EDITORIAL PAGE: Hostile Media Pushes Harlingen Down The Road...And It's A Good Thing...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Editor-In-Chief

HARLINGEN, Texas - Perhaps things here are as people say they are - changing too fast and not fast enough. Cities go through such pains when transitioning from what they've been to what they want to become. Here, in this city of some 75,000 well-off and not-so-well-off denizens, words coming from one sector of the community scream for quicker & quicker change, while an equally vociferous lot yells the opposite in reply. It is, as happens in a story's unfolding plot, sure to be a done deal or - egads! - a cruel conspiracy.

And while it careens from guard rail to center median as it barrels down the proverbial proud highway, Harlingen is hearing the winds of change blow across town like some renegade gust out to plow the geography. Those screams making their way to the printed word in letters-to-the-editor of the Valley Morning Star and to an assortment of pro & con Blogs can no longer be ignored. Little by little, in thin and fat paragraphs, residents have taken sides, some joining the revolution and some holding hard to what is commonly known here as The Old Guard, which is code for The Past.

At first glance, it may seem like just another passing storm dropping tons of rain for a few minutes and then moving on, as was the metaphor for fruitless political upheavals here for decades. But there is rhyme & reason to the brazen posturing by those who want change now. In postings on MyHarlingenNews.com and MyLeaderNews.com, two Blogs at seemingly opposite sides of the fray, residents and curious onlookers have arrived to do battle. And they're both doing their side proud, harsh missives aimed that way and thrown back by the other side in kind. Something is up in Harlingen and the suspicion here is that elected leaders down at City Hall can't make sense of it - not yet anyway. They for the most part have held fire.

Can they dance around the Mulberry Bush much longer?

The betting says no, not when so many hot button issues have now taken center-stage in town. Bloggers, unlike the staid local daily newspaper, like to launch biting salvos at the occupants of City Hall. Change apparently has no time for measuring words, for thinking about whose feelings might be hurt, for road-weary political posturing of the sort residents here have seen for many, many years. Times are tough and much of Harlingen is demanding change. Jobs are scarce. Buildings have gone vacant to the point that downtown looks like a ghost town - in the daytrime. Scandal chases the police department. Politcians say nothing.

Unlike its Cameron County neighbor - Brownsville - downrange, Harlingen at presents counts elected officials who well-know the power of the ballot. The for-sale politiquera system that fuels Brownsville pols has never manifested itself to such a lofty extent here. No, as one sentient resident put it, "Our mayor and city commissioners have gotten the message. We hold the power, and the old way of doing things is about to fade to black. Big time. Too many people are angry this time..."

Until then, those in the community filling the pages of the newspaper and postings on the Blogs will do their Life Impulse. Much is at stake, or at least that's what one discerns from reading the emotional outbursts that fill the Blogs daily. A grenade launched at Mayor Chris Boswell or Commissioner Kori Marra on MyHarlingenNews.com is answered with mortar fire on MyLeaderNews.com. It is a day-long firefight, with anonymous posters leading the way - some not at all interested in facts or civility, others merely wishing to throw mud at this or that public servant. Carnival arcades never have seen this much action.

Life is fluid in today's Harlingen. Things are shakin'. People are pissed. People are itching.

And that's the way it should be in an emerging Democracy...

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