THANK YOU so much to those who are working on fixing this issue.
It is most appreciated. 
The problem with the stock ROM is that when you select a "favrotie" contact the Today screen using "People", or from a "Contact Card", or from "Call History", it ALL forces you to the HTC Messaging screen.
The problem with the HTC messaging screen is that it's SLOW and it doesn't allow the functionality of MS Messaging (like inserting pre-written text messages)