PC GROUPS PRIORITIES OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY

By Juan Montoya
South Texas has traditionally endured some of the highest unemployment rates in the state, if not the country, high poverty rates, a dismal quality of life, backward infrastructure, and blatant political corruption.
In Brownsville, the city's streets rival those of Venice after a half-hour downpour, streets crumble, ditches overflow and resacas collect the assorted garbage and debris that once littered the roadways.
Dogs and other animals roam the streets and alleyways scavenging for food, numerous homeless panhandle on street corners, and some take over the bus stops to have a place to sleep. And some of those homeless are veterans or mentally ill people fighting their own demons.
In fact, actual bus shelters are much sought after because of their absence.
Most bus stops are merely a pole with a BUS sign on it and bus riders must endure South Texas 100+ degree temperatures waiting for the chronically late buses. Every do often, a public relations bliss is made by the folks at BUS announcing that five new bus shelters are being funded by some agency in the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Compared to the need for them, these are but a drop in the bucket for what's needed. But the public relations blitz puts off the critics and gives the BUS bureaucrats breathing room until someone else points out the transportation department's shortcomings.
Locally, teenage pregnancies and sexual assaults against girls and boys are common. These result in trauma to the victims and in the case of girls, a lifetime of living off welfare and the end of their education.
Already, downtown is the haven of crackheads and prostitutes (male and female) hustling for a few dollars at a cost to their dignity and safety, not to mention the bad aspect it gives the heart of our city.
The answer to all our urban woes and course of action?
How about outlawing plastic bags, campaigning against cigarette butts, and battling the scourge of people throwing chewed up bubble gum on the city's streets?
Whaaaat?
Yes, for the past few months we have been made subject to the dangers of the chicle scofflaws who would have us walk on "unsightly" dark spots left when someone throws away their gum and it lands on a sidewalk. We wonder what the health hazards to the general public or morals are generated by these thoughtless walking-and-chewing-gum-at-the-same-time criminals except perhaps for the assault on out urban aesthetics.
Would the Double Bubble reformers have the chewers save their spent gum and stick it on the bottom of the nearest restaurant or bar table instead? How about chicle recycling stations strategically placed on downtown street corners? How about drafting an ordinance to this effect?
How about (and this is probably what is being envisioned in some dark spot somewhere) levying a fine for anyone suspected of thoughtlessly tossing a chewed piece on a public roadway? Yeah, that's the ticket.
Or, a local wet towel suggested something that is so simple in its elegance that it could not possibly be adopted by the do-gooders who would protect us from the thoughtless chewers. How about looking up when you walk on the sidewalk and ignore the harmless dark spots on the sidewalk?
Too simple? Probably.