The Dallas Morning News op-ed page always bends over backward to give both sides their say. If somebody turns in an opinion piece saying babies should not be cut into chunks and eaten, they'll hunt around all week until they find someone else to write the opposing view.
But if they really have to do it that way -- if there is no truth, only argument -- then at least they could choose people who come to the argument with equally clean or dirty hands.
To wit, in today's paper former school board member, legislator and community activist Harryette Ehrhardt makes a powerfully stated case for tossing out the incumbents on the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees in Tuesday's lection. She presents a lengthy indictment of the people who are on the board now, reminding us of the board's stunning history of malfeasance, misfeasance and really-bad-feasance over the last year.
Then, for the opposing view, we have a long essay arguing that incumbency is a virtue and that the incumbents did everything right and should all be voted back to their seats on the board. And this side of the argument is handled by whom? Why, none other than Edwin Flores, one of the incumbents.
Incumbent Flores argues, "As an incumbent, I have the knowledge and experience to vote in the best interests of all DISD students, and on the basis of the best available data and practices, to do what is required."
But if that were true, then why did Flores lead the board in voting to illegally suspend board elections?
Does he believe in incumbency so strongly that he thinks we really
don't need elections at all? If you really think you've done that well,
Mr. Flores, then you ought to welcome a chance to have your work
ratified at the polls.
But, really, The News couldn't find a single
person who didn't have a dog in the hunt to write the pro-incumbent
piece? Oh, wait ... that could be it. Maybe they called Flores up and
said, "Look, we've been searching all over town for somebody to write
the pro-Flores piece, and, uh, looks like you're it."
We
guess we'd do it ourselves too, if the choice were a little box next
to Harryette's piece saying, "The editorial page staff was unable to
find anyone in Dallas who would defend the incumbents."
Self love is
better than no love at all.
