Sausage, Root Canal, and Kris Kristofferson

If you are trying to read ahead, don't. You may think that during lunch today, I took a bite of bad meat that led me to the dentist's office for some painful surgery by a doped out hippie. But, nothing could be further from what really happened today.

My boss called me on her cell phone at about 2 p.m. Neil, she started, I need you to come down to the City Council chambers to attend a briefing. That's fine; didn't have a problem with that. There was an article in the Dallas Morning News concerning a proposed facility for homeless individuals to be built near downtown Dallas. We had just written a letter to the editor in favor of it and I wanted to learn more.

Interestingly, the issue isn't the 15.7 million dollar bond package required to build it. The business community is screaming "blight" and "decreased property values" while the city is relying on the Willie Sutton defense (the infamous bank robber of the 1930's was asked why he robbed banks. "Because that's where the money is," he allegedly responded). To say, since the homeless tend to congregate downtown, that's where the homeless shelter should be.

So, I went downtown. Once I got there, my boss informed me that she forgot about her dental appointment she made a couple of weeks ago before she left for Africa. She had been at this particular meeting for a couple of hours and they still hadn't arrived at the point in the agenda that concerned us. I asked my boss how bad the council meeting could be if she would rather have a hole drilled in my gums (and pay for it) than sit through a couple of more hours.

I was glad to go, for a variety of reasons. First, I like to see what our elected leaders are doing. There is an old saying (if it wasn't Mark Twain, then it should've been) that you don't want to see how sausage or our laws are made. Meaning, it is a nasty process that takes unfamiliar and random parts and tries to make something attractive and digestible. Of city, state, and federal politics, I am least familiar with city politics; so I went to see how proverbial sausage is made; Dallas-style.

In case you are unfamiliar with Dallas politics, here's a quick primer:

The current mayor, Laura Miller, was elected in a special election when the former mayor, Ron Kirk, resigned to run for U.S. Senate. Previous to being mayor, Laura Miller sat on the city council and feuded with Ron Kirk about whether water was wet and if the sun was hot. Previous to her sitting on the council, she was a journalist that covered (read, criticized) the council. Her husband is also a former state representative, whom I greatly admire. Politics is in her blood. And she's one tough (and pretty) cookie.

Currently, two Dallas City Council members are being investigated by the FBI for taking bribes. A few months ago, a special election for a council seat featured a former council member who was actually convicted of bribery a few years back; his conviction was recently reversed on appeal so he decided that instead of going to Disney World, he'd run for council again. Probably so he could "earn" enough money to go to Disney World.

Last, Mayor Miller appointed her opponent in her first election to head the Task Force to choose a site for the proposed homeless shelter. I still don't know if that was out of respect or payback for the challenge in the first place. I'm sure he's guessing, as well.

So, all the council members were discussing this new shelter until one curmudgeon started to go on and on about how the world will implode and all civilization will cease to exist if this place gets built. He's going to fight it tooth and nail and I have no doubt that the mayor will cut the red ribbon over his dead body.

I left the meeting feeling energized and more optimistic about government and freedom in general. On the ride home by sheer coincidence, I heard Me & Bobby McGee.

I realized that, yes, freedom is another word for nothin left to lose. Nothin don’t mean nothin, honey, if it ain’t free.