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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1987)
ftiiimt Community Page 1 B/The Battalion/Monday, Back-to-School Edition Battalion/Monday, August 31,1987 aperton parlays life into repeating successes By Robert Morris Staff Writer Wit’s a Wonderful Late Part II” would be the title, Dustin Hoffman would play the lead and most cer tainly the story would have some sugar-coated happy ending. Such would be the portrayal of Sen. Kent B)erton’s Midas-ized life. !y any set of guidelines, Caper- ton. D-Bryan, is for all intents and put poses the very model of success. Tdie boyish looks and mild-man- n«ed sense of humor belie the in tensity and confidence that this re spected attorney/influential graator/devoted family man pos- seijes. fact, getting a handle on exac- ■ what to make of Caperton is pmbably a difficult task for the man biliself. ■Born and raised in the giant met ropolitan area of Caldwell,” Caper- tonj was much influenced by his childhood environment. His father, Judge W.A. Caperton, was a community leader from whom the younger Caperton gleaned a ^Bng work ethic and an inclination folpublic service. Mlaperton’s own road to success pad its beginnings on Highway 6. Ipon entering Texas A&M in 1967, % i* " Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan his future became a series of goals waiting to be met. While at A&M he was elected stu dent body president, a position that gave him a working relationship with then LTesident Jack Williams. Photo by Tracy Staton Following his graduation with a fi nance degree, this relationship led to a two-year student relations job un der Williams, where Caperton was afforded the opportunity of seeing the “nuances of politics” first-hand. Caperton then started law school at the University of Texas — an ex perience he termed “culture shock.” It was back to Bryan after law school, and Caperton immediately opened his own firm. “I always envisioned that I would settle here at least for part of my li fe,” he says. “I liked the community and I felt I had the opportunity to start a good law practice here and I did so.” It’s Caperton’s “I came, I saw, I conquered” attitude that makes his life seem like a prepared script wait ing to be matter-of-factly acted out. His first involvement in local gov ernment came in 1977 when he was named municipal judge. And al though he was involved in several campaigns, such as Lloyd Bentsen’s senatorial run against Phil Gramm in 1976, his personal political life was fairly limited. However, Caperton felt the Texas Senate could use some help and he set out to get there. So, in 1980, against the advice of friends, Caperton ran against long time incumbent Bill Moore. He won the Senate seat, was eventually named best freshman legislator by Texas Monthly magazine and in his spare time — he got married. Caperton’s summation of his vic tory: “There were probably three or four of us who weren’t surprised. “I was not supposed to win that race. I ran against an incumbent who’d been in office longer than I’d been alive.” Given Caperton’s his tory, Sen. Moore might have had a better chance tackling a hurricane. And even though Caperton says he probably would have run again if he had lost, the confident tone of his voice makes it clear that was never a consideration. Caperton’s accomplishments in the Senate are numerous. As one of the leading members of a successful push to reform Texas’ open meet ings law, he was effectively able to bring local government’s policies into public view. “I believe that government should be conducted in the open,” he says. “I believe that we need to do things above board and prevail because we’re right. I don’t think Texas A&M should get funding simply be cause I’m a powerful senator. “Instead, I think we should get funding because we have the best programs and because we are a flag ship university. I believe that we can justify the funds we seek because we do the best.” Caperton was also instrumental in tort reforms passed by the last Legis lature and spent much of the special session trying to preserve funding for higher education, a priority he lists high on his agenda. “I intend to see that the commit tment to public education and higher educaton is not compromi sed,” he says. Despite all his success in the Sen ate, Caperton isn’t sure which direc tion his career will take following the completion of his current term. “At the end of this term I will be 40 years old,” he says. “I will have devoted 10 years of life to public service and I must confess that the option of being a full-time lawyer is not an unattractive one. “At the same time there will be a large turnover in 1990 and I don’t deny that the office of attorney gen eral would be a great honor and challenge, as would serving as lieu tenant governor of this state.” While Caperton makes veiled hints at his intentions, he vacillates on committing to any certain path. “I’ve never had a grand scheme,” he says. “I prefer to take it one day at a time.” One successful day at a time. batho/ic church responsible for much of Texas’ heritage DALLAS (AP) — Much of Texas’ history ind heritage is rooted in the Catholic h||rch of Spain, and its inlluence continues )day, centuries later. ghe Roman Catholic Church was the rst Christian denomination in Texas, and :t was a Catholic who was the first European Hsit what would become Texas four cen- :uries later. joday the Texas Catholic Conference es- imates there are 3.5 million to 4 million tholics in the state, most of them His- nk. In 1528, Cabeza de Vaca, a Spaniard, was ipwrecked on the Texas coast and lived ng the Indians for several years before ireturning to Mexico. A decade later, Span- h conquistadors led by DeSoto and Coro- and accompanied by missionary priests explored Central Texas and the Panhandle. The missionaries built frontier churches around which the Indians would be gath ered, converted and civilized. The Rev. James Moore, a Catholic histo rian, says the Indians often ended up as little more than slaves. That prompted a pa pal edict condemning the harsh practices and giving the Indians equal status with Eu ropeans as “creatures of God.” An uprising by the Pueblo Indians in northern New Mexico in the 1690s forced the Spanish to abandon their 80-year-old settlements around Santa Fe and fall back to El Paso, where they established several missions. The Ysleta mission there is gener ally recognized as the oldest continuously habitated site in Texas, says Gilbert Cruz, a mission historian. Over the next century, numerous mis sions were established in South Texas, and they served as hubs of the villages and towns that grew up around them — like San Antonio, Victoria, Goliad and Refugio. And the people who lived there were al most all Catholic, Cruz says. Anglo immigrants from the United States began arriving in large numbers dur ing the 1820s, and they found one of the re quirements for settling in Texas was to con vert to the state religion — Catholicism. Eight Catholics signed the Texas Decla ration of Independence, and about 50 were among the defenders of the Alamo. Although Texas was free of Mexican rule, its Catholics were part of the Diocese of Monterrey until 1839, when all of Texas except El Paso was detached and declared a prefecture apostolic in the first step toward becoming a diocese, Moore says. The Catholic heritage broadened with the influx of Czech, German, Polish and Belgian immigrants who arrived in the 1850s and 1860s, building many Catholic communities that endure today. Panna Maria, established in 1354 south of San An tonio, is built around the oldest Polish Cath olic church in the United States. In 1874, the diocese of San Antonio was formed as the second in Texas, and in 1891 the Diocese of Dallas was created. The 20th Century has seen 11 more Texas dioceses designated, four in the 1960s and three in the 1980s. Twenty-eight Catholic hospitals in Texas now treat more than a million patients an nually. Texas Catholic schools enroll hun dreds of thousands of students in kinder garten through college, second only to the state’s public schools in numbers of stu dents. Formed in the early 1960s, the Texas Catholic Conference, a statewide organiza tion of bishops, clergy and church workers, presents a unified church voice on a variety ol internal, ecumenical and secular matters. The conference has successfully lobbied state government on a variety of issues, in cluding minimum wage, abortion and paro chial school accreditation, said Callan Gra ham, its first director. “I don’t think any other state has done it quite to the extent we have,” says Graham, a Junction lawyer and rancher who was a state representative and later a lobbyist. IThe Student’s World Highlighter- Chronicle Subscription Special discount to Texas A&M students, faculty and staff for the fall semester. lews from around the world, the nation and the state. Thought-provoking editorials. Special features. Sports stories and scores. Movie, album and video reviews. 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