Amarillo Nights presents BrassTacks - June 2003 by Max Steele

While you were sleeping, they came and took it all away.
The lanes and the meadows; the places where you used to play.

It was an inside job by the well connected.
Your little protest, so merrily rejected.
It was an inside job like it always is.
Just chalk it up to business as usual.

While you are dreaming this little island disappears.
While you are looking the other way, they’ll take your right to own your own ideas.

And it’s an inside job by the well connected.
Your trusted servant has left you unprotected.
It was an inside job like it always is.
Chalk it up to business as usual.

You think that you’re so smart, but you don’t have a fucking clue.
What those men up in the towers are doing to me and you.
And they’ll keep doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it
‘til we all wake up, wake up, wake up wake up, wake up, wake up.

That´s a little Don Henley tune Brock played for us the other evening. That´s also exactly what´s going on here in Amarillo. Evidently last month´s column hit home with a few readers; the response has given me hope for the future. Now a committee is being formed to fight the city for their trespasses against us. It´s about damn time.
Rocky wrote to us:

So, there´s a new law that allows a police officer to decide what noises are too loud. Is everyone in Amarillo going to put up with this? I mean there are several points to bring up here.
1. I have as much respect for any police officer doing his job as much as I have for anyone else. God bless them all.
2. But, their jobs should be taken a lot more seriously than that. Amarillo may not be crime central of America but, I think our officers have more serious matters to attend to. You know, like murders, rapes and robberies (which believe it or not, do happen here more frequently than what the newspapers show).
3. Where are you people who want to keep your rights? Yeah, I´m talking to you people who just sit around complaining about how unfair the laws are, but choose to do nothing except bitch. If you don't like the government or something, fine. But, face it. It´s the best we have. The reason we have nonsense laws is because many of us are too lazy to step up and say something about it to the people who pass laws. Remember, they work for us. If "We The People" don’t keep a certain grasp on the situation, people who disagree with you will. Thus, weakening your ability to obtain your rights that you once had. I respect the fact that some people don´t like the different noises that we have are throughout the city. But, a specific limit needs to be set for all. Not one by each single officer. Officers are people. Different people have different ideas about what LOUD is. That´s not fair to the citizens (you know, us).

ROCKY REEVES
SYNDIKIT

Hazah! Someone gets it! Where was Rocky last summer when I called for action against Rosalee Robinson and The Friends Of San Jacinto? I like that:
"If ´We The People´ don´t keep a grasp on the situation, the people who disagree with us will."
I have heard that almost everyone that has been raised here grows up hating Amarillo; they can´t wait to leave. A lot of them do. They are not really leaving Amarillo though; they are just running away from it. Cowards. Instead of fighting to change the things that they dislike, they simply run away. The people that are hampering Amarillo are the same ones that have always hampered Amarillo. Eventually they might die off but you don´t want to wait that long. You will be too old to enjoy Amarillo by then. ACT NOW!

Never go into battle empty handed.
The Amarillo City Commission meetings are held at City Hall every Tuesday afternoon at 3:00. This is a piece of knowledge that the bad guys have had; now you have it too.
The bad guys are more determined to ruin your lives than you are to maintain them. This needs to change.
Be as professional as possible towards the City Commission. Otherwise they will sweep you under the rug while you go kicking and screaming. To them, you are degenerates and your opinions do not matter. Don´t prove them right. Be nice.
REGISTER TO VOTE!!!
The people up in the towers are WILL BE AFRAID OF YOU! Don´t let them forget that they work FOR YOU!
Formulate a plan before you go into chamber.
If the first time doesn´t bode well, don´t give up. Try again next week. And the next. And the next.

I really look forward to living in YOUR Amarillo. And THAT´S what dreams are made of.

See you guys next month!