Of Cabbages and Kings
by BOB BARTON
I’ve waited nigh on to a lifetime to use this favorite quotation from my hero Mark Twain, spawned when a false rumor spread that he had kicked the bucket. “The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
It says what needs to be said, short and sweet. I turned 82 years old this month. After nearly 60 years of being a chief fiddler at this dance with newspapers, I am willingly stepping to the back of the bus.
I joyfully acknowledge that Cyndy Slovak-Barton and the talented crew running this labor of love are more than capable of putting her together each week, and they have provided me digs in a sumptuous space in our new building that will dominate the corner of Main and Center streets in Kyle into the 22nd century.
It’s a place for the old codgers who are left among us to do some recollecting and to spin half-truths, but I hope it will encourge a more productive undertaking.
It will allow me to concentrate on the tough task of continuing to document and interpret the ecomonic, social and political history of this area, where my family has dwelt since old Ben Milam persuaded the Mexican government back in the 1830s to let him peddle parts of Hays and southern Travis to American immigrants at about eight cents an acre.
I have strong hopes that, together with a half-dozen better writers than I, we can produce a serious study of our area history that have not yet been mined by earlier historians. Buoyed by blind faith, which country journalists badly need, I am confident that we can pull it off.
•••
We have a big special supplement coming up soon that will do its level best to explain some of the ramifications of the totally screwed up primary election next month. That primary is a train wreck waiting to happen and there’s nothing pretty about it.
This will be probably be the grandaddy of most fiascos, accentuated by the comical performance in recent years by one of the worst legislatures since the days of Allan Shivers’ reign more than 60 years ago.
The quality of the various candidates is not at question; it’s the system devised by a disfunctional legislature, leaderless at the top since “Whoops” got the weird notion that he had some “smarts” crowded into his noggin, that might need a bit fixing.
Our governor doesn’t appear to have a clue about the fact that folks are laughing at – and not with – him. His chief contribution to the national political scene is he has been a godsend to all the comedy writers throughout this land.
His incompetence, buoyed by a particularly bad legislative majority, turned our electoral clock back to a more lamentable time. Gerrymandering of congressional districts this time out has been horrendous. Hays County is split into three congressional districts trying to freeze out Congressman Lloyd Doggett, leaving us more fragmented than the division of commissioners court districts. Folks along the eastern edge of the county will have a state senator from Laredo – a real commonality of interests if there ever was one. The enemies of public schools appear to dominate the state legislature, and as usual the local taxpayers will get it in the neck while special interests like Red McCombs’ fancy race track get too much of the gravy.
Despite the bleakness of the statewide scene and attempts by some leaders to “turn down” the voter turnout through measures that are as bad as the poll taxes were for the first half of the 20th century, we urge Hays Countians to exercise the hard won right of voter participation when the party and school board elections roll around next month.
Despite big money, false propaganda and suppressive measures, equality still exists within the rooms where balloting is conducted. Hays County Election Administrator Joyce Cowan is an efficient and incorruptable person who will make certain the votes are fairly counted.
See you at the polls next month.
