Friday, March 27, 2009

Not the Best of Times in Dallas



One gets the impression lately that our tax dollars are not being used as efficiently as they could be here in Dallas, Texas.
  • I guess the most egregious example has been making national headlines.

    NFL running back Ryan Moats was pulled over for a routine traffic offense last week. Moats and the occupants of his vehicle had a good reason for their haste — they were trying to get to a hospital to say goodbye to Moats' mother–in–law, who was dying of breast cancer.

    Moats tried to explain the situation to the officer, but he was delayed so long that his mother–in–law died before he could get to her bedside.

    The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave until an internal investigation is completed — after which he may be fired.

    He may still have a chance to keep his job. It's a good thing for him that the Dallas Morning News' Jacquielynn Floyd is not responsible for making that decision.

    And he's fortunate that the Dallas Morning News' editorial staff won't decide his fate, either.

    If either of them were charged with that task, the officer might already be on the unemployment line.

    But their input may influence the actions of those who will decide whether the officer stays on the force.

  • Over at City Hall, they make glossy calendars every year that list all scheduled City Council proceedings, as well as all holidays.

    Well, most holidays.

    These calendars, which are distributed free to city residents, have a lot of valuable information. But they ain't perfect. Christians won't be able to rely on the calendars to know when Good Friday or Easter are coming up next month. They'll have to turn to their pastors or priests for that information because those observances were omitted.

    Well, thank goodness they got International Migratory Bird Day correct.

    I pointed this out to an old family friend. She said the omission was probably an "oversight" and told me that the person responsible for the entries in the calendar is "probably a 'good egg' at heart."

    I can only hope that person's supervisor is as forgiving as my friend is.

3 comments:

Mike said...

The cop should have given him an escort to the hospital in order to verify his story, but in fairness to the officer, I,m sure he's heard all kinds of stories.

Del Patterson said...

Would that officer have treated Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Simon Cowell the same way. I doubt it.
The officer"s heartless comment when told the situation dealt with a dying mother was disgusting. He said that it didn't constitute running a red light. Is it any wonder why police are held in such low regard?

Calendars: since when is it the duty of the govt to notify citizens of religious holidays? If so, do we really want to list the hundreds of different religious holy days: Sun Myun Moon and the Unification Church? Scientology? How about the 1000s of Hindu gods and their special days?

David Goodloe said...

Del,

I didn't say it was the government's duty to notify citizens of religious holidays.

I merely pointed out that other religious holidays were identified in the calendar. That is something the city chose to do on its own. I am aware of no mandates from the public that it do so. This is a service the city has chosen to provide.

If the city chooses to include the significant dates for the Unification Church or Scientology or Hindus, that is the city's choice, too.

Having made the choice the city has made, if you're going to have a calendar that mentions Yom Kippur, Passover, Christmas, etc., it seems odd (to me, anyway) to leave out Easter and Good Friday. There is a significant Christian influence in this city, and apparently members of the local Christian community, whether Protestant or Catholic, noticed the omission.

For that matter, there are fairly sizable Buddhist and Jewish communities here as well.