I
Do Not Like This Council Sham
Written by Lyssa Graham
Every
so often, the citizens of Galveston get a chance to make
a difference in the way the city is run. We call these
great times “elections,” and on the island,
your vote really does matter. That’s because only
2730 of us voted in the last Council and Mayoral election.
In
District 1, the winner was decided by a whopping 14 votes
out of the 233 cast. In District 4, it was 30 votes out
of the 290 cast. So you see how your vote could make a
difference? Hell, you could hit the bars on a Saturday
night and get a higher number of registered voters standing
outside trying to eyeball 15 feet from the doorway so
they can have a legal smoke than bothered to show up at
the polls.
So
what, you say? Well, bottom line, you get what you deserve.
We did this. We voted for this Council – or at least
2730 of us did – and we can vote them out if we
choose. And the opportunity is just around the corner.
The elections are coming in May and, if the current Council
accomplished nothing else in their tenure, they surely
should have motivated more voters to turn out this time.
Let’s
hope so.
In
homage to the late, great Dr. Seuss, whose birthday we
celebrate this month, I present the following ode to City
Council, the importance of voting and words that rhyme
with truckers:
I’ve had enough of certain folks.
Who make the rest of us look like jokes.
We chose them with our highest hopes
And now, alas, we feel like dopes.
I do not like this Council sham.
I do not like their wacked out scams.
I do not like linguini with clams.
I do, however, like green eggs and ham.
They say they care, they really do
They want what’s best for me and you.
Too bad they don’t know what that is.
Too bad for us, they run our biz.
At meetings big and meetings small,
They cannot help but drop the ball.
They squawk and yell and make some noise,
They act like toddler girls and boys.
I’ll bet the camera is partly to blame.
They really like their local fame.
The meetings run for way too long
And yet somehow they get it all wrong.
They
sit up high making silly rules
Those wacky, funny, crazy fools
They do not fix what’s really broken
Instead they bust us for our smoking.
We
do not need them in our bars.
We do not need them in our cars.
We cannot smoke, we cannot text,
I wonder what they’ll think of next?
I
hope this time we’ll choose a few
Who really do know what to do.
Truth be told, I’d happily take
A batch of seven who all stayed awake.
Instead there’s one who seems to be sleeping
And a Mayor on the verge of weeping.
Ridiculous items on the agenda they sprinkle
Chewing up time like a stoner eats Pringles.
I
do not like them in those chairs,
I do not like them in my hair.
I do not like them on the stairs.
I do like purple underwears.
I
know they try to do their best.
And that Ike was an unfair test.
But still I hoped for more than this,
It’s sad to get screwed without a kiss.
The
good news is that we can vote,
In May a new Council we’ll promote.
Instead of this group of silly sapsuckers,
We can vote in some new crazy . . .
Lyssa Graham apologizes sincerely and deeply for the
mangled rhyme above. It’s not so easy to show Seuss
some love. The man was a bloody genius. Contact Lyssa
(in rhyming verse only for the month of March) at Lyssa@LyssaGraham.com
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