Many moons ago me and my friends went to an outdoor concert by the great heavy metal band Black Sabbath. A guy got up and shouted, “Smell the fresh aroma” to a bunch of metal-heads smoking ganja!
When I was reading the newspaper article on former Pharr City Manager Andy Harvey explaining why he resigned, I shouted, “Smell the aroma of politics.”
I personally don’t know the man but I met Mr. Ed Wylie when I worked for the city of Pharr. When one works for a city, especially in the top office, one has to have a tough skin because politics fly about everywhere at City Hall.
Yes, I’m in politics, and I was in them when I was promoted to supervisor of streets and alleys, but I was demoted twice because of politics! I didn’t quit my job because I was the highest-paid laborer in Pharr Public Works and when I retired I made pretty good money. Also, friends of mine who were promoted to good jobs were also demoted and a couple of them didn’t take it well like the rest of us.
I wasn’t there when Mr. Harvey supposedly physically jumped Mr. Wylie when discussing the $5,700 cookie check (wow!), but I would have told Mr. Harvey to pay the check and just put up your boots on your desk and cash the good salary paycheck!
I’m all for having good morals, but morals don’t pay bills or buy groceries or make car payments, so I would advise future city workers to leave politics aside and just do your job!
Ricardo Rosales Sr.
Pharr
Racism
addressed
According to the Critical Race Theory that the Department of Education wanted to send out to all school districts, and may have, if you’re White you are the oppressor, you are racist! According to this, I am racist! My wife and children are racist!
But wait! We are Hispanics with ancestry traces into Mexico and Spain! Thank God! Wrong! Our ethnicity is Hispanic, but our race is “White”!
Slavery has been traced back to 3500 BC! Slavery was used in all countries and regions around the world! Spain, England, Mexico, just to name a few! Every country in the world enslaved people as punishment, to collect a debt, and as a result of war! Children were enslaved because of abandonment by the parents! The color of their skin had nothing to do with their situation and it had nothing to do with being racist! That was the way of the world!
Slavery received judicial standing in the colonies in a Virginia court where a Black slave owner sued a White slave owner, Johnson vs. Parker in 1655, over a slave working for Parker who was still owned by Johnson. Johnson won the case!
So let’s accept the fact that thousands of Americans died to end slavery and it divided our country! It was legal to own slaves and many Blacks and Whites came to the New World as indentured servants! For many, that was their only ticket here! It had nothing to do with being racist!
So what’s it going to be, my fellow Americans? I say we all work together and fix this cancer that the African tribal kings utilized? Maybe in the process we can also bring the price of food and gasoline back down and save the dollar! God bless you and God bless our country! Let’s work together!
Ernest Gorena
Brownsville
