08/10/02  Pencil Whipped

The late afternoon sun parted the level purple haze just long enough yesterday to cast City Hall in an amber hue.  It was like an Amber Alert for all of the taxpayers of Dallas ---our city has been kidnapped.  

Call 9-1-1 and hope the dispatchers aren't as disillusioned as everyone else.  

In a performance that Tom Hanks would have envied, the City Manager chuckled that the budget gods have not smiled on Dallas this year.  No kidding.  But in Dallas, the Pied Piper media and the oblivious leaders did not whisper a word of the idiocy that unleashed a $95 million torrent of red ink.

After the evening newscast delivered the grim news, my phone began to ring.  Neighbors and friends wanted to talk about the effect the budget cuts would have on our little corner of the world.  The sarcasm and gallows humor could have made Letterman's monologue--the consensus being that our problems caused by a broken government could not get worse.

If code enforcement in our part of Dallas (District 4 as it is known on Marilla) is cut, so what?  We don't have code enforcement.  If animal control means dog days year-round, won't mean a thing around here.  The animals roam free.  Dirt alleys forever?  We're used to it.  Streets modeled after a Kabul cut-off?  We know how much a front end costs to get realigned.

We will notice that library hours are different.  We will notice that grass in the parks will grow tall and unfettered when the rains return. And we will notice when Ron Kirk talks about the arena and the river during his campaign.  But the rest of it?  

It's hard to subtract from zero.

Editor's comment:  Has Ron Kirk even mentioned the arena deal or the Trinity Project in any of his promotional speeches?  He seems to be hoping the folks in North Texas have forgotten.  sb