How to lose friends and negatively influence people

Suppose I sponsor a contest in which I promise the winner will receive his or her choice of the one of the following prizes:

• A week's vacation for two on the French Riviera
• A brand new, fully equipped Cadillac Escalade
• A high-definition multi-media room installed in your home
• $50,000 in cash

Now let's suppose you won the contest and you picked your prize. Doesn't matter which one you picked, but whichever one it is I tell you, "Sorry, you can't have that one. Pick another one."

"But I want the one I picked. You said that was one of the choices."

"Sorry about that. I probably shouldn't have made that one of the choices. Pick another one."

"But I don't want another one. The only reason I even entered your stupid contest in the first place was to win the prize I've picked. So give me that one."

"Can't do that. Pick another one."

"No."

"OK. Then I'll pick out one for you. Here you go, a beautiful 4-piece matching luggage set."

Now, should I wonder why you suddenly have lost all trust in me? Should I wonder why you think I'm displaying signs of cowardice? Should I wonder why you think I'm even lower on the evolutionary scale than pond scum?

Should Dallas city leaders be wondering why many of their constituents, including yours truly, think the same thing of them right now?

Look, it wasn't a bunch of fiery revolutionaries marching on City Hall that demanded a street be renamed in honor of Cesar Chavez. It was the City of Dallas that held out this carrot. And then, when the majority of respondents in a poll said "Hey, that's a great idea. Let's do that," the city pulled the carrot away. But instead of referring to these city leaders as the cowardly, spineless, untrustworthy pond scum they were, the injured parties just said, "Well, OK, let us pick another street to name after this man."

Now, instead of conceding this point, taking their victory and marching off into the sunset, the cowardly, spineless, untrustworthy pond scum are saying, "Nope, we're going to fight you on this one as well." The city leaders (except those who names are Garcia, Medrano and Salazar) have mishandled this entire affair from the beginning and, instead of owning up to their own mistakes and facing the consequences of their ineptitude, they are running away from it like cowards.

Dallas has become ashamed of what it has become. Instead of taking pride that it should be a center for diverse cultural exchanges it's trying to create more divisions than its suburbs with their illegal immigrant policies (which are not illegal immigrant policies but Hispanic discrimination policies -- I doubt if anyone with an English accent has been stopped anywhere in Dallas County in the last 20 years and been asked to prove they are here legally).

Dallas is still a backwater city divided by racial hatred. It has been ever since I moved here and sadly it continues to be that way. There is simply no other explanation for its sorry behavior in this whole street renaming controversy. It was the city that first gave people the choice of renaming Industrial Boulevard after Cesar Chavez. If the City had no intention of renaming a major boulevard after this person it should never have introduced the possibility.

I felt ashamed when I read the names on the City Council's Trinity River Committee who said they would oppose renaming Ross Avenue after Cesar Chavez. What they don't realize is the issue has nothing to do with the Ross Brothers, after whom the street was named. They were probably pretty fine folks way back in their day, but we are no longer living way back in their day so who they were and what they did is completely irrelevant. You can't turn the clock back to a Dallas that used to be. You can't click your shoes together and return to a black and white world. Besides, one of the things we're learning from the Innocent Project and the DNA evidence freeing wrongly convicted individuals, is that those black and white world was ... well ... just a white one.

Now you may be wondering whether I'm advocating randomly changing any and all street names just to suit the times we are living in. And my answer to that question is a resounding "yes," if that is the will of the people. In fact, there is name for that kind of governmental process. It's called democracy.

I don't mind the anti-renaming sentiment coming from my neighbors in the white community. That's who they are and I do not expect broad-minded thinking from them. But, frankly, I did expect more from those who claim they are "leaders" in this city. I don't know why I should expect it -- come to think of it they have never displayed any traits of real leadership to date, so I guess I shouldn't expect them to suddenly change their ways. But then those same leaders should not be wondering why so few people vote in municipal elections, why polls indicate the population doesn't trust city leadership.

Our city council does not have a Linda Koop on it, nor a Ron Natinsky, nor a Mitchell Rasansky, nor a Dave Neumann. Instead we have a Mr. Jones, a Mr. Jones, a Mr. Jones and a Mr. Jones. You know, the guy made famous in Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man":

"Something is happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones."