Column - John Kanelis: State faces many rural roadblocks

Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants to build a big highway through the Lone Star State. No, make that a really big highway, as in a monstrously big highway.

The exact route hasn't been determined. The mega-highway would run roughly from Laredo on the Rio Grande River through the Hill Country and the Piney Woods and then through Texarkana in that tiny portion of the state that borders Arkansas.

Imagine for a moment if that thoroughfare would be pointed in the other direction - from the Valley, through the South Plains and then through the heart of the Panhandle, right past Palo Duro Canyon before exiting the state at, say, Texline.

Would rural West Texans be angry? Would they resist this monstrous highway project?

It's difficult to imagine such a thing happening to this part of the state. In fact, I am having a hard time justifying such a grandiose project tearing its way through any part of the state without a major part of our population getting upset to the point of mounting a serious protest in Austin.

State Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, once told me that the major fault lines in the state's ongoing struggle for political power separates rural and urban interests. He said the fight isn't so much partisan - Democrats vs. Republicans. Instead, it pits farmers and ranchers against those big-city movers and shakers.

The Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor is designed to accommodate an enormous projected increase in traffic from Texas to points elsewhere throughout the nation.

It looks like a good idea - on paper. Then you start hearing about the town-hall meetings all along the corridor's proposed route and the complaints from Texans who would have to endure a major disruption in their lives.

That's just from the folks who would be displaced, literally, from land that may have been in their families' hands since Gen. Houston surprised Santa Anna at San Jacinto back in 1836.

To cut a miles-wide swath through Texas will require huge condemnation proceedings by the state against property owners.

Remember when River Road school officials sought to build a new high school campus on the west side of the Dumas Highway in 2006? Do you recall the battle they fought with a property owner who didn't want to give up his land so the school district could complete the job approved by voters in a districtwide bond issue election?

Imagine battles such as that - and worse - occurring along a 575-mile route from Laredo to Texarkana.

Intellectually, it's easy to understand why some folks - Gov. Perry included - believe the Trans-Texas Corridor is vital. "With 1,200 people per day coming to live in Texas," says the group, Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation, "we need more transportation infrastructure and more highway funding from all sources, including tolls, private investment and other sources."

That leads us into another hotly contested issue, which will feature Mark Tomlinson, the soon-to-be-former Amarillo District engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation, who is about to be the Main Man in the state's toll road implementation plan.

Toll roads aren't a popular notion in this part of mostly rural West Texas. I don't figure they'll be any more palatable for the rural folks who live east of us.

And although one can imagine how those who live along its proposed route might feel about it, one should picture such a huge piece of "transportation infrastructure" carving its way through our back yards.

It's also fair, I believe, to suggest that just maybe Gov. Perry - who grew up in rural Haskell County - has lived in the big city a tad too long.

George H. Russell
1401 19th Street
Huntsville, TX 77340
Reception 936-295-5767
Fax 936-295-0020
e-mail: mailto:ghr@cyberclone.net
www.russellforgovernor.org

May 11, 2008

‘MY FIRST MOTHER’S DAY WITHOUT MY MOTHER’

Attn: OP-ED or LETTERS EDITOR

For Immediate Release

Contact: George H. Russell 936-295-5767, 936-891-5245, or 936-581-4302

Today was the first Mother’s Day in 63 years that I had only my mother’s memory and tomb to contemplate. But you say, “You’re only 62. Where did you come up with the 63 year figure?”

Well, my first Mother’s Day was spent in a warm and comfortable fetal position deep inside my mother’s womb, where I felt totally secure and without a care in the world. The subsequent years have been fraught with dealing with a world filled with a chaos of emotions, not all of which took me back to the warm comfort of no cares or worries.

My emotions today gravitate between rage and a desire to punish those who my mother believed harassed her into an early grave, and loving memories of the years that I did have with my mother as she attempted to guide me through the trials and tribulations of life on this planet.

Having watched her suffering as she was tormented by a huge and malicious power company intent on destroying her legacy to the people of Texas and America, I too believe that she would have been with my wife, children, and 97 year old father to be honored by her family on this special occasion were it not for the pain and suffering that she endured at the hands of Sam Houston Electric Power Cooperative and its allies in State Government.

My mother is not the only mother in the State of Texas who has been victimized and is being victimized by our current State Government, which is being manipulated by foreign, as well as multi-national corporate powers bent on profiting from the people of Texas with the proactive assistance of Governor Rick Perry and his band of paid hacks and henchmen.

Perry is obsessed with the so called Trans-Texas Corridor, which my mother called the “Highway to Hell”, and which would destroy the lives of thousands of Texans by taking their farms, ranches, and even the graves of their ancestors in order to export hundreds of millions of our citizens’ dollars to foreign investors.

As a tribute to my mother I produced an allegorical movie which was just released on Mother’s Day, entitled “Long Pig”. The movie delves into the evils and corruptions of the men and women who are cannibalizing our citizens and our planet in their lust for power and money. It is available as a free gift from The Universal Ethician Church Legal Defense Fund for a donation of $30.00, of which $28.00 is tax deductible.

Because I do not want any Texas family to have to endure the pain and suffering that we have had to endure at the hands of corrupt Texas State Agencies, including the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the State Office of Administrative Hearings, among others, I have decided to run for the office of Governor of the State of Texas.

We, as citizens of our great State cannot afford four additional years of Rick Perry’s obsession with selling Texas to foreign powers. I will not run as either a Republican or a Democrat, as I believe that both parties have become infested with “political whores” who sell out to the highest corporate or other special interest bidder. We need to take Texas back for Texans and not for the profits of multi-national corporations or foreign investors.

I have always been a Populist, but since there is no viable “Populist Party” in the State of Texas, I will be running as an independent. I will refuse to take even one cent in corporate money and if I decide to take any campaign contributions at all, I will not take more than $100.00 from any citizen of our great State and will return any donation from foreigners or special interest groups unless their interest is in the welfare of all Texans.

As governor, I would work feverishly toward election reform to disallow the wholesale purchase of politicians by the millionaires and billionaires. The days of the mega-powerful contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to own a politician in our great State should soon be over once and for all.

We need serious reform in our educational and penal system. We need to protect our farmers, ranchers, and other property owners from their lands being confiscated to line the pockets of foreign and other special interests. We need to protect the beauty of our State from rampant butchery from outside exploiters and we need to insure that every citizen of Texas has access to the best medical care in the world.

George H. Russell
www.russellforgovernor.org

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