Nothing ever changes
Are most of us content with government?
Are those who complain a small minority? Or do we fail to hold individual officeholders responsible for their collective actions?
This applies to all levels of government, but I’ll cite the Fort Worth City Council.
Letters to the editor criticize the Trinity Uptown boondoggle, neglect of Heritage Park, tax breaks to businesses, favoritism toward gas drillers and the fiasco of the Texas Motor Speedway mineral rights — and say, "Throw the bums out."
The Star-Telegram criticizes years-late audits, granting special negotiating rights to the police and firefighters, and failures of the housing department that may lead to loss of federal funds. Yet when we have a chance to throw the bums out, the Star-Telegram recommends re-electing them all, and the voters do so.
Do we recognize that as a group the City Council is screwing up miserably — but when we examine the records of the individual council members, neither the voters nor the Star-Telegram Editorial Board holds them accountable for those failures? Or do most people think that none of the screw-ups are important, and that everything is just spiffy?
All I know is, we say, "Throw the bums out" a lot, but when we have a chance, we don’t do it.
— George Michael Sherry, Fort Worth
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