GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
In this country the actual national debt is probably, by now, classified information. If it isn't top secret it is surely not long from being classified. It is bad enough to know that the debt ceiling is 9 trillion dollars. This is what the debt can climb to without further government approval.
IS ANYTHING DIFFERENT TODAY FROM YESTERDAY? Have you ever wondered what kind of practices caused the debt ceiling to get that way? I believe that some light can be put on the subject by looking at the way government business was conducted back in Sol's hay day. I don't think that much has changed since then. I believe that when you see the pattern of how political events transpired then, it will give us an insight as to what is still going on today. It has been long enough that it should be alright to talk in depth about what caused the government waist of that time. After all, it left us with the debt of today.
WHY IS THE COUNTRY IN SUCH A MESS?
Billie Sol once sat me down and explained how politics used to work. Just what does it take to play in the political ball park? I don't see that many signs that much has changed today. I am interested in talking to anyone that can convince me that much has changed for the better.
I really want to think that we humans can improve. Although, Sol admitted the way business was done in Washington D.C. was less than acceptable, he also explained the price of non-compliance. I am referring to those unofficial rules of protocol. To violate such protocol was to do no business. Let me give you an idea of what he said so if you decide to go to Washington D.C. you will know what to expect.
HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED ACCORDING TO SOL
Sol said when he went to Washington D.C. he always went with about $50,000 in his hip pocket. Remember he was talking about life in the mid 50's before oil prices went up and inflation went wild. No telling how much you would need to go effectively to Washington D.C. for political reasons today. In the mid 50's, that kind of money bought a lot.
He used the money to rent a hotel. [ Notice I didn't say a room.] He would then contact the liquor warehouses and order enough booze to float a battleship. He then made another call to the Washington pimps. They were to arrange to have the party be graced with the presence of the most beautiful and alluring feminine working girls in the city. With this all arranged, he would then make another set of phone calls to his favorite politicians and invite them over. "I've got a little party going on, and oh yes, you might not want to bring your wife to this one, know what I mean? Somewhere toward the end of the party, after everyone was drunk and laid, the senators would come by Sol's table and say, "Great party, Sol. Why don't you come by the office tomorrow and we'll talk about awarding you that wheat storage contract you've been talking to us about?"
Now being the kind and perceptive individuals that these politicians are, they know that parities where everyone gets drunk and laid by beautiful whores don't come without expense. Thoughtfully, they would always pad the contracts awarded to Sol. This was to cover the toll of throwing these parties. This is just thought of as part of the cost of doing business. Successful contractors are supposed to front these parties to encourage governmental favor. The American tax payer is supposed to ultimately reimburse the cost to the contractors.
Being the responsible politicians that they are, they couldn't think of awarding these kinds of contracts to someone who wasn't financially stable. They should be able to front such entertainment. Not to do so would be unthinkable. Such a person would be considered inept.
After all, it is only polite that a contractor would give such favors to our trusted servants. Oh yes, and don't forget the under the table kickbacks. One has to pay for the privilege of being chosen to do business with the largest customer in the world. With the cost of parties and kickbacks it is a wonder that the debt ceiling is only 9 trillion.
IF IT IS ALL THAT CROOKED, WHY DON'T WE HEAR MORE ABOUT IT IN THE PRESS?
Who watches all this? Surely, you say, if this were all true, the press would jump on it in a heart beat. After all, with freedom of the press, it would come out if practices such as this ran rampant. Lets look at the self-censorship of the press. Let us discern the real natural order of events as they exist. I am not bringing you this point to wallow in a negative situation. I wish to stimulate your thinking. Being aware of how situations are is a step toward change. You may come upon ideas of how we can have a better life in the future. The good folk of this country still believe in a work ethic. That ethic was what made this country strong. These people deserve to be informed of how the real world is. They will then be able to give input toward positive change. If we don't state the situation as we see it, we have no way to be proven wrong. Or better yet, come up with a better way. Can we find a better way? What do I have to offer?
I paint the following picture of the press. I do so to question how to make it better? You must know how it is in order to change it. Clues to the answers to most questions are contained within the questions, themselves, if they are well stated. When we understand how the press works we also understand why it rarely exposes to the full extent, the corruption of the rich.
WHY IS THE TRUTH CENSORED FROM WHAT WE READ OR SEE ON TV?
All media, or press, function like the balance of a three legged stool. One who is seated on such a stool will not fall over if each leg of the stool is strong. Lets look at each of the legs of this media stool.
One of these legs is 'circulation'. For the publication to be successful it must be circulated amongst the rich. The second leg of the stool is the 'article leg'. For the publication to have a circulation amongst the rich the articles must please the readers. Therefore you don't want to go too heavy on anything. We wouldn't want to be too graphic. You wouldn't want to write too much about how the rich exploit the poor. Some readers might think that you were talking about them. They might even cancel their subscriptions! The last leg of the stool is the 'advertisement dept.'. If the advertising salesman cannot point out to the merchant that the publication appeals to the rich, who will buy the add? They must have a large circulation among those who prosper.
It is very doubtful that anyone will want to advertise in a publication without rich circulation. Without such advertisement the publication would have to cost so much that no one could afford it. Now if you think that I have the answer to this problem, you no doubt, have been wrong about other areas of your life. The point is, I am asking how we can do it better. The truth is valuable regardless of whom it offends.
SURPRISE! SURPRISE! THE HIDDEN COST OF OUR NATIONAL DEBT IS DUE TO WHORES, BOOZE, AND DOPE
SO ....WHAT HAS CHANGED LATELY?
Back in the late thirties there was a humorist who said, "I don't make jokes, I just read the paper and report the news. When I do make a joke, people can take it or leave it. When Congress makes a joke it becomes law. Most of their laws are jokes." Will Rogers would have fit right in with his thirties commentary on politics and government business if he were still alive today. His comments are as timely today as they were then. In politics and government business, the point is that nothing much ever changes. If we talk about government business in Sol's heyday it will be easy to see why the national debt is what it is today. If politics didn't change from the thirties when Will was alive, why would we suppose that it would have been much different in the late fifties and early sixties. Why, indeed, would we think that things would be different today? The answer is it isn't different.
IF GOVERNMENT IS A JOKE WHY AREN'T WE LAUGHING?
The government is still a joke. With the mounting debt less people are laughing. Will it do any good to point out the serious flaws in our system? Maybe, Maybe not. Today there are a lot more people receiving money than people who are doing useful work. Even so, there are also, many people who are underpaid and overworked. Why does money go to those who do little or no work? I'm not talking welfare, I'm talking politicians.
WHY TALK POLITICS IF YOU DON'T OWN ONE?
In this country there is no use talking politics if you don't own one. If you don't have a few politician in your pocket it is just a spectator sport. It is a sport where it is hard to tell the owners from the players. Politicians usually think that someone else should do the shit jobs because it is plain to see that they are too busy. After all, some people have to run the country, don't they? Most people aren't interested. Even if they were, they aren't smart enough. They don't know what is good for them. Without political direction none of us would know what to do would we?
WHY WOULD A SOBER MAN WANT TO BE A POLITICIAN?
I really don't have an answer for that. When I decided to try my hand at it I was still drinking. I still question how I could justify an attempt to gain office. I better blame it on the drinking. Otherwise I will have to omit that I was a hobo at the time, and not good at panhandling. I needed the money. There were a couple of incidents that preceded my decision to try politics. First let me explain some basic misunderstandings I have had.
For some time in the past I have been ignorant about certain subjects. Sometimes that is a blessing. If you are really ignorant you might do something good just because you don't know that what you are trying is impossible. There is a lot I still wonder about like,..
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE?
Here in the U.S.of A., we are told that politics works one way, when in actuality, it works another. My point of example is that we are told we have government for the people, of the people, and by the people. Why do they somehow conveniently forget to say which people? They also fail to say which people own which people. Oh? You are surprised? You didn't realize people could own people in the U.S.?. Well, maybe they don't openly own other people. I, however, have found out, that it is those people who, in effect, own the politicians in this country, make up the rules. It is not the politicians. They just write the rules that are made up.
This country has the best government that money can buy. It probably would be more accurate to say that we have a country that is governed of the money, by the money, and for the money. Those who do not have money better have good credit.
Knowing how it works and being poor in this country is not a great place to be. The plight of the poor is caused by this self-regulated system which effects an automatic censorship that never lets, or at least rarely allows, the exploiting rich to be exploited.
WHAT WOULD MAKE THE RICH WANT TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM?
You may ask yourself why the rich would ever want it any other way. Will stating the obvious change anything? That depends upon whether or not the rich are willing to learn anything from history. They are aware, I am sure, of the fact that all wars are started over economic issues. This doesn't bother them too much. After all, it is usually the poor that do the soldiering. This is so, at least if we are thinking of conventional warfare.
WHAT MAKES WAR ANY DIFFERENT TODAY?
An Atomic or hydrogen bomb cannot distinguish between the rich and the poor. War is just not as good an answer as it once was. The means of communication has improved. The real war that is going on isn't necessarily between countries anymore. It is a secret war. The real war is the governments of the world against the people that are being governed. Who would really want to be a politician in a country where its citizens have just awakened? What if these citizens suddenly realized what it means to be 9 trillion dollars in debt?
Maybe the rich governing classes are wiser than I give them credit for. Maybe that is why this country hasn't, in some manner, been more widely foreclosed on. Maybe some of those rich folks have read their history books. Now, as never before in history, the rich have put themselves in more danger than they realize.
This BOOK IS MEANT TO AWAKEN PEOPLE, AND GET THEM TO TAKE THE GOVERNMENT BACK. WE MUST RETURN TO CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT.
The public is not stupid as the rich make them out to be. As of yet, they just don't know what to do about what is happening to them. If you are rich, let me remind you that when you steal, it makes people mad at you. This holds true, even if you do it legally. Eventually, those who get stolen from often enough wise up. You are probably aware of a belief, prevalent among leading economists, that a large part of our population is unnecessary. After all, we have computers and automation. If the poor will now just kindly die off in wars, or by Aids or the like, it will leave more for the affluent.
Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that bombs and viruses couldn't discriminate between the rich and the poor? Wouldn't it be interesting if a polluted environment turned out to be polluted for everyone? Aids might turn out to be mankind's biggest blessing. What if it caused the rich and the poor to pull together instead of fight each other? We must realize there is just one earth. That earth exists today. Where is it located? It is suspended in space. What is another word for space? Space is also called the heavens.
The Lord's Prayer now takes on a new meaning. We now realize where the planet earth is. It is already located. What we do here on earth, as individuals, determines whether our lives are in hell or heaven. It starts with a realization.
In the age of mass communication there is the possibility for a new system of government to exist. It will be one that will allow only one level of people. They will make their needs and desires known to the trusted servants of society. These public servants will then present the issues to the public for a vote. We will vote by donating money to the cause. If we are convinced that it is not a good cause we just won't give money. If we are convinced that it is a good cause and that the public money is being spent wisely we will donate.
We will not even need money, we can do it all with computer credits. The people of today's world don't need to suffer and die quietly. The rich shouldn't expect this to happen. The poor are awaking to what is being done to them. What does it mean to be trillions of dollars in debt? Why would stuff like this concern a hobo? Fact is, It doesn't. I don't plan to pay it. That is just part of being a hobo. We take the same attitude as the politicians.
MY BID TO BE A PUBLIC SERVANT
I once thought it might be fun to hold some kind of political office. That was back in my drinking and drugging days. Now I've been sober too long to have those kinds of thoughts. The way I see the world today anyone would have to be really brave or really stupid to want to be a politician in this country. After all, the last of the old style politicians are going to be the ones to catch the most hell when the people in this country wake up.
Even if you were a totally 'honest politician', whatever that might be, it would be hard not to get blamed for the mess that our present politicians have made. If this country was a company it probably would have filed bankruptcy a long time ago. It is not that this country lacks wealth. The problem is that with the corruption our wealth has been stolen legally from us while we slept.
A HOBO'S ATTEMPT AT POLITICS
I really didn't aspire to be President, but I did try to run for Place 4, in the city council here in Austin. There were two events that preceded my decision to run for office. These events were spaced a couple of months apart. One of these events involved a local bureaucracy called the Texas Employment Commission.
One morning early I found myself down in the day labor dept. of Texas Employment. I was working out of day labor occasionally. I did this because I didn't have to give out my social security number. It was straight cash, no questions ask. I don't like to give out my number, as you probably have already guessed. This is because it lets the government know where I am. Under the present system I find that very threatening.
It is not a good idea to help the government watch you. I believe they do a good enough job of watching me without my help. This morning the employment office was packed with people. They were all waiting for hard ditch digging jobs. They were all eager for meager pay. Without booze it is hard to stay drunk. Without money it is hard to buy the booze. If we sober up, we are probably going to change everything around us. We have to. It is a condition of sobriety. Change is very frightening. Because we are afraid we stay drunk.
As I remember I was already a little pissed off because of a scrawny little drunk that had accepted a day labor job for minimum wage. If everyone would just refuse to work for minimum wage, I thought, the bosses would cease to offer it. After all, the reason that he is hiring it done is so that he want have to do it himself. The little guy was so shaky that he could hardly hold a shovel much less work with it. He just wanted to make enough money to buy another bottle. I remember being thankful that I wasn't an alcoholic. I drank only because I wanted to. I thought that alcoholics drink because they have to. After all they are addicted. They have to feed that addiction. At the time I almost hated that little guy. He was the one that was selling the rest of the day laborors short. If he did not need a drink so bad everyone could have stood firm in not taking the shit jobs for no pay.
What kind of sorry boss would exploit this poor alcoholic slobs' work, I questioned to myself, as I sat and watched the counselor. He was giving the shaky little man the work order. The guy was just one of many alcoholics whose disease was being exploited in this day labor pool, I thought.
(At the time I did not think of myself as an Alcoholic though I drink daily. I lived a hobo's life in a tent.) What was I doing here, I ask myself? Had I not been a successful business man before the divorce? Had I not gained much valuable training from working around Sol all those years? After all, It wasn't my fault that Judge Hill railroaded Sol back into the penitentiary. He had done so, all on those phoney charges. I was too paranoid to work in a mediocre capacity. If I couldn't afford a 50 thousand dollar a year attorney, I was better off, at least I thought, working out of day labor. That way, at least I wasn't helping the government spy on me, as I would be with a job that demanded a social security number.
It was still very disconcerting for me to think about. How could they have justified spending that 4 million dollars putting Sol and me under surveillance. This had been over a four year period. It was the entire period that Sol and I had been together. My mind was flashing these thoughts as I watched the shaky little man being sent out on the early morning job. Then I began to think about looking in the micro-fish job bank. Maybe I could find a job that would be worth the risk of giving out my social security number. I got up out of my chair and strolled slowly over to the micro film viewer. It was housed in the other part of the building. These were the records of the more permanent jobs.
These job lists were not noted for their accuracy. You were lucky not to get a referral out of this job bank that had not already been filled a month ago. This was due to the Texas Employment's wonderful system. This system insured that T.E.C.s people would stay on the payroll of the state. It ensured their jobs in large numbers.
This was a sloppy, inefficient, fluctuating, illogical system. Because it was, It took more people to run it. You can employ more people to do a job that would otherwise be done with 1/2 the amount. I won't go into the details of how and why the system was so inefficient because it wouldn't do either of us any good. Whatever we might come up with wouldn't be used because it would be logical. Such organizations hate anything that doesn't waste your time or the public's money. If you have ever dealt with a government office you could already write your own book. You know what I am talking about.
Anyway, efficient or not, that morning there was the perfect job for me in the job list. The description read as follows:
Need someone with 5 years business management experience. Good with P. R. work. Must know advertising.
This was clearly my job. I couldn't have written a better description of my qualifications than did the man that wrote up that job order. Excitedly, I took down the information and informed the job counselor that I wanted the complete information on this job. He looked at me strangely.
"I'm not going to give you this job information.", he said. "Why not?", I asked.
"Because, you don't look right for a job like this." " "What do you mean, I don't look right? I qualify totally for- this job. Give me the information." I was dressed in my day labor clothes. "
"I am not going to send a day labor worker on an executive job!", he snarled! " "But I meet all the qualifications! I can change clothes before going to the interview.", I argued.
He remained quite adamant about not giving me the job information. I then demanded to talk to his supervisor. "You- can't discriminate against me because you don't like the way I- dress. This is my Job! I am qualified! All my life I've had- almost a sixth sense about advertisement and publicity. To some- company, I could be worth a tidy sum. It is not the clothes I am- wearying that they will be buying, it's the knowledge inside my- head."
It turned out that his supervisor was as stubborn as he was. I went up a couple of more levels with my argument, to no avail. No one in T.E.C. was going to help me because I was dressed in day labor clothes and not in a suit. Then I ask for the chain of command all the way up to the governors office. I got it. Since I only had about 2 quarters to make phone calls with I decided to start with the governors' office.
Quickly I was made aware that, although the governor's office could pick the employment commissioners, he could not fire them. If he couldn't fire them who would they respond to? How could this office be made to serve the people that it was designed for? Through further investigation I found out that it didn't really serve the people that It was designed to serve. Instead, it served an organization of wealthy Texas business men called the Texas Business Association. In fact, the T.B.A. was responsible largely for T.E.C. attitudes and policies. In effect, what was happening was the organization that was supposed to serve the job hunters was being manipulated.
Some wealthy employers must find it to their advantage to keep the job hunters in a confused, suppressed frame of mind. I guess the name of the game is, 'if it becomes too easy to get a job, you may not work so hard on the one you have'. What is worse, you may even want more money. At any rate, I ended up not getting the information that I was wanting. I decided not to use Texas Employment Commission again for anything if I could help it.
The next and final event that caused me to attempt to run for office came about two months later.
Having decided to abandon the lack of service of the T.E.C., I chose instead to look in the newspaper. I would look in the help wanted section to find my job prospects. I chose to look at the paper at the public library instead of buying a copy. For some reason, to a hobo, quarters are sometimes scarce. True, I could scrape up some money picking up aluminum cans, but why not use the library copy of the newspaper, after all it was free.
When I went to the library I would first list the jobs in which I was interested. I would look up the address of the business in the criss-cross directory. This way if it was in a handy location I didn't have to waste any money or time calling. To save quarters on the phone calls I would go unannounced to the business and apply. I would look up the location on the city map also provided by the library.
My appearance was what had been keeping me from being able to get the job information from T.E.C. Now, unbeknownst to me, I was about to be thrown out of the public library for the same reason. Living in a hobo camp isn't exactly a prerequisite for cleanliness and impeccable dress. In fact, much the opposite was the fact. That day I appeared much as I had when I had been refused service with T.E.C..
My clothes were somewhat dirty and my hair needed combing. I thought surely that I looked good enough to sit and read the paper and look for jobs. After all, it is a little hard to clean up if you have no money for soap.
As I looked up from my paper I found myself staring at two cops. They had been called to escort me out into the front parking lot of the library. There they ran a warrants check on me.
How embarrassing! As I was being taken outside, the librarian look up at me and snarled, "We don't allow bums and street- people in this library."
"Wait a minute, what has been my crime? Is it against the law- to be broke? Surely not in this land of opportunity! Certainly- not if you were trying to hunt a job!"
It apparently is illegal to look down and out. Again, my appearance was my crime against society. The fact is you need money to buy soap. You need a Job, to get money. You have a hard time getting hired if you don't look good. It is also hard to get a job if you have no residence that a prospective boss can call.
How can your new boss call you back to tell you that you are hired? Also, it is hard to get to work sometimes if you have bus fare.
In the American caste system you remain a hobo, experience a miracle, or die. So I decided to try my hand at politics. It would be a miracle if a poor man could win at politics. If a hobo could become a successful politician it would indeed be a wonder. It would be rough to do it without any financial backing. I reasoned, however, that if I hadn't overestimated my ability to get publicity, I could do it.
As a hobo, you learn not to need much money. This is because, for a hobo, there isn't much money. If a hobo with no money could be elected to office he or she would make a rather unusual politician.
Most politicians spend millions of dollars to get jobs that pay far less than that. I've always wondered how they could afford to do that. I have often suspected that the people we vote on have already been bought by someone.
I was going to have to be different in my approach. After all, who was going to try to buy a hobo? Somehow, I was going to have to be clever enough to get publicity. I would rely upon free publicity instead of bought advertisement. Advertisement costs money, but if you can make something newsworthy enough you can get media coverage free. The problem sometimes with this is how drastic the measures must be to get written up. Sometimes the mere threat of a law suit can be enough to make the papers. This is not so in Austin Texas. Filing one might do the trick if it is ballsy enough. These kinds of law suite are the type that you usually have to file yourself. Remember that lawyers have to show back in court day after day. They, for the most part, cannot afford to look stupid in front of the Judge.
Those of us who don't practice law do not have to be bound by such things. Individually, right or wrong, a person can file a suit against anyone for just about anything. It helps to be smart enough to go to the law library, and look up how to style the case. Sometimes you can even get the law librarian to help you with your quest. First, however, you must convince the librarian that you are not trying to get them to practice law without a license. Here, a lack of money may serve you well. Filing fees can sometimes be circumvented by a "pauper's oath". This is merely a piece of paper. The paper says that you are broke. This was what I used to file the suits of which I am about to tell you.
First I filed a suit against the T.E.C. for discrimination. The second suit I filed was against the Austin Public Library. I'm not going to go into all the details of these suits now. The point here is I decided to take action. The embarrassment at the library proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
In the suit filed against the library I also named the librarian and the cops. The librarian was Dolores Aguirre. She also had her moral support, a man named Rolando Romo. I included the head librarian who was David Earl Holt. Last but not least, I included the then mayor of Austin, Carol Rylander McClellan. The incident happened on the 13th day of Jan. 1983, about 10:00 am at the 7th St.branch of the library. The officers names that escorted me out the door were Holt and Landero. By the 24th I had filed a hand written misspelled law suit.
On the 7th of February I received from Jeff Blackwelder, the city attorney, a 6 page interrogatory. The way it was worded was enough to make anybody paranoid. To read it would make anyone think that it was they, not the library that was on trial. I was one poor person that had become tired of being pushed around. It didn't seem to me that the poor are represented at all in this government. In America, If you are poor you have already committed a crime. You have committed the crime of being poor. In America the poor needs, I reasoned, a political champion. The only hope a person has who has little money is to somehow create necessary publicity.
After filing these suits I went before the City Counsel. I announced at their regular meetings why the city was being sued. I also announced the amount that I was asking for restitution. Then I went to the city library where I demanded a public usage room to hold a press conference. My plan was to announce to the press that I was suing the library. Maybe this would break them from embarrassing me. After all, I was just trying to look for a job.
FURTHER RETRIBUTION FOCUSED AT T.E.C.
If possible, I think that we should hit the bureaucracies where it hurts the most. That is in their pocketbooks. The political entity that held the purse strings of T.E.C. was something called the sunset commission. It was a governmental commission that convened every so many years to decide if they would fund the existence of T.E.C for the next so many years. It just so happened that it was now due to convene. The T.E.C. was up before the sunset commission for funding at this time.
Shortly after this all got rolling I went to talk to Mr. Gray. He was the head of the sunset commission. I told him about the doubtful job that T.E.C. was doing. I told him that I did not believe that the T.E.C. was serving those it was supposed to be serving. Through him, I was invited to speak before the House and the Texas Senate.
I was in support of the type of watch dog commission that was supposed to ride heard over the T.E.C. I was hoping that some of my law suits and public speech efforts would afford me the publicity I would need to win public office.
It was a short time after this that I decided definitely to run for place 4 in the city council. The pauper's oath had worked well in getting the clerk's office to accept my suits without filing fees. I decided to try the same thing on the city clerks' office concerning the candidate filing fee. After all, I reasoned, if the poll tax we used to pay was unconstitutional, why would it not also be unconstitutional for someone to charge a person who was running for office? It stands to reason that a fee required of an indigent person to run would be thought unconstitutional.
So, at 11:00 am, on February 16, just a little more than a month after the library incident, I marched into the City Clerk's office and presented them with a pauper's oath, in lieu of the usual $100.00 filing fee.
I announced that I desired to run for place 4 in the city council. Grace Malone was the city clerk. She looked at me like she didn't know how to take me. It slowly dawned on her that I was serious about this. She left me sitting in the office while she went to hunt for someone. She needed someone to tell her what to do in a situation like this. She returned with a very grim looking assistant of the City Attorney's office. He clearly didn't appreciate the humor in what I was doing. "If we let you get away with this, no one will want to pay the fee. We won't have any money to run the election.", he complained.
Nevertheless, I stood fast. When they flatly denied me the right to run for office on this basis I thanked them for the refusal. Then I explained to them I could use all the publicity I could get. The publicity of an injunction on the elections should just about get me the needed hype. It was very kind of them to refuse my paupe's oath. I should be able to get all kinds of media coverage out of this. I would need it since I didn't have any money backing me.
By their refusal they were giving me the opportunity to wage a, sure to be, controversial law suite against them. I would use the publicity to draw public attention. I would need this in order to win the election. Without their help I might never be able to draw enough press to win.
The City attorney just glared at me in unbelief. He just didn't know how to take me. I tried to shake his hand when I was thanking him. For some reason he chose to decline the opportunity. He did this by drawing his hand away like he might get some kind of plague if he touched me. Clearly, this was an upset city attorney.
I filed my handwritten, misspelled law suite in the district court against Grace, very promptly, as I had promised. Then on March the 2nd of 1983, I went before Judge Bob Perkins. This was to ask that he grant an injunction against the proceeding of the general city counsel elections. They were scheduled to be held on April 2nd of that year. The request asked for the elections to be put off until a trial could be scheduled. This trial would be for determining whether the refusal of my paupers oath was constitutional or not.
It was my hope that it would take the normal time for my trial request to come up on the pauper's oath. This would have postponed the election for a year or two. Meanwhile, when people eventually realized that no election was going on they might start asking questions. I figured that sooner or later the news media would almost be forced to tell the truth. They would have to tell the people what had happened. It was my hope that the story would make my name into a household word. I hoped that my name would be easy to recognize on the ballot list. Well that's the way that I had it planed but as usual that is not what happened.
At first, the city attorneys office chose not to take this too seriously. They didn't even show up at the injunction request hearing. Judge Perkins ask me why there wasn't a representative from the City attorney's office present. After all, someone should be there to give the city's side of this issue.
"I don't know, your honor." I said, "Maybe they are just not interested in this kind of thing." I urged the judge just go ahead and issue the injunction and not to bother the city attorneys office. They were obviously not interested, or they would already be there. "Not interested?" replied the judge. "They will be interested...if I call them. I assure you.", he iterated. Not being trained in the law as my adversaries were, they had the decided advantage, not to mention the favor of the judge. The injunction was ultimately denied however. The Judge said that the city was within it's rights to deny my candidacy. They had provided an alternate way to become a candidate if I had no money. They said that they would let me go out and get 100 signatures on a petition supporting my candidacy and then let me run without a filing fee. I still think that my way was more going to be more fun by tying up the election like I hoped that I could have to generate the publicity I needed. Without publicity I had no real chance to put my platform before the public. Of course, at that point, I would have had to have decided what my platform was. Maybe it is as well that it turned out the way it did. Oh well, I tried. I really didn't get the volume of publicity that I had hoped for. The next time I run for office, I think I will get rich first. My way is too hard.
insert the article about the paupers oath attempt here. . . What did I do, with all this? Not too much, but maybe a little. I did, end up getting to speck to the House of Representatives, and the Senate, sub committees. I spoke in support of a bill that Lloyd Doggett, was championing. The bill was to form a kind of watch dog commission. It wasn't much progress but now a person can take their problems somewhere if T. E. C. starts thinking they are god. Maybe if everyone asks themselves what can I do? How can I make the world a little better? A lot of small progress could mount up into big progress. Regardless of our status in life, we can and will make a difference for the good. We can together do what we cannot do alone. We might even make planet earth a pleasant place for humans to live. I've noticed that T. E. C. treats me a little more respectful than they did before. By the way, I am able to use the computers, now in the public library. I do my word processing on them. (At the time of the origin of this writing computers were available in the down town, public library, here in Austin. I was able to use them without being arrested for my appearance.) Of course, I do dress a little better these days. I even bathe once a week whether I need it or not. This might be due to my six and one half year sobriety time. Life gets better with sobriety. Maybe sobriety is why I now dress better. Maybe people have to demand there right to be treated with a little more dignity. All I know is it feels good to change what was in my power to change. That is all any of us can do. Just think, what I could have accomplished if I had of been sober when I tried politics. Then again, why would a sober person get mixed up in politics? Chapter 4?
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