Snake Pit

Remember when you were four or five, and you found out that Santa Claus was just a character invented by retailers and Coca Cola to seasonally fleece your parents out of money?

Or maybe it was when you turned thirteen, or fourteen, or fifteen, and you realized that your parents weren’t being completely honest with you? Like they were presenting a slanted version of the truth, or maybe outright lying about things like alcohol and marijuana and marital fidelity? Or maybe you realized that beneath the portrait of domestic tranquility your parents presented was a seething cauldron of vitriol and animosity.

Or maybe it was the time your seventeen-year-old next door neighbor on one side told you she was at the Flame Room and your next door neighbor on the other side, the happily married high school basketball coach, started hitting on her because he was too drunk to recognize her? You were what, twelve, then?

Remember when doctors smoked cigarettes, and a deep tan was a sign of good health, and a healthy breakfast was steak and eggs and toast with butter?

Life is full of lies and betrayal. Look at our institutions. The Church. The Police. Bill Cosby. They were always supposed to be the good guys, till you scratched a little gilt from the surface, and realized they were made of petrified dog shit.

Not all of them. That’s always the refrain. There are a few bad apples in every bushel.

If you don’t get rid of the bad apples the rot spreads.

Even if they’re not accomplices they’re at least an accessories after the fact.

With all that practical experience behind you, and the knowledge and wisdom you’ve gained from it, don’t you feel like our current city government is a nest of vipers?

Who are they looking out for? Not the taxpayers. Not the citizens. Not even the ones that vote. They are willing to sell you down the river for a stick of gum and the promise of a free beer or nothing at all.

Remember when El Paso’s city government was supposed to be corrupt? When a few power brokers were supposed to be holding the reins? When envelopes of cash were slid across the Formica tabletops at Denny’s?

Supposedly we’re past that. These days our politicians are giving it away for free.

We’re traded whores for sluts. I think I respected the whores more.

3 comments

  1. Some people have asked me why this post is so angry.

    I don’t think it’s angry. I was just having fun. Come on. Bill Cosby? I was going to throw in Jared the Subway guy, but it didn’t fit the rhythm.

    If you’re not a little angry, you’re not paying attention. Our elected officials are screwing up bigly, for our eternal detriment. If it takes an angry post to get their attention, then so be it.

  2. Double, double, toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

    Fillet of a fenny snake,
    In the caldron boil and bake;
    Eye of newt, and toe of frog ….

    Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” written with prescience of El Paso government?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *