Is Poss Racial Profiling?

02/13/03 imPOSSible's campaign piece "selectively" mailed.

Did you know Mary imPOSSible now champions 14-1? Have you ever once heard her laud its good points?

Hardly anyone in North Dallas got this mailer, except for me (probably a mistake) and one other lady.

One interesting thing about this piece is there's NO MARY. Nary a picture of Mary to be seen -- not that you would care. But still, candidates send out mailers to get their face and name before the voters so they connect with the candidate. It's pretty basic political strategy -- like learning your ABC's before you start reading.

I got the Mary for Mayor piece early last week.
I especially loved the bright, shiny Dallas on the front- a view taken from the southern edge of town. Ever notice how the best pictures of the skyline are always taken from the "southern sector"?
The back said was just dumb, I mean, they could have taken out the same clouds for the grayed image. I wondered, "Why am I getting this? Why would I be on Mary Poss' mailing list?"   Who knows how many mailing lists I'm on? I thought it was something that went to the entire city. Guess not!

What's my zip code? Oh, that's right, I live in District 7, South Dallas!    Parkdale is just a hair east of Fair Park.

This mailer probably went to all of my neighbors, too. I'm willing to bet that it promptly met the same fate as mine did- into the recycle bin.

The slogan "Mary for Mayor" is silly and childish, like we have some emotional attachment to this mean woman. The text is even more strange:

"Please support Mary Poss because she has worked with us for the past eight years." Who is "US"? She worked to demolish St. Ann's (an Hispanic community center). She worked to demolish Crozier Tech where my dad and most of his cousins went to school.

"Mary gets things done. She has worked to bring businesses and jobs to Dallas." Her one claim to fame is that fancy grocery market on Greenville and to get it she moved LaBare into poor, under-represented District 6 on NW Highway. Central Market was going in at that location with or without her feeble help.

Side 2 --

"Progress comes so slowly, but can be destroyed so quickly." Dallas was better off before Mary imPOSSible went on the council.

"We've lost jobs and property taxes while the mayor and city council said no to jobs and sales taxes from Wal-Mart." The mayor and council followed the recommendations of the Plan Commission and both council members representing Districts 2 and 14, who recognized the traffic problems the store would generate on the Mockingbird/Lemmon site would be a nightmare and a security problem for Love Field Airport. The store could have gone into that site without council approval if they had foregone re-zoning a corner piece they wanted. Mary imPOSSible knows that -- but maybe she doesn't.

Mary imPOSSible signed the police pay petition and then campaigned against them.

Since when does Mary imPOSSible care about 14-1?

This mailer must have been intended for communities South of Downtown because North Dallas has not benefited from 14-1. Oak Lawn and East Dallas neighborhoods have been victimized by 14-1, so chopped up they have no voice at City Hall. Neither South or West Dallas have prospered under 10 years of 14-1. The Hispanic community lives throughout Dallas and current council lines dissect the one area where there are the most active Hispanic voters and businesses -- Pleasant Grove.

If Hispanic voted as a block (which they do not), being able to elect some council members at large would give them a chance to vote for more than one council member.

We should have 12 council districts drawn along population and natural or street boundaries, and have the Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem elected at large. Dallas taxpayers would have 4 people to claim as their own on the council rather than one emperor or empress.

It is totally hypocritical of Mary imPOSSible to claim to champion 14-1. Clearly she intends to run a divisive campaign that will pit South Dallas against North Dallas while she tries to run as a Republican in North Dallas. The Mary imPOSSible is an example of the contempt she and Our Downtown Betters have for regular Dallas residents and taxpayers. She and the ODB think we don't talk with each other and are just here to be told what to do by our "betters".

It goes back to a recent board meeting I attended where the membership said the Mayor should show "leadership" and convince voters to support the big bond package even though they know it is full of pork and City Hall is being mismanged and our current taxes are not being spent equitably.

To the ODB and Mary imPOSSible, leadership means telling the big lie and/or whipping us into shape.