I read an article and saw a photo in the Seattle P-I this morning that made me think of Fort Worth and how different things are here.In the photo you are looking at Seattle citizens protesting the construction of what was then known as the Everett-Seattle-Tacoma Superhighway, now known as Interstate 5.
The protesters did not like the fact that the new road would cut a big gash through Seattle, cutting off neighborhoods.
In the end the freeway was built and then the gash was somewhat mitigated by a huge convention center and a lid being built over a large section of the freeway, with the lid turned into a park, called, appropriately, Freeway Park, and which is very similar to the now defunct Fort Worth park called Heritage Park.
One of the many things that perplexed me when I moved to Texas was what seemed to me to be the lack of people being organized to do this that or the other thing, or stop this that or the other thing.
Shortly before I moved to Texas, Seattle passed a citizen initiated bond issue to build a $billion plus new monorail. Issues arose, other citizens petitioned for another vote and then 5 votes later the monorail was dead.
In Fort Worth there are a few voices saying that the voters should get to vote on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. I have no understanding of how such a project can be initiated without a public vote by the taxpayers. In Washington a voter can force a vote by getting enough signatures on a petition. This is called an Initiative. Does Texas not have this?
Which brings me back to those Seattle protesters back in 1961. If Chesapeake Energy goes through with its threat to run a non-odorized natural gas pipeline under Carter Avenue, among the 700,000 plus Fort Worth citizens, will 1/700,000 of those citizens, as in 1,000 show up with signs and block Chesapeake Energy with a protest? If not, why not?
What happened here in Texas that's made so many Texans so passive and so much like a big flock of sheep willingly being led to the slaughter, so to speak? Even sheep can outnumber a wolf if they get organized and show a little initiative.
In the 60's there were a number of protests, in Dallas, and nearly everyone was put on a FBI subversive list. Many of the old "subversives" cut their beards, sold out, became sheep and got "real" jobs. I guess they felt a conservative bible belt champion would be enough to compete for the jobs that the northern immigrants were taking. There are very few of us left that buck the system and the bike blogs have brought a few out of the dense underbrush. Keep writing.
ReplyDeleteRod
Rod---
ReplyDeleteThanks for the explanation as to why the 60s seems to have not changed this zone of America. I'm glad some system buckers have started bucking again. Bucking the system is a good thing. The system works much better if it gets bucked a lot. Fort Worth is a sad example of what you get when the system does not get bucked. Out of control corruption.