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05/04/06 Leo Chaney
ought to quit while he's behind.
A long, long time ago, a deejay (before they were
talk jocks) told a story on air, and I almost ran off the road. Recent
events reminded me of the story.
A little boy was born without a
torso, or even a neck, much less arms and legs. Luckily, he was
born to a fairly affluent family who lived in a very progressive
neighborhood. All the other children were taught to never make fun
of the little head -- because that could have been them.
Every day, the other children would come over and pick him up on his
pillow to play outside with them. He would bounce around while
they did their thing.
This went on when the started to school. The other kids would pick
him, drop him their backpacks, take him to class, plop him on his pillow
on his desk. This went on from elementary, to junior high, to high
school, right up to time for the junior-senior prom.
The little head sat right behind Mary Sue Brown, the most popular girl
in the junior class, and he just loved her. One day, he got his
little bodiless nerve up, and said "Hey, Mary Sue Brown".
With all of her junior high sophistication, Ms. Brown responded with a
disdainful "What?". Unperturbed, he asked, "How would you like to
go to the prom with me?"
Amazed, she said "What, me, Mary Sue Brown, the most popular girl in the
junior class, go the prom with you? Why you're nothing but a head.
I'ld rather go to the prom with a grape. At least, a grape would
match my purple prom dress."
Hopefully, the little head asked her "Would you go to the prom with me
if I were a grape?" She said, "Oh, sure!"
For the first time in his bodiless life, the little head was ashamed of
his deformity. That night, he cried and cried, and prayed to God,
"Dear Lord, if I can't have a body like other guys, at least let me be a
grape so Mary Sue Brown will go to the prom with me." He cried
himself to sleep.
The next morning when the little head awoke, he felt different.
When his buddies collected him for school, they noticed he looked
different but didn't dare comment after all those years. He caught
his reflection in a hall mirror, and sure enough his prayers had been
answered. He was a grape.
When they plopped him on his desk pillow behind Mary Sue Brown, the
little head was beside himself, so to speak. He said, "Hey, Mary
Sue Brown." Without bothering to turn around, she asked "What?
Head?" He said, "I'm not a head anymore. Look at me, I'm a
grape. Now, will you go to the prom with me?"
When she looked at him, she tossed her perfect hair and spun back around
in her seat, accidentally knocking the little grape head off his pillow
onto the floor. He rolled down the aisle toward the front of the
class where the teacher was writing on the board. He bumped the
teacher's leg, and she reflexively stomped on him and smushed him.
The class was hushed, girls were weeping, even Mary Sue Brown. It
was horrible.
There's a moral to this story.
You better quit while you're a head. |
If you saw CBS 11's Ace
Reporter Sarah Dodd's Tuesday report on Leo Chaney's "Opportunist Park", you
know that Shakedown Chaney has been planning to have a 10 ft statute of his face
profile in what
Mike Davis is calling
"Opportunists Park".
Of course, the official name of the park is Opportunity Park, but Mike's title
is probably more accurate.
Ms. Dodd continued her report on this ridiculous matter Wednesday night:
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Proposed South Dallas Park Sculptures Questioned
Sarah Dodd reporting
May 3, 2006 6:30 pm US/Central |
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(CBS
11 News) DALLAS A proposed ten-foot sculpture of a Dallas City Council
member is stirring controversy at city hall.
Even though your tax dollars will
pay for the tribute, most of the council was in the dark about the plan
until reported on CBS 11 News.
In 2003 voters approved a tax
hike to pay for a bond program, and an $800,000 park is being built
using the money.
But the park is anything but
traditional, the city is calling it, ?unprecedented, the first of its
kind?, and Wednesday most council members say that's not such a good
thing.
"Opportunity Park" has been the vision of council member Leo Chaney
since 2003, but his entire plan was not shared with the Dallas
City Council until CBS 11 News uncovered it.
Chaney's plan includes creating a
walk of fame to honor 75 south Dallas community leaders, both living and
dead.
CBS 11 News had an exclusive look
at blueprints for the park, and the plan includes erecting 10 and 20
foot high sculptures of certain community leaders, including Chaney
himself.
?It's a joke an absolute joke to
use taxpayer?s dollars for something like this,? said Mitchell Rasansky,
Dallas City Council.
Council member Ron Natinsky
agreed saying, ?I certainly wouldn't spend any money that I had control
over in the district, of putting a statue of myself out in District 12.?
Chaney put
together a committee to decide who would be memorialized in the park,
but says he did not ask for a ten-foot high plate metal sculpture of
himself.
?I'm not going to have a
silhouette as long as I'm sitting on the Dallas
City Council. I am not, it's not about me.?
The park isn?t expected to be
completed for several years and because of term limits, by that time
Chaney will no longer sit on the council. When asked if he would allow
the silhouette at that time, Chaney responded, ?Okay,
I don't know and I?ve not decided, but once I become a private citizen,
I'm a private citizen.?
The park board had not planned to
ask the city council to approve the sculptures in "Opportunity Park".
Each ranges in price from $11,000-$26,000. Since the CBS 11 News story
aired most of the council is now demanding the project come before the
council for a vote.
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Is this the most idiotic thing
you have ever heard? It's embarrassing!
Leo Chaney does not like having his deals exposed to the light of day. To
tell the truth, I doubt the guy has a clue what the uproar is about.
Think about someone this dense making decisions that impact our lives and
property values.
He honestly does not see our tax dollars as real money that you and I would
rather be spending on things we want or that the city actually needs.
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Do you understand what this weird park is going to look like? These are
not going to be statutes like you would expect. These are going to be
10-ft and a 20-ft high face silhouettes. These are going to be huge heads
with no bodies. $100,000 for a bunch of head shots? |
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05/04/06
Barbara Senter
Sounds like the Chaney head
will be an expensive bird landing that will accumulate bird poop.
How much will it cost
taxpayers to keep Chaney's head poop free? Oh wait -- that's
another story.
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I don't have a problem with spending $800,000 for a park. Dallas needs all
the green space we can get. I have a big problem spending $200,000 of that
for "consultant fees" and $100,000 of that for 10-ft heads.
If Shakedown actually gets his full-figured face in Opportunist Park, most
people will wonder why there's a profile of Alfred Hitchcock in a South Dallas
park.
This is very silly and serious at the same time. $800,000 was almost spent
without most of the council even knowing about it. Even Ed Oakley voiced
disapproval.
In fairness to the council, the Park Board and Park Department operate pretty
autonomously from the City Council. They are not under the purview of the
City Manager, either. Still, for the Park Board to be planning to spend
almost a million dollars while keeping most of the council in the dark is pretty
bad.
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Can you imagine how awful this place would look with these gigantic heads?
Are they trying to do some modern day Easter Island thing?
Opportunity Park? Opportunist Park? Or, just plain Old Egoist Park? |
Guess it wasn't enough for Councilman Chaney to squeeze $3 million out of
Smirnoff. Since no one knows where that money got spent in the community,
Shakedown must want something tangible to remind "his people" that he sat on the
council for 8 years. It's not like he can point to any achievements or
improvements in South Dallas under his watch.
With FBI investigations and other inconveniences, it has not been a particularly
good year or so for Shakedown. Now, it looks like he may not get his face
profiled in his dream park. With Bill Blaydes and Gary Griffith and others
vying for the South Dallas vote against Mayor Miller, they may be reluctant to
take a stand against the waste of tax dollars. We will be watching,
gentlemen.
See why the story about the bodiless kid came to mind for me?
Poor Leo may not get the chance to quit while he's a head.
sb
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