Perhaps I’m a pessimist, but at no time did I ever think that Houston, Texas had a ghost of a chance of hosting the 2012 Olympic games. We give all due respect to Houston 2012 Foundation’s grandiose effort.   As our old elders use to say, “Nothing beats a failure but a try,” so we must applaud them for giving it their best shot. In addition, African-American News&Issues has allowed a period of grace so that the people who worked so diligently (to attract the world’s biggest and most prestigious sports event to heavenly Houston), to grieve over their devastating rejection, before telling them like it is.

However, speaking straight up, or plain and simple enough for a child to understand: Houston doesn’t even come close to being a first class city and that’s the truth. America’s fourth largest city notwithstanding, Galveston has more “International appeal” than Houston and anybody, e.g., our “Mayor for all of Houston,” County Judge Robert “Bob” Eckels and most certainly Greater Houston Partnership’s hierarchy, who doesn’t know that, are in abject denial. On second thought, our county, city and corporate leaders have long been painfully aware of how divided and contentious we are, therefore they would be lying, rather than denying. Since Texas’ widest circulated newspaper with a Black perspective and editorial voice of Black America is headquartered in the Malonson Company, Inc., complex (6130 block of Wheatley between W. Tidwell and W. Little York), we were afforded the unique opportunity to be governed exclusively by Harris County, long before being annexed by the city of Houston. Hence, we do not speak as if we are ignorant brethren. Instead we speak from the historical vantage point of dealing exclusively with unscrupulous county officials, which certainly prepared us to deal currently with devious and divisive city officials.

With that said, please believe me when I say that if our elected or appointed public officials, as well as the citizens whom they represent, weren’t in denial, as much as they were out of touch with reality to think that Houston has the ambiance or wherewithal to host an international extravaganza as colossal as the Olympic Games. If you aren’t already politically astute enough to figure it out for yourself, we’re sure you’re wondering how I came to the disparaging conclusion that the fourth largest metropolis in the world’s greatest nation isn’t a first class city? Indeed, that’s a good question and I’m glad you asked.

How do I criticize our own city? Let me count the ways. Since no living organism, including parasites, can be no greater than its ability to communicate with its own species, an objective outsider, observing how little our city’s leadership and/or citizens value a free press, would surely conclude that Houston couldn’t possibly be a world class city. Houston has a long way to go to be in the same class with much smaller cities that have more than one daily newspaper, mainly because our one daily routinely fails to report all news, without fear or favor.

The city’s lines of communication become even less effective when its mainstream media conspire with special interest groups and agendas, rather than respect citizens’ right to know. One only has to drive around the city to realize that our city and county officials aren’t on the same page.  Let me take that back, because there is no way strangers could drive around the city with all of the ongoing and disjointed construction that creates a “crazy quilt” of road blocks, detours (leading to detours), that seem to reroute traffic on a daily basis. I heard city officials swear that the traffic problem is only temporary and will be solved long before the 2012 Olympics’ torch is fired up. Nevertheless, the Olympic officials weren’t prophets, but evaluators. And that, perhaps, is the major reason those evaluating the merits of Houston/Harris County’s leadership decided that they wouldn’t hold a hog-calling contest here.

Lest we forget, people are also wary of a city that seems to have no control over a proliferation of independent police departments that seldom, if ever, cooperate with each other. Need we mention law enforcers’ reluctance to follow established policy when it comes to zero tolerance law policing? Although ladies and gentlemen (from more civilized nations traveling with the IOC Selection Committee), no longer think our police chiefs are named Wyatt Earp or most of our cities are as lawless as Tombstone, Arizona, they can’t ignore the lawlessness. Conversely, if they watch the violence reported daily by our media, I suspect that they would still have a problem feeling safe in Houston, and more certainly Harris County which has law enforcers who can’t shoot straight. But let’s not beat up on our law enforcement officers. They simply need more training. Ideally, they should be well trained and know how to handle large crowds very well by 2012. After all, they started training on August 19, 2002 in the Kmart Parking lot.

Nonetheless, since space is running out, we might as well leapfrog to the major reason the Olympics won’t be coming to Houston in 2012 or no other time in the distance future. Can you imagine the impression that was made on the IOC officials when they learned that the city’s chief executive (who wanted to leave the 2012 Olympics as the capstone of his six year reign, e.g., building a downtown sports stadium, a light rail system and a downtown arena for the Houston Rockets) was just plain dumb? Wait, don’t get mad at me. I’m just reporting all the news without fear or favor. Isn’t it true that our only daily newspaper persistently infer that Mayor Lee Patrick Brown, PhD, is a bumbling, fumbling, clueless bureaucrat? I won’t even go into Brown’s relationship with a majority of his City Councilmembers.

Meanwhile, AAN&I, would not only be remiss, but downright derelict in our duty as an uncompromising newspaper with a Black perspective, if we didn’t ask how a city that has no idea how destructive its construction has been on small business owners can be called a first class city?

Moreso, how can a city with one daily newspaper, a bias mainstream media and citizens that need term limits (because they’re too dumb to vote) be considered first class? Cutting to the chase, how can a city that’s run by a “dumb Negro,” who barely beat an unknown Hispanic to keep his job, be considered first class?

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION must be taken by African-Americans to seek retribution against public officials who oppose reparations.