Gadflies losing some of their luster?

By A. Daniel Bodine

desertmountaintimes.com

EL PASO, TX—The mayor getting caught out of town during the worst ice storm in decades isn't the best of political situations. But it certainly doesn't deserve a dunce cap. Not unless you're one of the angry residents inconvenienced by power losses and water disruptions--and needing in your historic soul a scapegoat to pin it on. There weren't too many of those at last week's City Council meeting. Why? Has being a gadfly lost some of its luster? Or is just more difficult now?

El Paso Mayor John Cook felt, indeed, it was his time in the hot seat during the City Council's Feb. 8 session. But he wasn't about to be a whipping post, and he expressed that. A couple of citizens had taken him to task for his feeble explanation for not rushing back from Austin to join in the freezing fun. To be at the helm of the ship that was making emergency repairs for citizens.

“I'm not a plumber,” he'd told one television station.

Hee, hee. Probably'd been better if he'd said he wasn't sure the city's insurance covered fools rushing back into town on icy roads and runways. With roads closed or bottle-necked in patches during those days of single-digit temperatures, and airports canceling many flights, such logic might've stood a better chance in a public float test.

Political gadflies, of course, historically are part of the inherent checks and balances against such things as corpocracies and oligarchies in a democratic government. Some of our nation's best razzle-dazzle, political curveballs have come from gadfly pitchers.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead, in a story entitled Should we be compliant lambs or nonviolent gadflies?--written Feb. 4, 2010 for the ezine, RiverCitiesReader.com—recalls what Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his April, 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” about the necessity for “nonviolent tension.” “We must see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood,” King wrote.

And Thomas Jefferson himself, Whitehead quotes, once was such a figurative rebel. In underscoring the importance of corrective political action, he once wrote,“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

But in teeming urban areas now, political gadflies are working at a disadvantage, too, compared to their cousins in rural towns, it seems. Complex technology; needs by overlapping jurisdictions to share common costs, knowledge and talent; and vertical integration in our society as a whole have all brought us Centralization. It's felt more directly by folks in large cities. It's harder to pigeon-hole individual responsibility. And the pace of living is quicker, too. Oncoming new problems are hard enough to keep up with themselves; spending extra time on old ones can really drain you.

Indeed, it's created repeated situations where regardless of who voters put in office, they confront the same seemingly invincible dragons; and, frustratingly, little public progress is made on slaying them. So save 'em 'til next election, it becomes. And slowly the critic's stinger loses some of its sting. As people become tired of the theatrics after all the years. Emotions hurled without specifics can wear you out chasing them, yes.

So gadflies are finding themselves often playing to an empty house these days. I couldn't find any mention of last week's specific comments by those two citizens in the local newspaper. And few El Paso council members (their eyes mostly perusing their notes about upcoming agenda items to follow), ever even paused to look up at the critics as they spoke. They were criticizing the city for being unprepared with its utilities when the frigid cold hit. “...You can't figure this out, that water freezes at 32 degrees!?” one of them asked Cook.

The Council, in its apparent collective indifference, might just as well have answered, Hey, face it, we've spent enough time going over this (in the city manager's report); the points have more than been noted; corrections will be made and followed up on, we assure you; and, by the way, we've still got very important business ahead of us on the agenda, please.

Maybe that's why you see remnants of this old “hands-on” democracy at its finest now in the smaller communities. It's certainly where serving as an elective official can be its most frustrating, I'd wager.

Remember some years back, for instance, the owner of some area insurance company interrupting a Presidio City Council meeting, apparently just mad at the world in general. He walked directly up to the council table and singled out each member, looking directly at the face.

“You're a crook!” he said to all but one, making his way down the table.

Only one member, Alfred Muniz, longtime Presidio Auto Parts manager, was spared the humiliation. “You're not a crook,” he was told. But the insurance guy had to think long and hard before he ever made such a determination. And yes, he later got mentioned on a legal ledger. Seems like law enforcement officers jailed him for interrupting a public proceeding.

Later I ran across Alfred and asked him why he was so damn special—not being a crook and all. Alfred just rolled his eyes and grinned. “Not a word, Bodine, not a word.” I always took that to mean he was paying protection money to the ol' insurance boy or sumpthin'. Maybe even had a 3^rd degree cousin employed down at the guy's office. But small towns--'ya gotta love 'em! Full of gadflies. The valued tormentors' last stand, they just might be.

Many years earlier, when I was in newspapers, I remember a little old maiden lady in Cleburne, TX, named Ponder Lee Brown. Ponder's father had been the first public works superintendent in Cleburne, way-y-y back. In some cryptic, leveraging manner right out of a “Martians have landed” scenario, Ponder, bless her heart, was convinced the City of Cleburne, when it took over control of the local cemeteries from the funeral homes, had cheated her out of a family plot. And hell had no fury to match Ponder Lee when she felt she'd been cheated out of something. Amen.

For years her letters (several a week), castigating the city, were the best entertainment in the Times-Review. When I came aboard in '77, seems once a week she'd wander into the newsroom with a stack of documents—investigative “proof”--for me to chase down. Lloyd Moss, the city manager, got so tired of me checking on a “Ponder” story at city hall supposedly he had an escape hatch built from his office over to the men's restroom where he could go and hide. Never saw it, but my source was one of his top dogs who we let into our pack on Wednesday's “dart night” games. Whiskey's good for your memory, of course..

Later, when I was promoted to managing editor at the paper, the first rule I made was Ponder would get no more than one letter a week. Damn if she didn't go eventually to Fort Smith, Ark., corporate headquarters for the group that owned the paper, and demand I be fired, I was told. For violating her “Free Press” rights. Can you imagine this group of corporate brass with white shirts and ties ( who worried about little but advertising), and some little ol' lady in a loud gingham dress wearing cowboy boots (with a stack of papers this high in her hands) tromping in and making waves? Hee, hee.

But you gotta love 'em, too, these gadflies. In many ways they're our hearts and souls. Going all the way back to the Boston Tea Party. Now beginning his second term, El Paso's mayor no doubt is aware of this uniqueness in the political tradition he inherited. And Cook's building on it obviously.

Having just the Texas Department of Transportation, for instance, recognize him last month for helping set up the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, the 2008 El Paso Comprehensive Mobility Plan, the first Transportation Reinvestment Zone for the city, as well as for his continuous leadership to further develop the El Paso Rapid Transit System, are some tremendous feats, folks. Kinda stuff that really makes one want to feel heady and a little lackadaisical at times.

Hee, hee. Not to worry folks. From the tone of the Big Freeze critics last week, that's one luxury he'll not be able to afford. Not in El Paso. You can bet the next time he leaves town he'll at least check the weather forecast.

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GETTING GOOD ADVICE: A small Liberty tree growing in an El Paso Enchanted Forest. (DMT Art Illustration by Maiya)