Someone named Anonymous made a comment this morning that is one of the best comments I've seen in months.
As in the comment from Anonymous is thought provoking, provoking me to wonder why I continue to live here where I find myself futilely tilting at windmills.
First the comment from Anonymous and then I'll see if I can muster the energy to do some windmill tilting....
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "
Spencer Jack's Favorite Girlfriend Brittney's Photos From Tacoma's Wedding Of The Century":
I'm a fan. I think the posts here and at the Star Telegraph are beacons of truth and should be read by all.
Something I think about a lot lately... Why do we live here?
You are from one of the most beautiful spots on the continent. I keep seeing these other lovely places around the globe. Places that are green... have abundant water... have progressive policies... a well informed populace...
Yet, here we are. And we struggle to inform and enlighten those who are ignorant of the tyranny of local rule.
Some here have spent a lifetime tilting at these windmills, with few, if any, victories.
Why not find peace and a bit of green and wet?
A recent opinion piece stated that FW is a place where "A river runs through..." . Well, a river gets dammed up at either end of town and sits there until a rain storm flushes it out. The author of this piece is a tool.
We have an elite ruling class who are not qualified to make policy. Yet they concoct and justify the projects that will benefit themselves and their pals, often without voter approval, or with an agenda buried deep with a bond package that masks their true intent.
Why do we live here? Why do we let these local bullies give us knots in our gut. It can't be good for us.
Somewhere it is green and wet with clean air. Even if such a place is ruled by the same sort of cabal, would that not be a better way of life?
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Yes, Anonymous, I do think being green and wet with clean air would be a much better way of life.
My most recent windmill tilting has been multiple bloggings about the Olivergate Scandal, bloggings such as
The TRWD Olivergate Scandal Takes Another Scandalous Turn With Denials, Lies & Cover-Ups, with the Olivergate Scandal being so outrageous, that I really can not understand why the TRWD has not fired Jim Oliver for disgracing himself and the agency he works for.
Local TV has covered the Olivergate Scandal. The Fort Worth Business Press has editorialized in an editorial titled "
Outrageous. Infuriating. Unacceptable." that Jim Oliver needs to resign or be fired. While the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has not said a word about the Olivergate Scandal.
Something like the Olivergate Scandal is so confounding to me. It just seems basic common sense that the guy needs to be fired. I am so naive that I think, even though I've had the Fort Worth Way explained to me, that somehow what's right should trump the Fort Worth Way.
Like the
Paradise Center Scandal. How can such a thing happen in a modern American city? Without what's right trumping what's wrong?
Then there's the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. A couple times in the past couple months I've wondered why there is no TRV Boondoggle project timeline. The most recent blogging on that subject was
The Skagit River Vision Has Me Freshly Perplexed Regarding The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.
Why aren't the locals perplexed regarding the Trinity River Vision? The TRV Boondoggle has been boondoggling for well over a decade now. Why don't people wonder why we don't see more of the vision, what with its promise of providing supposedly much needed flood control and economic development? Done at a snail's pace.
How come the locals did not rebel at the absurdity of Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's unqualified son, J.D., being made the Executive Director of the TRV Boondoggle? Blatant nepotism of this sort is frowned upon in the democratic areas of America.
And now, after well over a decade of the TRV Boondoggle, what has J.D. Granger wrought? The world's premiere urban wakeboard lake. The world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st Century. Weekly happy hour inner tube floats. An imaginary world class music venue called
Panther Island Pavilion. A 4th of July fireworks extravaganza which lit the Trinity River levees on fire. And a restaurant.
Oh. I almost forgot something else the TRV Boondoggle has wrought, as in dozens of businesses and property owners left in stress and financial straits via the abuse of eminent domain to take property for an un-needed flood diversion channel.
Anyway, like Anonymous indicated, it does seem a bit futile to repeatedly raise issues, as if raising these issues makes any difference.
So, why do we live here?
Of course, I can only speak for myself as to why I am still here.
Before I moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex I'd never witnessed eminent domain abuse. I'd never witnessed nepotism in action. I'd never seen public works projects brought about without a public vote. I'd never observed a corrupt school district. I've never been personally involved in anything as shockingly wrong as the Paradise Center Scandal. I'd never experienced a town taken over by corporate interests, as what happened in Fort Worth when the gas companies wanted to drill. I'd never lived in a town without a real newspaper, had never experienced how corrupting it is when a town's newspaper acts as a propaganda mouthpiece for the town's ruling oligarchy. I'd never lived in a town where the
mayor is so stupid he thought he could dye a river purple.
In other words, living in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone is much more interesting than living in progressive, liberal, extremely well educated Western Washington.
