This little blog o’ mine gets good traffic, but what I’m proudest (most proud?) of is that the readership and comments include some pretty important folks — city council members, candidates, newspaper editors, and captains of industry. It gives me the tight pants. One such reader/commenter is John Jay Myers, who is running for the district 7 council seat. Here’s what he sends.
I am a little surprised that no one has heard about last nights debate at Friendship Baptist Church. I believe 9 candidates showed up.
They were very strict on the time limits. I talked about the hotel for my 1.5 minutes (the time allowed), and was cut off and so I sat down. As did every other candidate. I was a little disappointed because I hadn’t finished some important points. Dwaine Carraway was the last candidate to speak on this.
When they told him to stop, he wouldn’t stop, eventually going into a rant about racism, saying that the reason that you vote No for the hotel is because white people want to confuse black people.In my opinion he was completely wrong you vote yes or no on a proposition, no matter what the proposition is, you would still have to say: “Are you for it? Then vote yes”. It is not a conspiracy. So after he had rambled for about an extra minute with them telling him stop every 15 seconds. I decided I deserved a little more time to speak as well, so I grabbed a microphone and started talking over him about the St. Louis
hotel, and he yelled “sit down” of course I said “no” and started talking about wasteful spending.Needless to say Dwaine was a little mad that he was “interrupted” I am not sure what made him believe he should get an extra few minutes when everyone else did not. It took a few long minutes for him to compose himself.He was rude and discourteous to the rest of the candidates and the folks holding the forum by consistently going over his allotted time.
I guess you could say I was rude for interrupting but I am not going to let this guy go into some sort of racist rant when it’s obviously a sham, and I am there to defend against it.
That’s not rude to interupt. That is debate. If he was following the rules it wouldn’t of happened. Good job john myers.
John Jay Myers is a principled businessman who is simply looking to bring truth and transparency to city government. I think when people fall prey to conspiracies and blaming segments of the population, it’s because they don’t have an actual platform to stand upon. They are simply grasping at straws and trying to appeal to whomever will listen and feel victimized along with them.
I think John Jay was right to interrupt a ran that exceeded its time limit and bring sensibility back into the discussion.
I’ve held debates and candidates forums before. Typically, the candidates are given the rules and terms when asked to participate.
So just by being there, Caraway agreed to the terms. If he didn’t like them, he shouldn’t have agreed to participate.
Debates have rules. My take is the emotional response is from the “Vote No” has lost traction in the last week or so…it’s desperation.
For race to even enter the hotel debate is pathetic.
I come to this with a different perspective. You see, I actually sat in on the White People’s Meeting when it was decided — unanimously, I might add — that we weren’t doing enough to confuse black people, and that the hotel referendum provided a golden opportunity to accomplish this charter objective. (In the same meeting, we decided that renaming a street after Cesar Chavez would be a marvelous way to confuse black people. Then we adjourned and ate white people food.)
So Carraway is no frothing-at-the-mouth, one-trick-pony lunatic. Nosir.
For some politicians, the temptation or compulsion to “do something, anything” is too great to resist. Sometimes, as is the case of this half a billion dollar hotel, the right thing to do is – nothing. If it is such a profitable endeavor and the area businesses could potentially benefit, then let the private sector do it. But the facts are clear in the cases where this has been done before (i.e Houston and, as prospective Councilman Myers attempted to point out, St. Louis) and resulted in disaster. Councilman Caraway exposed his weakness in the area of standard political self-restraint at the recent Daytime Curfew hearing where he again ranted but in this case capitalized on the “safety of the children” argument for an extended period of time. Passion cannot be allowed to govern our city when it is reason that is needed. I suppose one could compare this to having a cat crying in the tree outside your window when you are trying to sleep. Of course the easiest solution is to simply shoot the cat, but the challenge would be to actually solve the problem through the use of reason and logic. It could be even more challenging if the entire neighborhood were standing at your curb watching to see how or if you will solve the problem. In this case you may be tempted to give in to impassioned frustration and be unable to call upon your deductive resources and moved by the motivation to prove you are not ineffective. Some politicians are not strong enough to know when NOT do something and instead search for a more logical solution.
I applaud Mr. Myers commitment to individual liberty and conservative principles and willingness to stand up on our behalf in the face of impassioned short-sightedness and emotional disregard of reason and simple fairness.
Oh, here’s another idea: if Mayor Cronyism, I mean Leppert, is able to get his five hundred million dollar government-run hotel built can we call it Hotel Socialism? How about naming it after a prominent leader in this field: Hotel Chavez?
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This has a nice ring to it…
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The Hotel Marx
I commend John Jay Myers for refusing to sit quietly while Dwaine Caraway tries to convince people that opposing a bad deal is racist. Besides, how many rich white people will get richer at the expense of taxpayers through land values and developer contracts? How many people attending that event are actually going to get the promised jobs from this? Who’s confusing who?
The best part about refusing to stick to time limits is that Caraway absolutely can’t complain because he was guilty of the same thing, and John Jay Myers proved it to everyone. Good job! Vote YES, and vote for John Jay Myers!
A debate has rules, just like a city has laws. If Mr. Caraway can not even follow simple debate rules then why should we believe he will listen to constituents or follow the constitutional law when it comes time to vote on something in city hall? I think Mr. Myers is correct in enforcing the debate time limits not just for himself but the other candidates as well. Way to Go Myers! You are looking out for rules and regulations and for your fellow man!
I wish I had been there to see that!
I’ve had a taste of Councilman Carraway two times now (daytime curfew hearings) and can’t believe he ever was elected to office. His lack of logic and reasoning is absolutely astounding. I suppose most people would be reluctant to point it out at the risk of being considered “racist”.
At the hearings there was another councilman who also was very illogical and he happened to be white. I’m color blind. I look at character when forming my opinions about people, not their skin.
I commend Mr. Myers for doing what someone else (the organizers) really should have done, but am glad he was not afraid to stand up and say what needed to be said. We need more people like him in office.
At least there’s one person in this city who has the guts to stand up to the loudmouths trying to run this city on a bully pulpit. I don’t live in District 7 but if I did I’d vote for you, Mr. Myers.
Wow, that is a good story, I would have like to hear what someone in the crowd felt, but I have a feeling I would have been cheering for Mr. Myers for his standing up to a debate bully.
John Jay Myers has what it takes to make wise decisions and represent the citizens of his district in a fair and honest way. I am not in his district but have had many occasions to be around him and visit about the issues Dallas and the State of Texas are dealing with amidst economic hardships and politicians with deaf ears regarding citizens rights and politicians responsibilities. You could not ask for a better servant of the people with their real interest at heart. He is a good listener and open minded but also stands up for the Constitution which I feel is very important these days as big government and big business will tend to overlook the little guy. Go get’m John!
That’s Carraway… He wants to take other candidate’s time that they agreed to limit and use it for himself. Not unlike the politicians who want to take your money, property – WHATEVER – and use it for whatever purposes they choose.
But, be careful… when you point out that they’ve gone against the rules and taken things, like forum speaking time – or tax money… they don’t like to hear that! Because – they’ll always say, it’s for the greater good. If you oppose their bad deal, you’re racist. If you start talking about indisputable facts, like the St. Louis Taxpayer Convention Hotel debacle, you’re just trying to confuse black people.
Just because Carraway is confused, I suppose, makes him think all Black folks are confused too… and it’s a conspiracy! There is a conspiracy, however – and Mr. Carraway is an unwitting member. To give a blank check to the Council and Mayor to spend as they choose. Now THAT’S a conspiracy!!
I’m a born again Christian. I have good sense. I support John Jay Myers because he’s concerned about the good of the people. He’s concerned about the Constitution which is sort of like the Bible for Government– our Gov is supposed to follow those regulations. (they are not doing it).
We believers are supposed to be lead by God. Government is supposed to be serving US (not the other way around). Government is not supposed to be our master… God is.
Christians need to be discerning because not everyone is walking the way to liberty… Liberty is not having the chains of Government around one’s neck. Read the Bible, Read the Constitution.
Thanks JJM for standing up for the Rights of the People.
I’ve watched the candidates campaign for these last many weeks. John Jay is the only one who has fresh ideas, who doesn’t seem to need to join up with the giant machine and just wants to make sensible decisions that benefit the hard working families living in Dallas while allowing them to take care of their own. He’s a family man, the owner/operator of a small business and he’s not intimidated by the big money rich people who typically govern Dallas.
I want him to run for Mayor.
If a half billion dollar hotel is such a great idea why hasn’t some developer created it? Oh wait, they have!!! The new Ritz Carlton on McKinney at Pearl is among the many that would have to compete with our tax dollars in the ‘Cannot-fail-hotel’. The thing about a tax subsidized hotel is that no matter how poorly it is doing OUR taxes would be attributed to its updates, improvements and eventual renovations in order to make it “measure up” to the competitive standards of the local hotel industry in order to “make a profit” at all costs; OUR costs!!! But I guess it is “racist” to use logic against an opportunistic black man too used to yelling “racist!” to in order to get his way.
Rock On!! Wish I could have seen that!!
Looks like Dwaine Carriedaway needs to go!
This is exactly why we videotaped the entire forum, so we can refute b.s. like this.
This is disappointing – I think Caraway has been pretty cordial to Myers when he’s seen in and around city hall since the election process started. But now, I wonder what the point was.
I’m just curious if any of you posting live in District 7?
If you guys need an enemy, so be it. Let it be Caraway. Keep calling people racist dude…if that’s what you want to call people why didn’t you do it at the forum instead of running to somebody on a blog? You had the microphone and you were standing up. Why not say it then? Just curious.
Were any of you at the debate other than Myers?
As a person who WAS there at the debate, several people ran over time at multiple instances. The moderators weren’t being too strict on the time limits. Nobody was groaning over how long anyone was taking until Myers stood up in the middle of someone else’s time.
What Caraway was explaining, which is a fact, is that when Vote Yes is knocking on doors in southern Dallas and black seniors say they are for the hotel, people are telling them “well vote YES FOR the hotel.” It’s that same crap they were doing when TrinityVote occurred in 2007. It’s happening on the phones calls also.
When Caraway said , “I want my opponent’s time since he isn’t here” he was kidding and that’s why everybody in the audience laughed when he said it. Again, we have it on tape.
I’m just curious why a candidate in another race is obsessed with Dwaine who has his council race locked up. Everybody’s passionate including Myers, but if he thinks that crying about what somebody else did is going to give him any votes…good luck with that. Any of you that thinks he’s getting more than 200 votes is kidding themselves. 200 is probably generous.
This is Myers’ first go-round in southern Dallas politics, and he will likely run again and again to renew the 15 minutes of fame but he will never get to city hall unless he signs up to be a public speaker.
We aren’t in this to make friends. Sorry to break your hearts, but the fact is Myers will place no higher than 5th in this race. Over/under on Myers?: 200 votes.
The bottom line is that this race is between Rev Parish, Carolyn Davis,Tony Rios, Charles Redd, Carolyn Davis, and Ron Price.
So hate it or love it, but the 15 minutes of fame is slowly…ticking…away.
Ok, lotta words, where’s the tape?
Regardless of your predictions about who will win, I am glad to be supporting a good man. I don’t think being popular is the ultimate goal for people with integrity. Sometimes the good man wins and sometimes a not so good one wins. For those of us who are fighting for justice and truth– we will stand behind the good man regardless the size of the opposition.
JJM for City Council, then Mayor.
I asked this on the Dallas Morning News Site, I would wager that my account of how this went down is much closer to the facts then Michaels.
I don’t look for an enemy in Mr. Caraway, but I expect that we should be treated equally during debates, and each stick to the rules. If I am not going to be treated equally then you should expect me to speak up. As I do.
Regardless of that, let’s roll this tape, and see whether like Michael says he was simply explaining…etc etc. Or did he say the reason they call it Vote Yes is to confuse black people. Granted…. it might have been “you people” or “us people”.
Pretty simple.
Roll tape.