Something to think about

Muslims have died defending the freedom of millions of Americans to say hateful things about them.

Listen up, America! Our neighbors are growling!

Every once in a while, when I am spending way too long at my desk or watching the NBA playoffs, my precious dog will come up next to me, look me right in the eye, and growl. It’s not a vicious growl. It’s just her way of saying "Hey, look, buddy, you brought me into this household. I didn’t ask to be here. I really had no choice in the matter. But since you did bring me here, the very least you could do is pay a little attention to me every once in a while."

And it’s true. As much as I love my dog, I will get involved for long stretches of time in some project and the result is I wind up taking her loving, faithful companionship for granted. She’s not demanding constant attention, but she doesn’t want to be ignored either.

Today we are hearing the growls coming out of this country’s African-American neighborhoods, neighborhoods that have been shamefully, disgracefully ignored and forgotten for decades. If anyone thinks the death of one black man in the back of one police vehicle is the reason for the demonstrations we’ve witnessed these past few days in Baltimore, they are overlooking the real problem. It may be the excuse for the demonstrations, but the reason for them is the same as the reason we have seen similar types of demonstrations in black communities for the last 50 years. It’s because we have systematically ignored and forgotten and pushed aside a significant portion of the American people and after decades of neglect they are saying at "the very least you could do is pay attention to me every once in a while."

How many times have you heard the cry, whether the demonstration is in Maryland or Missouri, in New York or South Carolina, "All we want is to be heard."

But we don’t hear them. We don’t pay attention to their needs and their wants and when they finally raise their voices in despair, we too often condemn them for it.

To me, the great shame of the Obama Administration is the continued neglect of the large, poor, under-employed African-American sections of America’s larger cities. I thought for sure that our first black President would try to find some resources to help black communities. But instead his focus has been solely, it seems to me, on the middle class.

Because the spotlight now is shining down on Baltimore, let’s look at the numbers there. The white unemployment rate in Baltimore is 7.4 percent. The black unemployment rate is 18.9 percent. More than 40 percent of the families living in the neighborhoods of the city where the demonstrations took place live below the poverty level.

We have yet to see the upheavals in Texas that other states have witnessed, but, by no means, does that make us immune. The unemployment rate for whites in Austin is 5.2 percent, for blacks it’s 10 percent and that unemployment rate for African-Americans nears 14 percent in Houston and San Antonio.

Income inequality resulted in the citizen uprisings in Egypt that topped the government of Hosni Mubarak and resulted in recent violent uprisings that bordered on a revolution in Spain. As former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: "You don’t want those kind of riots here."

But, if recent events are any indication, I fear that kind of uprising may be exactly what we are going to witness unless we quit catering exclusively to the rich and pandering to the middle class. That’s one of the reasons I applaud Dallas Mayor Michael Rawlings’ Grow South initiative and his focus on public education in the city. He sees the proverbial handwriting on the wall and took steps to do something – anything – about it. But initiating a program and seeing it through successfully are two completely different things.

Personally, I am ashamed at the way we have disregarded such a large segment of our population. Perhaps the thinking is "Not only do they not contribute to our political coffers, they probably don’t even go out and vote so why should we pay any attention to them." Sure. Fine. Whatever.

Forty-one years ago — nearly a half century — Randy Newman recorded the song Rednecks and one of the verses of that song went:

"Now your northern nigger's a Negro
You see he's got his dignity
Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free
Yes he's free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he's free to be put in a cage in the South-Side of Chicago
And the West-Side
And he's free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he's free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he's free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' the niggers down"

It’s a shame, it’s an absolute disgrace that 50 years later we’re doing exactly the same thing. Listen up, America, our neighbors are growling. They’re growling in Baltimore. They’re growling in New York City. They’re growling in Cleveland. They’re growling in Ferguson, Mo. It’s time to let their voices be heard, to pay attention, to work at finding solutions to the problem that could literally tear this country apart.

It's evident where Parker Rice learned his cowardly racism

Racists are cowards. That’s why some of the earliest known racists sought anonymity behind white sheets and traveled in packs. These days they still try to hide their identities and they are usually successful at it unless someone blows their cover on You Tube. And they still travel in packs and sometimes the packs are found on buses and are called fraternities.

Highland Park racist Parker Rice is one such coward. And now it seems he comes from a family of cowards. Like his fellow Dallas racist Levi Petit, Rice, instead of facing the consequences like a straight-up human being, he hid behind the facade of an all-too-polished written statement of "apology," which they bungled anyway by trying to blame others (that demon alcohol and those bad, bad boys who taught them the racist chant they were caught singing).

But Rice and his family had a wonderful opportunity to go a long way to make amends. A group of no more than 12 to 15 individuals "protested" outside of the Rice family home the night before last. Now if I’m the patriarch of the Rice family Klan, what I’m going to do is throw open the front door of that family home, invite those 12 to 15 people inside, and invite them to join our family for dinner and a sit-down discussion. I am going to ask them what is it I can do, what is it I or my son can say to you privately and/or to the world publicly, to make this thing better. I know it won’t go away. It’s a permanent stain that will never go way. But what can we do together to make it better? And then I would see how many of those things I could do and I would hope I could do every last one of them.

That’s what I would have done if I had been Papa Rice.

But what did Papa Rice do? He packed up the family and lit out for parts unknown. They ran away. They took the coward’s way out.

For whom this Bell tolls, it tolls for bigotry and stupidity

I haven’t taken a position on gay marriage one way or the other. I have, however, taken a position on marriage, which is any two adult human beings who love each other and chose of their own free will to display publicly that love through marriage should be able to do so. That’s it. No other qualifications. If you’re an adult, in love, and want to get married, our free society should allow you to do so.

The lead story on the front page of today’s Austin American-Statesman bears the headline "FIRST GAY COUPLE MARRIED IN TEXAS" (yes, the headline was in all capital letters). My first reaction was "Texas finally enters the 20^th century 115 years after the rest of the world" and then I was struck by a tinge of sadness that I live in a world where the marriage of two women who are in love, who have lived together for 31 years, should even be in the news in the first place.

But those emotions turned to anger when I followed the story to the inside pages that featured reaction to this news from a number of people including the village idiot from Magnolia, one Cecil Bell, who also happens to represent that area of southeast Texas in the state House. The last sentence of his reaction, as printed in the Statesman, reads as follows: "I am very conservative myself and I have very strong religious beliefs, and I believe that this is an enormous intrusion on the rights of Texas and it tramples on the religious rights of Texas."

Now I have absolutely no problems with this fool’s conservative leanings and I will defend forever his rights to maintain his own "very strong religious beliefs." However I take extremely strong exception to his statement that this marriage "tramples on the religious rights of Texas."

First of all, this couple was married by a rabbi. Now, I can imagine that in the walled-off world in which Dingdong Bell has erected for himself, he might not even know what a rabbi is. And even if someone tried to tell him, I’m not sure he would accept the facts. I mean, look, the Flat Earth Society is still alive and well and some still dispute the facts of climate change and refuse to acknowledge that "trickle-down economics" doesn’t create jobs because it quits trickling down at the CEO level.

But anyone with the IQ of your average 2-year-old or better will know that if any ordained spiritual leader of a religious congregation performs a ritual ceremony of any kind, the odds are very good that ritual ceremony is not going to trample on the religious rights of the members of that congregation, whether than congregation is in Texas, Alabama, California, Argentina, Russia, anywhere.

But even more important than that is the question: So what if it does? This country was founded on the idea there should be "a separation of church and state." And I gotta tell you, I’m getting damn sick and tired of these people who claim they are "very conservative myself," arguing we should only enact laws as intended by "our founding fathers" no matter what except if those laws contradict their "very strong religious beliefs."

The original illegal immigrants who came to this country came, in large numbers, to escape religious persecution. They knew that the religious teachings of one group may be directly the opposite of the teachings of another. That’s why they established a secular society that protected the freedoms of all religious teachings and beliefs, but made it clear that those beliefs should have no part in civil and criminal law. They knew that most of society’s most horrendous acts were fomented in the name of religion. The root cause of entire conflict in the Middle East today is the result of religious differences, not only among the actual Middle East nations, but also because the United States tried to obliterate the religious teachings of many Middle Eastern cultures and to replace them with our own value systems, not that much different from what Bell is doing through his backward statements on marriage.

This a Bell that needs to stop ringing.

A Bad Apology

It’s a ridiculous idea to begin with: the President of the United States (the most powerful human being in the Free World) pardoning a pair of turkeys. And by that I don’t mean two movies like Dumb and Dumber Too and The Legend of Hercules; I’m talking about the feathered birds usually devoured on Thanksgiving. But even Presidents must endure ridiculous ceremonies so Barack Obama, joined by his two teenage daughters, Mahlia and Sasha, participated n the sparing of the birds. All three looked as if they desperately wanted to be anywhere else but where they were. Especially Mahlia and Sasha who came across just as you would expect any 13-year-old and 16-year-old would. The whole affair would have been quickly forgotten if not for Elizabeth Lauten, a communications director, of all things, for Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn., who wrote on her Facebook page:


"Dear Sasha and Malia, I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re a part of the First Family, try showing a little class. At least respect the part you play. Then again your mother and father don’t respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter, so I’m guessing you’re coming up a little short in the ‘good role model’ department. Nevertheless, stretch yourself. Rise to the occasion. Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar. And certainly don’t make faces during televised public events."


The only part of this I’m not surprised about is that it came from the office of a southern Republican, who just hate the fact that a black man is in the White House. The reason they oppose all of Obama’s policies is not because they are against them so much, (for example, a bi-partisan immigration reform bill that passed the Senate would pass the House if Republicans there would simply let it come up for a vote) as they simply hate Barack Obama. The kind of personal attacks such as the above one leveled by Ms. Lauten are simply another example.


But going after the President’s two teen-age daughters is simply going too far. And I guess the public outcry over Ms. Lauten’s Facebook post made her realize that fact, so she issued the following apology:


"I wanted to take a moment and apologize for a post I made on Facebook early today judging Sasha and Malia Obama at the annual White House turkey pardoning ceremony. When I first posted on Facebook I reacted to an article and quickly judged two young ladies in a way I would never have wanted to be judged myself as a teenager. After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents, and re-reading my words online I can see more clearly just how hurtful my words were. I'd like to apologize to all of those who I have hurt and offended with my words, and I pledge to learn and grow (and I assure you I have) from this experience."


That is a terrible apology for two reasons:


1. She didn’t apologize to the individuals she should have been apologizing to. She should have begun her apology by saying "I wanted to take a moment and apologize profusely to Sasha and Malia Obama for a post I made on Facebook today judging them at the ...."


2. The statement " I'd like to apologize to all of those who I have hurt and offended with my words ..." She is not apologizing for what she said, like she should be; she only seems to be sorry because some folks were "hurt and offended" by what she said.


And this from someone serving in the capacity as a congressman’s communications director.


Well, to be accurate, a former communications director. Elizabeth Lauten has resigned, as well she should, especially after communicating a wrongheaded Facebook criticism of the President’s daughter followed by a misguided apology that wasn’t really an apology at all.

Casual Observations (mainly about government irresponsibility)

• Anyone who thinks the government shutdown has anything to do with Obamacare isn’t paying attention. A significant group of Republican right-wing-nuts were elected to the House of Representatives in 2010 by promising to shut down the government. This irresponsible move by a minority of Republican lunatics is not a tactic to achieve some end, it is the end itself, as far as these jerks are concerned.
• Opinion polls reflect this reality. In a CNN/ORC International poll released yesterday only 10 percent of Americans polled said they approved of how Congress is operating and a whopping 87 percent disapprove. What’s worse for the GOP, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, only 17 percent approve of how Republicans are handling government affairs and 74 percent disapproved. (Democrats’ approval rating was 32 percent, not great, but almost twice as high as Republican, and up 1 percent from the last poll).
• Ironically, one of the many programs the shutdown won’t affect is the Affordable Care Act. In fact, beginning today, Americans can go on-line to purchase their own affordable health insurance from one of the many available exchanges. It all starts right here.
• Today also marks the 55^th anniversary of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It will be celebrated by only about 550 of NASA’s 28,000 employees. Those 550 are needed to keep operational those satellites currently circulating the globe. The rest have been told not to report to work today because of the government shutdown.
• And, finally, speaking of polls, according to a poll conducted by the arch-conservative Fox News Network, 47 percent of Americans oppose Obamacare (a figure I found incredibly low, considering the source of the poll). However, that same poll revealed only 34 percent of Americans oppose the Affordable Care Act. I guess those poll results reveal more about the intelligence level of those watching Fox News than anything else. "Here is a prediction for you," President Obama said last week. "A few years from now, when people are using this to get coverage and everyone’s feeling pretty good about all the choices and competition that they’ve got, there are gonna be a whole bunch of folks who say, ‘Yeah, yeah, I always thought this provision was excellent. I voted for that thing.’ You watch. It will not be called Obamacare."

Stand Your Ground laws: The NRA’s latest outrage

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: "Stand Your Ground laws," which, in one form or another, are in effect in 22 states, are another in the long string of outrageous acts perpetrated by the National Rifle Association, the same group that said the Newton Massacre was something freedom loving Americans must just learn to live with and accept.

The picture above depicts then Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signing the first Stand Your Ground Law in 2005. The only woman in that picture is Marion Hammer, a former NRA president and the association’s chief Florida lobbyist. She is credited with writing and pushing through the Florida law.

Hammer has tried to push through other heinous laws such as one that would have fined pediatricians a whopping $5 million and sentenced them to five years in prison if they asked their patients any questions about guns in their homes. The bill effectively stopped physicians from seeking information that might protect the lives of infants and toddlers. Thankfully, a federal judge (and a President Bush appointee) blocked implementation of that law, saying it violated the First Amendment.

Stand Your Ground laws are solely intended to shield the person in a confrontation carrying a gun from using it against someone else in the confrontation who is not carrying one.

Today I was in a telephone conversation with a friend of mine who happens to be a criminal defense attorney in Florida, and I came up with the following scenario: I am a gun-carrying burglar who decides to break into a residential home home in an exclusive neighborhood sometime after midnight. Someone in the home hears me, grabs a baseball bat and comes out to confront me. When I see him, I pull out my gun and shoot him dead.

The attorney said I would be perfectly within my rights under the Stand Your Ground law in Florida because the moment I saw that bat I feared for my life. He said I would be acquitted if the case ever came to trial, which it probably wouldn’t. He also said what I described is essentially what happened in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin confrontation.

Now that’s scary.

The work of former President Bush

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete joined former President George W. Bush
 for an African first ladies summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Has anyone noticed that George W. Bush is a much better former President than he was a President?

I don’t need to re-recite the list of reasons why Bush will be remembered as one of our worst Presidents. Historians will take care of that job.

But because he is no longer President, his activities have not been as heavily publicized as they were when he occupied the White House.

For instance, while many of his Republican counterparts in Texas and other states have been working feverishly to deny health care to women, Bush has been striving just as diligently to fight cervical and breast cancer in Africa. Just a couple of weekends ago, George and Laura Bush renovated a cancer screening clinic in Zambia.

Not only that, his George W. Bush Institute created the African First Ladies Summit, which he attended a week ago today in Tanzania where he once again spoke out about the need for cancer screenings.

"You can inspire your husbands to do the right thing," he told eight African first ladies at the conference. "You can explain to your husbands that if they’re interested in earning the affection of the people, if they focus on women, they’re really going to be liked a lot."

And today, the former president once again spoke out in favor of sensible immigration reform as provided for in a bill recently passed by the Senate, but one that is being opposed by racist Republicans in the House. Speaking today at this own institute, Bush said:

"The laws governing the immigration system aren’t working. … We’re a nation of immigrants... we’re also a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time. We can uphold our tradition of assimilating immigrants... but we have a problem."

Of course, having said this, I will admit Bush was a passionate supporter of immigration reform while he was President as well. He just couldn’t convince members of his own political party to agree with him.

The eyes of the world are upon Texas

First of all, I am convinced the women of Texas are perfectly capable of making their own health care decisions and don't need a right-wingnut governor, like the one who called the people in this video "terrorists," making those decisions for them.

Also thinking how much better we'd all be if either Wendy Davis or Cecile Richards were governor of Texas.

Here's Davis's reaction to Gov. Hair calling another special legislative session:

"Misplaced priorities of legislative leaders squandered a tremendous opportunity to make much needed improvements in our transportation infrastructure and help create good jobs and bring businesses to Texas. Despite urging by responsible members of the Senate to bring up the matter of transportation, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst derailed as much as much as $1 billion per year in transportation funding by stubbornly pushing divisive, failed legislation attacking women's health care options.

If leaders are serious about using this second called special session to improve the lives of Texans by repairing and expanding our transportation networks, they will find no greater ally than me. If they intend to keep pushing their extreme personal political agenda ahead of the interests of Texas families, I will not back off of my duty to fight on their behalf. "

Hair, the misogynist that he is, criticized Davis for standing up for women's freedoms by saying, in effect. "She should know better. She was a teenage mother herself." Here's Davis's reaction to that:

"Rick Perry's statement is without dignity and tarnishes the high office he holds. They are small words that reflect a dark and negative point of view.

Our governor should reflect our Texas values. Sadly, Gov. Perry fails that test."

Margolin gets it right

 

I’ll admit it. I was wrong. Boy, was I wrong. Dallas City Council Member Ann Margolin will complete her tenure with style, grace and a demonstration of leadership and courage not seen on this council for some time and certainly not from a council member representing District 13.

Much to the relief of every other person on the council today, Margolin came out in support of Ursuline Academy’s desire to construct a soccer field, with lights, on its campus located at the southwest corner of Walnut Hill Lane and Inwood Road in Northwest Dallas.

City Council Member
Ann Margolin

After she announced her support and received much-deserved plaudits from her colleagues for her decision, the council voted 14-0 (Tennell Atkins was absent today) to approve the project. Which illustrates one of the many problems with how things get done (or, in many cases, not done) by our City Council. If Margolin had opposed the idea, the vote would not have been 13-1 in favor because council members never, ever, vote on zoning issues according to the way they believe. They vote according to the whims of the council member who represents the property under consideration. Thus, if Margolin had opposed the lighted field, which I incorrectly predicted she would, then it would have been defeated. Instead of "Do the Right Thing," the Dallas City Council’s motto is "You Scratch My Back, I’ll Scratch Yours."

Opponents of the field came out with a bunch of bogus studies about safety and glare from the lights, but, as one of Ursuline’s neighbors, who supported the project, said in a video shown to the council today, "I hate to say this, but (the opposition) really has nothing to do with lights."

The neighbor who said that was black.

I first came in contact with the blatant racism inbred in the people who live in this neighborhood a little more than 20 years ago. Then Dallas Mayor Steve Bartlett led a group of Dallas business leaders on a trade mission to Mexico. One of the business leaders accompanying Bartlett was Lee Roy Mitchell, the founder and board chairman of Cinemark Theaters, which, although headquartered at that time in an office building on the northeast corner of Walnut Hill Lane and Greenville Avenue, did not have one single theater in Dallas or the surrounding area. Bartlett asked Mitchell why this was so and Mitchell told the Mayor the company could not find any property within the Dallas city limits that fit its economic viability model. Bartlett promised Mitchell he would find him a suitable location to locate a theater.


Lee Roy Mitchell also felt the
racist wrath of this neighborhood

And the mayor fulfilled that promise. The property he chose was a long-abandoned K-Mart, whose only use was as a shelter for drug addicts, located just north of Forest Lane on Inwood Road. However, when Bartlett and Mitchell jointly announced Cinemark, a Dallas company, was going to finally locate a theater in Dallas, the neighborhood residents — much the same ones fighting Ursuline — came out in huge numbers to oppose the theater chain’s plans.

At the time, I was a partner in what I still regard as the world’s greatest crisis consulting firm and Cinemark hired us to advise it on how to proceed and how to properly present its side of the story to a public, which, outside the immediate radius of the proposed location, overwhelmingly supported the project.

One day the opposition staged a huge media event outside the proposed site and, of course, I was there to advise Cinemark. At one point, I engaged a small group those protesters, who didn’t have a clue who I was or what I was doing there, and asked them why they were so opposed to the theater. One of the women in the group said, as though she was letting me in on their conspiracy, "Because it attracts those kind of people."

"Those kind of people?" I asked in honest astonishment. "Those kind of people? You mean like people who enjoy going to movies? Hey, I’m a card carrying member of those kind of people."

"No, no, no," another one said in a tone meaning I needed to lower my voice. "You know (and she nodded her head at two back individuals standing about 25 yards away), those kind of people."

It was then I realized it wasn’t the theater they opposed, it was the thought of blacks driving through their neighborhoods, especially at night.

That’s why the words of the black gentleman on the video ("I hate to say this, but [the opposition] really has nothing to do with lights.") was so right on the money and so appropriate coming from him. Lights mean games played at night and these racists residents — 21 years later — still fear blacks driving through their neighborhoods at night. Forget the bogus studies about safety and glare — this is what it all boiled down to.

And that’s why I squealed in delight when the first person to congratulate Margolin after she came out in favor of Ursuline’s request was D-Wayne Carriedaway who announced that he was anxious to attend Ursuline’s home games at their new soccer field.

But, for once, racism was defeated at City Hall today and I applaud Margolin for leading the charge. She displayed far more courage than her predecessor did when the same issue came before the council 12 years earlier.

Looks like no home games at home for Ursuline

Ursuline Academy, an all-girls private school in North Dallas, has one of the most successful soccer programs in the state. Yet it can’t play "home" games at home. That’s because the school has no lighted soccer field and because it gets dark earlier during soccer season, a lighted field is a necessity.

Trouble is, the neighbors are dead set against allowing Ursuline to play home games at home. The last time a lighted soccer field was proposed for Ursuline, back in October 2003, former city council member Mitchell Rasansky, who represented the district where Ursuline is located, led the charge to defeat it.

Now Ursuline has come back with a scaled-down plan and Rasansky is still against it. Of course, he is no longer on the council, but his choice to succeed him, Ann Margolin, is. And Margolin has won a decisive battle to get the subject on the City Council’s May 22 agenda.

This timing is important because it will be one of Margolin’s last agenda meetings. She chose not to run for re-election and right at this moment it appears her choice to succeed her, Leland Burk, is not going to prevail in this month’s election.

Instead, it appears the winner of the District 13 race is going to be Ursuline graduate Jennifer Staubach Gates. She has not only received financial support from University of Dallas Executive Vice President Robert Galecke, a major supporter of the lighted soccer fields, but he has hosted a fundraiser for Gates. I’m betting Gates would be in favor of Ursuline’s request, but since the new council will not be sworn in until July, she won’t have the opportunity to vote on the issue.

That’s because Margolin is going to make sure Gates won’t get to vote on it. If Margolin was inclined to favor allowing Ursuline to play its home games at home, she would have no problem in letting the new council vote on it. I can only see one reason Margolin wants the vote to come before the election — so she can kill it.

Of course, she could surprise me. Here’s the argument that says Margolin, who hasn’t announced one way or the other on the issue (although her appointee to the Plan and Zoning Commission voted against it), might vote for it. The majority of Ursuline’s neighbors oppose the plan, not because of the reason they state for the record (a lighted field would disrupt the harmony of the neighborhood) but because soccer games played right on Ursuline’s campus could attract minorities to watch those games and those racists simply don’t want non-millionaire minorities in their neighborhood, even if it’s just for two hours a few times a year.

But because Margolin doesn’t have to worry about currying the favor of these dolts in order to win re-election, she just might display the courage and the leadership to stand tall and do the right thing.

I don’t think that’s going to happen, however. But we’ll find out May 22.

Are you ready to rumble?

Sure, I’ve had some complaints about writers, but often it’s more fun to have a ringside seat watching others pummel each other. Today’s featured match began with this one-two by Jim Schutze on the Dallas Observer’s blog. It was counterpunched a half hour later by this uppercut from Tim Rogers on D magazine’s journal. OK, let’s each of you go to your corners as we prepare for Round 2. Do I need a cut man?

Is there a more xenophobic city in the world than Farmers Branch?

I ask because Farmers Branch defied all the laws in land to make sure that Hispanics can't live there. Now, while the city is spending their citizens' tax funds to appeal its patently unconstitutional discrimination attempts, it is trying to make sure that Hispanic school children living there can't get a decent education. If the city of Euless hated foreigners as much as the city Farmers Branch, you could bet your life that this would never have happened. I would urge a boycott of Farmers Branch except for the fact I can't think of a single reason anyone would want to go there in the first pace.

There's more going on here than just anti-health care reform emotions

Has anyone else noticed that the mobsters who storm town hall meetings in the guise of opposing much-needed health care reform are all white?

And The New York Times editorialized today that many of these mobsters are targeting small business owners, telling them that health care reform could drive them out of business. "These proprietors would be wise to ignore the rhetoric and take a closer look. A vast majority of small businesses and their workers are likely to benefit greatly. They should be supporting, not opposing, reform."

"Small businesses would reap substantial benefits if their employees were insured," the Times said. "Their work forces would likely become healthier, and they would have an easier time attracting or holding talented employees. Even more striking, with health care reform, small firms could buy insurance at substantially lower rates."

It did acknowledge that some firms might be forced to pay a penalty if they did not provide health insurance to their employees but it also estimated the number of penalized firms would be about .0065 of all the employers in the country.

Go, Jose, Go

Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer talked to the family of Jose Escobedo today and reports Jose ain't ripping up his lawn regardless of the idiotic edict from the Landmark Commission nazis. Even if the city council ultimately rules that Jose's turf must go, he says it's staying. That's the way to stand up for your rights, Jose.

Let them eat dirt and be without air conditioning

Pretty good looking front yard, if I do say so myself. Too bad the owner of this property is being forced by some historic-preservation Nazis to rip it up and replace it with weeds and dirt.

The property in question belongs to one Jose Escobedo who, unfortunately, lives in Junius Heights where, if for some reason the neighbors don't like you (because, say, you walk your well trained, friendly dog around the neighborhood without a leash) they'll turn you in to the strong arm of the neighborhood vigilante committee. That's what happened to Mr. Escobedo. Although his front yard looks pretty swell, some no-goodnick in his hood threw up her arms and screamed "Oh, my, heavens to Betsy. That's not God-made grass out there."

And it's true. It's fake grass. That means it looks nice. It will never need water (water conservationists, take note). It will never need to be mowed (air conservationists, take note). It will never need fertilizer (oh, never mind). And it will never be allowed to remain in Junius Heights which is under the cruel thumb of the Landmark Commission, which ruled today "Jose, da turf has gotta go."

Jose and I have a lot in common. We both detest yard work. I have a townhome where the homeowners association takes care of the front yard and I have covered the non-patio section of the back yard in plastic sheeting topped with mulch. The Landmark Commission doesn't do yard work -- it just forces everyone else to. Well, it can try. Mr. Escobedo says he still won't do yard work and all the Landmarks and all the Commissions in the world can't force him to do that. If he has to yank his lawn, he'll just leave it as dirt and weeds, by gum. See how the neighbors like that. Of course, that's why the city of Dallas has Code Nazis as well.

Here was one stupid comment from Landmark commissioner Ann Piper. She said (possibly even with a straight face) that the Junius Heights neighborhood dates back to the early 1900s and "there wouldn't have been artificial turf used in that period." Hate to break this to you, Ann, but I'm betting they didn't have air conditioning in that period either. If that is the precedent you are using to force Mr. Escobedo to yank up his lawn, then I'm suggesting Mr. Escobedo should petition the Commission to force all Junius Heights resident to yank out their air conditioning systems. Air conditioning? Hell, these folks probably didn't even have electricity at all or even indoor plumbing in the early 1900s. So what say you, Ann? Let's really return to those find ol' days and see how the residents like that -- especially the one that squealed on Mr. Escobedo to the Landmark Commission.

Denny's may not be haute cuisine, but give me a break here

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, "a nonprofit group active in nutrition and food-safety issues." is suing Denny's restaurants, claiming the chain has too much salt in its food. "The lawsuit asks the court to order Denny’s to list the sodium content of its food on the menu and warn about the hazards of consuming salt in high doses."

Here's my advice to the Center for Science in the Public Interest: If you think Denny's has too much salt in its food, don't eat there. Start a Web site that advocates others shouldn't eat there either. List all the dangers of a sodium-loaded diet. But don't go filing lawsuits that restrict my ability to get a Meat Lover's Scramble if and when I might be craving a Meat Lover's Scramble. If you educate me about the dangers of too much sodium in my diet and I still choose to go to Denny's, that's my choice and, as an American, I enjoy freedom of choice.

Stigma? Stigma? What stigma?

The Carrollton City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday night to deny a special use permit to the North Dallas Funeral Home which sought the permit to install a crematorium inside its funeral home. The permit was opposed by nearby residents "because of the stigma they said the nearby neighborhood would acquire." What? Did these folks think that Carrollton would suddenly become known as the Dachau of North Central Texas? What kind of a bad stigma is a crematorium going to create? I don't get it.

Racism is alive and well in Lake Highlands

I remember when AMC wanted to locate its very first theater in Dallas. The site chosen (actually chosen for AMC by former Dallas Mayor Steve Bartlett and other city officials) was the strip mall located at Forest Lane and Inwood that's now occupied mostly by a Lowe's. Back then it was a long-ago-abandoned K-Mart.

Residents in the area were in a uproar and protested mightily. I remember being at the center one day and talking to the one of the sign-carrying protesters and asking him what he had against locating a movie theater there.

"It attracts the wrong kind of people," he said.

"What kind?" I wanted to know.

"You, know," he said as if I should be aware of the conspiracy. "Those kind."

"You mean movie-going kind of people?" I said, getting agitated by his overt racial overtones. "You mean people like me, because I love to go to the movies."

"Oh, no, no," he replied. "Not you. Those kind."

To make a long story somewhat shorter, those white racists won the battle -- the city illegally denied AMC a permit to locate its theater there -- although AMC won the war: It sued the city over the decision and was awarded many millions of tax dollars in a judgment. So Dallas taxpayers must pay for their racist attitudes, but it doesn't stop them.

Look at what's going on now in Lake Highlands. DART is planning a rail station on its Dallas-to-Garland Blue Line route. The station is to be located on the Northwest Corner of Walnut Hill and White Rock Trail. Anyone familiar with his area realizes the entrance to the station needs to be on White Rock Trail because locating it on Walnut would create a traffic nightmare on that thoroughfare. But, as you can see, the locals are mounting an AMC-like protest against the sensible option because it could mean those kind infiltrating their neighborhoods. Except this time around, the code word is not those, but criminals.

Overreaction

I saw this story about a Richardson elementary school apologizing for its choir singing the Mexican national anthem at a school program and thought "Why do they have to apologize for." I'm guessing the choir sang it in Spanish which I find that impressive for an elementary school. I'm not sure I've ever even heard the Mexican national anthem and I'm always open to being exposed to something new.

But the telling paragraph in this story is the last one: "Richardson school officials said they had received three complaints about the placement of the song." Three? THREE? To me, that's caving in to a small bigoted minority and the Richardson schools should be ashamed of themselves for apologizing.