Juneteenth

Arguably, the best MLB player ever left us yesterday. Commentary is talking about Willie Mays. I saw him play a few times when he came to H-Town as a member of the San Francisco Giants. A two-time NL MVP. He won a World Series ring, a 24-time MLB All Star, 12 Gold Gloves, Rookie of the Year, 3,293 career base hits, including 141 triples, 525 doubles, and 660 dingers. He also had 1,909 RBIs. Of his 660 career dingers, he hit 38 off H-Town pitchers, including 11 at the Dome and 8 at Colt Stadium.  There were plenty of Willie Mays basket catches and of course, “The Catch” of a Vic Wertz blast in the 1954 World Series against Cleveland. Wow!

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The City of H-Town and the Houston Firefighters finally got a deal. Commentary has said it before several times, it never should have come to this. The previous mayor got elected in 2015 in large part because of the endorsement from the Houston Firefighters. They should have gotten a deal done back then, but they didn’t. Mayor John Whitmire came into office and got a deal done.

This is from the Chron:

After eight years of bitter stalemate, Houston’s City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve a massive settlement that ends its dispute with its firefighters, giving them a 10% pay jump on July 1 and lump-sum checks to pay for their years without a contract. 

Mayor John Whitmire’s $1.5 billion agreement would devote $650 million to the back pay checks, which the city will use taxpayer-backed bonds to finance, spreading the cost over 25 to 30 years. The new contract includes at least 24% in raises over the next five years, a figure that could rise if the city raises new revenues in the form of a property tax hike or other money.

Whitmire has said the cost of the agreement would always have been expensive, and it staves off a potentially worse outcome if the two sides went to trial in the union’s long-running lawsuit, which began in 2017. The back pay amount could have been as large as $1.2 billion itself, he has said, and it could have triggered extra pension costs as well, something his deal avoids.

The contract also would change the standard by which firefighters are paid. Currently, state law says they must be paid equal to their “private counterparts,” a vague term past administrations have sought to change or invalidate in court. Now, the union has agreed to be compared with firefighters in other large Texas cities.

“If the city would have handled it when they should have eight years ago, we wouldn’t be having this discussion,” Whitmire said Tuesday. “Of course, it’s huge numbers, huge challenges, but we’ve got to get out of the courthouse and we’ve got to get back to running the fire department and focus on public safety.”

The Mayor is right.

This is also from the Chron story:

The agreement first appeared on the agenda two weeks ago, but the council was unable to vote on it because Controller Chris Hollins, the city’s financial watchdog, had not certified the funding for the deal. The move sparked rising tension between Hollins and Whitmire, with the two sides delving into the deal’s details and debating the scope of the controller’s responsibilities in back-and-forth exchanges.

In a Monday letter to City Council, Hollins said he had greenlit the agreement following a “comprehensive review.” The controller, however, noted his certification was not a “vote of confidence.”

Here is the entire Chron read: Houston City Council approves firefighters settlement (houstonchronicle.com).

Whatever a vote of confidence – huh! What the heck does that mean anyway.

Folks need to give the Mayor credit for getting a deal done with our first responders. I am sure it is not the prefect deal, but this should have been handled years ago.

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A White House event yesterday focused on immigration and DACA recipients. There were some stout Latino leaders standing with President Joe Biden at the ceremony. Yesterday’s White House message and image needs to be pushed out to Latino voters across the USA, like ASAP.

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Today we celebrate Juneteenth. Commentary has said it before. I learned about Juneteenth from the late Democratic State Rep. Al Edwards from H-Town. He first put it on the radar for a lot of folks in Texas back in the 1970s.

They didn’t teach us about Juneteenth in school. We learned about the Civil War and slavery being the cause of the civil war, but they didn’t teach us the Juneteenth part of our history.

Growing up in the shadows of the San Jacinto Monument and San Jacinto Battleground, we were taught basic Texas history, but I had to learn on my own more stuff on San Houston, William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett.

Heck, Juneteenth happened down the road in Galveston, but it was Rep. Al Edwards who made sure we knew about its significance.

Here is from Ebony.com:

On celebrating Juneteenth as a national holiday, we should recognize a powerful pioneer who, through decades of advocacy, elevated the status of Juneteenth, got it on the federal radar and paved the way for Juneteenth to be made a national holiday in 2021. His achievements and legacy should be celebrated for the innumerable contributions he made throughout his life educating and promoting the significance and importance of Juneteenth.

The late Albert Ely Edwards born March 19, 1937 and known as the Father of Juneteenth, was the catalyst for Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday now celebrated by Americans across the country. Edwards understood how important it was for the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans to be recognized on a national scale and he knew the necessity of raising awareness of this painful chapter of American history borne by African Americans. 

At the age of 41, Edwards entered politics and was elected to the Texas State Legislature from Houston’s House District 146. His first major goal was to ensure the establishment of a holiday that recognized the emancipation from slavery. In 1979, legislation that he introduced recognizing Juneteenth Day passed the Texas State Legislature and was signed into law.  As a direct result of his stalwart and tireless advocacy, Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, became an annual state holiday/observance in 49 states of the United States. Celebrated on June 19th, Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas in 1865, the last state to end American enslavement and nearly two full years after the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery was declared.  

It is interesting in that the State House District Rep. Edwards used to represent, District 146, just went through a lively Democratic Party Primary runoff.

The banks are closed today and there is no mail delivery.

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Speaking of Davy Crockett, sometimes Commentary listens to the Disney Channel on SiriusXM. They have segments where celebrities or listeners can have their four top Disney tunes played like “When You Wish Upon a Star,” “A Whole New World,” “Colors of the World,” and “Under the Sea.” This past weekend a celeb’s top four included “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” sung by Fess Parker. The Parker version includes the offensive term associated with Native Americans. You know, the NFL Washington team name that they got rid of a couple or so years ago. Yikes. Oh, well.

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Late yesterday afternoon, I lost power, again. After a few minutes, I got up and looked across the street and my neighbors still had power.  I then heard some voices from beyond my backyard and I looked out the window and lo and behold a huge tree was down and snapped the power line to my house. It looks like it was another case of the ground being too soaked with moisture. See the featured photo.  The sad thing was earlier in the day, the roof was replaced on the structure that is underneath the fallen tree. Bummer.

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Justin Verlander is now on the injured list. That is now five of our starting pitchers currently on the dinged-up list and unavailable. Sigh.

We lost last night to the team with the lousiest MLB record. I don’t need to remind folks what I said yesterday.

Have a safe Juneteenth.