Is Mayor Brown an example for political
wannabes?
As I analyzed the article (“Brown’s trade trips are
questioned again”), that appeared in the Oct. 25, 2002 edition of Houston’s only
daily newspaper, for some reason I thought of an editorial I wrote when African-American
News&Issues first started advocating our Black perspective. That was just
about the time Dr. Lee Patrick Brown was elected as “Mayor for all of Houston.”
If you recall, I went on record to editorialize that the “Good Ol’ Boys”
would abolish Houston’s strong mayoral government before they allowed Brown to become
a stronger mayor than they wanted him to be.
When I first read the article that quoted freshman City Councilmember At-Large Michael
Berry, I wanted to do a little Berry picking because of his nitpicking attack on Brown.
However, after reading further, I realized that poor Mikey just doesn’t have sense
enough to know when he is being used as a pawn in the city’s movers and shakers’
political chess game. I must confess that I have no idea where Brown’s detractors are
coming from or why a newspaper would put a negative spin on the mayor’s 11-day trip
to the Middle East, but I’m reasonably sure there’s more than meets the eye
behind the story, that really wasn’t much of a story to spin.
The article cited: “Since becoming mayor, Lee Brown has led several overseas trade
missions that he says generate business opportunities for Houston companies. Invariably,
they also generate questions about the value of such trips to Houston citizens.
Brown’s current 11-day trade mission to the Middle East—his third overseas trade
trip this year-- is getting the same reaction.” My question is: Questioned by whom?
Other than Berry, who explained, “The city of Houston has a role to play in economic
development and attracting international companies to come and to locate in Houston. But
we need to be careful there aren’t just junkets or high priced photo ops. I’ve
yet to see major trade agreements come out of these trips.”
Unless he simply wanted to insult Brown, I simply can’t see where Berry is coming
from. What is he trying to say? Is he insinuating that Mayor Brown is dishonest and/or
frivolous with our tax dollars? Photo ops for what? Brown is term- limited, but I
don’t think he was over in Baghdad interviewing for Saddam Hussein’s job, once
Pres. George W. Bush term limits Iraqi’s leader. Perhaps I’m missing something,
because I think Brown has a very creditable reason to interact with oil producing nations
in the Middle East, since the economy of the city that he governs greatly depends on oil.
On the other hand, I don’t think the mayor owes Berry an explanation.
Even if Brown is wasting taxpayers’ money, it baffles me why Berry is the only
Councilmember to have a problem with it. It seems that Berry is the one looking for a
photo op, or some publicity himself by denouncing Brown, who has been criticized in the
past to the extent of being dubbed, “Out of town Brown,” by our mainstream
media. Quite frankly, I have always believed that the city’s power brokers had no
intentions of Brown being an effective chief executive. The so-called R-7, a coalition of
conservative Councilmembers actually started scheming to impede Brown’s
administration even before he was sworn in for his first term, although he had former
mayor Bob Lanier’s blessing.
If you connect the dots, Brown didn’t start getting bad press until he stepped on
Lanier’s toes and committed the cardinal sin of pushing for light rail. Up until that
time, many in the Black community thought that Brown would be Lanier’s puppet. But
after he asserted his independence, he became a “Black mayor,” and from that
point on, nothing he did was right. Not only did the mainstream media jump on him, but it
didn’t help when a Black newspaper’s White news editor also attacked him every
chance he got. Nevertheless, since Brown is term-limited, that’s history. So why is
his every move still being attacked by his adversaries?
That’s a good question, but when you continue to connect the dots, going all the way
back to Rep. Sylvester Turner’s torpedoed 1991 Mayoralty campaign, the answer becomes
clear. Brown has become an example for Turner and any other Black person who aspires to
become a strong mayor in this city to consider. As far as I’m concerned, Brown has
done an outstanding job as Houston’s mayor, but unfortunately the city’s history
is gleamed from newspaper articles preserved and cataloged by the Houston Public Library.
As many of you know, AAN&I fought for years to be included in the
library files and although we have been assured that we are, when we check to make sure,
there’s a failure to communicate.
Consequently, if the mainstream media remains the library’s only information source,
history will reflect that Houston’s first Black mayor was a bumbling, clueless
failure who spent more time out of town than he did taking care of his town’s
business. Of course, that’s just our Black perspective. It’s also our Black
perspective that the mainstream media is making an example out of Brown. They’re
sending the message to all Black wannbe mayors that they will catch hell. Not only will
they have to fight an uncooperative city council, but will be constantly attacked by the
mainstream media. You don’t have to believe me. Keep an eye on the Chronicle’s
John Williams, who already appears to be trying to keep it from being “Turner
Time-’O3.”
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