AFTER POWER FIASCO, PANDEMIC LOOKING GOOD

 Special to El Rrun-Run

Gov. Greg Abbott and his conniving Commissioner of Agriculture Sid Miller blame the wind turbines for the Great Texas Blackout even through wind produces less than 10 percent of the state's energy.

So much for energy independence. If anything, this shows Abbott as the obdurate secessionist willing to let Texans bear the brunt of his ineptness. Yeah, those damn Democrats. Miller said the wind turbines were "Obama Monuments."

Closer to home, who does the underachieving, overpaid executives of the Brownsville Public Utilities Board blame for having entire sectors of the city in cold and darkness?

PUB CEO John Bruciak, at $300,000 a year and living in a condo at South Padre Island, has no one to blame but himself and his overpaid cadre.

Do people know that we have an idle diesel generator at the Silas Ray plant which could kick out enough juice to keep the city's vital departments operating and shelters for the people open?

Why the kid gloves with these underachievers?

What started out as a cold snap - something that is easily handled by our neighbors in the Midwest - has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster for South Texas and Brownsville in particular.

The lines at local McDonalds restaurants stretch for blocks, as do the lines at gasoline stations after rumors spread like a wild fire that gasoline supplies were diminishing. 

Fights broke out at several Stripes stores and police were sent to calm down motorists desperate to acquire fuel for their cars and electric generators.

But what about people who need electric medical devices to survive like ventilators, etc.?

After two days without lights and warmth, where is the nearest shelter and how do you let people know if there is no internet or even a place to recharge your phone other than your car?

Our county and city leaders have proven that they aren't. They have shown they don't have a proactive bone in their bodies. 

Instead, they blame the state and its inept electric energy administrator ERCOT. 

If we start finding people dead in trailer houses because they used charcoal fires to try to stay warm, this is on you. 

For the last two days, people who live in cold mobile homes have been trying to get the city and county and PUB, Magic Valley, AEP, CPL, etc., to help them with no success. Like Abbott blaming the wind turbines, local officials are in turn blaming Abbott and the state and the blame game goes merrily round and round while our fellow citizens suffer.

Governance isn't about posing with Elon Musk or donning a sombrero to celebrate Charro Days. It's about rolling up your sleeves and finding solutions to address the needs of your constituents.

Where's Eddie Lucio and his little Eddie III? And how about the other little Eddie at Cameron County and little Trey at the City of Brownsville?

I could bet that they are not cold or living in the dark like the people who put them in office.

They're showing us that they are not up to the task. Les queda grande la chamba. 

Ques dice el publico? Fuera!

It's up to us now to help each other as good neighbors and Christians and god-fearing sons and daughters of our God.  

We counted on our so-called leaders to do something to help us and what have we gotten? Other than disappointment, nothing else.