WHY VOTE AGAINST ROSE GOWEN AND JOHN VILLARREAL? HOW HAVE THEY FAILED? LET US COUNT THE WAYS...

(With Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

To John and Rose, from us:

You ask us what have you done that we won't vote for thee?

Let us count the whys, just bear with me

You have gone along with Tony 

To raid this town and people 

To depths and breadths and heights 

Our souls can only reach, when feeling out of sight

You two voted to give away Lincoln Park to the UT

And had Mark Sossi say the vote was only to "convey"

And planned to move the park next to a sewer plant

Where our kids and elderly folk could play

And ethical Rose, while hired by UT,

Discussed it and voted for it anyway

To pass Tony's deal and let it be

Now, after she raided the city budgets

For millions for her bikes and trails – 

For health and joy for two or three –

She runs Sunday ads to raise taxes to patch potholes

And pay for frills like drainage and good streets

You two have let Martinez raid the treasury

To benefit his friends and chosen raza

An used millions of our money to buy their land

And handed him $2.3 million to buy the useless Casa 

You have stood by and saw how he

Signed over half a lot of forfeited land, to himself,

Raised the value of his land and

Then sold it down the street, for a nice fee

And you pretended not to see...

To the ends of being and ideal grace. 

You two have also abused us 

To the level of every day’s 

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

And voted to hike the cost of our water and our light

For a Tenaska electric plant deal no one has ever seen...

And probably never will by day or night

We abhor this freely, as men strive for right. 

We'll vote against thee purely, as they turn from praise. 

We'll work against thee with the passion put to use

 In our old griefs, and with our childhood’s faith. 

We'll be against thee with a passion we have seemed to lose 

With our lost saints. We're against thee with the breath, 

Smiles, tears, of all our lives; and, if God choose, and the you win,

We will be against thee, but – because of your past ways – 

We'd rather see you lose, you see

(Ed.'s Note. Early voting continues today [Monday] and Tuesday at early voting sites. Election is Saturday at the voting precincts. Please vote.)