Editor-In-Chief
HARLINGEN, Texas - So a handful of malcontents are up in arms about our story on City Commissioner Kori Marra and her flight to California for medical treatment. Whoooop-dee-doo. Welcome to the Big Time, lads. Politicians - every stinking one of them - is fair game on the question front. They may choose to not answer questions, but words will be written.
Here's a sorta primer on news coverage and elected officials: They serve the public and, in America, questions can come from anywhere - from the barn, from the sidewalk, from the balcony, from behind the bar, from the rich, from the poor, from foreigners, from the upper deck, from anydamnedbody who wishes to launch a question. Why Commmissioner Marra's backers are up in a tizzy is the mystery. Do these rubes not remember their high school civics classes. We say "high school" because, from what we've seen, there is no credible college or university within 248 miles.
Politicians enter the fray voluntarily. They posture themselves for election. They know the game. They know piercing arrows will come sooner or later. Why? Because the voters are fickle. Because, as it happens, stuff always hits the fan. It is as predictable as old people battling arthritis. Commissioner Marra has been a lightning rod for months. Her style of public service is better suited for a travelling circus, play here & go there, play here & go there. A check of her accomplishments ledger would not be kind to the native West Texan. Her service is very much like the activities of a college student auditing classes, bopping in without facing the consequences of failure to master the subject matter. No, this commissioner is no model for the city's young, aspiring leaders.
But tell that to her backers on MyLeaderNews.com. That site has become Marra Central, a sort of bus terminal for discordant vendors trying to sell a myth, a lie, a false portrait. Nothing wrong with that, because visiting Jerry Deal's Blog is a choice. But make no mistake, Commissioner Marra is an open book - subject to being criticized, even when ill. What's lost here is that we were not laughing-off her ailment as much as wondering why all the secrecy, especially from MyLeaderNews.com, which published an astonishing story saying it knew all along why the commissioner was not tending to her duties at City Hall. With a Newsman like that...who needs News? How can you trust a news reporter who will slam the desk drawer shut instead of dumping all contents on the floor for full review?
Yeah, what else about Commissioner Marra does Jerry Deal know, and is not telling?
Politicians have no criticism shield as they make their way from election to election. We are reminded of one Thomas Eagleton, a politician who played a bigger room. Eagleton briefly shared the Democrat George McGovern's presidential ticket in 1972. When the press got wind that he'd received electroconvulsive therapy (brain stuff), Eagleton didn't scream foul. He simply informed McGovern he was leaving the ticket. Eagleton knew the game. He knew it is an unforgiving sky that politicians fly.
The press? Reporters cruelly nicknamed him "Sparky."
It's a Big Boy's game. Nothing is off the table with politicians. Not whether they're Gay, indebted, abusive to spouses, crooked, adulterous or dishonest. The voters have a right to know everything. They supported a candidate to do a job, and if an illness limits that duty, then the voters need to know. It doesn't have to mean resignation. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt served four terms years while bound to a non-electric wheelchair. It's not a big deal. Just own-up, be honest.
Acknowledging problems is part of the responsibility, the contract a public servant signs with the voters who elected him/her. So, Ms. Marra, tell your constituents what is behind your many absences at City Hall, your decision to keep things under wraps. Is it a minor ailment? Is it something serious? Residents of Harlingen now know something is wrong and, well, you know about the Human brain and its ability to form the worst of images. Come clean, Madam.
You may just see genuine community support burst forth like some benevolent hot springs geyser...
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6 comments:
On myharlingennews blog there was an article about Ms. Marra. The editor mentioned that she went to an arthritis treatment center in Riverside, Ca. I mentioned that I had also been to a treatment center in Riverside, myself. The only difference was that Riverside was about 100 miles away from my work location at the time.
I hear through the grapevine, There are 2 or 3 people interested in the position of commish, and one has the means to finance a good hard campaign.
Eilot, not to be sarcastic, but would it be fair to say, that the woman who had indian ink splatter all over her butt. "Trusted her ass to a drunk tattoo artist>"
Ray Bones, did you eat those tacos?? They sure look ready to be eaten. It is late, but tomorrow, tacos de chicken con Avocado on the side.
Mr. Commedor, you have created a fury with this article by some of the old guard.
Keep on blogging, the truth hurts, and they had never heard the truth in such eloquence.
Sour grapes thats all, when the argument becomes boggus, than they resort to personal attacks.
Sessi:...It is the mark of the neo-cons to ignore their failings and attack those who note it. Those attacks never hit home. We know their motivation, and we will not be scared-off... - Editor
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