Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Misplaced Priorities


There are lots of neat things going on in our community, El Paso, TX.  Many folks are excited about the coming trolley project that will ferry passengers from downtown to UTEP and back.  The recently approved arts space project will offer affordable housing and work/exhibit space for starving artists.  Southwest University Park, home of the Chihuahuas, has had phenomenal success in its inaugural year, and has received national attention for its success.  A renovated San Jacinto Plaza will soon be open for public use.

On the drawing board are a downtown multipurpose arena, a children’s museum, and Hispanic cultural center.  Still undetermined is the fate of Lincoln Center, but if it is saved, it will also contribute to the vibrancy of our city.  

In recent years we have seen other worthy projects:  the Plaza Theater, the Art Museum, the History Museum, and a new city library came to life.  All of these public projects will make El Paso a better community with a much improved quality of life. 

These projects have enjoyed a tremendous amount of public approval and support.   Attendance at ball games has broken minor league records.  The ball park, and three major projects on the last qualify of life bond election garnered approval of approximately 70% of the voters. The community rallied around the newest medical school in the country, the unprecedented growth at UTEP and the exploding expansion of our beloved Fort Bliss. It seems that we are on the cusp of great things in this community.  I tell visitors that El Paso is THE MOST DYNAMIC community in the country today.

Curiously, our children’s hospital has not had that kind of support.  It won approval by the slimmest of margins, in a bitterly divisive public debate.  Taxpayers don’t look kindly at the prospect of paying for children’s life-saving medical care.  It seems that El Pasoans want quality of life projects, but NOT the quality of life of a child in need of medical care.  It seems that this community wants to invest in things, but does not want to invest in people. 
Masses rally around the Lincoln Center, overwhelming majorities vote for public projects, record numbers pour their hard earned dollars into baseball games, but such is not the case for the children’s hospital.  I would rather pay a couple of extra dollars to save a few children’s lives than to pay more tax dollars to visit the children’s museum.  El Paso, my fair hometown, YOUR priorities are misplaced!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So....how do you feel now about the hospitals choice to fly solo instead of under the auspices of a very transparent fiscally irresponsible medical center? Don't you believe that body, mind and soul need to be addressed in children's lives and an understanding of their culture and history. Lincoln Park was not saved as a museum or under the dynamics of politics but for its contribution to El Paso, but through its culture and history and in my case its representation to my own growth in a neighborhood that did not carry the advantages of other El Paso neighborhoods, it created friendships, activities and memories....Yes, our children and our future need responsible health services, but the politics in El Paso are so corrupt,(i.e. Big Jim V.) unfortunately, El Paso is known as a big city with a small town mentality. Cant we have it all???