mtobias@panews.com
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Should I feel bad for not tipping my Sonic girl?
Because, after all, they are getting paid by Sonic.
And their only job is to pick up the tray and take it to you.
It's not like they made the food.
And sometimes they only walk maybe ten or twenty feet to your car.
And
also, I never have change on me. I don't like to carry paper money,
which is why I go to Sonic in the first place. Because they have that
nifty little credit card slot thingy.
And I can tell the Sonic
carhops who act like, oh, I'm not getting a tip? They hand you your
drink and food bag and then hesitate. Like, waiting for the tip to
magically appear. And their "Good-bye" to you sounds a little
heartbroken.
Do you tip your janitor for taking out the trash beneath your desk?
Do you tip your Sonic girl?
Grind that...and let me know!
Mike Tobias, Port Arthur News
mtobias@panews.com
And their only job is to pick up the tray and take it to you.
It's not like they made the food.
And sometimes they only walk maybe ten or twenty feet to your car.
And
also, I never have change on me. I don't like to carry paper money,
which is why I go to Sonic in the first place. Because they have that
nifty little credit card slot thingy.
And I can tell the Sonic
carhops who act like, oh, I'm not getting a tip? They hand you your
drink and food bag and then hesitate. Like, waiting for the tip to
magically appear. And their "Good-bye" to you sounds a little
heartbroken.
Do you tip your janitor for taking out the trash beneath your desk?
Do you tip your Sonic girl?
Grind that...and let me know!
Mike Tobias, Port Arthur News
mtobias@panews.com
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Don’t get caught driving without a warranty
I checked my cell phone during a break today at work and noticed someone had snuck me a recorded message so I checked it.
Here’s what the message said — “Don’t be caught driving without a warranty.”
Yea right. Let me sign up for a warranty for my 1992 Chevy van. And while I’m at it let me get a special warranty to cover my leaking radiator and old tires.
I really think the warranty message gets on my nerves more than those e-mails from a foreign diplomat asking for my banking information because they want to give me millions of dollars.
Here’s what the message said — “Don’t be caught driving without a warranty.”
Yea right. Let me sign up for a warranty for my 1992 Chevy van. And while I’m at it let me get a special warranty to cover my leaking radiator and old tires.
I really think the warranty message gets on my nerves more than those e-mails from a foreign diplomat asking for my banking information because they want to give me millions of dollars.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
After working way longer than I had planned on New Years Eve I went home and guess what was on TV? A Twilight Zone marathon.
The episode was one of my fav's, I think it's called Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder. That's the one where a woman, horribly disfigured, has surgery on her face but the operation didn't work. As the bandages come off the doctor dropped his scissors and the orderlies and nurses gasp in the shadows. The woman is a stunning blonde but an outcast nonetheless because by that societies standards she is ugly. Society has stated a norm and the norm in this situation is something that viewers would consider ugly- pig-faced people. All of them. Must have conformity.
She ends up leaving with a representative of a special society where she can be with people of her own kind, those who do not look pig-faced.
So why am I writing this? It made me think. How many times do we, as a society, judge people by their looks and place them into categories accordingly? As an overweight person I see this all the time and am guilty of the same thing dating back to when I was thin and young. I'd look at an overweight person and think, wow, that's gross. (ok, that was an oversimplification but you get my point).
A person I know recently lost a lot of weight and gained confidence. She's a beautiful person who goes out of her way to make others feel better about themselves and always has a compliment ready. Sadly she overheard some men comment about her rear end in a condescending way. Then a second incident happens and she overheard some men calling her ugly.
So what makes a person beautiful? Is it looks alone? Hair color, skin color, height, weight, age?
Well,...
Mary Meaux
The episode was one of my fav's, I think it's called Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder. That's the one where a woman, horribly disfigured, has surgery on her face but the operation didn't work. As the bandages come off the doctor dropped his scissors and the orderlies and nurses gasp in the shadows. The woman is a stunning blonde but an outcast nonetheless because by that societies standards she is ugly. Society has stated a norm and the norm in this situation is something that viewers would consider ugly- pig-faced people. All of them. Must have conformity.
She ends up leaving with a representative of a special society where she can be with people of her own kind, those who do not look pig-faced.
So why am I writing this? It made me think. How many times do we, as a society, judge people by their looks and place them into categories accordingly? As an overweight person I see this all the time and am guilty of the same thing dating back to when I was thin and young. I'd look at an overweight person and think, wow, that's gross. (ok, that was an oversimplification but you get my point).
A person I know recently lost a lot of weight and gained confidence. She's a beautiful person who goes out of her way to make others feel better about themselves and always has a compliment ready. Sadly she overheard some men comment about her rear end in a condescending way. Then a second incident happens and she overheard some men calling her ugly.
So what makes a person beautiful? Is it looks alone? Hair color, skin color, height, weight, age?
Well,...
Mary Meaux
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