Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald 11/1/3004
This week has been extraordinary for an info junky like me; the analysis and analysis of the analysis of the Presidential campaigns, the different perspectives shown on CNN, CBS, NBC and Fox news television and so many different versions of the same truths in The Times (East and West), The Chronicle, and Washington Post. I was especially pleased with the lead Editorial in The Herald Sunday entitled “No Super Heros” especially since my article pointing out many of the same issues beat it by one week. The President cannot do all things and the Federal Government should not be all things to all people. The Presidential election, while important, must share equal billing with local elections. Where is the real power?

The important thing to remember is that when any one gives you things or money there is usually a condition attached; for what and how you must use the resources and how you must convince the giver that the resources were used as intended. Each of these conditions takes a little more freedom away from each of us. The result has been that more and more power over how we live is gone; what is taught in our schools and how; what names we give our schools and sports teams; how we display the artifacts of our culture and even recently what religion you must not be, to be appointed a federal judge.
Who we entrust with this power is the real reason we vote.
Congress must bear the majority of the responsibility for what situation our government is in and the only ones that can effectively change things. Our founders envisioned that Representatives would be elected every two years and would be citizen statesmen, influenced by the pressures of the “homefolks”. The axiom that all politics is local politics is very true. We must carefully consider our choices. I watched the Congressional Debates on KGBT-TV and heard one candidate, acting like a politician, spouting that we are going to have this program and that one and I will work to have this benefit and that one; but I also heard from the other candidate a rational analysis of the situation and suggestions for improvement. Which one do we want to represent us?
In my mind the Party affiliation is far less important than the person. Using some of the guides I suggested in my last column, I suggest that each of us find out what our Congressman has been doing and support him or examine the alternative. So if you really don’t like the recent redistricting the proper response is to get out and vote; also if you do, the best response is get out and vote.
The same thought process applies in considering all the issues on the ballot. We are now involved in a civil revolution that will determine the course of government for generations. At stake are issues such as how much can the government intrude on our lives; should federal government have the power to tell us what our children must learn and think; should Federal government be able to determine what artifacts can be in a local public place or should that be the province of the community. Should government be able to confiscate property merely because it will serve some positive community interest?
Crucial to all of these issue is, where do we get the money to pay for all the programs that the government gives us, that also serve to put more power over our lives in the hands of these “servants of the people”. Often the “powers that be” determine that they know what everyone needs and how it will be provided and that the government will pay for it. Any thing that comes from the government really comes from our own pockets; the only difference is who says how the money will be spent. I much prefer the person making that decision nearby and not in Washington. I want to know where that person lives! The source of all government funds, our pockets and the pockets of the 10% of the population, thought of as rich, is reaching the bottom. Anything that asks for more government money is competing with the city government, the county government, the school district, the state government and the federal government for funding. So when thinking in terms of any bond issue one must consider what must come first and who gets the dollar?
In a recent letter to the editor to The Herald, Gabriela Gonzalez, put the “elite rulers” in perspective, when she perceived that PUB and the City Fathers were “disqualifying the intelligence of the citizens of Brownsville” and threatening us with all manner of retribution. That is a sign that PUB management and the city commissioners have lost touch with the community they serve; not rule.
Similar circumstances exist at Brownsville Navigation District where many of the same political players have been “ruling” and treating the public trust as their own to do with what they please. Whether the goal was appropriate, or that there was no actual criminal behavior, is not really relevant to the electorate. “Are the leaders, leading the way the folks want them to, is the question.”
The appearances of impropriety if not actual malfeasance abound and need to be excised. Who is at fault? We are! As we either went to the polls and elected the folks that manage government or we did not go to the polls and voted for the status-quo with our absence.
Vote your conscience – but vote.