It is already 4 years since the Eastside Rabblerousers started shaking up the status quo, in hard to change Fort Worth where the Ruling Junta exerts considerable influence to make sure things continue to be done the "Fort Worth Way." As in not a participatory democracy, but instead a semi-Fascist Oligarchy, not accountable to the people, due to only 6% of those people can manage to unshackle the kowtowing long enough to vote.That's enough from me, now on to the FWCanDo 4th Anniversary message from Don Young.
August 4th, 2009, marks the fourth anniversary of the founding of FWCanDo (Fort Worth Citizens Against Neighborhood Drilling Operations). Like all four year olds we've been bratty at times but not without provocation. We only mean to take a harmless machete to your intellectual thicket.
That's four years of Just Saying No to irresponsible gas drilling. Four years of delivering important information and commentary about a complex subject that affects everyone in north Texas. Four years of trying to squeeze some justice out of crooked politicians. Four years of telling it like it is whether "it" is pleasant or not.
Four years of watching the residents of my hometown go from ignorant bliss to disbelief to shock to outrage to apathy and finally, resignation. Public sentiment has gone from,
"No f*****g way will you ever drill in my neighborhood!" to,
"Show me the free money!" to,
"You didn't tell me about the pipelines!" to,
"Honey, are you having breathing problems, too?"
Early on, it became clear that the City of Fort Worth, the Chamber of Commerce and the local daily newspaper were in cahoots with the gas extractors. Our civil efforts to be heard fell on deaf ears. Lacking the unlimited ad budget of Big Gas, we were forced to use "whatever means necessary" to make our case. Nor were we afraid to point fingers at those whose main concern was how much money they could take to the bank.
My family enthusiastically turned down $25,000. per acre bonus money and a hefty royalty offer from XTO Energy. Like everyone else, we could have used the "free money" but we refused to do business with environmental criminals. (The notion of free money is a lie told by liars.)
We all watched as elected officials handed the Keys to the City over to Chesapeake and XTO. We watched in amazement as gas drillers spent millions of dollars on unprecedented green-washing campaigns featuring the likes of actor, Tommy Lee Jones. We watched in horror as the "Fort Worth Way" transformed Cowtown into Dirty Ol' Town.
We withstood being branded as radicals, fanatics and rabble-rousers while Mayor Moncrief and others made dirty back-room deals, wallowed in conflicts of interest and approved drilling next to schools parks and homes. We answered their campaign of lies with truth, facts and science that cannot be ignored for long.
We remain undeterred. Efforts by elected officials and gas drillers to marginalize our efforts have only fanned the flames of our resistance. We take great pleasure in exposing their misconduct while pushing for broad reform of this dirty industry. As pipelines, compressor stations, eroded air quality and possibly earthquakes slowly emerge public sentiment is likely to flip. When it does, FWCanDo will be ready to help tear down the monuments to greed that continue to jeopardize the victims of the shale.
My hat is off to all those comrades who have stayed the course, done the research, walked the 'hoods, sent the emails, made the speeches and held the picket signs. You are the true leaders of Fort Worth. Thanks for your continued support and for enduring 659 FWCanDo Updates since 2005.
DY
*PS: Feeling nostalgic for the good old days? Read a report from 2005 on the first FWCanDo protest rally against urban gas drilling in the Fort Worth Weekly
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