02/11/02  THE DUNNING DOWN OF DALLAS

One of the television commercials we won't see in the pitched battle for mayor came to me last night in my sleep.  It showed one of Dallas' shabby parks (any of them will do-- they are all shabby now) with lots of litter.  Cars zoomed by in the foreground, water splashing as the wheels dip into the potholes.  The announcer's voice gently guided the viewer away from the jarring images: " you can slow down caring.  You can stop caring entirely.  But you won't be able to stop the trees and grass from growing and the pavement from buckling ".

My dream was a metaphor for Dallas, the once shiny star of the Southwest.  We all slowed down caring about her and some of us, maybe most of us, stopped caring entirely.  But sooner or later, the people that have called the shots and gotten us into this mess WILL be replaced.  All of them.

If this week will be viewed by history as the beginning of the end, all the better.  But if it isn't, if Laura Miller is not elected Mayor, another populist candidate will be.  It's just a matter of time.  And people like Veletta Lill, Lois Finkelman, et al who have done far more harm than good, will be replaced by populist candidates straight out of the neighborhoods.  Dallas people pulling for Dallas.

I know I'm not dreaming because Dallas has seen the light.  How else can you explain how Laura Miller's message resonates like booming thunder?  Laura  Miller, for goodness sakes.  A lot of people in Dallas still subscribe to the theory that no woman, anywhere, should be powerful or get angry or talk back.  A lot of people in Dallas don't give a rat's backside about anything but their job and the malls.  A lot of people in Dallas want to do real estate deals and have the little people pay for them.  And a lot of people in Dallas don't know what they care about.  Despite all of that, Miller embodies the future of Dallas.   If she loses fair and square or if there is massive vote fraud in South Dallas, there are others coming right behind her.

This election is most definitely about uniting and dividing.

Tom Dunning's coalition-building mantra is only half-true.  There has been a coalition built alright, Laura Miller has one helluva coalition going right now.  It's made up of just about every voting block you can imagine.  If Dunning is elected, this city will be divided like it's never been divided before.  Let's dream about unity and save the dividing for nightmares.

Don Abbott