SOUTHEAST TEXAS POLITICAL REVIEW TOP STOPY

Last Publish : Sunday, August 02, 2009 09:58:51 AM

Racism

Nobody wants to say it. And nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to admit it. Nobody wants to face it. But if anything comes out of the Southpark issue that Judge Bob Wortham will decide this week - the issue is on the table.

We have to admit - the only person that has told half of the truth in public and the media is Paul Brown. According to both media sources and public sources we spoke with this past week at the courthouse - Brown is the only one that has inferred what the black community is thinking - Southpark is the last standing monument to segregation in Beaumont Texas.

This is what the debate is all about - racism.

The testimony was interesting and eye opening. The numbers the district put out was a lie. The numbers of students that attend Southpark was a lie. The numbers of students that actually show up at the school was a lie. The engineering report was a lie. The spin to the public was a lie. The BISD and it's leaders lied to you the public.

Now, equally, the argument that the district officials put forth is true. The citizens passed the bond and we will spend the money - we are the elected officials. And be damn sure that is the truth and the law. But the citizens of Beaumont are now seeing what many of us out here in the political world have told all of you from the beginning - they will use anyone or say anything to get what they want. A certain doctor in town comes to mind. The Beaumont Chamber of Commerce comes to mind. The City Council of Beaumont comes to mind. There are many people and things that come to mind in the BISD bond mess. But in the end - the bond was built and sold on a lie.

If a lie to the taxpayers is enough to keep Southpark open - then it will stay open. But our guess it is not. As much as we hope that we are wrong - the law is the law.

Southpark stands in a place in Beaumont that is run down, a high crime area and most of all a place that was once a sense of pride and history for many of Beaumont's citizens that want to remember Beaumont of yester year. Not the high crime, high unemployment and high taxed place it is today.

Speaking frankly, that all puts the black community and their want and dreams of running the district against the white community that wants to keep some little sense of pride of the past.

Black v. White.

Of course - you have to add in Paul Brown that wants to make it radical - and now you sit in Judge Wortham's chair.

What has happened in the trial is pretty simple - BISD and its leadership have been exposed. They are liars. They lie. They continue to lie and they will lie to get what they want. As for the Southpark supporters - they now know that history means nothing to anyone in Beaumont.

If Southpark goes down - it will speed up what is happening in Beaumont.

What you ask? Take a look at Port Arthur and you see Beaumont's future.

If Southpark does not go down - it will put a band-aid on a leaking artery that is bleeding the life out of Jefferson County.

We hate to say it - but either way - we see no end to the fight of black v. white in Jefferson County, Texas. It is a factor that leads to the death of this county we call Jefferson - but it goes to show the players, the lies and most of all what we here at the Review have been talking about for years.......and you fill in the blanks....