Home of Today's Common Sense

Published in the Brownsville Herald 6/13/2005
The local elections are nearly over with the only issue to be decided is will the University of Texas get its own City Commissioner or will Ernesto De Leon hold out, on June 11. Regardless of outcome, Mr. Camarillo, I believe, will be a player on the political scene for some time to come. He is very articulate and takes the time to really understand the issues. As time brings maturity and savvy to his campaign, I suggest he will be difficult to beat.
In the rest of the election, a group I will name “The County Machine”, vrs “The Insurgents” – The County Machine survived!
On May 19, “The Brownsville Herald” proclaimed in an Editorial entitled “Make Peace”, that “Voters issued a clear statement on May 7: They are tired of the animosity and personal attacks that have sullied the City Commission”. Up to that point I agree; the voters or the absence of voters did make a statement. They said we don’t like any of the candidates very much, and that when there were real messages presented, they were lost because the messenger was not even listened to; due to the rhetoric. Informal polls taken after the election bear this out.
No current office holder, in Brownsville, has anything resembling a mandate from the people to do anything, which may be good; because when nothing is expected and real progress is made, whoever is responsible will become a star.
The editorial also begs for peace in our politics which I also support whole-heartedly; and do indeed pray for a few new stars.
That said, the damage done to the credibility of the community leaders and their ability to speak for their constituency, may not be so easy to recover.
Less than 10% of those eligible, voted and only a small majority, (just a very few more than voted during early voting) of the few that voted, decided the future of Brownsville for the immediate future. In fact the folks that voted early, made up nearly half of all those that voted at all.
It would appear that the vast majority or about 70,000 people, voted against all the candidates, with their absence, and lost to the minority.
Because no one holding any office today commands the popular support of the constituency they represent, and according to anecdotal comments about candidates in the last few elections, they are really not trusted by the majority.
This set of circumstances also plays out in state and national politics, when our “non-representatives” seek support for one goal or another. In the practical reality of “quid pro quo politics” why would anyone listen – they can’t deliver the votes!
In the last several years, I have only heard: why something can’t be done. Further, so many comments in this forum such as “Brownsville suffers from poor planning” on Feb 20, 2005 and “Public Servants only serve selves” on Feb 25 should serve as a sufficient “message to the wise”.
The Brownsville Herald in a front page story, headed with “Police seek more officers to cover growing city” on Sunday, June 5, provides an opportunity for the city fathers to show whether, Mr. Hernandez can indeed “lead with experience” and Mr. Cisneros can “help shape the community” as they have declared in the campaign.
Peace and Order were the first responsibilities of society to its people when humans first started to live in groups and should continue to be now or anarchy will result, and the Valley of the 1800’s will return.
The first priority of the “City Fathers” is to provide for quality law enforcement in our community. Every other priority is dependant on that!
It is crucial that we have enough officers to accomplish the incredibly difficult job comfortably, at a living salary – as we could never pay them what they are worth. This is especially difficult as just when we get an officer trained and productive the Federal Agencies begin to look more and more attractive and the booming economy is providing civilian jobs, where no one is trying to hurt you, at better salaries. We must continue to recruit on a regular basis and find the dedicated hero that has that drive to make a difference – and pay him or her a living wage.
I spent much of my career in Federal Law Enforcement and have worked with many Brownsville Officers that I would gladly trust my life to – We just need a few more like that.
I urge the city fathers to budget for law enforcement first and then look for funding for the other programs.
I certainly do not want to hear about a circumstance where the city has to seek more taxes or a bond issue to fund law enforcement, as happened last year, because the money was used on some other program that had a higher priority. Or worse, that some officer was killed in the line of duty because there was no back up available.
There is no higher priority!