I have decided to close Brownsville Blues.I love my job at the BISD. I teach four classes of British Lit to seniors and two classes of ESL to recently arrived immigrants. When I go to work, it's a day-long morning swim. I bring home a substantial paycheck and I don't pay health insurance. Brownsville Blues jeopardizes that lifestyle. I have always appreciated that the district has tolerated my art a la Vagina Dialogues. I can only write in a certain way and the district is feeling the pressure. There is only one rational option.
I am allegedly facing contempt of court charges. Pursuing my First Amendment Rights, free speech may cost me my freedom. As a result of an injunction, I exist in a nebulous world with no clear demarcation between the acceptable and the unacceptable. I have never willfully violated the judge's order, but I still find myself in a precarious position. In order to comply in unequivocal terms, I have no other alternative but to close the blog in order to prove to the judge that I am operating in good faith.
Last, but not least, my writings have wreaked havoc in my personal life. I have paid a steep price for succumbing to my muse's charms. And there is no way I can change.When I have an idea in my head, I can't resist the temptation to create something out of nothing. Unfortunately, many individuals can't distinguish fiction from reality. And since there are persons whom I love deeply but suffer from that blindness, I must pen my poems, short stories and novels via a different venue. I will continue to write.
In 1977 I became sports editor of the Brownsville Herald. I covered six schools. I wrote a column called the Peerless Observer. At the end of the football season four football coaches received their walking papers. Almost 40 years later I am still writing about Brownsville, but karma is a bitch and I don't want to find myself on the receiving end of walking papers.
But these recent blogging wars have shown me that I don't have the heart for the daily battles. I feel like those young soldiers who ask themselves amid the carnage, "What the hell are we doing in this war anyway? Am I giving up my life for nothing?"
As I was talking to a person whom I respect regarding the blog, it occurred to me the reason for my decision: I am not enjoying myself. I don't want my day determined by Bobby Wightman or Eddie Martinez or Jessica Tetreau or Melissa Zamora. These people are absolutely meaningless to me, yet I'm allowing them into my space. I don't want another political race occupying my time. They come and they go and nothing changes. After 40 years of reporting, I find Brownsville is worse than ever.
Don't get me wrong. It's been fun. In fact, it's been a ball, but I'm tired of Brownsville. I love the people and I love the town, but I'm tired of Brownsville. I am in a transitional period in my life. Walking on thin ice as I dangle by a thread, I have to focus on the goals I want to realize before I come to an abrupt end.
Brownsville Blues no longer puts me on that path. It has become a liability. I'm folding. It's time to move to another table. Un abrazo.
29 comments:
His blog was damn funny stuff! Brownsville is a joke, and Jerry gave us the punchlines. Local slutty wives, cheating husbands, the total corruption in our politics, the tragicomedy of human nature. I will miss it, hope he comes back
He silenced himself, juan. Too much Porno and attacks on Mexicans did him in. Tell it like it is. Mchale was BAD NEWS for years. Won't be missed a bit!
A true writer. If you don't like his words you are either a corrupt politician, a 40 year-old virgin, or semi- literate. He may be leaving, or maybe not, but what a hell of a run he's had.
Excellent news for Brownsville.
Good riddance.
If he is making such great money why did have candidates pay him to trash their opponents? Any bozo can post porn. Any bozo can post a pic of comments with a derogatory message. That's not exercising your freedom of speech. That's exercising your stupidity.
I have not forgotten
That you are quite rotten
Your unconcerned ways
No longer wreck my days.
When I disengage
I lose my rage
So without you it’s sunny
And something quite funny
Is the longer you are away
I have a much better day.
Brownsville is yes worse than ever McHale. When the city is run by Cabler, the library by Hedgecock, the health department by Rodriguez, BISD by Zendejas and so on what the fuck do you expect.
Fuck Jerry! No good Internet bully....next, need to get rid of Cris Valadez.
Agreed!
A fellow gets to make his choices take either the results or consequences that those choices bring.
I never thought he had much to offer other than trying to be as outrageous and offensive as he could be. I don't feel the community will suffer a loss.
Bottom line is don't feel sorry for a fellow who made choices and now regrets those choices. You made your bed Puto, don't complain now that you don't like the smell.
You Mental Midgets wouldn't make a pimple on Jerry McHale's ass. He has more smarts in his thumbnail than you have in your whole body. Sometimes he slaps you across the face with his prose so you can WAKE THE FUCK UP. He will be back. It's in his blood.
I always like Jerry sincondicion
Jerry posted pics of BISD children with a headline insinuating that they are prostitutes. Any other school district and he would have been fired.
McHale had some good years in Mexican 3A ball with the Reynosa Broncos, broke 300 a couple of times, but was a 275 lifetime hitter with weak ankles that made him a mediocre glove in right field. When Roman Mejias made it to the Colt 45s and he convinced Al Heist to give McHale, an old drinking buddy, a look-see for six weeks in Triple A Tulsa. But the thought of leaving his senorita in Reynosa alone was eating up the famously jealous Irishman. After observing McHale for two days, Heist concluded that McHale's unorthodox chop limited his power to the infield and corrected his swing by stuffing a rib-jamming Titleist under the armpit. Just like that, his balls started going soaring. Tulsa wanted to sign him as backup, but after two weeks McHale said Thanks but no thanks, and returned to his adopted hometown, Reynosa, where his new swing made him a homerun sensation (he once hit five homeruns in a doubleheader against Toluca) and a strikeout leader. One Sunday in his career waning years, the Irishman bet his bete noire that he could go mano-a-mano with a fighting bull. He did go toe to toe and got gored in the Reynosa bullring after he stepped on the cape and fell in front of the beast. McHale lost both testicles and half his utilitarian penis but he won the bet. After that he returned to Brownsville, got a fake diploma, and started teaching natives the King's English. True story.
TZ
Ni modo McHale,
asta La vista!!!!
I'm surprised to learn he was still with B.I.S.D. Some of his postings were definitely porn, a minimum of very bad taste. I would not think that B.I.S.D. would put up with that in someone educating youth. This blog, while advocating unpopular positions, is in good taste.
The same can not be said of McHale.
I'll miss your writing. So diverse. Loved the artwork. All of the art. But I respect your decision.
I first met Jerry in the '70s when he came to write a news story about my business. Because he used his journalistic instinct to learn about what we did and how we did it, it became a feature story instead of an above-the-fold horror story. In his post-Rosinante years I found his language and use of porn off-putting and rarely read his work. It was an act of self-censorship, which any of us can exercise. It is Jerry's right to write things that I do not want to read and he can live without my approval. It would be tyranny, however, if he was permitted to only write what I approved of and wanted to read. God bless you Jerry.
I didn't like pictures you used with your articles however, you're articles were true about these corrupt politicians. You are also right Brownsville is at it's worst and is getting worse everyday. There's no hope for the decent people in this community, we are infested with crooks everywhere.
Good luck to you Jerry, focus on your life, f*** Brownsville and the crooks.
Lame.
It's a sad day for free speech in Brownsville. A basic human right has been squashed by acts of intimidation. Shame on Brownsville, BISD and the legal system. In the murky waters of internet-blog law and the lack of case law, McHale has had to succumb to the "special interests" of those who probably deserved to have their sensitivities offended and a judge's questionable mandate in order to survive. Don't RIP, McHale!
El Rocinante gallops and fades into "los Llanos de La Mancha".
Shame on BISD for continuing to employ a teacher who unlawfully hides behind"free speech" to nastily write about the very school children it aims protect.
Jerry, like so many bloggers, confused free speech with false speech. His aversion for the truth made him neither a journalist or an artist. Sad too, because he is a smart guy.
To hell with him. His posts were vile and cruel.
It is not about free speech, it is about a very vindictive individual hiding behind free speech. It is about an individual that has no principals, no integrity, no values whatsoever and is in my opinion a horrible person who should not be teaching our children. They need to get rid of him. I personally would not let him be one of my children's teachers. No one should feel sorry for this person who has hurt many people and BISD.
The grammar, syntax and overall quality of writing in the above comments is a testimony to the utter uselessness of the BISD.
Instead of trying to run Jerry out of town of a rail, you might wish to take a look at yourself in the mirror and reflect on why your city is a complete and utter educational and ecnomic backwater, the lowest of the low in this country. But, no that would actually take an intellectual effort way beyond both your mental capacity and general sloth. Feel free to
wallow in your destitute and shallow lives. Pueblo pequeño, infierno grande.
Although I have never met the man and seldom read his stuff, I found his "Swan Song", as published here, interesting. It was rather disjointed but interesting still.
I take particular note that after all the wrangling and writing, he finds Brownsville no better that it was 40 years ago, in fact he finds it worse.
I have been in Brownsville since 1944 and have seen all kinds of changes. I have seen the transition from Anglo to Mexican dominance. I have seen population growth and new businesses of all types. I have the transition from a reasonably straight judicial system to one of utter corruption.
I entertain no hope that Brownsville will cease it's slow slide into the civic septic tank. This place holds so much promise, yet seems bent on self destruction. Folks can argue about the "why" of it all, but nobody can argue about the "is".
The only way I can cope with this reality, is to see it all as funny and a source of humor. I wonder what Don Pedro would have to say about it all, if he could take a look back across the years.
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