The Ballot Box

By: Nacho Libre 

I believe in action. 

I’m not here to try and change your philosophy in life or in politics. 

I’m not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about (Jerry), because it’s time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem, a problem that will make you catch hell whether you’re White, or a Mexican -American, or Black. 

Whether you’re educated or illiterate (Jerry), whether you live on the boulevard or in the Placita (de Brooke), you’re going to catch hell just like I’am. 

We’re all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man (Boswell and; his cronies). 

He just happens to be a white man with his coconuts that spread like cancer with their prejudices, double standards, and their mordidas. 

All of us have suffered here, in this community, political oppression at the hands of the white man (Boswell), economic exploitation at the hands of the white coconut man

EDC) Eddie), and social degradation at the hands of the white man (Jay) and his coconuts (Eddie) that perpetuate his doings.

Now in speaking like this, it doesn’t mean that we’re anti-white or anti-coconut, but it does mean we’re anti-exploitation, we’re anti-degradation, we’re anti-oppression. 

And if the white/coconut man doesn’t want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us. 

If we have differences, let us differ in the blog or the coffee shop; when we come out in front, let us not have anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with the white/coconut man. 

If we don’t do something real soon, I think you’ll have to agree that we’re going to be forced either to use the ballot box or bite the bullet. 

It’s one or the other. It isn’t that time is running out — time has run out! 

It’s also a political year come next May. 

It’s the year when all of the white and coconut politicians will be back in the so-called Barrio communities jiving you and me for some votes. 

The year when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my community with their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises which they don’t intend to keep. 

As they nourish these dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one thing, we just won’t turn the other cheek any longer. 

Let’s use the ballot box and replace Kori Marra, Boswell, and the people in the boards with good and responsible honest people. 

Let’s also not forget the puppets of the system in city government and the schools that are not there for Harlingen. 

I’m not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact, I’m not a student of much of anything, and I don’t even consider myself an American. 

If you and I were Americans, there’d be no problem. 

Those Honkies that just got off the boat, they’re already Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the Italian refugees are already Americans. Everything that came out of Europe, is already an American. And as long as you and I have been over here, we aren’t Americans yet. 

Well, I am one who doesn’t believe in deluding myself. 

Being here in America doesn’t make you an American. 

Being born here in America doesn’t make you an American. 

Why, if birth made you American, you wouldn’t need any legislation; you wouldn’t need any amendments to the Constitution; you wouldn’t be faced with Boswell and his cronies filibustering in city hall about the way things are handled right now. No, I’m not an American…I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. 

And I see America through the eyes of the victim.

I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare. 

These 70-75 thousand citizens are waking up. Their eyes are coming open. 

They’re becoming politically mature. 

They are realizing that there are new political trends sweeping our communities. As they see these new political trends, it’s possible for them to see that every time there’s an election the races effect a change in city and school policy. 

Well, what does this mean? It means that when white people are evenly divided, and Mexican-Americans have a bloc of votes of their own, it is left up to them to determine who’s going to sit in City Hall and who’s going to be in the dog house. 

So it’s time in 2009-2010 to wake up. 

And when you see them (old guard) coming up with that kind of conspiracy, let them know your eyes are open. 

And let them know that something else that’s wide open too, and that my friends is the ballot box.