Tag Archives: personal responsibility

The El Paso Nexus; Corruption and Drugs, No boxing for UTEP

Posted by Martín Paredes on April 27, 2012 Comments Off

El Paso just doesn’t get it. It is simple but the El Paso hierarchy wants you to stay placated. It is actually very sad, hardworking El Pasoans are decimated by the corrupt elite.

El Paso does not deserve a boxing match! That’s it. Forget the indignant attitude and the allegations of collusion. It comes down to a simple truth; El Paso officials are not to be trusted to safeguard the taxpayers of the community.

I know many of you are rallying around the cry of “it’s not fair” and “it’s about the money another city will make off this event”, but stop for a moment and think about the facts surrounding the city and the event.

Not only are El Paso’s public officials embroiled in an ever growing public corruption scandal but El Paso is also in the middle, and I argue complicit in the ongoing drug cartel wars. The ongoing corruption scandal did not start with the investigation of NCED in 2005 and will not end with the pending court cases.

I’ve been doing research on the current scandal and the very same people being implicated and whispered about are the very same people who were involved in corruption scandals in the 80’s and the 90’s. Remember Maury Kemp, El Paso Electric’s Evern Wall and Tad Smith who were indicted in 1991? Former El Paso Mayor Raymond Telles, Jr. was also indicted, in 1990, based on the Kemp investigations that had started in 1987. The same law firms and people were also quietly whispered about back then as they are today.

In doing my research for my upcoming book; Narco War; The Rise and Fall of the Mexican Drug Cartels – a pattern is starting to develop that puts El Paso squarely in the middle of the ongoing cartel wars. Do you remember Jimmy Chagra?

The Juarez Cartel, coincidently, or maybe not so coincidently, began to assert itself at about the same time the Chagra case became public knowledge. The rise of the Juarez Cartel correlates closely to El Paso’s economy.

Remember George De Angelis who alleged cartel influence in Carlos Leon’s police department in the 90’s?

The city’s political establishment quietly whispered but no one stood up and demanded accountability. In the end, George De Angelis was exonerated even though the city’s political machine tried to marginalize him and Carlos Leon was reprimanded by then Carlos Ramirez, the city’s mayor. But no investigation was ever conducted publically or transparently into the drug cartel influence alleged by De Angelis.

The same department involved in the fiasco with the same figure heads is the same department that gets its drug lab decertified. Who benefits from a decertified drug lab? This is also the same police department embroiled in the ticket fixing scandal that is seeing, rank-and-file police officers prosecuted for offenses that could not possibly have been conducted in a vacuum without upper echelon involvement. It is a continued pattern of feeding the populace something to chew on while the management continues to be insulated.

Meanwhile, all indications suggest that El Paso continues to be a major transit point for drugs, as it was back in the days of the cartel rise to challenge the Mexican state.

As if that wasn’t enough, look at the names of the people implicated, jailed or awaiting trial in the latest scandal. LKG Enterprises was incorporated in 1991. Robert Jones takes control of NCED in 1995 and begins manufacturing chemical suits for the military in 1997, under the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act. Cirilio Madrid forms New Beginnings of Texas in 1996. In 1999, Carlos Leon is appointed Police Chief and almost immediately it is alleged that there is drug cartel influence within his immediate hierarchy while NISH has serious concerns about NCED.

In 2003, EPISD started to unload the Blue Flame building, a taxpayer debacle. Look at the names involved in that transaction. Does Access Administrators, Mena, Roark and Tafoya sound familiar? How about Robert Jones?

Bob Jones didn’t just appear on the El Paso scene out of the blue in the early 90’s. He had been chased out of Houston for malfeasance, but the El Paso elite was so eager for money to be doled out to them that they either didn’t care or kept it quiet. They even named Robert Jones, the “Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2005. Is the timeline starting to make sense now?

That’s just ten percent of the timeline I’ve developed so far!

El Paso’s modus operandi has and continues to be to marginalize or outright threaten people when they dare question the obvious. El Paso’s elite even goes so far as to embrace the crooks as long as the monies continue to flow into their pockets.

Remember Hector Villa and Villafam? Convicted right across the border in New Mexico and immediately embraced in El Paso. The El Paso Housing Authority is involved in scandal after scandal with the State threatening to step in. Yet, not one serious local investigation is initiated. The local school districts spend the local taxpayer’s money in one scam after another and the only thing that goes up, are the taxes.

I haven’t even mentioned the debacle of Shrode, the former medical examiner, and the numerous payouts of taxpayer monies to settle citizen demands for a better police force and the cases of drug trafficking levied against political and security forces. Does former police officer Alberto Madrid and former County Commissioner Willie Gandara ring a bell?

Madrid is hired to provide security for a wedding party and then allegedly steals the wedding gifts? What kind of police department employs someone willing to steal wedding gifts? Gandara, on the other hand, is alleged to be dealing drugs while a sitting county commissioner. What kind of community elects someone to office that is alleged to be a drug dealer? Is it the same community that elects Susie Byrd and Beto O’Rourke, whose own mother pleads guilty on behalf of her company to money laundering, to office while they publicly condone drug legalization?

And now the city, the very same people involved in protecting those dolling out money to them, are the same people once again floating the idea of a taxpayer funded sports arena? Guess who gets to fund that? And guess who stands to make millions from it?

It’s a revolving door; the taxpayers fund the playgrounds of the elite.

Now ask yourself, do you trust your city officials to safeguard and secure your home while the fight is on? Allowing the fight to happen at UTEP is putting the citizens of the community in the hands of the same people who can’t keep their own house in order and also have a history of looking out only for themselves instead of the community.

Anything that happens at the event will ultimately be paid for by the taxpayers of El Paso.

Remember the One-percent Doctrine? If there is even a one percent chance that something may go wrong then it is incumbent upon those who are tasked to protect the community against the danger.

The truth is, if something were to happen, the very same people demanding that UTEP hold the fight will be the very same people asking for someone’s head on a platter, not from among the elite, but from the everyday grunts that work in the community. The power elite have conditioned El Paso to blame everyone else except themselves. And that is exactly what is happening today. So stop the whining already and do something for yourselves.

The economic nexus for El Paso is clear; corruption and drugs. A boxing match is only a publicity stunt to placate the masses and give the elites something else to play with.

You want change El Paso? Rise up and demand accountability, not from Austin, but from your own official’s malfeasance. Until then, El Paso will just remain the same, a transit point for drugs heading north and guns heading south. That’s the simple truth of why El Paso does not deserve the boxing match.


MegaUpload: A Warning to Users of Free Services

Posted by Martín Paredes on February 1, 2012 Comments Off

The potential loss of millions of user’s legitimate data is a wakeup call for those who rely on free services for business and other data protection services. The Internet has dramatically changed the way we do business but it has also created a self-serving mentality that everything is free for the taking, even for business use.

In today’s difficult economic climate, businesses are looking for ways to cut costs and many of those have resorted to free or very low-cost solutions for their Internet needs. There is nothing wrong with finding ways to cut costs but those cost cutting measures are putting many businesses in serious jeopardy. Stealing clip-art from a Google search result or using free online storage services is a dangerous business decision.

On January 26, 2012, the FBI, along with other policing agents in other countries shut down the file-sharing site MegaUpload immediately cutting off access to files stored by millions of users world-wide. According to the arrest and search warrants served on MegaUpload, it is accused of facilitating the illegal exchange of copyrighted material. Although the company is based in Hong Kong, those apprehended were arrested in New Zealand and some of the servers that hosted the files were located on United States soil, thus allowing the United States the opportunity to prosecute the operators of the service, the ultimate result is that millions of people are without access to their data today. It is very likely that the data will be lost before a final determination is made in this case.

The issue with MegaUpload for users is in the business model used by that service to provide services to its members. This business model is the same business model that drives popular sites such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and thousands of other websites that people have come to rely on. The business model is to bring as many eyeballs as possible to a targeted advertisement. The more traffic viewing the advertising the more successful the company is.

There are two ways to drive traffic to create the revenues that keep these massive operations going. The first is the legitimate work done by the investments of large amounts of money in traditional advertising to create awareness of the website. And, the other, is the quasi-legitimate and in many instances the illegal process of creating traffic. Thus we have the problem with SPAM and the prosecution of MegaUpload.

The times when someone could launch a website and traffic would significantly increase is long gone now that each website service is competing among millions of others. It is just not possible to promote a website without investing in advertising.

In the case of MegaUpload, the prosecution alleges that the service was used to share illegally copied movies in violation of copyright laws. For those that are wondering how can that be a criminal offense and why the FBI is involved must have missed the FBI warning that comes up right before you start watching a movie. In case you wondered if that warning served any purpose whatsoever, you now know that the FBI does, in fact, throw people in jail for illegally copying movies. Whether the US government will prevail in the prosecution of this company is still up for debate. What is not is that MegaUpload was used by millions of users.

Not all of those users committed a criminal offense and used the service to store legitimate files. Those users, nonetheless, are without access to their files today. They may never get them back.

According to the prosecution, MegaUpload had a small percentage of users who paid for the service of storing files in the cloud. The rest of the revenues for the company were made from advertising. In order for the advertising to generate sufficient revenues for the company, millions of eyeballs had to see them. And this is where the problem started for the legitimate users.

The legitimate users are not sufficient to generate the traffic needed, thus the company had to rely on the eyeballs looking for illegally copied movies to generate the necessary traffic to the site. Whether the company was complicit in this will be eventually determined by the judicial process.

The legitimate users whose files are not accessible and who may ultimately loose them have only themselves to blame for their predicament. Those businesses that continue to rely on online services for free services will eventually find themselves in the same predicament. Someone has to pay for the servers and the Internet connections to those servers. Relying on free website whose business model is to give away free service is unsustainable and will eventually collapse. How will that look to your company’s customers? Saving a few bucks today could and up costing you your business in the end.


A culture of Needy People

Posted by Martín Paredes on October 11, 2011 Comments Off

Recently on an airplane ride to a business meeting I spent some time reflecting on the people around me. I am a people watcher and as such I enjoy seeing how people react or act under different situations. Along with this, lately I have been unsettled by something I didn’t seem to understand. The world around us has been changing dramatically in recent years and somehow it all didn’t add up in my mind. These are exciting times but they are also dangerous times. And then it hit me, we have been creating a world of needy people.

As I watched the people around me on the airplane I couldn’t help but see how things have gone from a culture of self-sufficiency to one of needy people. Stewardesses, although there to facilitate the security and to some extent the comfort of the traveling public are not babysitters but there they were baby-sitting spoiled adults. I understand that Southwest Airlines’ primary goal is to attract a fickle traveling public in order to excel in their industry. As such they force their stewardesses to keep a smile on their face regardless of the circumstances or the childishness of the people they are dealing with. They have a hard job and I do not envy them.

It all starts at the boarding gate, my favorite kindergartener can count from one to fifty without missing a beat. Why can’t the adults lining up to board, not understand that “A” group boards first with other group “A” members in numeric order? “B” group does not board until after “A” group. “ABC”, get it? And just because you have a child, or two, does not mean you should get special treatment and the right to check-in late and still expect to board with group “A”? A child does not extend special privileges.

Oh and don’t get me started on luggage. It is a simple concept; there is a finite amount of space for your luggage inside the aircraft. And, there is a limit to the number of carry-ons you can carry on board. That means, that a purse and a computer are each one item and therefore that over-sized suit case and backpack means you are carrying four items on board, instead of two. Remember two plus two equals four, not two.

And, more importantly, a protruding backpack, especially an overloaded one on your back means that if you turn around to wrestle your oversized wheeled suitcase down a narrow aisle means you slam someone in the face every time you turn around to tug on that suitcase that is not meant to be carried on the plane.

If the over-sized bag that is too heavy for you to lift doesn’t fit down the aisle, what makes you think it will fit in the overhead bin? It is simple geometry, it just doesn’t fit! And for those that insist on sharing your snoring sound-effects with the rest of us, remember that regardless of whether your spouse may or may not enjoy your comfort sleep, the fact remains that they chose to share it with you, not us. Go to sleep the night before and save us from your snoring sound effects. That also means bathe and wash your clothes, the rest of us on the plane do not want to partake of your cooking smells emanating from your clothes or your body scent. It’s a shared ride, not your private plane.

That goes for fat people. Yes, I wrote “fat”. Part of being a society of needy people is that we have accepted the notion that we do not call things what they really are, rather we should refer to them in a nice way, as if nice fixes the problem. Fat is a personal choice, whether psychological or medical it is still a choice we make by accepting it. If you choose to be fat, do not expect to be given preferential treatment to board the aircraft or park in handicap areas. Loose the weight or fix the problem, do not ignore it. And if you choose to ignore it, remember that it is your choice and not anyone else’s, so guess what, you need to buy two tickets, not just one. If you need a belt extender you need two tickets. It is as simple as that!

Unfortunately the saddest thing is the children that are shuttled from city to city on an airplane because parents just can’t seem to take personal responsibility for their own actions. You chose to have child. If you can’t afford to travel with them, then sacrifice and live in the city that the other parent is at. Stewardesses are not baby sitters and should not have to deal with a child, period.

Oh, and by the way, ObamaCare wouldn’t even be an issue today if people understood that the high cost of medical health is not about the quality of life but rather our own irresponsible behavior. We are obese and sick because we refuse to take personal responsibility for our lives. Children are taught at a young-age that anything that ails them is fixed by going to the doctor or taking medicine. Scrape your knee and the first thing the parent does is take out the non-stinging ointment. How about plain old simple soap and water? That always worked, why not now? Oh, that’s right, because the kid may cry louder because it stings. The lesson for the child is don’t worry; if you screw up I’ll still make it better. We all learn from our failures. It stings because we are not supposed to do things that lead to injuries. That’s how we learn from the pain that accompanies our own stupidity.

In a world of personal responsibility there wouldn’t be a need for psychologists because we wouldn’t need someone to tell us that its ok, all will be all right soon regardless of our own stupidity. In a world of personal responsibility there wouldn’t be Barney Madoff stealing money because those that ignored the warning signs because they were making more money than logically possible because they were greedy are not victims. Labeling them victims is ignoring the fact that they expect the world to watch out for them rather than them taking personal responsibility for their own actions.

This leads me to the nexus of the whole problem and that is that parents are bringing up needy people. It is a world-wide problem where children are taught from an early age that personal responsibility is not an important part of their lives. Schools no longer allow sports where scores are kept in primary school because the child’s feelings may get hurt. Deal with it! Life is full of disappointments! There are winners and there are losers to everything. The sooner a child learns that, the better we all are.

Schools are reluctant to give grades out because a child shouldn’t know that they are a looser. Bull-crap, if a child is failing he or she needs to know that. How else is a child going to understand that it takes hard work to excel? A child is never too young to learn the meaning of failure. It is part of life and we should all strive to avoid it but we all need to understand that sometimes we fail while other times we win. The sooner we learn that, the better, as a society, we all are.

Children need to be taught that church, or other public places are places that have certain behavioral standards. At the grocery stores or at the church services, parents seem to have the notion that catering to the child’s wishes teaches them responsibility. You don’t have to beat a child to teach them personal responsibility you just have to take the time to deal with them. If the child fidgets in church, talks or doesn’t pay attention the solution is simple, teach them not to do it again. For every action there is a reaction. Parents, now-a-days, think that little “Johnny’s” antics in public are cute, rather than a lack of personal responsibility.

Parents are perpetuating the concept of needy people.

Parents have decided to forgo their responsibility and instead plop their children in front of a television set, a computer or both and let their children grow up on their own. Sometimes they expect the babysitter to do the parenting. And then they complain that society is all screwed up.

Making a better world starts at home with you. Lead by example and teach your children that personal responsibility is the only way to live. Living that way eliminates the excuses that ail the world today. This notion that it “takes a village” to raise a family is cop out designed to make people dependent rather than free. It is personal responsibility that makes us free.


Blogging and Personal Responsibility; Flights of fancy should be ignored

Posted by Martín Paredes on August 26, 2011 1 comment

“I am David Karlsruher. Some time ago, I wrote a blog about Stuart L. Leeds wherein I made statements regarding him which were inaccurate and which I should not have made. I publicaly (sic) apologize to Stuart L. Leeds for having done so.” A public apology, by a local blogger, for words written in defiance of the truth is the result of irresponsibility in the blogging world.

I have been blogging for a number of years, at least since 1999, and in that time I have witnessed firsthand the power of the written word to make changes in our society. I have wholeheartedly embraced the First Amendment as the nexus to government restraint. Unfortunately the irresponsible seem to attempt to turn good into bad. Public art is good, graffiti is not. Challenging government is good while writing unfounded allegations with no regard to the truth is bad.

Blogging is about disseminating the truth and challenging the status-quo. It is about engaging the community into demanding better from everyone. It is about holding government accountable to the people. Blogging is not about writing flights of fancy about real people with the intent of damaging their reputations. Blogging is not about acting out personal idiosyncrasies in order to feel empowered.

David Karlsruher recently learned that blogging demands personal responsibility and publically admitted so with his apology. Unfortunately his penance is masked by the defiance of a fantasy in which he asserts he prevailed, notwithstanding the apology itself. And that is unfortunate because a learning experience could have made him a better blogger instead of a bitter writer looking for an outlet to vent his personal frustrations. The events surrounding the apology started simple enough.

An up-start blogger looking to make a name for himself, wrapped in a cloak of self-aggrandizement, decided that to write make-believe allegations would make him the blogger he strived to be.  In November 2009, Karlsruher wrote on his blog that Leeds was out to start political “witch hunts” for him and his friends. Karlsruher, as his blog’s custom, attempted to thinly veil his unfounded allegations by attempting to be witty although knowing full well that his allegation was nothing more than his own mind’s made-up event.

On December 16, 2010, David Karlsruher was deposed in the lawsuit filed as 2009-5018. In his deposition Karlsruher states, under oath, that his allegation against Leeds was nothing more than an expression of his personal “opinion”. In other words, Karlsruher states that his allegation was nothing more than a flight of fancy he concocted in his own brain. Regardless of this, he decided to publish his fantasy irresponsibly and regardless of the consequences. In the deposition Karlsruher admits that his blog, for that day, was based on nothing more than “rumors”. Karlsruher admits, in the deposition. that he had no knowledge of Leeds engaging in unethical behavior much less criminal and even goes on to state that he knew little, if anything, about Stuart Leeds, his accomplishments and his motives. Nonetheless, Karlsruher decided to write an unfounded allegation against Leeds based on nothing more than his own self-created fantasy.

Karlsruher goes on to state, under oath, that his blog gets a “few people a day”. Although only a few people participate on his blog, Karlsruher should have embraced personal responsibility before uttering flights of fancy in written form. And, unfortunately it seems that Karlsruher has yet to learn that lesson.

Shortly after the blogosphere started buzzing about his public apology, Karlsruher immediately tried to vainly mask his public humiliation with the fantasy that he did not lose the lawsuit against him by Leeds, writing; “that’s not what happened”, when someone pointed out that he had lost. Although many posters pointed out that he had publically apologized, Karlsruher seems to hold on to the fantasy that his apology is just some words he wrote on his blog. He even writes that he “quite rightly won”! Those interested in looking into the mind set of someone who lives in a fantasy world can do so by pulling the records of this lawsuit from the El Paso County records. It is telling what the record states when contrasted with Karlsruher’s continued flights of fancy.

With the truth starring him square in the face, Karlsruher seems to continue to live in a self-imposed fantasy world where he continues to fight imaginary windmills threatening his existence. His public apology is a fact, his fantasy world, is well, a self-created world where he himself can dictate the terms of his existence. As long as he keeps his fantasies off of the blogosphere the better chance he has of not finding himself in the same predicament once again having to write a public apology, or worse having to write a check to pay a settlement fee for his flights of fancy.


Texas Governor Right about Veto to Driving and Texting

Posted by Martín Paredes on June 22, 2011 Comments Off

Texas Governor Perry is absolutely correct in exercising his veto power over the driving and texting bill presented to him by the Texas Legislature. It comes down to the simple notion of personal responsibility. Unfortunately, many legislators are intent on protecting the community against itself in the mistaken belief that the government’s job is to protect us against our own stupidity.

There is no doubt that texting and driving is a dangerous activity. It endangers not only the driver, other drivers, their passengers but also the community in general. Unfortunately any activity, when common sense is not adhered to can become dangerous no matter how benign. Take for example, riding a bicycle on a leisurely Sunday afternoon.

A bicyclist that applies common sense to bicycling will not only enjoy the activity but would also not create havoc for others on the public roadways. The bicyclist that ignores personal responsibility and rides their bike ignoring common sense and road rules not only becomes a danger to themselves but also to the others on the roads, including automobile drivers. For example, a bicyclist who ignores a stop sign causes a motorist to swerve to avoid the bicyclist only to end up crashed into a utility pole.

Would the community demand that bicycling now be banned on Texas roadways because of one or many bicyclists ignoring personal responsibility? Of course not. Just like there are existing mechanisms to deal with errant bicyclists, there are also existing laws to deal with irresponsible drivers.

There is a rising political class in the United States that has decided that to deal with the problems in a community it takes a firm hand to dictate upon the community the how a community should live. Unfortunately this political class seems to have forgotten that the United States was formed under the notion that freedom from government dictums is the reason America was founded upon.

Whether at the national, state or local governmental circles, the populace that votes politicians into office need to remember that a power granted to a government is a power that cannot be readily taken back. From the immortal words of John F. Kennedy, citizens need to start asking themselves, not what government can do for you but rather what can you do to keep government at bay. It starts with exercising your right to self-determination through personal responsibility.


Netiquette 101

Posted by El Paso Tribune Archive on December 6, 2002 Comments Off

Lately the use of online forums in El Paso has increased as new people join the Internet scene. These new members, newbies in Internet parlance, bring with them a much-needed new sense of enlightenment to the online political and issues debates that occur daily. As with any “new” tool, basic rules govern the process in order to make life easier for every participant. As the Internet continues to dominate our social scene, the thousands of bytes of information threaten to overwhelm us. Adopting these simple rules of online behavior not only makes life easier for the newbie but it also allows the community at large to benefit from easier access to the vast data out there. With this in mind, a quick refresher course on netiquette, or online etiquette is in order. These “rules” or courtesies are intended to make the information easier and friendlier to all the players in the field.

First and foremost, remember that you are a guest on someone’s website. Although the public perception is that everything on the Internet is free, the reality is that someone is always paying the bandwidth fees associated with any website. The time and effort that goes into gathering, formatting and publishing information is always at the expense of the person performing the labor. Just as you wouldn’t walk into someone’s house and insult him or her, neither should you do that as a guest on someone’s site. Even guests of a particular site should always be treated with the respect you treat a guest at a friends house.

The most common mistakes made by first-time users are forgetting that all written communication should be as grammatically correct as possible. Although no one expects you to spell check everything you type into an informal e-mail or online posting, you should always take the time to proof read your message. Common mistakes include the misuse of all capital letters in postings. On the border this is commonplace because traditional keyboards do not have the special characters required to properly place accents on words in Spanish. The solution to this has been the misuse of typing messages in all capital letters because in Mexican Spanish, yes there is a difference; accents are rarely if ever used in capital letters. Unfortunately the use of all capital letters in online messages signifies anger or shouting. Unless you would be yelling your message at someone in a public place, you should avoid using all capital letters in your online messages.

Although the practice of sending e-mails or posting on an online forum seems to be an informal means of communication, the standard rules of line spacing and paragraph formatting still apply. Spacing between paragraphs is not only courteous to the reader but it also allows the reader to focus on your message instead of trying to decipher it. Proper spelling and proper capitalization only makes your message easier to read. Would you consider going in public un-bathed and under dressed? Probably not, misspelled words or improper grammar shows that you really don’t care what the reader thinks of you. If you are going to take the time to write something, you should take the time to check it before clicking the send key.

Any good discussion tends to raise the blood pressure of one or two individuals. The more controversial the topic, the more people take comments personally and lash out in anger. This leads to “flaming” or the practice of attacking individuals personally. Unfortunately, the perceived anonymity of the Internet causes individuals to do things that otherwise they would not do in public. When responding to a message or post keep two things in mind, one; chances are that the message will be seen by more people than you would want to see it and second, responding in anger only shows that you are not able to hold an intellectual debate with someone without resorting to childish responses. If a posting makes you angry, take a deep breath and respond intellectually to the attacker. The public will be watching and the loser will always be the person who responds with an attack instead of a well thought out, intelligent response.

Cyber-space is just an extension of our community. Communication and the exchange of ideas only strengthen our understanding of the world that surrounds us. Common courtesies are just as relevant in the Internet as they are in public, after all people are watching you in both places.


A Resounding NO to Briones

Posted by El Paso Tribune Archive on October 23, 2002 Comments Off

Greg Freyermuth, on his radio talk show, KTSM 690AM brought up a novel approach to taking back control of local government. Today is the 3rd day of early voting for the November 5 elections and it is still not to late to take control of future politics in El Paso. Freyermuth’s solution to an immediate problem is slick and effective.

By purposely skipping past Briones’ name while filling out your ballot will not force Briones out of office but will send a strong message to both her and the stagnant electoral in the community. Even those who vote straight party tickets can contribute to the subtle rebellion by manually checking your party’s candidates while skipping over Briones’ name.

No matter which local publication you read, whether print or on online, you always encounter someone bemoaning the state of affairs in the city. These individuals always preface their resentment with a complaint about why this city doesn’t progress or why this city is backwards. Supporters of one group will attack and vilify detractors of the vision. El Paso lacks a sense of community involvement and has no understanding of social activism. This has created the city we live in today and has set the foundation for the government that decides the future of the community. With a local electorate participation of less then 30% and a community ignorant of community responsibility it is no wonder that El Paso has stagnated in the 19th century.

The 17th largest city complains about the lack of opportunity and points to the apparent brain drain as the source of community strife. The self-proclaimed defenders of the status-quo, writing for El Paso’s only print daily, trip over themselves by pointing to imagined foes wrapped in the standard “good ole boys club” mantra of bygone days. The reality in our community is much simpler than the rhetoric spewed forth by our monopolistic newspaper – the lack of community participation.

Our government manifested in the form of County Commissioner Dolores Briones is a direct result of the community’s failure to take responsibility for our own actions. Dolores Briones did not lie to the community or steal an election in order to propel herself to power, she did what any El Paso politician will do – she counted on El Paso’s lack of patriotism in order to take control. By relying on the daily’s sense of superiority and the community’s lack of understanding, Briones casually walked into a new term of office. Having secured her next 4 years in office, Briones wasted no time in slapping the community across the face by demanding a higher salary. Fortunately there are still some community members willing to exercise their right to government and soundly refused this outrageous request.

Unsatisfied and with the realization that the community is too blind to act, Briones didn’t bother to wait until the elections were over in order to exercise her agenda over the population by solving one of her biggest headaches in her upcoming political ventures, the issue of an empty Ascarate Park. By forcing the issue of the Arena’s location, Briones hopes to be able to come back and tell us how wonderful she was in bringing this great Arena into our homes. El Paso’s short political memory will assure that the demise of Western Playland , the loss of county revenue and the increase in taxpayer liability will be a distant thought. Fortunately it is not too late to teach Ms. Briones a lesson or two on community activism.

Change can only happen, if we as a community were to take responsibility for our own future. Responsibility comes in many different forms but all have the same result, control of our own futures. Obviously the place to start is at the polls. By voting, the community forces the politicians to work for the community instead of for themselves. Voting gives the community the ultimate weapon against tyranny and self-serving interests. Voting works both ways; it serves to elect a representative as well as to admonish an errant public servant.
The time for community activism is here. Subtle or public, community activism is an effective tool for the public scolding of wayward servants. No agenda driven publication or ineffective mass media can stifle the voice of public activism. Voters who are tired of the abuse of power, our embarrassing local government and have decided that it is time for a change should take control of their government and state unequivocally that enough is enough by purposely “undervoting” for Briones. When the tally comes in with a record voter turnout and a majority repudiation of Briones, a chastised Briones will have only one recourse and that is that she serves at the discretion of the electorate.