Prior to moving to Texas I had not heard of Juneteenth.
In 1980 Texas was the first state to declare Juneteenth to be a state holiday. Since then 42 other states, including my old home state of Washington, have joined Texas in officially recognizing this holiday.
Why Juneteenth? Why not September 22, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation? Or January 1 when the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect?
Well, the answer to that question has to do with Texas, with Texas being the last state of the Confederacy restored to being under American control.
It was not until June 18, 1865 that 2,000 federal troops arrived at Galveston Island to begin the post Civil War occupation of Texas.
On June 19 Union General Gordon Granger stood on a balcony at Galveston's Ashton Villa to read to the crowd below what was known as General Order No. 3, with that order being the total emancipation of slaves.
Celebrating erupted among the last of the African Americans to learn they were now free.
And now, all these years later it is more than a little sickening that there are still some Americans who are hate filled moronic idiotic evil creeps who need to be removed from the planet.....
File this in the folder containing things I see in other newspapers, such as the Seattle Times, which I would never see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
That being the advertisement you see here which was on the Seattle Times online front page, with the City of Seattle thanking Seattle voters for voting for more buses with more options.
At my current location in Texas I have been appalled more than once by having a local tell me only poor people ride buses.
I have long wondered how such a bone-headed idea takes root.
I also wonder what one of those locals thinks if they travel to a modern American city with modern public transit, like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle or Dallas.
Do they think all those people using public transit are poor?
Most every county in my old home state has public transit. The current county I live in, Tarrant, in Texas, has only one town with a semi-developed public transit system. That would be Fort Worth.
Fort Worth's buses are a bit, well, minimalist. Luxury liners, they ain't. But, why should poor people expect a luxury ride on public transit?
Skagit County, from whence I came, has public transit called Skagit Transit. Skagit County covers 1,920 square miles, with a population of 118,837.
King County, where Seattle is, has public transit called Sound Transit. King County covers 2,307 square miles, with a population of 2,079,967.
Tarrant County has no public transit, other than Fort Worth's T. Tarrant County covers only 897 square miles, with a population of 1,809,034.
How can a Texas county, a fraction the size of Skagit and King County, and much more densely populated, not have public transit covering the entire county?
What does a local think if they fly in to, well, Sea-Tac, to find they can get on Link light rail which will take them to downtown Seattle for less than it costs for a day pass on a Fort Worth bus? What does that same local think when they ride that Link train into downtown Seattle to find themselves entering a tunnel under the city, with five big underground transit stations? Does this clue the local as to how far behind, transportation-wise, their hometown is?
If the Fort Worth buses are for poor people, why does it cost more to ride them, significantly more, than King or Skagit County public transit?
Both King and Skagit transit offer discounts for various categories. Greatly reduced youth, over 65, disabled, and low income fares. In other words an actual poor person in King or Skagit County can get a bus ticket at about half price, or less.
A month pass on Skagit Transit is $25.00. $12.50 at reduced fare. Similar rates for King County transit.
A month pass on a Fort Worth bus costs $60.00. There are reduced fares available for students, senior citizens and the disabled. I found no mention of reduced fares for poor people. A reduced fare Fort Worth bus pass costs $5 more than a Skagit Transit full fare month pass. In other words, the Fort Worth reduced fare is $30.00. To get the reduced fare you have to jump through some Fort Worth hoops, at various locations, proving you deserve to pay less. Then you pay $2.00 to get yourself a Reduced Fare Photo Identification Card.
Skagit Transit has all sorts of special deals, like a greatly reduced rate for students at Skagit Valley College, with a bus pass for an entire quarter for only $15. No mention was made of needing a Reduced Fare Photo Identification Card. I suspect ones Student I.D. likely suffices in a land where common sense prevails.
The last time I rode Fort Worth's buses, about three years ago, I thought the fare for a day pass was still $3.00. It had been raised to $3.50. I had three dollar bills with me, along with larger bills. Fort Worth drivers can not make change. The driver let me get on board and then when we got to a strip mall he sent me inside a donut shop to get change.
How bizarre.
Now read how the Skagit Transit system handles this same issue....
While drivers cannot make change, our fare boxes issue a change card for the difference between what you owe and what you deposit in the fare box. For example, if you pay a $1.00 fare with a $5 bill, the fare box will issue a Skagit Transit Change Card for $4.00. The next time you ride Skagit Transit, dunk the card in the slot. The fare box will deduct $1.00 each time you use it, print the dollar value on your card and return it to you.
How can Skagit County, small of population, have a much more sophisticated system, in this instance, than big ol' Fort Worth?
How can Fort Worth's public transit planners not realize they are charging far more, fare-wise, than areas of America with far more successful public transit?
I realize I may be being a bit unfair, comparing Fort Worth and Tarrant County to Seattle and King and Skagit County.
Skagit and King County and Seattle, are far more prosperous than Tarrant County and Fort Worth.
For example.
The majority of streets in towns in Skagit and King County have sidewalks. Wide sidewalks. On both sides of the street.
Parks in Skagit and King County have modern restroom facilities. With running water.
So, I realize in a town where outhouses are the norm in city parks. And people are okay with that. Where most streets have no sidewalks. And people are okay with that.
That those same people are apparently okay with having what amounts to being an outhouse level of public transit.
I suppose the majority local attitude is, just like with public transit, only poor people use parks or sidewalks, hence the ubiquitous outhouses and narrow sidewalks, in the few places those amenities exist.
Watch the below video I made back in the summer of 2008 and you will see what must be a lot of poor people using Seattle's modern public transit. Note all the buses. And all the poor people onboard.
Imagine a similar scene in Fort Worth. I know, I can't either....
Carved on his Washington, D.C. memorial is one of the third American President's most remembered quotes.
"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
What would Thomas Jefferson think of the 2015 version of the country he worked so hard to found?
On the day Jefferson replaced John Adams he immediately moved to correct Federalist abuses of power by freeing everyone who had been imprisoned or was being prosecuted by Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts. Jefferson freed everyone without asking what the accused had supposedly done or against whom they had supposedly offended.
The Federalists were sort of a precursor to modern day reactionary conservatives. Thomas Jefferson was the first Democrat president, though at the time his party was known as the Democratic-Republicans.
What would Jefferson think of Texas? And the Republican controlled Texas legislature, with the Republicans controlled by the gas and oil industry lobbyists who got their stooges to pass HB 40, banning towns like Denton, Texas, or any other town in Texas, from enacting local regulations regulated gas drilling activity in their towns?
Denton's voters had voted to ban gas drilling and fracking in their city limits.
But, in modern day Republican controlled Texas you can not have that sort of citizen empowered democracy determining what happens in your town.
Well.
Denton has given us a new American Hero.
A 92 year old woman named Violet Palmer, hard of seeing, but strong of conviction.
Violet Palmer, a woman Thomas Jefferson would be proud to call an American, believes it is ones moral responsibility to disobey the law when the law is wrong, when the law is impinging upon ones right, when the law is corrupted by a corrupted system.
Violet Palmer staged a protest at a Denton gas pad site that was back fracking after the Republicans took away Denton's right to self determination.
Violet Palmer was taken into custody and booked into jail on Tuesday.
What would Thomas Jefferson think of American police arresting a 92 year old partially blind woman engaged in peaceful protest, that being one of the rights Jefferson labored to have included in the American Constitution?
I suspect Thomas Jefferson would have suggested that the Denton police and other citizens of Denton join Violet Palmer in her non-violent protest.
Arresting any person engaged in exercising their right to peacefully protest anything their beliefs compel them to protest is anti-American in the Thomas Jefferson version of America.
To arrest a peacefully protesting 92 year old semi-blind woman, is, well, evil and embarrassing.....
This afternoon Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to something somewhat amusing in Fort Worth Weekly's online Blotch blog.
That is that which I am talking about, screen capped, but I edited the title due to this being a family friendly blog, which for common decency's sake does not use vulgarities of the F-word sort, lest some young impressionable mind see such and conclude such is appropriate in polite society.
So, I changed the title to "More Fun Rain!"
The blurb which caught the Hotpepper's eye was....
Did you ever think we’d be complaining about too much rain in Texas? Even Pete Delkus is wearing arm floaties to work. Luckily our city leaders are preparing for the latest round of rainfall brought by Hurri-storm Bill, the least menacing-sounding name for a storm since Hurricane Mildred is the ’40s.
Who would these Fort Worth city leaders be who are preparing for this latest round of flooding? And how is it they are preparing?
The same city leaders who led so ineptly when the West 7th area was rapidly developed, with little attention paid to drainage, turning the area into a lake when too much rain falls?
The same city leaders who go along with America's Biggest Boondoggle, that supposed flood control project combined with an economic development project which has been going basically nowhere in slow motion for well over a decade?
The same city leaders who have done nothing when gas drillers drilling in Fort Worth, particularly East Fort Worth, alter the topography, causing flooding where no flooding had occurred previously?
What has gone awry at Fort Worth Weekly?
It's like what used to be the only publication Fort Worth had which came close to being a real newspaper has now been co-opted and has taken to operating in the Fort Worth Way, as in kowtowing to the ruling oligarchy, blindly spewing the party line's propaganda, the flooded people be damned....
This afternoon I got a catcall from Miss Puerto Rico's babies, Stella and Bella, telling me I should come over for a visit so I could take a picture from Miss Puerto Rico's high rise balcony of the remnants of Tropical Storm Bill while Bill slowly makes his exit from North Texas.
Rain has ceased dripping, for now. I've not heard any thunder booms. I am assuming the worst of this latest Texas weather calamity is over.
When I entered their abode, Stella and Bella were lounging in their sun room. The babies no longer run away from me and hide. The girls are not yet one year old but they are BIG. Stella started out as the runt, but she is now bordering on being chubby.
I forgot to mention, in the view above you are looking north, Dallas is to the right, beautiful downtown Fort Worth is to the left.
Changing the subject from Bill and babies to something else.
Yesterday I said something along the line that I wondered if Spencer Jack would be sending his great-grandparental units in Arizona a postcard from Hawaii.
That generated an amusing comment from someone calling him or herself Anonymous....
I'm not sure Spencer Jack knows what a postcard is or how they are suppose to work. Is that an app on his IPod? This blogger is sure dating himself.
Well, let's Google "Honolulu Postcards" and see if such a thing still exists in this century....
Hundreds upon hundreds of Hawaii themed postcards are available to be sent to great-grandparental units who are not connected to the Internet or an iPod, but who do have a mailbox.
Let me see if I can remember when last I opened my mailbox to find a postcard.
I remember, it was a couple years ago, I got several postcards from Alaska, sent by Spencer Jack and his dad's, former aunts. Spencer Jack and his dad's replacement aunts frequently travel in their RV. I am sure they send postcards whilst they are roadtripping.
Now that you are making me think about it I can not remember the last time I mailed a postcard to anyone.
My limited photographer skills prevented me from capturing what my eyes were seeing looking out my computer room window at trees swaying and a downpour pouring down due to the arrival this morning of Tropical Storm Bill.
By the time I got in the pool, soon after dawn's early light, Bill had already almost filled the pool to the max.
I felt a bit foolish when I got in the water in a heavy downpour due to having brought a towel with me, in a plastic bag, to keep it dry.
I'm assuming I don't need to explain why taking a towel to a pool in a tropical downpour is foolish.
I heard a few minutes ago, via the radio, that both D/FW and Love Field are shut down due to the rain.
Last night, on Facebook, I had an interesting conversation in which I learned that a bridge I use every once in awhile to cross the Trinity River is now closed, damaged by the Memorial Day flood. I'll copy part of that Facebook conversation below...
Miki Hojnacki Von LucknerHey, have you heard that the one way the East side of FW had in/out during the last storm surge is no longer a viable route? The bridge at Precinct and Trinity became "structurally compromised during the flooding" and is now closed indefinitely. So if Precinct South of Trinity and Trinity East and West of Precinct flood again we are water locked in/out of our neighborhood? I know it's not all TRWD because of the poorly timed construction of ALL roads in our area but if better flood control, well. . . .
Durango JonesWell, that's gonna make the traffic mess on 820 a bit worse. I've used that Precinct Line route to avoid the crowded freeway many a time. I hope The Boondoggle is not gonna be in charge of building a new Precinct Line bridge. It takes them four years to build a bridge over dry land, over water would really vex the process....
Miki Hojnacki Von LucknerWell it's taking the city over 2 years to rebuild the flood damaged Trinity bridge between Norwood and Bell Spur. Mind you it's being rebuilt at the same level with no efforts to alleviate flooding every time it rains. So it would be anyone's guess who's helping with that project. . .
During the Memorial Day flooding, after I checked out the flooded Mallard Cove Park, I headed east on Randol Mill Road and discovered the road closed just past the River Bottom Bar. That is close to the now defunct bridge. I knew the Precinct Line Bridge was closed during the flood, due to the Trinity getting too close, or topping over the bridge.
Til last night I did not know the bridge had been structurally compromised. That backroads route is a frequently used bypass to get past rush hour traffic jams.
Those of us in East Fort Worth have lost yet one more avenue of escape...
UPDATE: I think I am confused about what bridge or bridges have been structurally compromised by the Memorial Day Flood. After reading my blogging about the Precinct Line Bridge Ms. Von Luckner Facebook messaged me, which resulted in the following, possibly, clarifying exchange.....
Ms. Von Luckner:Hey you !! Fun that I'm part of one of your write ups yet wanted to be sure you understood which bridge. It's the one over Walker Branch Creek between Hwy 10 & Trinity Blvd (the creek meets up with the Trinity River). A new bridge is under construction and I guess the old bridge was "not shored up" enough to handle the rains so they closed the road at Trinity indefinitely. I love reading all your posts !!
Me: You're talking about the other flood damaged bridge between Norwood and Bell Spur? Or are you saying that the Precinct Line bridge across the Trinity is not closed due to structural woes?
Ms. Von Luckner:There are 2 bridges on Precinct. The one closest to Mary, not damaged, and the smaller one between Hwy 10 & Precinct but it's not over the Trinity River, it's over Walker Branch Creek that feeds into the Trinity and also flows under the bridge between Bell Spur & Norwood. Confusing I know, everyone thinks that's the Trinity River but it connects to it I believe kind of close to the horse ranch down from Mary's place.
Me again, near as I can tell I guess one can still cross the Trinity River on the Precinct Line bridge, but ones progress north will come to an end due to another bridge problem over another body of water.
I saw that which you see here a few minutes ago on Facebook, via Tootsie Tonasket of the Omak Tribe of Eastern Washington.
The governor of the state from whence I came, he being Jay Inslee, has declared Washington to be in a statewide drought emergency.
Apparently the snow pack is at an historic low level, with little snow to melt, the rivers have shrunk.
Texas used to be in a statewide drought. A low snow pack has nothing to do with a Texas drought.
I'd not thought about it before, til Tootsie caused me to, that the four west coast states all have water reservoirs in the form of high mountain ranges on which a lot of snow accumulates, stored frozen til summer comes along and starts the melting process.
Some of the snow in the mountains of Washington, Oregon, California and Alaska never melts. It is held in reserve by these things called glaciers.
I imagine it would be hard for a Texan who has never experienced deep snow to realize how deep the snow gets on the west coast mountains. A blurb from the Wikipedia article about Mount Baker and its record breaking snowpack....
After Mount Rainier, Mount Baker is the most heavily glaciated of the Cascade Range volcanoes; the volume of snow and ice on Mount Baker, 0.43 cubic miles is greater than that of all the other Cascades volcanoes (except Rainier) combined. It is also one of the snowiest places in the world; in 1999, Mount Baker Ski Area, located 8.7 miles to the northeast, set the world record for recorded snowfall in a single season—1,140 inches.
1,140 inches. That is 95 feet. That's a lot of snow. That record was set the year I moved to Texas. I remember that was a very wet year.
That is not Mount Baker that you see above, that is Mount Rainier. Odd, you grow up in a land of volcanoes and you learn to recognize each one, even the most isolated of Washington's five volcanoes, known as Glacier Peak.
I had an incident on Glacier Peak back in the 1990s. I hiked into Kennedy Hot Springs. A long hike from the trailhead. At some point near Kennedy Hot Springs, Glacier Peak peaks into view. So, I continued on, it looked so close. Eventually I got to the base of the volcano, but it was getting late. It was a long hike back to the trailhead, a couple hours of the hike in black darkness. With no flashlight.
I did not know, til reading the Wikipedia Glacier Peak article that that volcano posed a threat to my old hometowns. I knew Mount Baker posed such a threat. Mount Baker got a bit active around the time Mt. St. Helens exploded, causing large areas of the Mount Baker National Forest to be closed to the public.
What Wikipedia had to say about the Glacier Peak threat to Burlington, Mount Vernon and the Skagit Valley...
Lahars from Glacier Peak pose a similar threat to the small communities of Darrington and Concrete and a lesser threat to the larger and rapidly growing towns of Mount Vernon and Burlington, as well as other communities along the lower Skagit and Stillaguamish Rivers. A 2005 study conducted by the United States Geological Survey identified nine Cascade volcanoes, including Glacier Peak, as "very-high-threat volcanoes with inadequate monitoring".
A Lahar is like a flash flood on steroids. When a volcano goes boom it can cause its snowpack and glaciers to rapidly melt, sending a massive flood downstream.
Texans have no worries about a Texas mountain going boom causing massive flash floods.
But, Texas has its own special worries, like incoming tropical storms and mild earthquakes caused by gas drillers.
I don't think Tropical Storm Bill is scheduled to arrive at my location on the planet til tomorrow.
But, as you can see, looking west over the security fence spears which protect me from evil deeds by evil doers, it's already looking stormy.
A few drops dripped on me this morning whilst in the pool. Drops steadily dripped on me a few minutes ago when I walked up the hill to Albertsons.
If this incoming Tropical Storm drops Hurricane Hermine levels of water, what then? What with the rivers and reservoirs already full.
Changing the subject from one Tropical Storm to another one.
When I woke up my phone this morning I saw that my mom had called me twice yesterday in the early evening. I had my phone with me at all times. I got other calls. But I heard no mom calls ringing and the two missed calls thing did not show up til this morning.
So, I texted my dad to ask if they were home and by the phone. Dad texted back with a yes. So, I called their land line, mom answers on the first ring, with me telling mom that I hear you are home and by the phone.
Apparently when mom called yesterday both times it rang and rang and rang and then a recording said something like you may now dial the number of the party you want to speak to.
Mom and dad did not know their one and only great grandson, Spencer Jack, was currently surfing in Hawaii. I hope Spencer Jack finds the time to send his great grandparental units a postcard from Hawaii.
Jason JonesYes, FUD. Spencer Jack did leave the contiguous US to explore wildlife, volcanoes and much more! Will send additional photo documentation of our trip.
Durango JonesSo, I guess that means, if you are still on American territory, that you boys are in Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico. I think I will go with the Hawaii guess.
The purpose of the temporary construction easement adjacent to the Brennan Service Center is to allow the Tarrant Regional Water District and the US Army Corps of Engineers to complete construction in the easement area for the Trinity River Vision - Central City Project. Fill is being excavated from the flood plain area next to the Trinity River and deposited on the closed Brennan landfill site. This project will provide additional flood storage as was prescribed in the Record of Decision and environmental documents for the Trinity River Vision - Central City Project.
On April 14, 2009, (M&C L-14750) the City Council authorized a temporary construction easement on four tracts of land for a term of seven years. This temporary construction easement is needed to continue construction efforts on three of the four tracts of land during the Trinity River Vision implementation, which will continue beyond the original seven years. This temporary construction easement will provide an additional seven year term for completion of the Trinity River Vision - Central City Project.
________________________________________
Well, first off, I guess the city did not get the memo that the latest name for The Boondoggle is Trinity River Central City Panther Island Vision Boondoggle.
I have long opined regarding my utter amazement that America's Biggest Boondoggle has absolutely no overall project timeline, like most public works projects have. The closest to a project timeline I have ever seen is The Boondoggle's four year project timeline to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.
Apparently way back in the previous decade The Boondoggle had the city approve something called a temporary construction easement, with this having something to do with excavating fill from the flood plain to make for additional flood storage. The city granted The Boondoggle the construction easement for seven years.
Well, what with The Boondoggle being America's Biggest Boondoggle, The Boondoggle was unable to get the flood plain work done in the time allotted. So, The Boondoggle asked the city to give them another seven year temporary construction easement.
Seven plus seven is fourteen. Fourteen years does not sound very temporary to me.
So, does this mean we are still at least seven years away from The Boondoggle's vital flood control project protecting us from a flood?
