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This speech was given by Jeff Barton at Salt Lick Pavilion, April 6, 2006, to about 300 supporters, as he formally kicked off his campaign for Hays County Commissioner.
The Bridges That Bind
Let’s talk about bridges.
There are all kinds of course – bridges between places, people, ideas. Just by who’s here tonight we’ve bridged the Colorado and the San Marcos and the Blanco [rivers]. That’s appropriate because this region is really one kit and caboodle. The political lines are arbitrary – we will rise and fall together, like a flood tide, with jobs, prosperity, clean air, clean water.
Most of us crossed over the bridge above Onion to get here.
There it flows behind me – or would, if it were not so dry, but it will flow again; creeks, like people, are capable of resurgence – there it runs, from here down to the sea. The water right outside drawn from a thousand different points mingles and swirls together, molecules of oxygen and hydrogen that would have nothing to do with each other at a respectable church – fallen on Dripping and Buda, on light soils and dark, rich soils and poor, from whole different worlds, mixing together to become one current, strong, seemingly constant, finally unstoppable, clearing a path to the Gulf of Mexico.
A single drop is not much force to be reckoned with. But a creek full – a pavilion full – has the power to wash clean, to change the course of events.
To join together so strong and so wide that only an extraordinary bridge can cross it.
I’ve seized on this bridge metaphor for the campaign but in thinking about this evening it was a different kind of bridge that came to mind. One of my favorite books is the Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder. I’m going to spoil it for you by telling in you the ending. A priest and a group of characters are struggling throughout the book to find meaning. The last line is: there’s a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
I was thinking about the ghosts that are with us tonight -- friends here in spirit only; about the ghosts we will all someday be.
The little trappings will fall away. The petty struggles. But we remember still the voices that inspired us in our youth, the hands that touched lives, the people who spent their allotted time building bridges in this world – building instead of tearing down – it seems to me they have somehow, without realizing it, perhaps, also built a bridge of sorts that connects them from this world to the next.
***
Well. At any rate, whether you think the waters down there are symbolic of baptism or toil and trouble, here we are together on high ground, dry and cozy. With fine food – thank you Scott Roberts and Salt Lick.
And great music. Give a hand for the band: the Doucet house band I wanted to call the Slide Rulers. But they insist on being the Texas Moonlighters. The lovely and talented Danny Levin, who at last count has won, I believe 462 Grammy’s. Jeff and Hillary Kaufmann, who raise the bar on any group they join, musical or otherwise.
My old boss Jake Pickle used to say: I don’t mind speaking to a bunch of dang fools so long as it’s a bunch of dang fools. [Laughter from the audience.] (Those of you who knew Pickle know of I’ve cleaned that up a little.) You may be dang fools for giving up your evening to be here with me but I want you t know I appreciate it.
Let me mention Halley Ortiz and Katie Huth, who co-chaired the organizing. I want to thank volunteers who’ve been helping tonight and those who’ve been organizing, licking stamps, putting up signs, walking in parades these past weeks. I want to thank the dozens of you who have committed to help in the weeks and months to come, many of you in this room – all the volunteers in the back. Those of you who’ve given money – what you‘ve given tonight will feed us and our efforts long after this peach barbecue sauce is just a tasty memory. Thank you.
Now I’ll introduce Connie Brewer, who is going to be coordinating much of our prep work this summer. Connie. And somebody who has worked harder than anybody so far – Amy Parham. She’s signed on to manage this campaign herd of cats. That probably means she’s slow witted, but I owe her a debt. Thank you, Amy.
Now, two things I really hate to do.
First, I have to say thanks to some specific people who are likely to let it go to their head. My family’s here tonight – cousins and aunts and uncles, my parents who’ve done so much. But you know, really, parents kind of have to be here at a time like this. For those of you who know mine the question of course was not whether they would show up – but, whether they would be here on time [laughter]. As it turns out, they came early to help, just as they have always been there for me when I need them.
Of course, as I said, they kind of have to be here. This is all their fault, in a way. Parents can’t really divorce you – but my wife, Cyndy, darn sure could. And why she hasn’t when I go off tilting at windmills like this is one of those pleasant little mysteries that I think we can just leave untouched. And my kids, Zach and Bozena – this campaign has already intruded on their lives. It has disrupted the routine, assuming we ever had one. From the deepest place in my heart, I want to say thank you to these three. Bozena, because I know you, let me add this: this doesn’t,change your chore list this weekend, so don’t think I’ve gone soft.
The second confession I need to make tonight will be a little shocking for some of you. It’s hard to even talk about, with aunt’s and my momma in the room. You know, my colleagues from Doucet & Associates are here. But it’s time I came out of the closet.
I know this will be hard for some of you to accept. I ask you to keep an open mind and open heart about human nature and secrets of the soul when I say this: My name is Jeff Barton, and I am running for office as … a Democrat.
That’s right. I’m not sure if Leroy Opiela is here – he was going to be – but we have several others standing by who know CPR, just in case, in case the shock is too much for some of you. My colleague Tres Howland from Doucet was telling me how much he enjoyed this, how proud he is to be here, but he hoped I wouldn’t mind if he wore a bag over his head when he leaves for the parking lot tonight, so no one would see him at a Democratic event. Right, Tres? And I’m pretty sure I heard Lee Raines giving out a fake name over there so nobody would know he was mixed up with Democrats.
Okay. I’m kidding. Maybe I’ve never kept my being a Democrat much of a secret. I suppose none of you were actually in doubt about that, were you?
But I want to say that I know we have a lot of Republicans and Independents here tonight. I appreciate you coming. I appreciate you walking across that bridge. For the good of the county. You won’t be sorry. Besides, it’s fun over here.
I want to say a few words – in this very diverse group – directly to my Republican friends and especially to those friends in the business community who perhaps came out of a sense of business obligation, or even “business development.”
I come from business. I get it. I believe we can grow this economy. I believe capitalism is where it’s at -- it enables creativity and prosperity and the good that flows from that. But I also want to remind us – even though most of you already know this and act on it – that prosperity and economic power are worthless without a soul, without standing for something greater than yourself and the next buck.
Now to my Democratic friends, and to those who’ve known me and walked through many a struggle together: we have to recognize that politics is about values, about family values – about honor. I think in this room we share a lot of those values no matter what party we’re from. There is so much more for this place and this community that we should be doing – some of that should come from a smarter, more effective, more far thinking, harder working commissioner – unfortunately all you’ve got is me, to put up against Ms. Carter. At least even I’ll be an improvement. But some of it also has to come from reaching across to the business community and the faith community and finding common ground together.
Y tambien quiero hablar con usteds que se hablan espanol, que recuerden esta condado 40 anos pasado. There’s a Spanish saying that some of you in this room taught me: Dime con quien andes, y te digo quien eres. Tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are.
If this is the group I have to walk with me, then I am a rich man indeed.
What we need to do is weave together economy, environment and equity – social justice. Those are not opposites, they are not mutually exclusive, as we so often hear. They are part of a single cloth of different colors.
You know it’s teachers, preachers, seekers and builders coaches and regular folkses who make the difference. But politicians have their role to play. We should be able to look at politics and tell who we are and right now the picture’s not very pretty.
***
This sermon’s winding down. But first we have to talk about he wages of sin.
Somebody’s been sinning against the public good and we’re going to call ‘em down, here with the whole congregation gathered by the river.
The incumbent, our commissioner Susie Carter, got caught this week telling her constituents and her colleagues a story that . . . doesn’t match up very well against the truth.
It’s not the first time.
The way she treats people, the way she manages county government, the way she interacts with the region, is downright crazy.
Think of Susie this way. It’s like if the volunteer fire department gets called out in the middle of the night only to find an old wooden bridge on fire. And standing there on it is Commissioner Carter holding a can of gasoline in one hand and a box of matches in the other, and screaming at everybody who comes near: “Somebody set this bridge on fire! Why didn’t you do your job! What’s wrong with you!”
Now maybe most of her faults aren’t a sin against God, I don’t know, but they are a sin against good sense. They’re a sin against the obligations of public office.
But my friends, if you’ve read Ecclesiastes, you know that seasons change.
For everything there is a season, a time to lift up and a time to cast out, a time to stay the same and a time to grow, a time to sit quiet and a time to stand and be counted. So I want everybody who’s ready for a change come this November – change on the commissioners court – everybody’s who’s ready to send a message, say Amen. [Loud shout of Amen from the audience] Amen.
That’s right. We’re fixin’ to “cast out.” To change.
On the one hand, it is just a commissioners race. It won’t win the war in Iraq or solve the national debt. It’s just one little stream in a great big watershed. But how we come together, the power and passion we bring, the tide we create, can and will determine what gets watered and what gets washed away, here, where it counts most. Home. It will help set the foundation on which we live. It will decide what kind of place we leave for our kids, what kind of bridge we build for them from here into the future – and, maybe, it will decide how they remember us when we are ghosts, with nothing but a bridge of memory to tie us to them.
Together, a lot of little streams change a landscape, change a river, change an ocean, shape a continent.
You’re giving me the chance to turn around this court, to cast my lot, and I’m giving you the chance to make a difference also – and my promise to work until I drop to make it so. It’s not politics itself that’s important, it’s coming together, it’s finding bridges, standing your ground, taking back what’s gone astray. That’s what politics ought to be about. That’s what life is about.
Let’s throw out this petty partisan divisiveness – turn away from the bomb throwers and the bridge burners – and go build some bridges together. It’s time we restored idealistic pragmatism to our county.
Tonight we pay for the tools. Tomorrow we build the bridge.
Come November, I’ll meet you in the middle of that bridge -- on common ground -- and we’ll dedicate a little Champaign toast, to victory.
Thank you. Thank you all.
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