apology

I was slow to approve a comment made a while back. I apologize.  I now live elsewhere, and moving has been disruptive.

The commentator was agreeing with me about certain specific unfriendly aspects of life in El Paso, Texas.

I shall simply note now:  Where I currently live, walking is the most natural thing.  There are people in the streets, and it's no big deal. The police certainly don't care about that---though, they do pay attention to the behavior of fans at sporting events.

And my ability to walk is great!  Walk without fear!  What a concept!

Moreover, colleagues have openly recommended that I could walk, say, thirty minutes to attend a gathering.

But, let's spin this another way.  I recall the energetic movement of people around the small confines of one of El Paso's few parks---as the sun was setting.  --There was something sad about it, something almost desperate. And I think that the behavior implied a recognition of something important, a need to move, but, I fear, when the context, the culture, the surrounding physical culture, is lacking in encouragements, that act is overwhelmed by the need to travel in a climate-destroying vehicle, the need to eat quickly, and so on, and so on, that it is a desperate attempt, which, ultimately cannot succeed.  And the problem is social, political---not individual.

And, so I think:  People who live in El Paso do not have what they deserve.  Certain basic elements are lacking in the city.  There are things a city government can do to make a place nicer, and the city of El Paso is not doing them.  --at a minimum, public parks........----Of course, El Paso is in a desert, so that's a basic problem.  Nonetheless, the basic conditions of life, what's available to everyone is at a very low level.

That is actually a very sad fact.  And it stands in sharp contrast to the nonsense I heard in El Paso's airport!! Public announcements from the chief of UTEP the chief of Police and the mayor---an unholy trio that~!

Oh yes, El Paso is safe!  But people die from heart attacks, in greater numbers than most of the USA!!  So, what does that safety come to? 

El Paso is safe!  And are you really responsible for that fact?  Do you really think that your aggressive policing tactics have made the wild citizens tame? Do you really deserve to puff up your chest and boast for something that you've not created?---Something which you do not even understand?

And how can you ignore the lives of people just across the border?  --As if they did not matter?  Or, is it that you want to separate yourself from them?  You want to counteract the knowledge that Juarez is a murder capital....But, here again, your words betray your lack of understanding.

As if Juarez were in another galaxy!  As if the economy of El Paso Texas were not dependent upon the work done every day by Mexican citizens!---for low wages! How many homes are cleaned by the citizens of Juarez?  How many lawns watered and cared for by Mexicans who cross the border every day?  (If anyone reading this knows, please add a comment. I would like to know.)

El Paso would come to a standstill without the work done by Mexicans living in Juarez.

But El Paso is one of the safest cities in the USA!  (And let's not talk about Juarez.)

Such claims about public safety and its causes are no more plausible in the case of EPTX than they are in the case of NYC or LA. (Anyway, it's a narrow definition of safety, since it's not safe, or even comfortable, to walk in El Paso, Texas.  Cars and trucks resent you, and the police regard you with suspicion.)

The big cheeses are everywhere absurd and arrogant.  If there were truly free speech, as opposed to domination of public spaces by a small number of powerful and wealthy people-----and their servants, their flatterers-----,such absurd claims would be quickly overwhelmed by dissenting voices.

Alas, the world is insane, but I was glad to read the comment by someone who could understand (in their own skin) what I had said.

In light of that comment, and the substance of our agreement, I should have titled this post:  "Adding Insult to Injury; in the El Paso airport....."