New Patriots

06/24/02 Are we as tough as our forebears?

The obvious answer as to Americans as a whole is probably not, but there are individuals who are tough enough.

Before, during and after our revolutionary war (which we will be celebrating in a few days), there were citizens who were perfectly happy being subservient to their "betters" in England. They were perfectly happy with their life arrangement. Who cared if someone else made the important life decisions, as long as there was no interruption in commerce or their social status. These status quo citizens of the mid-1700's would recognize themselves in many of our current "community leaders". The kind of people who back the likes of Mary Poss and Lois Finkelman are direct descendants of those citizens who supported the British in our revolutionary war for freedom and independence. They were called "Loyalists" or "Tories" during the revolution -- in Dallas, they would be "ODB wanna-bees".

Before, during and after our revolutionary war, there were also citizens who were so busy trying to survive and feed their families that they had neither the time nor interest to challenge the status quo or the consequences of decisions made by their "betters" in England. Of this same group, there were individuals who personally resented the oppression of one class over another, but they could not risk their own or their family's welfare by challenging the system. Sound like someone you know?

Before, during and after our revolutionary war, there were a very small number of radicals who could not accept the injustice of their situation, who wanted a say in their daily life and who were willing to risk all to try to create a better life for themselves, their families and their community. We have some of those same type of patriots in Dallas.

Like the men and women behind our revolt from British rule, current patriots come in all stripes and from completely opposite political persuasions. Like John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. There were others -- William Whipple and William Williams and Samuel Chase and Carter Braxton and scores more who signed the Declaration of Independence. These were men of prominence and substance in the pre-revolutionary America who had everything to lose and were willing to do so for principal. Most of us know nothing of these men and would not recognize their name on a crossword puzzle, but they were important in their time and they took a stand.

W K Gordon:

I really liked your article on patriotism and the implication that it places the ultimate burden of effective and fair government squarely on the electorate themselves. I don't know whether your inclusion of letters regarding the debate over strong mayor versus city manager was purposely placed with the patriotism article or not, but the two go together very nicely.
The idea that Dallas citizens could somehow be protected from the types of political abuses of power seen under the Kirk/Ware (Perot/HIcks) regime by switching to a strong mayor system is certainly seductive. Given the present situation of vote fraud in the southern council districts, the appeal of vesting more power in the only at-large council position, the mayor, might provide a sort of temporary fix. Momentarily we have a mayor of integrity and intelligence, but what if another Ron Kirk was slipped in?
There are cogent arguments to made for various systems of city government,
but all of these systems are subject to abuse unless they are kept honest by the electorate. The voters who kowtow to your "ODB" out of a need to identify with the so-called "business establishment," minority communities who allow their votes to be brokered by vote fraud operatives, and citizens too apathetic to bother looking at what is happening to our city -- perhaps even to bother voting -- insure that no governmental structure will automatically protect us from crooked and sleazy politicians and bureaucrats.
Even concerned voters who study the issues and vote religiously might do
more. I have had a number of friends tell me that they voted for Laura Miller in the last mayoral election and how glad they were she had won, but then went on to ask that I keep this information confidential because they didn't
want to alienate any of their (establishment) friends and associates. It has not escaped my wondering whether some of these surreptitious Miller supporters fear alienating friends and associates who are, in fact, also closet Miller voters!
Thank goodness for the secret ballot, but how sad that voters in this day and time feel such need for its protections for fear of social and business repercussions.
Reconsideration of the form and structure of city government may be
warranted for various reasons, but thinking that any particular form of government insures against governmental abuse is deluded. The only real protections lie in an informed, honest, and active electorate -- patriots.

At Larry Duncan's campaign kickoff meeting, he had an interesting consortium of Dallas citizens. There was a Republican lady from the stage hands union whose membership has lost all those jobs at Reunion and the Hicks/Perot arena. She was there to help Duncan because her fellow union members (most are Democrats she says) were abused by Hicks and Perot and this council rewarded that abuse by giving $43 million more in tax abatements to Hicks and Perot and their partner Palladium.

There was a lady prominent in the Republican Party who will be helping Duncan because she believes in honest elections and wants to stop election fraud.

There was a man who just wants to clean house at city hall. He wants a revolution. He would be our modern Thomas Jefferson -- tall, hot tempered, articulate, idealistic -- constantly challenging the sincerity of his colleagues, but united with them in the heat of battle. He would personally rather fall on his sword than compromise, but he does compromise because he always believes we are just one battle away from complete victory and no more compromises.

Another man attending wants to be a leader in his own right because he thinks his district and the city deserves something better than what we have today. He is the type willing to man the trenches and sacrifice for one unit, so that his unit can eventually be at the forefront. He understands the importance of not spreading your resources too thin, winning one battle at a time -- to ultimately win the war.

Other participants were there out of support for Larry Duncan's perseverance in fighting on against election fraud by Thornton-Reese supporters in last year's city council election for District 4.

Do you understand what Larry Duncan, Sunny Letot and Duncan's lawyers have accomplished?

For the first time in Dallas history, a city council election was overturned because of vote fraud. The Duncan/Thornton-Reese contest was not the first or the only election decided by illegal votes or mail-in ballot harvesting. It was the first time someone had the guts and the resources to fight back and refuse to be victimized by political hoodlums and gangsters.

Make no mistake about it -- anyone involved in mail-in ballot harvesting is part of organized crime. Someone should prosecute them under RICO laws. There is money involved. There are corrupt elected officials involved. There is coercion involved. There is great risk to our form of government involved.

Speaking of form of government -- Chip Northrup and Casie Pierce have interesting arguments for not changing from our City Manager form of government. I personally am not comfortable with changing from city manager to strong mayor just because we have a pitiful city manager. Let's just give the mayor the right to hire and fire the CM with approval or veto (2/3 vote) by the council. That will make the mayor strong.

But back to ballot fraud --

Vote-harvesting is the ultimate Plantation politics. You have Uncle Tom's and Aunt Tomette's out there pretending to be civil rights leaders, but in actuality they are just whores taking money from Our Downtown Betters (the ODB) to spread around and buy ballots from voters so they can elect certain council members who are guaranteed to vote the way they are instructed by the ODB.

Look at the vote split on Palladium -- an absolute lesson in the more things change -- the more they stay the same.

At least 3 of the people who voted for Palladium knew better but wanted to curry favor with the ODB by supporting the additional $43 million tax abatement for Palladium. They were traitors to Dallas taxpayers. One is term-limited out and only has 11 months to do more harm. One is term-limited out and desperately wants to run for mayor. One has a tough race coming up. The other crooks who gave away our tax money to those robber barons just do as the ODB tell them to assure "charity" is available for their next shakedown efforts.

One of the latter group of pro-Palladium crooks is Maxine Thornton-Reese, affectionately known to DallasArena.com readers as "Brain-Dead Thornton-Reese". If she were not so mean and nasty, you might have pity for her because she is absolutely dumber than a stump. Think of all those kids she taught as a DISD math teacher.   They should all be suing somebody for that crime against humanity.

When Duncan's lawyers were explaining to his gathering what happened in the two-pronged lawsuit (trial and appeal) and the future, one interesting point was raised. Thornton-Reese's lawyers never denied there were forged ballots and/or applications. She and her lawyers basically said "So What?".

In 1836, Col. Jim Bowie drew a line in the sand for those inside the Alamo. Anyone who wanted to leave could go and risk Santa Anna's word of safe passage. Anyone who crossed the line and stayed to fight for independence would likely perish. Would you have crossed Bowie's line in the sand?

You may not like Larry Duncan, but in 2001 he drew a line in the sand for all of us. You either believe in honest government and elections, or you don't. You either believe principle is more important than popularity, or you don't.

Are you going to stay on the side of the line with the complacents, with the ODB and the crooks currently in control, or are you going to step over the line?

There are a couple of weeks before July 4th. We have that mad man threatening more violence against Americans. Not a whole lot we can do about it but be vigilant and ready to help where we can and fight back if necessary.

There are 5 weeks to July 27th (School Board elections and re-election for City Council District 4). There is a whole lot you can do for honest government in Dallas, Texas right now. Get in touch with Larry Duncan at www.cxpx.com/larryduncan and offer to help with volunteer time or money or both. I will get a list of phone numbers together for the School Board Trustees being endorsed by DallasArena.com. They will need some help, too.

These next 5 weeks in Dallas are going to be a real bell weather for where we are going.

Where are you going to be on July 28th? Will you have stepped over the line for honest government -- no matter the risk like the men who died at the Alamo? Or will you be like the Torries of the 1770's who liked and profited from British oppression?

You are with us or you're against us.
The line has been drawn.