Accidental Blogger

This morning I began day twelve without electricity and as usual found myself feeling hot, mildly grumpy, anxious and a bit more dispirited by the failure of Center Point Energy to restore power at our corner of the street. After my morning cup of tea (the hot water was obtained from a neighbor’s kitchen last night and stored in a thermos), I began the daily routine – making and receiving calls from neighbors asking whether there was any new information. There was none. A bit later, around 8 O’clock, a utility company bucket truck, suitable for transformer repair came by and stopped before our home. I was thrilled to see it. Then it disappeared never making it to the back of the homes where the faulty transformer is located. (It hasn’t returned) After that I made the first of my two daily calls to the power company and got the old and predictable "we are doing the best we can" message. For the second time in twelve days since Ike roared through here, I lost my temper. I didn’t quite yell but did not mince my words regarding what I thought of the company’s performance. The young woman at the other end of the line was unfazed and sternly asked me to be "patient and logical." Oh well.

Some sense of camaraderie and "There by the grace of God.." is restored every day on reading the morning paper and realizing that there are many like us camping out in their own homes with the help of extension cords, others who cannot borrow electricity from a neighbor because entire neighborhoods are out and still others who must live in shelters or with friends and relatives because their homes are unlivable. Amidst the news of despair and frustration, there are also reports of people dealing with their predicament with the occasional humor.  They are painting funny signs on their devastated property, joking with reporters and neighbors, blogging or writing to the editors of newspapers with their take on storm interrupted lives.

Houston’s excellent mayor, Bill White (a Democrat whom I wish to see run for governor) has been in the news a lot lately. Most reports are laudatory for the calm and efficient job he has done in keeping things under control in this huge city of several millions after a major catastrophe. One recent news item however was about the usually unflappable mayor getting into a spat with some female FEMA workers over the distribution of relief items. White is reported to have used harsh words, some of them expletives. The awful governor of Texas, Rick "Good Hair" Perry tut-tutted and advised White to keep a civil tongue.  Most Houstonians found that laughable.  They are squarely behind White for showing his impatience with inefficiency.  And no one found his salty language objectionable.

So it took a hurricane for most Houston’s citizens to learn that Mayor Bill White has a temper. After all, he not only rarely raises his voice in public, he rarely changes tones. But those who have worked with him know him to be a man whose patience is short and who is more than ready to express his annoyance when people have not done the job he thinks they should have.

Some were surprised, however, to learn that he had used language unfit for Sunday school to express his anger last Tuesday at finding trucks loaded with ice, water and food sitting at the Reliant Center while thousands of people waited in lines for the supplies for hours at Points of Distribution (PODs).

One city official recalled seeing him "eviscerate" employees with perfectly printable words with such force that "I’m sure they would have preferred to be cussed out."  Another said, "He is capable of breaking arms over the telephone." …..

….White [is] a Democrat. That is relevant only because other local Republicans had been discussing what they saw as White’s misbehavior, and at least one Republican official mentioned it to a reporter. In addition, somehow the Republican governor of Georgia got worked up enough to send a complaining letter to the Republican governor of Texas, Rick Perry — though not to White.

Perry wrote an unctuous letter of apology back and released it — something that could possibly be seen as an early move in a possible governor’s race between Perry and White.

But any political advantage sought by publicizing White’s behavior seems to have backfired. A story on the flap by my colleague Brad Olson drew more online readers and more comments than any other story yesterday, overwhelmingly in White’s favor.

White’s Facebook page is lit up with "attaboys," though not just on the outburst.

Here is another example of a citizen expressing his solidarity with Mayor White in today’s Houston Chronicle.

Parenthetical point

I’m sure Mayor Bill White wished he had used more politic language with those Georgia Forestry Commission workers, but I say, you (expletive) go, brother! The same issue of the Chronicle showed people standing in line for hours — some camping out overnight — in the (expletive) heat for food stamps. My family is one of the unlucky few without power for 11 (expletive) days now (despite CenterPoint’s estimate of a Monday restoration). It’s a (expletive) mess here. So thank you, White, for expressing some of our (expletive) frustration. Most of us have no one to vent to who isn’t in the same (expletive) mess. And if those workers didn’t expect to find tired and frustrated people here, then they (expletive) well should have.

SEAN PARKER
Humble

For more storm related photos of Houston, Galveston and vicinity, see here.