And for many reasons Sam, there are many Americans who would agree with your last sentence.
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Sam1 Texas is unique. I grew up in Pennsylvania, but I have lived in Texas for more than 40 years. As the clouds of the impending civil war grew darker, Sam Houston concluded that joining the United States was a mistake. He advocating reverting to the independent republic that Texas had been prior to unionization. Sounds more appealing every day.
Texas is unique. I grew up in Pennsylvania, but I have lived in Texas for more than 40 years. As the clouds of the impending civil war grew darker, Sam Houston concluded that joining the United States was a mistake. He advocating reverting to the independent republic that Texas had been prior to unionization. Sounds more appealing every day.
At least that confirms that Texas seceded from Mexico and again from the United States over the issue of slavery.
The media -
What is the thing the media (print, broadcast or telecast - it makes no difference) sells every day of the week and double-time on Sunday? FEAR!
How often is the headline on the news paper or the lead story on a TV or radio newscast about something bad - very nearly 100% of the time. Bad sells. Bad generates fear. Bad generates anger. Bad also generates the 'there but for the grace of God go I' - which is why it sells. Something bad happened and it didn't happen to me - I feel good that it didn't happen to me and I generate more internal fear that at sometime in the future that it could be me.
Concerning the DART incidents - how many traffic accidents resulting in serious injury and/or death occurred in the metropolitan area during the same span of time - probably two to three times the number involved in the DART incidents - where it the outrage about that? The reality is that the traffic incidents are only reported in passing, if at all, because the continuing repetitive nature of such incidents - they aren't really NEWS.
The media have one thing to sell - FEAR - and they do it very well.
henry6 When I was doing a Saturday night radio show in Binghamto, NY...a very small city at that...I was often asked by listeners and others if I wasn't scared because of the crime in the city at night. Of course I was neither scared nor deterred because the danger was percieved because of the ignorance of those who never went into town at any time! Yes, DART has a problem but it is not the shootings it is the fear instilled by the media and perception those who never go to Dallas or the fewere who would ever ride DART have. DART has to show that for every one incident on DART property on any given night is equal to whatever number of similar incidents occuring in Dallas or an average Texas town that same night. It is part law enforcement but more public relations and reality awareness.
When I was doing a Saturday night radio show in Binghamto, NY...a very small city at that...I was often asked by listeners and others if I wasn't scared because of the crime in the city at night. Of course I was neither scared nor deterred because the danger was percieved because of the ignorance of those who never went into town at any time! Yes, DART has a problem but it is not the shootings it is the fear instilled by the media and perception those who never go to Dallas or the fewere who would ever ride DART have. DART has to show that for every one incident on DART property on any given night is equal to whatever number of similar incidents occuring in Dallas or an average Texas town that same night. It is part law enforcement but more public relations and reality awareness.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
henry6 And for many reasons Sam, there are many Americans who would agree with your last sentence.
Presumably they are not amongst the thousands upon thousands of people who have come to Texas during the time that I have been here for good jobs, housing, infrastructure and, heaven forbid, minimalist government with relatively low taxes.
To Sam 1: I don't know that Sam Houston thought Texas joining the Union in 1845 was a mistake, in 1861 he DEFINATELY thought Texas seceding from the Union and joining the Confederacy was a mistake, cost him the governorship. He said:
"Let me tell you what is coming. Your fathers and husbands, your sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of the bayonet. You may, after the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, as a bare possibility, win southern independence, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of States Rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction they move with the steady momentum and perserverance of a mighty avalanche."
How right he was, even if Texas was the only Confederate state that was never overrun.
Firelock76 To Sam 1: I don't know that Sam Houston thought Texas joining the Union in 1845 was a mistake, in 1861 he DEFINATELY thought Texas seceding from the Union and joining the Confederacy was a mistake, cost him the governorship. He said: "Let me tell you what is coming. Your fathers and husbands, your sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of the bayonet. You may, after the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, as a bare possibility, win southern independence, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of States Rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction they move with the steady momentum and perserverance of a mighty avalanche." How right he was, even if Texas was the only Confederate state that was never overrun.
Houston did not think that joining the union in 1845 was a mistake, but doing so led to taking sides in an ugly conflict between the states or the War for Southern Independence. Clearly, he thought that seceding from the union was a mistake and, as you note, his position cost him the governorship. Several historians claim that in retrospect he felt that becoming part of the United States was a mistake. After all, had Texas not become a state, it would not have had to choose sides in the American Civil War. And Houston would not have found himself having to go against the wishes of many Texans.
It is true that Texas was not overrun during the Civil War. Galveston was occupied briefly. And its ports were blockaded effective by the United States Navy. Nevertheless, it suffered severe economic hardship and a fretful period of reconstruction. Mr. Sam was correct. Siding with the Confederacy was a terrible mistake.
The laser visioned 20/20 view of hindsight!
The idea that Texas, or any other state, could thrive if it were outside the Union today, or were to leave it, is just as romantic and preposterous an idea as Scottish or Quebecois independence. But some people want to believe in myths if it suits their needs and ideology.
That being said, there is an argument (not original with me) that can be made that it was a mistake to fight to keep the South in the Union. It is this: had the South been out of the Union after 1861, there would never have been 500,000 avoidable deaths, the national agony of Reconstruction, the national embarrassment and humiliation of Jim Crow and disenfranchisement, no Ku Klux Klan, and the advent decades earlier of sane and responsible gun control, concern for the environment, an effective national health care plan, and a political climate where adherence to reactionary religious ideas didn't drive national public policy, to say nothing of the need for a Civil Rights Movement in the first place.
Perhaps Horace Greeley was right after all. Maybe the Union should have said, "Erring sisters, depart in peace." We might have been a more tolerant, progressive Nation if we had.
Im jus' sayin....
What does that irrational rant have to do with crime in transit?
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Phoebe,
NKP guy The idea that Texas, or any other state, could thrive if it were outside the Union today, or were to leave it, is just as romantic and preposterous an idea as Scottish or Quebecois independence. But some people want to believe in myths if it suits their needs and ideology. That being said, there is an argument (not original with me) that can be made that it was a mistake to fight to keep the South in the Union. It is this: had the South been out of the Union after 1861, there would never have been 500,000 avoidable deaths, the national agony of Reconstruction, the national embarrassment and humiliation of Jim Crow and disenfranchisement, no Ku Klux Klan, and the advent decades earlier of sane and responsible gun control, concern for the environment, an effective national health care plan, and a political climate where adherence to reactionary religious ideas didn't drive national public policy, to say nothing of the need for a Civil Rights Movement in the first place. Perhaps Horace Greeley was right after all. Maybe the Union should have said, "Erring sisters, depart in peace." We might have been a more tolerant, progressive Nation if we had. Im jus' sayin....
An interesting rant. Not really for these pages, and I do see why it is written. But not really for thes pages. An interesting rant....hmmmm....
The thread has run off the rails, hasn't it?
Phoebe Vet The thread has run off the rails, hasn't it?
Indeed it has. Here is an update to re-rail it. DART has announced that it will station a police officer, i.e. Dallas City, DART, Fare Collector, Security Guard on every DART train for the foreseeable future. This probably will stem the crime wave that has hit DART's light rail trains and will help assuage the public's concerns about riding light rail. It will also increase DART's light rail costs, although DART has not published any numbers.
Placing the officers on every train is a response, at least in part, to a shooting at a Richardson, TX station a month or so ago in which a bystander was killed. If I remember correctly, the bad guy was killed also, although that is small consolidation to the family of the bystander.
DART has ordered new rail cars for the Green and Orange line extensions. They will be equipped with 24/7 cameras to monitor the cars and their occupants. Moreover, it will replace most of its current bus fleet by 2015. All new buses will be equipped with cameras. All of this is necessary. And all of it will increase the cost of public transport.
CATS has had cameras on every light rail vehicle, the park and ride lots, and every platform from the beginning. I am not sure but I don't believe they have them on the buses. Charlotte Mecklenberg Police hop on and off the trains at irregular intervals to check tickets, and private security Officers patrol the park and ride lots and garages.
This picture of a portion of the dispatch center was taken at an open house before service began, so it shows the same camera on many monitors.
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